So many pictures, so little time

May 19 thru 22, 2010

May 19th, Klaus gets a new digital camera

Have you seen this man at Belmont??? Yes it's Klaus Schulz. No more Cameraman #2 for him. He recently purchased a new digital camera.

It's a Canon EOS-7D. The following are some of his shots.

He's going to stitch one of these sequences together, so until I get it here is Omar getting some great air. This is one of about 20 in the shot list.

I think you get the sense of how sharp his camera is when you double click on this shot of Dong.

I think I can count the water droplets under Kyle's board. Did I mention how clear the pictures are?

I don't know if you've met Mark Moore. He's one of the new instructors for Kitesurfari.
Come over to the tent and say hello. Here he pulling off one of his many tricks.

May 21st, a better shot of KiteMaster's Belmont/La Verne location


Arnaud Vuillermet has marked his spot at Belmont Shore. You can find him on the East end of the La Verne parking lot. Welcome "Home" Arnaud. His other home is La Ventana.

Arnaud is talking to a new student, and in the back ground is Kitesurfari. Two kite schools.. no waiting. Soon there will be four.

On the same day..Ruth and Bebe were wearing their Harley outfits from "Uncle" Klaus. Now that man has good taste. He also knows where all of the Harley shops are.

May 22nd, time for an open ocean adventure with Klaus and John


Klaus came by on Saturday and mentioned that John Rost was driving up from Huntington Beach and we were going to meet up with Gabor. I said "Let's GO!!!"

Klaus decided to pump up his F-One 15. He didn't want to be under powered.

John pumped up his 14. I couldn't make up my mind, "Should I take "Big Mama" (15m) or the "Boss" (12). I decided on the 12.

Here's a Blast-From-The-Past, this is a group shot, thanks to Mike Noel, from our first visit to La Ventana, 2009.

John was on his cell phone just before we took off. We were going to meet up with Gabor and anyone from Seal that wanted to do a little Open Ocean Adventure today.

After we warmed up for a few minutes we headed for the oil platform. I saw a few kiters at Seal but no one was coming out to meet us. So I headed into Seal. I heard Klaus yell something and noticed that he and John were heading towards Chaffee Island.....OOPS, time to follow.

What I didn't know was they were going to make another pass behind the oil platform and see if Gabor was going to join us. In the mean time I headed to the pier and figured I was going to meet up with everyone on the windward side of Chaffee Island.

When the three of us got back together (where red and green turns to black) we headed out to the open ocean. Wow!!! The rollers were very different once you are past the breakwater. We didn't quite get to a container ship, but we knew we were in a new place. We tacked back to the middle of the bay where we passed two huge floating tanks that had seals on them. When we passed them the honked and honked, and some of them dove off of the float.

As we headed for White Island I could see I could make it past the island, so I kept going. Klaus and John when back towards the breakwater. After a few minutes we met up on the back of Chaffee. This is where we ran into Scott Carter. At one point, as we were going starboard toward the breakwater, Klaus pulled off a jump. Then John jumped. I was right behind them when I saw Johns kite hit the water and invert. Not good. Klaus grabbed his board and the three of us kited around John, and he was able to get his lines straightened out. OMG!!! Once John was up and running we waved good by to Scott and noticed that Gabor was just coming out of Seal. But we were done. It was Miller Time.

We got home, safe and sound. I'm really thinking about one of these water-proof two way radios. What a long swim that would have been if John couldn't get his kite back up in the air.

Ruth brought Bebe and Loki out to the launch ramp to join us. Klaus had brought some champagne and we sat in the sun and enjoyed it.

A few minutes later Dan joined us with "his adventure story".....he pulled off a trick in front of Chaffee Island and his kite hit the water....BAM!!!! It hit so hard that the leading edge valve popped open. He was trying to self-rescue when a jet ski happened by and gave him a ride to shore. Thank god for little favors. It was a happy ending for everyone, especially mom.