 How Captain Rich and I first got in touch is quite funny : back in 2009, upon ending my first season running kitesurfing charters, I needed a vacation.
What do you think professionals in kitesurfing cruises do on their holidays?
Well, they go on a kitesurfing cruise with somebody else! Lol
I have always been very curious and respectful of others work –it's probably because of this that this network eventually became a reality- and was always keen on testing others services: that's how Captain Rich got an enquiry from me.
He was amused to discover we were doing the same job, and we even turned out to have a bunch of friends in common.
Even though I didn't end up booking with him that time, we've been in touch since.  Rich and I had parallel stories when it came to settling a business, and I somewhat felt closer to him when I found out, just as I was setting up the new Kitesurfari Sxm a year after first getting in touch with him, that he had just lost his boat.
For having been in similar situation, I know what it's like to lose it all and restart from scratch.
It is with great joy that I learnt he had fallen back on his feet and was getting back into kitesurfing cruises this season.
Sharing this strange time of his life, even from a distance, gave me the opportunity to observe a rare quality: Rich, even though he had been used and fooled, never told me a bad word about his previous business partner.
A philosophy that one does not bring his business up by talking others down which I approve, and Rich was an example of great integrity.  We both believe that when one falls from his horse, he must get right back on it.
And that's what he did: a year after losing his vessel and his business, he's back in the Caribbean, with better services that he had before, a better life experience, and the exact same frame of mind that when I first discovered him – a friendly, open minded and optimistic person.
Great captain, windsurfer for 25 years, kitesurfer since 2003, keen fisherman and very experienced sailor, Rich is now back in his element and waiting for you to get to share this new journey.
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