It's Monday and we finally got wind !!!!!

It feels like we haven't been out on the water for days. This heat wave came and the wind shut down. Everything was so hot around here that the wind didn't blow

Well I guess today the planets aligned, so on Monday we got some wind. I was working around the house, actually putting up our house numbers on the wall in front, when I felt the wind coming up. I knew I had to finish and clean up fast. Then at about 1 o'clock I noticed a couple of kites being pumped up. I recognized one of them, it was Mike Noel.

At that point I started getting my stuff out of the garage to join him. I got to the beach around 1:30 and was on the water at 2, maybe a few minutes after. Joe Walker was there, so was Deon Aumaier, and Dimitri Korionoff. Dimitri said he had talked to my son Dan and he was coming down, but couldn't get there until after 4. He had a work appointment.

So Dimitri and I went out on the water and just warmed up. Jumping and tacking back and forth, waving to "Doc", George and Al up at Granada. At one point we were up near La Palapa, going back and forth and I got the feeling Dimitri might want to go on an adventure.

After a few tacks we were getting close to Chaffee Island and then headed for the section of water between the pier and White Island. It was starting to get fun because the wind was getting pretty strong by now and it wasn't too choppy, so you could get behind White with no problem.

Here is a shot that Omar sent me tonight. This one is of me kiting past White Island. I imagine that we were passed the pier at this point.

Here is Dimitri kiting just behind me on his way to White Island.

I'm attaching this shot just to see what it will look like. It's both of us.

I don't know how Omar took this shot but when you make it larger it looks like art. The ocean wave action looks so cool. The thing sticking up on the left is I believe is part of Freeman Island.

I believe Matt Naigus joined us around the pier and he seemed up for an adventure too, so our first long tack was going behind Chaffee Island. That was fun, so we kept going. We actually were close to the break water wall when Matt pointed to the oil platform. I gave him thumbs up. Dimitri was a little behind me and stayed the course. One of the glaring differences between the color of the water was after we passed the end of the breakwater and were in the open water, the water suddenly became very blue and very clear. Also once you hit the open ocean there are large rollers out there. At one point Matt pulled off a huge jump using the lip of one of the rollers. He got some damn big air using that large Litewave 169.

At some point near the platform we changed direction and headed for home. That was about the time my board edged into one of the rollers and BAM I was in the water. I wasn't wearing a leash so I started body dragging. Matt and Dimitri noticed I wasn't getting very far so Matt came over, grabbed my board and dropped it off with a smile. Then off we went back to Belmont.

Once back we each went our separate ways and continued kiting. At one point Matt and I came back to camp and noticed Dimitri's kite in the water. He wasn't able to relaunch it so he slowly made his way to the beach. Then Faycal came up and dropped off his board. Thank you Faycal. Man he makes picking up a board look so easy.

Later Dan, Omar, Joe, John, Dave, and I shared stories of the afternoon. We all were glad the wind was back.

Friday, June 20, 2008.
Juliano and Klaus came over to the house to hang out, and wait for the wind to come up. At one point we said, "It isn't going to get any better so let's go down to the beach and pump up Juli's new Rev 15". Kyle had dropped it off Thursday night before he went to a wedding out of town.

Juliano didn't care if there wasn't much wind, he wanted to see his new "Baby" out of the bag and up in the air.

When Klaus launched it I thought "Man is this kite is huge for a 16 or what?"

Juliano and Klaus muscled it into the air and Juli was able to fly it back and forth even though there was no wind. He just had to.

After he wrapped this kite we went back to the Ocean Blvd. wall and hung out. About that time Ruth came over and upon arriving back at home we discovered we had been burglarized. They didn't get much, only $20, but it took the rest of the evening and some of Saturday to cancel the credit cards and give the police report.

The bottom line I left the two front doors of the house open when I went down to the beach and Ruth was upstairs blow drying her hair. That's when someone walked in and took my wallet and her day runner. We have an appointment on Wednesday to have a security screen door installed. Next time it won't be so easy, but I feel real stupid leaving the house wide open. Me bad.