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Displaying items by tag: H2O Extreme

#KITESURFING - An Irish-born Kenyan is putting the East African country on the extreme sports map thanks to her beach resort dedicated to kitesurfing.

As the Montreal Gazette reports, Joey Kennaway - who has lived in Kenya since she was three years old - started The Kenyaway with her husband as a shack on Galu Beach, south of the coastal city of Mombasa.

But when their daughter Linzi got into kitesurfing after lessons from local tutors, the resort soon morphed into a kitesurfing village attracting daredevils from around the world.

“Kitesurfing is not for your average country-club tennis player,” says Boris Polo, owner of kitesurfing school H2O Extreme, which now has a base at The Kenyaway. “What’s hard to master is the kite. They’re very powerful."

Though she hasn't tried it herself, Joey Kennaway is happy to watch some of the thousands of all ages who've taken lessons at the resort out on the water.

The Montreal Gazette has more on the story HERE.

Published in Kitesurfing

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.