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.