La Ventana or BUST, prey for wind.

We are counting down, 36 hours until we lift off at L. A. X. for La Ventana.

Today there were many emails and drop-by's. Rijk came over, so did Klaus and Al did a drive-by. We all hung out on Ocean and Santa Ana and watched a guy go out on his big Best.

Last night Mark Strauch sent us this wind graph of what's going on at LV. We can't wait!!!!!

After a few beers Al went down to see Martin to get their boards sorted out. Rijk took off and Klaus came back to the house and checked out my "Golf Bag" weight. It was exactly 49 pounds.

The only thing I have to do tomorrow is get my clean clothes together. Wish us luck and prey for wind. When we return we'll share all of our adventures.

The Magnificent Seven from Belmont go South. Wish us luck and see you soon.

Party, party, party

This week has been nothing but party, party, party. With birds,

It started out with Ruth coming home from Cleveland Ohio where she and her siblings and relatives celebrated her mothers 83th Birthday. It was quite a celebration. When she got home her two girls were there to give "Mom" some love.

That party was followed by communications from Mark Stauch who was kiteboarding in LaVentana. Two pictures says it all.

The La Ventanta Blog, Mark is out kiting and he was lucky enough to get 6 out of 6 days.

Their last night Mark (right rear) and Carole front girl in white were closing down the place. Maybe you recognize Kirk from Capt. Kirk's in the middle with reversed hat. What fun!!!!!

Here is a Google aeriel shot of the kiting area of La Ventana. Winds were over 20 MPH most days.

Next Klaus took delivery of his new Bandit Dos 10 meter kite he bought for La Ventana.

He was surprised about a few things. First he thought it was going to be smaller. Next the struts took 12 PSI and the leading edge needed 10 PSI minimum. Pump, pump, pump.

Naturally Klaus couldn't wait to get it up.....I had to.

With no wind I got his new rig off the ground for a couple of passes. Yeah it flies, NOW put it away and let's have a beer.

The sun was going down but I had to leave. This is as good as it got.

The next party was the next night when some out of town friends join us for dinner at Fucket Thai on 2nd. What a dinner, what a deal, what fun.

And the sunset was spectacular at Belmont....of course.

The next day, today, Monday, was Klaus's Birthday. He turned 48 and there were kiters and bikers who helped him through the tough time. My little brother Klaus loves to eat, but you may know that.

It was time to loose some weight at one of the best all you can eat restaurants in this area, TODAI.

We love it and take every opportunity to eat there.

For the evening all the guys were bikers. We all had Harley Davidson stuff on. Klaus had his new shirt from Pennsylvania that Ruth got him.

Klaus scored, with a new t-shirt, a bouquet of roses and a homemade candle from Ruth.

The food was so good we rolled ourselves out of the place,. You never want to stop talking and eating, but Klaus had to get up at 5 o'clock so he needed to get home.

What a night, what a week, now I need to go on a diet.

It hasn't been blowing so where have I been?

It's early Saturday morning and I've been doing a lot of things around the house, including getting a cold. Now I'm trying to catch up on what's been going on in Belmont Shore and beyond.

The first event that came up after my last blog was Thanksgiving, and man do we love to eat. Typically we have sit down dinner for close to 60, but because the price of gas and money issues only about 40 showed up. One of the first to arrive was Klaus on his tricked out Harley motorcycle.

Jason, my nephew, was attracted to the noise. Then Klaus said "Why don't you take it for a ride?"

As Jason drove away Klaus was a little panicked, because you could hear Jason drive up and down the streets around the house. Klaus went right into praying to insure his bike would return in good condition. A few minutes later Jason returned.

The dinner bell has rung because Ruth has taken out the birds.

This was the noisy table. A lot of wine was flowing, but the cook deserved it. She worked hard.

This was the quite group. As you can see everyone took their cue to pose. Now pour the wine

The next event was the USC vs Notre Dame football game on Nov. 29th.
The fighting Irish tried to get pumped up but that effort went nowhere.

The Trojan band was fantastic.

And so was the score. The final score was USC 38, Notre Dame 3

The four of us were pretty darn happy.

Next up was my birthday on December 3rd. We decided to start the party off at Legends watching the USC vs UCLA game and then move it to the house for the cake and ice cream.

We lucked out and got a great booth. Time to bring on the beer and food.

Our servers were the greatest. Ruth brought pom-poms and the group all got into it.

USC won and now we are headed to the Rose Bowl.

At home Dan surprised me by giving me his Becker 6'8". I have using it for months, now it's official.

The next event was Christmas. Our family celebrates on Christmas eve because so many of our family have other commitments.

Liz made name tags this year so no one would forget their names.

Our Christmas ritual is first, a toast to your health. Then we take a moment and make a toast to those that are not present or are no longer with us.

The next day there were clearing winds and Dan didn't want to miss it. Kristin helped rig.

Dan was able to get out for a little while, then it started raining.

Anything to get some kite time.

The next day Dan wanted to go out again. Klaus thought about it but that's as far as it got.

Again Dan was the lone kiter. Klaus and I were his back-up crew.

The wind was a lot better today than it was yesterday. Dan was getting air and got back to practicing his 360 spins.

Here's another.

Dan was able to hold his jumps so I could get some pretty good shots.
Oh yeah.

There was one other kiter who had lost his board so Dan got in some winter practice getting his board. The guy launched his kite and continued having fun.

This was about the point when we saw Dan doing a down-winder. He was heading for Seal. Klaus and I followed. Were ready for anything.

Dan was the last kiter standing.

While Dan derigged I grabbed a few shot of the sunset.

For New Years we went out the evening before so we could get up early for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. Thank you Sara for capturing the moment

At the Rose Bowl this is part of the 93,000 attendees.

Let the games begin.

The Stealth B-2 bomber flew by. AWESOME!!! What a fantastic feeling.

Time to play.

At the half we were up 31 to 7.

Our seats were so close we could watch Mark Sanchez warmed up.

We were having a ball since we won. Final score USC 38, Penn State, 21. We hope for a good BCS standing going into next year.

Have a wonderful and happy 2009 and hope to see you soon.