Happy Birthday...... Jim

Happy Birthday to ME

Dan and Kristin started the Facebook announcement calling the birthday party

"Jim's 59th Birthday Party, AGAIN" WOW.... very cool

The party was held at McKenna's Restaurant in Alamitos Bay on Saturday evening .

McKenna's had a grand entrance and thanks to Omar Nazif, because he brought his camera and capturing the evenings events for us to share. For more pictures check his facebook page. I also want to thank the many, many family and friends who called, sent me texts, emails and Facebook messages wishing me a "Happy BD." All were very appreciated.

This was the reason I selected this place, the sunset. We got there just in time to catch the sun going down.

A couple of day before I had gone walking with the dogs and caught this shot of the sunset over the port. I wanted to have this same feeling at my BD party..... AND WE DID.

Sara on the left and Dan on the right, as well as Ruth put the event together, and for making my birthday so special.

On the far right is Ruth's dad Bert, who also enjoyed the evening. He's 86 years old and he's out here vacationing from Cleveland, Ohio.

Dan and Kristin took a break from the hard workon their cooking island in the condo to come out and party. The sunset was beautiful.
On the left is my sister in law Wendy and my brother Mike who drove down to party. They brought their son (my nephew) Spenser and his girlfriend Anna. Sara and her boyfriend A'lan were having fun too. They helped bring spark to the party. Now get a room.

Martin Hubert and Henry Khalili were enjoying the vibe too but unfortunately Henry did not get in the picture.....Next time Henry.
Omar set down his camera just long enough to get a picture with Bonnie. Great shot.
Then it was time for the cake, cards and ......
PRESENTS :)
OMG, I got a new kite. Thanks everyone!!!!! Especially Dan, Kristin, Sara, A'lan, Bert and Ruth, and all the others that chipped in. It's a Switch, Nitro 12m. Find out more at SwitchKites.com.
Then Omar started taking a few single shots. This is Kristin and her friend Karen.
And Ruth's father Bert
Then it was time for a few family shots and....
A big group shot. Sorry we couldn't get everyone in this one but a few folks had gone home.
The next day Klaus came over and we had a few BD toasts and opened the new kite. I can't wait to fly it. Thanks again to everyone for the very warm, wonderful birthday wishes, for coming to the party and for chipping in for my new kite. And this time I don't plan on putting it into a tree.... AT ALL.... NO WAY!!!! Once is enough.

Thanksgiving 2011 at the Corbet House

Thanksgiving 2011 at the Corbet House

More to come thanks to Klaus

Oct. 5th thru the 10th. It's been foggy in Long Beach and other things too

Ohhhhhh... it's been foggy here for the past two days, but it blew yesterday and it was fun too.

Tuesday morning, Oct. 11th:

Klaus called yesterday from Illinois and said he will be back on the water on Friday. And Dan and Kristin are back from Maui and are coming over tomorrow to tell us how their trip was. In the mean time I've had a chance to use Klaus's Core 17 twice. What a power machine. I think if I use it again I'm going to try the lighter setting for the bar pressure. Holding that big kite is tough in 18 mph wind for a two to three hour session.

Monday October 11.... A'lan takes his second lesson

I got down to the beach today a little after 2 and noticed that there was a deep fog layer at the ramp. You could hardly see the island on the far left. I talked to Bart Miller (So.Cal. Kites) and asked him if he had an opening for A'lan today. He said "Come on down." I went back to the house and brought A'lan, our daughter Sara's boyfriend, back to the beach.

He got right into his lesson by practicing how to be pulled up while on the water.
I went over and started rigging and got this shot of Hank and Susi chatting on the beach with the fog in the background. I went out on my 12 and my Becker surfboard. I wanted to get a refresher of being on a board with the Oahu trip two weeks away.
I stayed pretty close to shore and noticed that Bart had A'lan and the other student were getting a body dragging lesson so I came in. Then Bart put A'lan into the foot straps. This is within the first hour of his second lesson. Now that's on the fast track.
OK he reverted to some old snowboard or wakeboard training and rode the board sideways. But he did really well for only being his second lesson.
A'lan and Sara had to fly to Seattle and their plane was departing at 5:30 so Bart said goodbye and hopes A'lan will make it back to Belmont soon.
In the mean time I went back out until the wind died and while I was wrapping up on the launch ramp I grabbed this shot of a cargo ship being engulfed by the fog. Pretty cool.
Later I took Bebe and Harley for a walk and caught a jogger going up the bike path as a future kiter was flying his foil trainer kite.

Thursday October 6th, my buddy Russ flew into town and wanted to kite

I got a text this morning that my friend Russ was going to fly in today and he was wondering how the wind has been. I said it's a crap shoot but come on over and we'll see what happens. It actually turned out to be a pretty good session. You can see the sand is still wet from the rain yesterday and the city is starting to rake up the junk from the L.A. River. The water quality wasn't bad, considering.
When we were rapping up our gear Kyle and Sidney happen to be playing on the ramp. Aren't they cute.
Kyle reciprocated by taking our picture. Russ looks pretty good for getting up at 3 A.M. and flying in from the East coast.
We finished off Russ's visit to a trip to Me Soo Hungry. OH MY GOSH!!!! What a great meal. Left to right; Russ, me, Ruth, Sara and A'lan. Russ flew home to San Francisco in the morning. Hope we get wind on his next visit too.

Wednesday Oct. 5..... WE'VE GOT RAIN

I got back from my doctor appointment at about 5 P.M. and headed down to the beach because I saw a few kites out so I thought I would grab some shots.

James on the green Naish is getting some pretty good air considering. I wonder if he's heard of the "Ben Franklin Effect"??? Just kidding.

As I headed home I was hoping there would be some clearing winds tomorrow. And there were.
I had to end this blog session with my wonderful wife Ruth cuddling the three dogs. Loki is the blond one, Harley is in the middle and Bebe is at her feet. I wonder what they were watching, "Dog Whisperer"?????

9/29 thru 10/3, Skunk. wind, skunk............ make up your mind

September 29th through October 3rd, another week of wind and no wind

Skunk, Wind, Skunk...make up your mind

Thursday September 29, 2011

Klaus and I headed to the beach today hoping that it was going to blow.

We got to the beach just in time to assist a kiter and his wife, both from Canada, who just got stung by a stingray. I thought that they had left the area. According to Bart Miller he saw a kiter recently hit on both feet. In all my years here I've never heard of that.
The time stamp was a little after 4 o'clock and I think I was getting desperate. I grabbed Klaus's 17 and went out. Thanks Klaus for the shots.
Sure there's a big difference between a 12 meter kite and a 17, but wow this Core is great!!!
I dropped his 17 in the water on a jube so I just kept kiting to dry it off. You never want to bring a friends kite back all wet. I had a great time on his Light Wind Core.... thanks Klaus.

Friday September 30, 2011

We were hoping Friday was going to be better than yesterday. Hmmm????
Alan held up his wind meter against the ominous clouds. It doesn't look good today.
Look at the wind graph at 4 o'clock. Klaus was able to get out and get some air. This made the wait worth it.

And just like that the wind stopped. Christopher came over to tell us about why it all came to a crashing halt.

After I got home I brought our two dogs to the end of the ramp for this sunset shot. They didn't stay put for long. Thank goodness for one good shot.

More to come

9/16 - 9/24 We've had some wind lately

September 16th through September 24th.....

Our wind score this week: Kite days - 6, Skunk days - 2

It's Saturday night and I thought I would post some of the pictures I've taken this week.
There were a few days recently where we waited for the wind. It started feeling to me like summer was coming to an end.
There were a number of days like this one on the 16th. The days were hot and not much wind.
This picture tells it all, two people reading and one kiter down at Granada waiting for the wind.

Then on Saturday Sept. 17 we started a streak of six days straight of wind. They were not all epic but we still got kite able wind.

On Sunday it started blowing early so I tried to let people know that the wind was up.
Klaus just got back from his job in Illinois and he has taken six days of vacation to chill. This was his first day back so he pumped his 17 Core and his new North 12. He wanted to cover all bases.
Dan and Kristin have gotten through Ryan and Rachel's wedding and were ready to kite.
And "Dr." Bobby was out to prove his diet was still working, even in September.
Klaus was in great form even though he has been away from Belmont for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the photographer did not get his best jump.
Dan was pulling off all of his tricks but I didn't get any good shots. I was kiting too.
Chloe says it all, we all pushed it to the max and were a little tired.
At the end of the day we all were hoping for a repeat on Monday.
With the wind starting early again I headed for the beach. Our youngest daughter Sara called and said her boyfriend A'lan would like to come down for his first kite lesson. I said "Come on down." I got out on the water and messed around for a while until he arrived.
A'lan was a natural. He took to the trainer with no hesitation and a delicate touch too.

He was like the EverReady bunny, he kept going and going and going. The time stamp of this shot was a little after three. You can see Susi and Gary pumping up in the background.
A'lan got it!!! So I said "You know how to self launch, put on some sun block and see you later" and I headed out. Yup, another great day in paradise.
On Tuesday I think Klaus and I got to the beach around 1 o'clock. Bobby and Maria had just returned from Oahu and Bobby was pumping up. Klaus and Bobby got a jump on me and they headed out. I was right behind them.
Bobby and Klaus heading for the oil platform off of Seal Beach. Then they did a port tack and headed for Chaffee Island. For some reason I thought I would try and catch them on the back of Chaffee but that didn't quite work, so I followed them behind Chaffee and then back to home base. It was a pretty fun adventure.
Here are the four amigos. From the left is Steve, Bobby, me and Klaus. Our next adventure is to kite to Huntington. Maria said she could pick us up. Now all we need is a windy day.

Just about the time we got back the bi-weekly Kitesurfari course race was under way. Here Brian Kendor is drag racing Joe Roth, the windsurfer. In the end Brian won the race and also beat four other kiters. Great job Brian.

When Dan got off of work he came down and grabbed my kite. Unfortunately the wind did not cooperate and the wind died. He didn't get much of a ride.
For some reason I didn't take any pictures today. But here's the wind for the day. "Big Mike" and I were messing around with our directional boards today and Peter came up from San Diego to show us how smooth jibes were done. So much work, so little time.

Thursday was a bizar day. I think I was working in the garage when I felt the wind come up, really fast. I grabbed my stuff and hustled to the beach. The wind was howling.

It was a little after 2 and the sand was really kicking up which meant to me it was blowing over 20 mph.

What a weird shot. The kiters on the left blasting starboard and the earth mover doing it's thing.

What a strange sight, these three machines scrapping up the sand and moving it down to the end of the peninsula. The city is preparing for the high surf of winter.

It was all I could do to just take a few shots because I wanted to get out there and get some of that, and I did....

for a while. Then, like a switch, the wind shut off. I was lucky I was able to get to shore, but there were a few that didn't make it and had to swim.

There was a beautiful sunset on Thursday evening thanks to the wind and clouds.

On Friday Klaus and I were ready for another adventure... SORRY, the wind did not cooperateHe and I waited and waited and waited.
The only two that got any exercise today were two stand-up paddlers, Robert and Jessy.
Jessy and Daniel tried but it was not to happen today so Ruth, Klaus and I we went to Phucket for dinner. Mmmmmm...

Saturday September 24, 2011 and this is our second "SKUNK" day.

Unfortunately the day did not look good at the outset. When I took Bebe down for her early morning ritual she didn't want to go outside. The cement had a thin layer of mist and she doesn't like to get her paws wet. This was not a good sign. So we decided to go to Chuck's for breakfast. Afterwards Ruth took the dogs to Dog Beach and I went to Von's for milk. On my walk to meet them I noticed this paddle boat going past White Island. Pretty foggy.

When I arrived at Dog Beach Ruth told me that the two dogs stuck to her like glue. They had no adventure in them today.

Both Bebe and Harley hopes there's wind tomorrow.

Aren't they cute???

Sorry there was no wind on Sunday either.