Winter is here??? Where are the clearing winds???

Monday October 25, 2010

It's getting colder and raining now and them, we were hoping...but there wasn't much in the way of clearing winds today!!!

The day started out driving up to Burbank and then to Culver City, then home. First I dropped of a Sony tape recorder to a repair company. The guy who wrote up the service order was a huge USC football fan and he got a kick out of seeing my car since it had a number of USC decorations on it. Next I drove to Sara's apartment to pick up four technical books and then home to get a Subway sandwich. When I arrived home was the exact time that Dan and Loki were arriving at the house. He was hoping for wind.

After we finished the sandwich Dan got his kite gear out of his truck and with the two dogs in tow we headed for the beach. It wasn't really clearing winds but there was some wind.

The day was very unique because it was fairly warm and this brought out the woman that had climbed on top of a pile of sand and this couple jogging on the sand. We can do it!!!!

As Dan started rigging his kite I took the two dogs up on the lifeguard tower and started taking pictures with Dan's new Nikon digital camera. The only problem was I didn't bring a tripod.

When I turned the camera back to the beach I caught a glimps of Drew Roeser pulling off this trick. I did a flashback to almost a year ago when I shot a You Tube video from the same tower. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RvCIA09rRo or search "Kite boarding the Belmont Clearing Winds, Jan. 21, 2010" You can see Drew pulling off some great tricks.

As Dan rushed for the water we both knew there wasn't a lot of wind out there but he was going to give it his best shot. He didn't care because he was going out and getting wet.

Dan got in a few tacks on his first run. Not bad for very little wind and only being on a 13.

On his second try he realized there were very few kiters still on the water. That didn't bother Dan, he was out to have some fun.

He asked me later if I had seen his attempt at an unhooked trick. I said I think I caught part of it. I don't remember what the trick was though, "Body Drag????"

Dan does not give up very easily. He walked up for one more ride.

Dan went out for one more ride even though there still wasn't much wind. I think he may have made two tacks and he was back on the beach.

I think you can read the expression on Dan's face that it's time to wrap it up for the day because it's not going to get much better. There's always hope that tomorrow will be the day of the great clearing winds. We'll be ready. See you on the beach!!!!!