Another great kite day

Monday April 19, 2010

There was lots of non-kiting activity today. Mike Noel just returned from a five day 1670 mile Harley ride that included Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon, Laughlin Nevada and Las Vegas. I'm guessing he was a little saddle sore.

Radko was in Mammoth skiing with Danny.

And both Klaus and Rijk were visiting our own "Dr. Al." He just keeps everyone in Belmont smiling :) :) :)

At about 2 o'clock I got to the beach. Michael D. and Bill were there. The wind was just starting to come up so I rigged Big Mama again.

I had just fixed my directional by using a bigger screw, so I wanted to practice my jibes. Not much else going on. I was just going back and forth, turning clock-wise and then counter-clock-wise trying to swing my kite faster and faster, and switch my feet faster too. At some point I went past the pier and was playing in that smooth water behind White Island.

I didn't realize until he called me later, but Gabor had tacked up from Warner Avenue near Bolsa Chica to come up to Belmont and play. We met on the windward side of Chaffee Island.

We were basically doing down-wind and up-wind tacks, trying to edge hard in either direction. On the port tack getting past White Island on the windward side looked doable. So we went for it. The wind in some places was howling so I had to de-power the Wainman 15. Gabor was on his North 12. He didn't look like he had any problems. He never does.

As the two of us passed the island Gabor reversed direction. But for some reason I felt there was enough wind and I kept going...DUMB!!!!!

Learn from my mistakes, turn around before it's too late. If you double click on the picture and look in the upper left area you can see that when I jibed I couldn't get past the islands edge. Crap. Then I tried once more and lost more ground. Double crap. The rest was just swinging my kite and working my way around the leeward side of the island. Which by the way has a mean wind shadow. By this time Gabor had come around the back of the island (he's the red line). He would call out to me "You're almost there." And "Come on you can make it."

I finally got a puff of clean air and was up and running. All I wanted to do was get back tot he beach and have a beer. We waved good bye and Gabor set-out for his return trip to East Sunset Beach/Bolsa Chica.

Just about the time I got back to the camp Klaus walked up carrying his F-One 12. He said "There's not enough wind." I said "Try Big Mama." So here he is taking out the 15. It was all warmed up and ready to go.

There wasn't enough to jump but he had a great time on the Wainman. He liked how it felt, he also said he liked the pump system, individual strut pumping. Thanks for the kind words Klaus.