Spring winds are here again & not to many takers :(

March 10, 2011

At about 2 o'clock I got to the beach. I was originally only going to come down and take pictures of the new wash-off area that the city was building for the kiters but the wind was coming up. There were two kiters out. One up and one not quite up.
About the time I started setting up Rudy "Bongo" arrived. He said he's working through a cold but today "Looked good" so he grabbed his board and wind out.
I thought I was taking a shot of some "Early spring sun-bathers" but I also caught a shot of Gabor Vagi coming up from Seal Beach with his windsurf buddy Joe Roth. A two-fer.
Here is Gabor a little closer. My friend and mentor and I had been out for a little while. Then he headed for Island Chaffee. I thought he was heading back to Seal.....but NO!!
Next thing you know he was hooking up with Simone Vannucci out near the breakwater. Two kiters just having fun.
I started wrapping it up and took a few shots for the city. They are finishing up the wash off area next to the bathrooms. Next to come is a second shower. For now this is very cool.
I tried keeping an eye on Simone to make sure he was going to make it into shore. The wind had died, Gabor headed back to Seal and here he was trying to get back to shore.
We are very lucky here in Long Beach to have such a great group of Lifeguards. The rescue boat as well as the patrol truck was there to give Simone any assistance that he needed. Fortunately he was able to self-rescue.
At the end of the day we all had a great time.