04 Jan 2007



Brad Symington recently started a company called Downwindshuttle.com - the worlds first dedicated downwind shuttle. Situated in Cape Town, South Africa, his business evolves around giving downwind kiteboarders a lift back to their cars for a nominal fee.

The amount of kiteboarders who do downwinders have increased tremendously over the last two years. With most beaches being too crowded, a lot of people who normally maintained position now do downwinders - they have become so popular that just about everyone are doing them nowadays.

Brad's service works on a token system. You pre-purchase a token from either his website or a participating kite shop. The more tokens you buy the cheaper it gets.

Brad offers two services to kiters - a "pick-up" and a "drop-off" service.

The "drop-off" service
Brad assists you in dropping your car off at your preffered end destination. He then takes you as far upwind as you would like to go and you start from there. This service is great for people who want to finish a downwind in their own time, without being bound to specific pick-up time.

The "pick-up" service
Before you go for a kite, you sms Brad and let him know where and when you want to be picked up. Brad will be waiting for you at your preferred end destination and drop you off at your car again.

We decided to give his "pick-up" service a try :