Thursday was CRAZY!!!!

April 29, 2010

At about 1 o'clock the text messages started. Everyone had heard about the good wind yesterday and was wondering if it was going to repeat.....YES!!!!!

A group of us got to the beach a little before 2 o'clock and there had been kiters out for a while.

Klaus got out his wind meter and at times it was over 30 mph. We caught it at 28.2.

At 2 people were trying to figure out what size kites to pump. Who has a 6 or 8 in their quiver?

Gabor is going out on his 9. He was supposed to have an Ocean Adventure today but it was postponed for a while.

In the foreground Mark and Radko talk about the wind. Mark pumped up his 8 and went out for a while, then loaned it to Juliano for a few passes. Klaus is riding the black kite.

The strange thing is when you change your view from looking at the water to looking at the blowing sand you definitely get the sense of the wind speed.

Michael had gone out on his 9 and decided to pump up his 5. Here Gary is helping Michael hold his kite in the gusting wind.

The wind didn't seem to bother Gabor. He was out there doing his big air jumps.

Here Klaus was showing he can get big air too.

Dan spent time cutting the waves and

jumping over the buoys. He was just playing.

And jumping. Lots of fun.

What I heard was Klaus was pulling off a jump very close to Gabor and then Gabor changed direction and the two kites tangled.

Dan played board rescue guy and we walked down to help Klaus and Gabor.

The two made it back safely. Klaus said that Gabor was very calm in the water and got everything under control. Both thought the water was pretty cold.

Al got some assistance from one of Long Beach's finest. The guard rescued Al's board and brought it to him at the launch ramp.

It's about 4 o'clock and some are just arriving to get some wind while it's still blowing. Who knew that it was going to blow until after dark.

Dan was like the EverReady Bunny....STILL GOING and never ran out of gas.

See you on the water.

Great wind and Ruth's Birthday!!!!

April 28, 2010

An unreal day




When Klaus and I arrived at Belmont we discovered the wind to be very mild. Naturally we were hoping for a lot more wind later. I pumped the Wainman Big Mama and Klaus pumped his F-One 15.

The wind was so light that Omar decided to use his giant 19 foil. Mike gave him a hand.

Omar wasn't out but a few minutes and he was back with one of the first stingray bites. It didn't take him very long to be back on the water.

There wasn't much wind but Klaus and I decided to do the best we could. He said as we went out "Let's do a mini-adventure the day before Gabor's adventure." I said "Great!!! Let's go."

I recently came across this shot of the bay and decided to give some names so you can understand were we kite.

On our first reach we came close to the back of the oil platform. There is an interesting thing that happens the water in the open ocean becomes long rollers and its very clear. When we jibed we decided to go to the windward side of Chaffee Island but didn't make it because of the current. With one tack we made it past Chaffee and headed for White Island and made it past it. That was one long tack.

Once past White we headed for the far end of the bay. If you want to go back up two pictures and double click on it to make it larger. Unfortunately for Klaus, since he was on his twin tip, he had to flip around for home. On my directional I was able to go quite a bit farther. I couldn't quite get all the way to Grissom but it was close. We headed back for Belmont because we were afraid the wind was going to stop.

Once we arrived back at Belmont I noticed the wind started to really blow. Here Trevor Nelson is getting ready to go out. I always get a kick out of seeing other photographers taking pictures of kite boarding at Belmont. Today Steve Carr from the Press Telegram was down taking shots for his newspaper. If you want to check out some pro shots click on http://presstelegram.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=990207&CategoryID=29035&ListSubAlbums=0 Picture 4 is Trevor, 5 is Klaus and myself and 7 is Klaus.

I grabbed a few shots including Aaron Lininger getting air.

Unfortunately I missed the passing hand slap by a fraction. So.....

they re-enacted it on the beach. Great job guys.

Bobby went out and pulled off this unreal jump. Not only did he get some great air, but when he inverts it looks great. Double click for a closer look.

Here's my shot of Trevor.

And Klaus getting air.

Klaus up there again.

Catching Dan doing a back roll needs multiple shots to get it right. Maybe my next camera.

Here Dan does a rail grab. He makes it look easy.

Here are the two adventure guys.

Ruth came over to take this shot of 10 guys that had a lot of fun today. From the left: Michael with gloves in air, Roberto, Bobby, Dan, Aaron, Klaus, Radko in front of him, me and Omar in front of him. On the launch ramp is Ryan Newsome who has shot a video using his GoPro waterproof video camera. Check it out at whttp://www.vimeo.com/11289969

Here we broke out in song to sing "Happy Birthday" to Ruth. I can feel it, can't you???

After we cleaned up we headed out to Michael's in Naples.

We were happy to be relaxed and having a little wine to celebrate her Birthday.

Naturally I enlisted our server to get a shot of us at our table.

What is a birthday without a candle and ice cream. Ruth was a happy girl.

The bartender was so sweet. He sent over two glasses of Lemoncello. MMMMMM.

I think you can tell Ruth had a great evening.

When we got home we realized it was a full moon. This really added to the day.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday: Good, Bad & Better

April 24, 25, 26, 2010

Saturday was pretty good


Quite of few of us got the signal that it was going to blow today. We got to the beach at about 2 P.M. to see what was going to happen.

Dan opted to go out on an Epic 14. He seemed to like it.

Matt wanted to demo Big Mama. He really loved it. He's over 225 and it had plenty of grunt for him.

Dan put down the Epic and decided to go out on the Wainman Boss. Sorry Dan I didn't get any of your rolls or jumps.

Then Naji took out Big Mama for a test spin.

Here's the demo dream, both the Boss and Big Mama out there doing their thing. Dan's going port and Naji is on a starboard tack. Don't those kites look beautiful????

Sunday

Everyone told everyone about yesterday and we wanted more...

But it was not to be.

Sure there were a few kites in the air but most kiters did a little bit of walking

Monday


Klaus called and said "It's blowing man." He was right. His new wind meter got a speed of 22.4. Klaus really wanted this day because he's been working 14 hour days in Colorado. All work and no play makes wind junkies CRAZY!!!!!

Jorge pumped up his 14 and Klaus decided on his 12. Later he said he was sorry about the choice. He should have pumped up his 15....it was too late.

The wind was a little iffy but Klaus said "Let's go to Seal and see Gabor." I told Juliano who was on his 15 m. what the plan was and he gave me a thumbs up. The three of us headed for Seal.

The down-wind part was very easy. One long tack to the oil platform and then turn towards Seal. We zigged and zagged a little getting to the beach, but this was the easy leg. One of the things that you notice once you pass Chaffee Island is the ocean rollers become very obvious, and the water gets a lot cleaner.

Naturally we ran into Gabor who was just going out as we were playing in the waves. All three of us were on our twin tips, Gabor on his directional. I'm still nursing my left foot. I dropped my board on it about a week ago. Anyway we tacked back and forth playing, then Klaus said "Let's go back to Belmont." I was thinking "WHAT???? We just got here." But later we learned that he was not happy with his 12 and didn't want to have to bum a ride home from Seal.
We just had to do a few tacks and we were back to Belmont...ready for a cold beer.

Bart was nice enough to take a shot of us. From the left: Klaus, Michael D., Dan Juliano and me.

Don't know if you've heard, but Bart Miller is our newest instructor at Belmont. He said he had taken the IKO International certification and is looking forward to the summer now that the city have given him permission to teach at Belmont.

Here's a guy we haven't seen since last summer, George Waint. Happy to see you on the beach again George.

Klaus and I traded pictures, he took some of me. One close to the shore and...

and one of me jumping. Then....

I took one of him. OK, his pictures were better than mine. But my picture is funnier.

You can tell it's getting close to summer because I saw a Marine Patrol coming towards us on the launch ramp and I buried my beer in the sand. I didn't want a ticket. How stupid was that, one second later he turned his SUV and headed in the other direction. What a waist. Oh well!!!!