May 28th. Today was an adventure with Klaus

Yesterday I invited Klaus to join us at Rat Beach, but he said it was a long drive from Huntington and would do it some other time.

So today was back kiting at Belmont. I got a late start because I was handling some work related business, but I could see from my office window that Deon's foil and Omar's yellow Turbo-Diesel were out. So I knew the wind was up at about 3 o'clock.

When I was finished I grabbed my cart and my 16 and headed for "camp" to start pumping. When I looked up I could see Klaus heading up the ramp. He said later that he got to the beach at about 4:15 and the wind was definitely blowing over 15 mph.

The past few times when Klaus and I have kited together there has been an air of adventure. Today was not going to be any different. Klaus launched me and in a few minutes he got launched. We have not figured out how to self-launch our North 5-line kites yet. Once on the water we were crossing back and forth between the ramp and the island and pulling off some high fives. At one point we did three passes in a row. It's funny because there's a lot of trust in the other kiter that he knows what he's doing because your are within inches of one another and you don't want to screw up. Accidents are painful.

At some point Klaus started heading for the Alamitos Marina entrance. Once there we turned back and headed back. We have been doing this tandem, side-by-side kiting thing where we come right next to the other kiter and just hold course with the two North kites flying side by side. In our eyes it looks very cool.

Anyway when we transitioned back to starboard Klaus headed out to sea. He wanted to go on a "Real" adventure past the oil platform, that is quite a ways South-East of Belmont. Once past Island Chaffee the wind picked up in intensity, as well as the feeling you were on the open ocean. Especially when you passed the marina entrance. The swells were pretty big.

With the wind direction, it was not exactly a down winder because we were always on a starboard tack until we approached the oil platform, at which time we did start going down wind. Once past this giant structure, that is planted quite a ways off shore, we headed for the back of Island Chaffee. I think it was the heavy current and swells that prevented us from getting behind it on one reach, so we shined that idea on and headed back to Belmont.

Once the water got a little calmer, past the marina entrance, we started coming real close to each other. At one point we were side by side and I held out my hand. Klaus moved closer and closer and then we touched hands. The next split second Klaus was in the water swimming for his board. I flipped around to make sure he was alright and then we continued our port reach for home.
But we had to try it again. So here's the scenario, I'm up-wind of Klaus, he moves in just slightly down wind of me and once we are side by side I move a little to my right and slow down a little. Just enough to be going the exact same speed, we move closer, touch hands and BAM, Klaus is in the water again. Later he told me what was happening was the spray from my board was making his board unstable and he would loose it.

By the time we got back to the ramp I was getting tired, but Klaus wanted one more run. So we headed for the marina entrance again and once we hit that choppy open ocean wave action I turned around and headed home. When I got out of the water Klaus said "What's wrong?" I said "Nothings wrong, I'm just tired." "OK, then I go jumping now." "OK, that's enough rest, let me grab my smaller board and let's go." So for the next hour we did jumps and more hand slaps.

Then, at about 7 the wind started dieing. I could no longer stay up wind on the 136 so I found my self on each pass loosing a little ground. I got out at where the houses start on the peninsula and walked back to camp. That was it...no more energy....no more kiting for today. It's time for a beer, but I was in a hurry and didn't bring any. SoI invited Klaus back to the house, but he said he was heading home. That's a wrap.

It was really great being here and seeing a lot of the guys; Omar, George, John, Kyle, Dong, Bill, Mike, Deon and a lot of others that you wave to.

It was another great adventure at Belmont.