Words & Photos by Elias, Viktor, Einar and Gabe
On the weekend of the 13th, the entire World Class Kite Academy sent a mission to Dioni. Dioni is a hidden spot about an hour and a half away from a city called Patras—which we of course had to visit beforehand—so we woke up at 8:00 am, had breakfast, jumped in the cars and left by 9:00 am. We arrived in Patras at around 9:30 and had to catch a ferry at 1:00 pm.
Everyone was stoked on the adventure to explore a new city and culture. People went to have lunch, shopped for clothes, sunglasses, sim cards, and much more. We remember walking on the town square and seeing three other WCKA members run towards us with smiles on their faces. They told us all about an amazing place with greek food that we had to try. Looking around from the town square, we saw a lot of the locals and picked up on a bit of the culture and vibe of Patras. We saw an elderly woman give coins to the children and old bread to the pigeons living among the people. We had the best time discovering the city of Patras. The school came back together at the cars and hopped on the ferry to begin our journey to the kite spot.
The ferry was quick and we arrived on the other side of the channel less than half an hour later. We drove off the ferry then quickly had a stop at the shops to get water. The day was so hot; we drank water bottle after water bottle. Then we got back on the road. A short time later we turned off the motorway and started driving on smaller and smaller roads until it turned to dirt track. We bounced around turning right and left between farming fields for half an hour. It was a great drive seeing all the traditional fishing huts and the lagoons.
When we arrived at the spot everyone was really hyped up with energy for the session. We jumped out of the vans and walked the last 100 meters so that the vans wouldn’t get stuck in the sand. The wind was cross-off shore to the lagoon which was an unusual direction for this spot. It made it quite gusty, but everyone was still really excited for the session. There were also some really friendly locals at the spot including a cheerful man and an energetic dog that wouldn’t leave us alone.
The spot was a lagoon just 50 meters across from the sea. It was deep and fairly flat, and it reminded me somewhat of Brazil. We set up our gear and jumped on the water. Everyone had a blast messing around. The conditions were easy for freestyle so people mostly just messed around. We were on the water late—till almost sunset—and then everyone took photos doing backflips off the ground. It made for a really special moment.
The light turned orange and as the sun set behind the mass of small islands on the horizon, and the huge full moon rose on the other horizon. Flickers of reflections danced across the glass like water. The journey home was a haze, everyone was exhausted from the day’s adventure, and fell asleep.
Big shout out to the teachers who made it happen. We are very grateful.
Written by Elias, Viktor, Einar and Gabe