Belmont Kite Haps

Happy Birthday...... Jim

2011-12-12T16:58:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to ME

Dan and Kristin started the Facebook announcement calling the birthday party

"Jim's 59th Birthday Party, AGAIN" WOW.... very cool

The party was held at McKenna's Restaurant in Alamitos Bay on Saturday evening .

McKenna's had a grand entrance and thanks to Omar Nazif, because he brought his camera and capturing the evenings events for us to share. For more pictures check his facebook page. I also want to thank the many, many family and friends who called, sent me texts, emails and Facebook messages wishing me a "Happy BD." All were very appreciated.

This was the reason I selected this place, the sunset. We got there just in time to catch the sun going down.

A couple of day before I had gone walking with the dogs and caught this shot of the sunset over the port. I wanted to have this same feeling at my BD party..... AND WE DID.

Sara on the left and Dan on the right, as well as Ruth put the event together, and for making my birthday so special.

On the far right is Ruth's dad Bert, who also enjoyed the evening. He's 86 years old and he's out here vacationing from Cleveland, Ohio.

Dan and Kristin took a break from the hard workon their cooking island in the condo to come out and party. The sunset was beautiful.
On the left is my sister in law Wendy and my brother Mike who drove down to party. They brought their son (my nephew) Spenser and his girlfriend Anna. Sara and her boyfriend A'lan were having fun too. They helped bring spark to the party. Now get a room.

Martin Hubert and Henry Khalili were enjoying the vibe too but unfortunately Henry did not get in the picture.....Next time Henry.
Omar set down his camera just long enough to get a picture with Bonnie. Great shot.
Then it was time for the cake, cards and ......
PRESENTS :)
OMG, I got a new kite. Thanks everyone!!!!! Especially Dan, Kristin, Sara, A'lan, Bert and Ruth, and all the others that chipped in. It's a Switch, Nitro 12m. Find out more at SwitchKites.com.
Then Omar started taking a few single shots. This is Kristin and her friend Karen.
And Ruth's father Bert
Then it was time for a few family shots and....
A big group shot. Sorry we couldn't get everyone in this one but a few folks had gone home.
The next day Klaus came over and we had a few BD toasts and opened the new kite. I can't wait to fly it. Thanks again to everyone for the very warm, wonderful birthday wishes, for coming to the party and for chipping in for my new kite. And this time I don't plan on putting it into a tree.... AT ALL.... NO WAY!!!! Once is enough.

Thanksgiving 2011 at the Corbet House

2011-12-12T16:57:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving 2011 at the Corbet House

More to come thanks to Klaus

Oct. 5th thru the 10th. It's been foggy in Long Beach and other things too

2011-10-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Ohhhhhh... it's been foggy here for the past two days, but it blew yesterday and it was fun too.

Tuesday morning, Oct. 11th:

Klaus called yesterday from Illinois and said he will be back on the water on Friday. And Dan and Kristin are back from Maui and are coming over tomorrow to tell us how their trip was. In the mean time I've had a chance to use Klaus's Core 17 twice. What a power machine. I think if I use it again I'm going to try the lighter setting for the bar pressure. Holding that big kite is tough in 18 mph wind for a two to three hour session.

Monday October 11.... A'lan takes his second lesson

I got down to the beach today a little after 2 and noticed that there was a deep fog layer at the ramp. You could hardly see the island on the far left. I talked to Bart Miller (So.Cal. Kites) and asked him if he had an opening for A'lan today. He said "Come on down." I went back to the house and brought A'lan, our daughter Sara's boyfriend, back to the beach.

He got right into his lesson by practicing how to be pulled up while on the water.
I went over and started rigging and got this shot of Hank and Susi chatting on the beach with the fog in the background. I went out on my 12 and my Becker surfboard. I wanted to get a refresher of being on a board with the Oahu trip two weeks away.
I stayed pretty close to shore and noticed that Bart had A'lan and the other student were getting a body dragging lesson so I came in. Then Bart put A'lan into the foot straps. This is within the first hour of his second lesson. Now that's on the fast track.
OK he reverted to some old snowboard or wakeboard training and rode the board sideways. But he did really well for only being his second lesson.
A'lan and Sara had to fly to Seattle and their plane was departing at 5:30 so Bart said goodbye and hopes A'lan will make it back to Belmont soon.
In the mean time I went back out until the wind died and while I was wrapping up on the launch ramp I grabbed this shot of a cargo ship being engulfed by the fog. Pretty cool.
Later I took Bebe and Harley for a walk and caught a jogger going up the bike path as a future kiter was flying his foil trainer kite.

Thursday October 6th, my buddy Russ flew into town and wanted to kite

I got a text this morning that my friend Russ was going to fly in today and he was wondering how the wind has been. I said it's a crap shoot but come on over and we'll see what happens. It actually turned out to be a pretty good session. You can see the sand is still wet from the rain yesterday and the city is starting to rake up the junk from the L.A. River. The water quality wasn't bad, considering.
When we were rapping up our gear Kyle and Sidney happen to be playing on the ramp. Aren't they cute.
Kyle reciprocated by taking our picture. Russ looks pretty good for getting up at 3 A.M. and flying in from the East coast.
We finished off Russ's visit to a trip to Me Soo Hungry. OH MY GOSH!!!! What a great meal. Left to right; Russ, me, Ruth, Sara and A'lan. Russ flew home to San Francisco in the morning. Hope we get wind on his next visit too.

Wednesday Oct. 5..... WE'VE GOT RAIN

I got back from my doctor appointment at about 5 P.M. and headed down to the beach because I saw a few kites out so I thought I would grab some shots.

James on the green Naish is getting some pretty good air considering. I wonder if he's heard of the "Ben Franklin Effect"??? Just kidding.

As I headed home I was hoping there would be some clearing winds tomorrow. And there were.
I had to end this blog session with my wonderful wife Ruth cuddling the three dogs. Loki is the blond one, Harley is in the middle and Bebe is at her feet. I wonder what they were watching, "Dog Whisperer"?????

9/29 thru 10/3, Skunk. wind, skunk............ make up your mind

2011-10-03T23:24:00.001-07:00

September 29th through October 3rd, another week of wind and no wind

Skunk, Wind, Skunk...make up your mind

Thursday September 29, 2011

Klaus and I headed to the beach today hoping that it was going to blow.

We got to the beach just in time to assist a kiter and his wife, both from Canada, who just got stung by a stingray. I thought that they had left the area. According to Bart Miller he saw a kiter recently hit on both feet. In all my years here I've never heard of that.
The time stamp was a little after 4 o'clock and I think I was getting desperate. I grabbed Klaus's 17 and went out. Thanks Klaus for the shots.
Sure there's a big difference between a 12 meter kite and a 17, but wow this Core is great!!!
I dropped his 17 in the water on a jube so I just kept kiting to dry it off. You never want to bring a friends kite back all wet. I had a great time on his Light Wind Core.... thanks Klaus.

Friday September 30, 2011

We were hoping Friday was going to be better than yesterday. Hmmm????
Alan held up his wind meter against the ominous clouds. It doesn't look good today.
Look at the wind graph at 4 o'clock. Klaus was able to get out and get some air. This made the wait worth it.

And just like that the wind stopped. Christopher came over to tell us about why it all came to a crashing halt.

After I got home I brought our two dogs to the end of the ramp for this sunset shot. They didn't stay put for long. Thank goodness for one good shot.

More to come

9/16 - 9/24 We've had some wind lately

2011-09-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

September 16th through September 24th.....

Our wind score this week: Kite days - 6, Skunk days - 2

It's Saturday night and I thought I would post some of the pictures I've taken this week.
There were a few days recently where we waited for the wind. It started feeling to me like summer was coming to an end.
There were a number of days like this one on the 16th. The days were hot and not much wind.
This picture tells it all, two people reading and one kiter down at Granada waiting for the wind.

Then on Saturday Sept. 17 we started a streak of six days straight of wind. They were not all epic but we still got kite able wind.

On Sunday it started blowing early so I tried to let people know that the wind was up.
Klaus just got back from his job in Illinois and he has taken six days of vacation to chill. This was his first day back so he pumped his 17 Core and his new North 12. He wanted to cover all bases.
Dan and Kristin have gotten through Ryan and Rachel's wedding and were ready to kite.
And "Dr." Bobby was out to prove his diet was still working, even in September.
Klaus was in great form even though he has been away from Belmont for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the photographer did not get his best jump.
Dan was pulling off all of his tricks but I didn't get any good shots. I was kiting too.
Chloe says it all, we all pushed it to the max and were a little tired.
At the end of the day we all were hoping for a repeat on Monday.
With the wind starting early again I headed for the beach. Our youngest daughter Sara called and said her boyfriend A'lan would like to come down for his first kite lesson. I said "Come on down." I got out on the water and messed around for a while until he arrived.
A'lan was a natural. He took to the trainer with no hesitation and a delicate touch too.

He was like the EverReady bunny, he kept going and going and going. The time stamp of this shot was a little after three. You can see Susi and Gary pumping up in the background.
A'lan got it!!! So I said "You know how to self launch, put on some sun block and see you later" and I headed out. Yup, another great day in paradise.
On Tuesday I think Klaus and I got to the beach around 1 o'clock. Bobby and Maria had just returned from Oahu and Bobby was pumping up. Klaus and Bobby got a jump on me and they headed out. I was right behind them.
Bobby and Klaus heading for the oil platform off of Seal Beach. Then they did a port tack and headed for Chaffee Island. For some reason I thought I would try and catch them on the back of Chaffee but that didn't quite work, so I followed them behind Chaffee and then back to home base. It was a pretty fun adventure.
Here are the four amigos. From the left is Steve, Bobby, me and Klaus. Our next adventure is to kite to Huntington. Maria said she could pick us up. Now all we need is a windy day.

Just about the time we got back the bi-weekly Kitesurfari course race was under way. Here Brian Kendor is drag racing Joe Roth, the windsurfer. In the end Brian won the race and also beat four other kiters. Great job Brian.

When Dan got off of work he came down and grabbed my kite. Unfortunately the wind did not cooperate and the wind died. He didn't get much of a ride.
For some reason I didn't take any pictures today. But here's the wind for the day. "Big Mike" and I were messing around with our directional boards today and Peter came up from San Diego to show us how smooth jibes were done. So much work, so little time.

Thursday was a bizar day. I think I was working in the garage when I felt the wind come up, really fast. I grabbed my stuff and hustled to the beach. The wind was howling.

It was a little after 2 and the sand was really kicking up which meant to me it was blowing over 20 mph.

What a weird shot. The kiters on the left blasting starboard and the earth mover doing it's thing.

What a strange sight, these three machines scrapping up the sand and moving it down to the end of the peninsula. The city is preparing for the high surf of winter.

It was all I could do to just take a few shots because I wanted to get out there and get some of that, and I did....

for a while. Then, like a switch, the wind shut off. I was lucky I was able to get to shore, but there were a few that didn't make it and had to swim.

There was a beautiful sunset on Thursday evening thanks to the wind and clouds.

On Friday Klaus and I were ready for another adventure... SORRY, the wind did not cooperateHe and I waited and waited and waited.
The only two that got any exercise today were two stand-up paddlers, Robert and Jessy.
Jessy and Daniel tried but it was not to happen today so Ruth, Klaus and I we went to Phucket for dinner. Mmmmmm...

Saturday September 24, 2011 and this is our second "SKUNK" day.

Unfortunately the day did not look good at the outset. When I took Bebe down for her early morning ritual she didn't want to go outside. The cement had a thin layer of mist and she doesn't like to get her paws wet. This was not a good sign. So we decided to go to Chuck's for breakfast. Afterwards Ruth took the dogs to Dog Beach and I went to Von's for milk. On my walk to meet them I noticed this paddle boat going past White Island. Pretty foggy.

When I arrived at Dog Beach Ruth told me that the two dogs stuck to her like glue. They had no adventure in them today.

Both Bebe and Harley hopes there's wind tomorrow.

Aren't they cute???

Sorry there was no wind on Sunday either.

Andy's Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Ride

2011-09-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

The memorial for my nephew Andy Hernandez was held on Saturday September 10th at Will Rogers State Park.

Andy was the only child of my older sister Julia. He passed away on July 9th at the age of 38. This was a tribute to his short life

My oldest son Robert and nephew Skyler created a beautiful Indian ceremony for their cousin.

The high point was when we all created a big circle of life, held hands and hugs one another. Then had a wonderful pot-luck lunch. The food was wonderful and so was having lots of time to chat with everyone that came from as far as Mexico, Nevada and Oregon

It was great that everyone stayed for a family photo. What a family.

The 9/11 Memorial Ride 2011

Ruth bought a special flag just for 9/11 ride. It added a little GLAM don't you think???

We were all supposed to meet at our house but decided later to meet at Warner and PCH. Here Ruth and Sophie hold Harley and Bebe. Notice the Harley-Davidson clothes on the dogs. CUTE!!

Markus on the left lives next door to Henry and both ride and kite too. Markus borrowed Henry's motorcycle to try it out while waiting for Klaus. He was going so fast that the lens from his glasses fell out and he didn't even know it.

It's 11:30 and we were ready to get started. Klaus suggested we drive to Cook's Corner via PCH because it would be a beautiful ride. Here we go...

Here we are in Huntington Beach, cruising PCH. Klaus and Ruth are getting use to the ride.

Look how cool Markus and Sophie look. Very Hollywood for being at the beach. For me it was a challenge driving, dealing with the dogs and taking pictures. NO PROBLEM!!!!

Well we made it to Cook's Corner and all in one piece. Now let's go spend some money.

You can see that the crowd is growing so we went in for a few beers. We did run into one problem....

they would not let the dogs into the place. Sure, spend over a $100 bucks on drinks, food and t-shirts, but sorry NO DOGS!!!! The dogs and I went back to the car to wait for the ride to start.
Then the traffic jam started.... let's party, but don't be in any hurry.
Klaus and Ruth passed us on the way up Santiago Canyon Road.
Then is was down the 133 freeway. It was very interesting sharing the road at 70 miles an hour with cars..... Very scary and I was in a car.
Ruth got a great shot of the spectators along the road. There was a lot of support.

Another great shot she took was while riding on the bike and shooting back and getting this long line of motorcycles.
So in order to get a shot of the passing parade I drove around the ride, went up the 405 and cut down Warner and then drove up PCH, found a parking spot and with the dogs walked up to this traffic signal.
Double click to see how long the line is. I only wish I was a lot higher to get a better shot of the bikes.

The end of the ride was coming. All they had to do was make two left turns off of PCH and find a parking spot. No problem. There were only about 2000 motorcycles ahead of them.

Check this view out. Block after block of motorcycles on both sides of the street. Next stop, get everyone together and go into the party.
We all made it. Bebe and Harley were happy to see Ruth, Klaus, Marcus and Sophie. Henry made it but not in this picture. Now were looking for something to eat and drink.
Klaus took this great shot of the crowd in the parking lot of McKenna's. The flag was huge and the speaker was Chris Howard who lost his father in the 9/11 tragedy.
Klaus also took pictures of the dual fly-over and....
the four plane fly-over. His camera and lens are so clear and crisp.
This is how it all started eitht years ago when Gary Biggerstaff built these 343 crosses representing all of the firemen that perished in the New York Trade Center.
Now it's time to pack it in and head for home.... in the comfort of our CRV.

Ahhhh, so quiet, comfortable.... and I can hear the music too.

Labor Day Weekend....blah, blah blah

2011-09-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

Labor Day Weekend....blah, blah blah

I will download the pix tomorrow....

No wind, wind, wind, wind, wind and Santa Ana heat!!!

2011-08-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

No wind, wind, wind, wind, wind, then a hot spell!!!

There was no wind last Saturday.... that was OK since I couldn't get to the beach due to a funeral. BUT there was wind on Sunday and pretty good wind too. And lots of folks made it to Belmont: Kristin (Dan had just returned from Las Vegas), Rosemary, Dr. Al, Jorge & Pilar, Michael, Annmarie & Billy, and many many more. As a matter of fact at times it was a traffic jam out on the water.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were kiteable days at Belmont, some days better than others. Unfortunately today was hot as heck here in Long Beach and we had a little wind for a little while.... but it was not so good. It was side-shore for the most part.

Today I took the dogs for a walk to check out the beach conditions. There were very few kiters and the wind was coming from the West. It was very hot and dry, very much like Santa Ana conditions.

Gabor dropped his kite in the water a couple of times. In this shot he was sitting on his board as the wind pulled him to shore.

Look at that perfect form. Gabor is using his feet to make his new North race board ride very flat and he was able to stay up-wind in fluky side-shore conditions. Check the direction of the ship in the background. It's pointing West.
Yesterday we had a little wind so my friend Russ came down to kite. Unfortunately he was only able to get in a couple of rides before the wind died. Then we practiced self-launching and self-landing.
I told his wife June I would take a picture of Harley and Bebe in their cute new shirts. His says "I love my Daddy" and hers says "Does this shirt make me look fat?"
With the sunlight fading I turned them around on my neighbors wall and took a front shot. Aren't they cute???
Many times people ask my friend Klaus "What do you do?" This shot is one from a job he is doing in Illinois. It shows the inside of a dairy that Klaus and a few others are installing all new equipment. He makes the metal conveyors that the product rides in.
But we all know that Klaus would rather be kiting. Here he's getting some GIANT air at Belmont.

Maybe we will have good wind tomorrow......

Sat., Sun., Mon., Tues., Wed......

2011-08-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...

Sad, Happy, Skunked, Wind, Better Wind and Sad again.

On Saturday we buried my old water ski buddy Dennis Dawkins. He was actually younger than me. It was a great ceremony and his wife Cathy did a great job with all of the activities. It was also great seeing many old friends that I haven't seen for 30 years. But it's still sad.

On Sunday it was a day of relief. Klaus came over and told us he had just purchased a new Mac computer. So Ruth bought his old iMac and Klaus was nice enough to show her how to plug it all together. Then we went kiting. It was a great afternoon. We jumped and played out to the oil platform and fun. It was a very liberating experience. I was still kiting when he left. The next day he flew to Illinois to continue the installation of a new dairy for his company. The guy really loves his work.

()n Monday we got skunked. Well everyone but Bongo. He was able to get out as well as Gabor. But all I did was go down wind and do a lot of walking up the beach. Boo hoo:(

Tuesday was good. This was the first day there was enough wind to practice on the new directional. I was able to get up on Gabor's old Cabrinha race board. Mike and I are now co-owners. I still need a lot of work to get into the straps and up on the fins. Hey you've got to start somewhere. Thanks to Brian, Gabor and Alan for all of their help.

Wednesday... Mike Noal and I met up at Belmont. Unfortunately he had not received the parts for his "Big Mama" from Kite Naked, so he had to rig small. I got out on the Cabrinha and for the first time I was able to feel the fin action. But I'm still very insecure.

When I got home I received very sad news from my oldest son Robert that my late sister's only son Andy had taken his life. The only reason that I share this with you is that life is precious so enjoy every moment while we are on this earth.

Today Naji Faour and I spent some precious time on the launch ramp and agreed that life is very short. So take the time to say "I Love You" to your friends and loved ones.

I'm off my soap box now...

Another day in our life..

2011-08-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

This is another day in our life...

AND JUST A SUGGESTION TO ENJOY LIFE WHILE YOU HAVE IT!!!!

Two days ago I received an email that an old friend was not doing very well, health wise. I called, and Ruth, and I went to his house today to see him. Unfortunately he had passed a few minutes before our arrival.....

After we left I realized many of us have multiple chapters in our lives: high school, college, early jobs, competitions, later jobs, and so on and so on.

I have been very lucky because along the way I met Dennis Dawkins. He was a fierce competitor on the water speed skiing circuit, back when I competed in ski racing.

In my life's book Dennis and the team he raced for was important in our family life because almost 40 years ago I joined the KaRon ski racing team. KaRon stood for Karen and Ron Wilson, and Dennis was a long time member of that team. I met Ruth this wonderful day at Lake Elsinore at a ski race sponsored by her college professor Tom "Mac" McIntyre. Ruth and I went on to a wonderful romance and Dennis continued water ski racing for many years. Unfortunately Dennis and I lost touch after we married and started our family.

Now, in a few days, we will celebrate Dennis's life.

But I think this is about enjoying your family, your friends and your acquaintance's TODAY not tomorrow. Say "I love you" now, not when you get around to it.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

The wind is coming back at Belmont

2011-08-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

The wind is coming back at Belmont

We had wind on Saturday.... good wind. Except a guy broke one of my lines.

No wind Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. I mean not enough for me. But today the monsoonal conditions changed and for those that checked out scka.org/beachcam saw the wind come up pretty early and last quite a while.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow and add them to this blog.

Kite Expo 2011 is a hit

2011-07-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hello kiters,

for all of you that attended or participated in this years Kite Expo III I would like to give some credits and a chronology of the events. I think first off I have to tip my hat to my son Dan Corbett (President/SCKA) and his girl friend Kristin Helm (Treasurer) for their tireless efforts. The spent many weeks and nights of planning, printing and stressing to make this event happen. Great job Dan, Kristin and to my wife Ruth who would fix us meals at night after kiting so we could go over the event.

Left to right is SCKA President Dan Corbett, Mark Sandoval, Manager of the Long Beach Marine Division, Chris Pook and Sea Festival President Greg Williams.

Dan and I were fortunate to have four mentors that gave us council as we skipped down the "Yellow Brick Road." Thanks to Christopher Pook (founder of the Long Beach Gran Prix), Mark Sandoval (Manager of the Long Beach Marine Division), John Parks (Sea Festival Manager) and Fred Khammar (Alfrado's Beach Club).

Next a little back story. Sometime back in January Dan, Kristin and I got together and evaluated the two previous Expo dates because we had to reserve a date for the 2011 Sea Festival. We through a dart and it landed on July 23 & 24. Once that date was set we set out to make this years Expo bigger and better than ever.

Then Dan, Chris Pook and I drove up to Pismo Beach to meet with Marina Chang. She puts on the Pismo Beach Kite Expo and publishes the Kiteboarder magazine. That's when the Sea Festival and the Long Beach Airport decided to back our event by paying for a full page ad in the magazine. Then Dan and Marina worked on an article in the mag. Way to go!!!

We then set out to gather vendors and sponsors. The first companies on board were KiteMasters, Captain Kirk's, So.Cal. Kiting and Naish kites. With these anchor companies we set a course to put the event together.

Over the last three months the event has gathered momentum and then we had to go to the city for our permit. No one wants to hear the hoops we had to jump through to get it, but Dan signed the permit just two days prior to the event. The main sensitive area was competition inside the swim zone, we had a course race and jumping contest. The city decided a lifeguard was needed to specifically be assigned for our event.

Now I would take a minute to thank all of the SCKA volunteers that stepped up. First was Mike Noel who supplied our "Safety Boat" that had to be part of our "beach rescue support." Thanks Mike for getting the boat ready, checking the motor, the lights and driving it to my house. Next was Matty Mitchell for coordinating the SUP races that were held on Saturday. This was a draw we did not have in prior Expos. He also supplied the generator, speaker stands and the mixer too.

It was Chris Pook who bridged the SCKA, LB Parks & Rec and the city to bring about the fantastic event on Friday... let me describe the day: it started out at 8 A.M. meeting the staff of Park & Rec along with three volunteer's from Kraft Foods. We prepared the Claremont launch ramp for the delivery of tons of food, beverages and other items for 1,600 kids that would soon arrive from various parks around Long Beach.

Then bus load after bus load of kids started arriving at around 9:30. P & R had a DJ and a ton of youth chaperons that helped the kids find their area on the beach.

The theme "Capture the Wind Festival" was used because this year was the 100th Anniversary of the Long Beach Airport. The kids were first dazzled by "Old Glory." A 50'x100' American flag, that flew bye pulled by a plane thanks to So.Cal. Gas Co..

Then the LB Swat team drove up to the launch ramp in a big black truck and a boat in the water. Then over our heads flew a helicopter that dropped two SWAT members out of the helicopter.
The two swam up to the kids waiting at the shore to see their police protectors. The kids swarmed around the two asking them all sorts of questions like "What kind of gun is that?" and "How can I be a policeman?"

Then the United States Coast Guard performed a mock rescue at sea. The officer was sent down from the helicopter and then brought back up to the chopper with the "victim."

Next was the LA County Fire Department showing us their water dropping and rescue powers.
Then the LB Fire Dept. brought in a fire boat and sprayed the kids on the beach.
Then the kids had lunch thanks to Parks & Rec. Look how long that line is. "Hi, there are 1600 kids coming over for lunch.... ready or not here they come"

After lunch there was a DJ that played music and had contests.

That's when the SCKA invited the older kids to fly trainer kites. Here Dan is showing one of the kids how to fly a kite, as the cameraman from KTLA and Vera Jimenez grab a sound bite for the news. KABC-TV was also there. Saturday also was an early morning. The adventure starting at 8 A.M. The vendors were invited to set-up their tents early before the Stand-UP Paddleboard competition, which was to take place at 10 AM. But nothing happens exact;y on-time at the beach. After the SUP races the SCKA Event Team headed by Darren Mackaly kicked into action. He coordinated the other volunteers to set up the speakers, the tents, direct traffic and all kinds of other jobs like coning off the area. That's when Bobby Hall sprang into gear making sure that the launch ramp area was clear for the catamaran turn-around with his Safety Squad.

Our ipod music kicked in and the events started to click off. Our Race Chairman Arnaud Vuillermet, owner of KiteMaster Kite School, set up the race course for the course racing event.

Dan Corbett and Jason Bohle take out one of the buoys to set up the race course. The water looks like a tropical island, but it's really an oil island.
One of our local course racers, Brian Kender, warms up on the course.

Here's a shot of Gabor Vagi. Some of the up-and-comers call him "Coach." Gabor has been a huge infulence here at Belmont and Seal regarding course racing.

This is the start of heat 2. We had a total of three heats.
The gun went off and we had a winner after three accumulated heats. The winner was Kasey Campbell.

Next was the Big Air contest. The judges were right on the waters edge as eleven competitors went through two heats to bring it down to four finalists.

Dan Corbett was the winner with the best performance of tricks and aerial maneuvers.

For more pictures check out Dan Slaters site: http://www.sandydan.com/sports/kitesurf/SCKA/expo11b/index.htm

At a little after 7 P.M. about 60 of us went to Legend's on Second Street to enjoy kite videos and swap stories. Here Bart Miller (in white) is surrounded by Bart Gaska (left), Darren Mackaly (in orange) he was the event supervisor, on the far right is Jason Bohle, who was the boat driver and co-announcer at the event. Here's Kristin Helm, me, Susi Giannios and Dan Corbett.
On the left is Victor, one of the Genetrix team riders, in the center is Gerard Bourgeois, a principal at Genetrix and on the right is Jay Brockman. "Mr. Windcult." He had a great story about his lunch that disapeared while helping Hank at Naish. I learned on Sunday that a dog devoured his wonderful Hawaiin Chicken BBQ. Sorry Jay.

SCKA President Dan Corbett and Treasurer Kristin Helm present the First Place winner Kasey Campbell his trophey and the "Winner-Take-All" award. Congratulations Kasey.

The winner of the "Big Air" contest was Dan Corbett. Here Kristin and I give Dan his award and "award." Great job son.
It was a lot of fun chatting with our vendors, the race competitors and our friends. Pilar, Ruth and Jorge were having a great time too.

What a great event this turned out to be.

At 1 A.M. it was home and a quick turn-around for a 7:30 start on Sunday for "Demo Day." It was a blank canvas for anyone to try out the new 2011 kite gear and hold our prizr raffle draqsinds whick included new kites, boards and harnesses. A very special thanks to all of our vendors that includes: KiteMasters Kite School, Naish Kites, Captain Kirk's, So.Cal. Kiteboarding, The Kiteboarder Magazine, Core Kites/SevenSins, Star Kites, GK Kites & Litewave Boards, Genetrix Kites, Epic Kites, RRD/Mystic Kites, Kitesurfari, Wind Alert, Alfredo's Beach Club, North Shore Hawaiian BBQ, Hilton Hotels and Jet Blue.

Our dart throw proved very accurate since we had great wind on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

My hats off to all of the SCKA volunteers for giving their time for three days in the sun and toil to make this event happen. The long list also includes Rosemary Dahlberg, Jason Diehl (who helped me MC the event), Bart Miller (who provided the magnetic card for the swing arm and a great Legends story) and to Johnne Chandler, a teacher at Kitesufari, who did our final beach clean-check :))

We look forward our 2012 Kite Expo IV evemt and hope you can give give some support. We are going to get a jump it early next year.

(BTW I will be adding pictures as I gather them from Klaus Schulz, Pilar Salazar and me.)

Course Racing at Belmont - The wave of the future

2011-06-10T05:51:00.001-07:00

Course Racing at Belmont and Seal starts NOW!!!

Posing at Seal Beach from left is Gabor Vagi, Mark Moore and Brian Kender. This was their first outing using their new Cabrinha Race boards.

This is the top of the Cabrinha 183 Race Collection. Check it out at http://www.cabrinhakites.com/2011-raceboard.html

Here is what the bottom looks like with the stock, short fins.
As you see Brian stays very low to the board when he races. The wind at Belmont was very light this day so Brian used Alan's 16, because his 12 was too small. He's flying.

Here's Brian going back the other way, starboard. Still that low stance. He told me on the beach that he is forcing the front of the board down by keeping the board flat with his front foot.
Mark was not on the water this day because he only had his 12, but here is Gabor flying the black North racing with Brian on a Cabrinha. At this point they were very close.
A few seconds later you can see that Brian has passed Gabor. Mark and Brian affectionately call Gabor "Coach."

Next time I hope to have some video of the group practicing at Belmont.

Kristin turns 29 and it's a great party

2011-06-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 7th, 2011

Kristin Helm turns 29

Dan came up with the idea of having Kristin's birthday party at one of the new restaurants in Belmont Shore, Me Soo Hungry. The owner was all for it. The more the merrier.
Ruth got there a little early to help things get organized and then everyone started arriving. Christine, the owner, is in the red behind Ruth.

A few minutes later the birthday girl and Dan arrived. Let the party begin!!!
Kristin put on her birthday sash and started rocking out. She looked FABULOUS.

Everyone settled in and started having fun. Let the champagne and sake begin.

The birthday girl got her champagne and she was starting to relax and have fun too.

Dan started off the round of toasts to Kris, but I missed that shot. So did Klaus. But here is Ruth giving a toast and I got that one. Sorry Dan.

All of the toasts were a hoot. Dan is pointing to Kris's dad Skip who gave a pretty funny toast too.

Kristin thanked everyone for coming...
Dan and the group were mesmerized..... and then there was loud applause. Then the food started coming.... Mmmmm
This is where I would normally show the food and people eating.... but I'll spare you. Next we got to the cards and then the presents started coming fast and furious.

Hank Sanchez and Brittney Pope gave Kris a new Naish waist harness. I think she liked it.

Then Dan gave her a new Naish kite.... unfortunately the kite did not arrive in time for the party so he gave her a small substitute kite until the real one arrives. I think she liked this present too!!

Dan, Hank, Kristin and Brittney pose for a shot. Hank and Brittney are reps for Naish Kites and were very happy to attend. Hank was Kristin's first kite instructor.

Not everyone stayed around until the bitter end but we did get a closing shot. I hope we weren't too loud for the neighbors. See you next year!!!

Ruth hosts a "Divine Nine" party

2011-05-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

May 15, 2011

Ruth hosts a "Divine Nine" party=

Naturally any party that Ruth hosts starts days in advance. I usually put on my maids outfit and help dust, vacuum, and do the floors. After that I let the guys know there's no kiting for a few days. This is the table all set up; I think you can tell it's an Asian theme tonight.
This closer shot reveals Ruth's collection of Chinese wine covers and Asian dishes. Double click for a closer look.
Seven of the Divine Nine made it to Long Beach for a "Me Soo Hungry" evening of great food and drink. Ruth usually cooks for the occasion, but since we are also having a big family gathering on Sunday, she decided to let our newest Second Street restaurant do the job. My assignment was to take a few pictures to capture the feel of the evening.
An evening at the Corbetts always includes our two dogs, Bebe and Harley. It's like having two active children; getting them to pose can be tough.
While Bebe and Harley loved sitting in front of the warm fire, next to Ruth, I got her to leave them for a moment to get a shot of the dogs alone. Bebe is on the left and Harley is on the right.
I worked the room taking close-ups of the ladies as they enjoyed the appetizers that they had brought. Travel Agent Lenni is on the left and Lillian, who owns and operates L & L Shutters with her husband, Larry, is on the right. We have all traveled and skied in France and Italy. Lil and I have the same item in our "Bucket List"..... seeing the Great Wall of China.
Ruth's long time girlfriend Pat Tracy of CRM Construction, and Judy Gilmer, a retired teacher, joined Ruth in the champagne and wine tasting. So did I. It was Pat who talked up Belmont Shore and encouraged us to move here from Santa Monica in 2002. Seems to have worked out!
JJ and Patty had obviously consulted on what color to wear! They brought their photo albums--in print and on the Ipad-- of their recent trip to Africa-----whittled down from thousands of beautiful shots of the animals and Capetown, South Africa. We loved sharing that and hearing all the stories.

The dinner bell rang when the "Chef" from Me Soo Hungry delivered dinner. It was the best of all worlds---the ladies got to catch up over cocktails, no waiters or other diners were bothered by their laughter and chit-chat, and someone else did the bulk of the cooking!! Ok girls, I'm going to put my camera down - - -it's time to eat. The chocolate chiffon cake that Ruth made for dessert was yummy! I had leftovers today. Great food!!! And we were motivated to really clean the house!

Sand, Wind, Fun & A course race too!!

2011-05-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

May 15, 2011

Klaus came by the house a little after 11 and said he was heading to the beach. We were still reading the Sunday newspapers and having our second cup of coffee. Then Kristin called about a litttle later saying that she and Dan were going to set up the SCKA tent at the demo. So I decided to wrap it up and head to the beach with a hamburger in one hand and the cart in the other.

I was sitting on the swinging chair on Ocean and Santa Ana and could bearly see across the street. I decided to sit there and finish my burger because if I didn't I would be eating sand too.
I excaped the sand in my face by taking my camera to the waters edge. It was sand free. This shot gives you an idea that there were a lot of kites on the water enjoying the 20+ MPH wind.

Omar Nazif sent three panoramic shots he took yesterday. I trimmed this one. When you double click on it I hope it shows you to see the view we saw yesterday.

I had to draw an arrow to point out Klaus because the first time I looked at this shot I thought I missed him. I just saw the two North kites around him. He was getting some huge air using his Core 13.5 m2 kite.
This shot doesn't reveal that in order to get these shots Klaus would sometimes take three tacks in order to get around the number of kites that were close to the shore. It was crazy out there.
Dan took a break and was able to take our a demo board.
Dan was having a ball flying his Best 10 and pulling off some great tricks. He too was weaving in and out of traffic in order to get a shot somewhat close to shore.

Klaus got close enough on this shot to see his new shorts and his carbon fiber board. You can also check out the mini-hook on the Core bar. He loves it on low wind days because he's totally powered up with the mini in.

At about 4:30 the first course race, that I know about, got underway.

The orange ball was the start/finish line. When the flag was dropped the 7 or 8 kiters crossed the start line and headed towards the windward side of Chaffee Island.
There was a large buoy out in the middle of the bay. The idea was that the kiters had to go past Chaffee Island so when they changed from a starboard reach to a port, they would turn past the buoy. When I have passed it there are always seals making their honking noise.
You can see the group trying very hard to get a good angle to the wind.
Cameron and Gabor had a great angle to the wind. They passed Chaffee Island and somewhere near the breakwater they changed direction to a port reach and went around the buoy. From my view on the beach Cameron was ahead of Gabor as they rounded the buoy and headed for the finishline.
The downwind leg was really fast and Gabor was able to pass Cameron somewhere along the way. Next was another jibe and a change back to a starboard reach and head for the finishline.

When Gabor crossed the finishline Cameron was nowhere in sight. Gabor told me later that his Cabrinha race board was much faster going downwind. You can see more about the board at http://www.cabrinhakites.com/2011-raceboard.html
As you can see Gabor was a happy camper. A real champion and a great kiter.
This is a great closing shot. Kris and Dan holding Loki the wonder dog wearing his new F-One
t-shirt. Another winner was Jorge. He won a new Airush Spectra low wind board. It was a fun day.

Sunday was Mothers Day.... and we had wind too

2011-05-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2011

Today was Mothers Day AND we had lots of wind too!!!
The first thing I had to think about was Ruth and the two dogs. I had to make sure that Bebe and Harley would be protected from the wind, sand and the lifeguards. So I set up this "perfect" encampment to deal with all things concerned. Double click on the pix to see our camp.

Ruth, Harley and Bebe made it to the beach but the wind and sand was a little too much for a good "Mother's Day" celebration. We were on the water so the photo credit goes to Ruth.
Wow!!! With a click of the switch the mild wind went POSTAL. I didn't get a Pier J reading but it was very windy... maybe at times over 20 MPH.
It didn't seem to bother Klaus on his new carbon fiber board and his "future" kite, a Core 13.5. At times he was a little over powered. So was I on my F-One 12. Oh well.

I loved seeing the consumate teacher walking down the beach with his two-way radio system. The wind didn't seem to bother Aranud and his KiteMaster School. BTW he is a great teacher.

Not everyone was on the beach, but here is Henry and Dr. Al discussing something important... like the sand in our teeths... just joking. Tee hee.
OK everyone the basketball season is over for Los Angeles. But what was great is the President of the L.A. Clippers is a kiter. Yes say "Hello" to Andy the next time he jumps your way.

It's 5 o'clock and the wind was not about to quit. NO WAY!!!

Tonight when Dan and Kristin came over for dinner after kiting I told her I took two pictures. This was acutally the second... but I missed the SPLASH.

Here is the good one, Kris in complete control, watching to make sure the kite did not fall out of the sky. She told me that she is now borrowing Dan's SU-2. She said it was great. I need to try it.

At about 6:30 we decided that was it for us yet there were still kiters on the water. Well it was time to go home and have the "Real Mother's Day" Celebration. We BBQ'd burgers, had some home-made coleslaw and lots of chips. Happy Mother's Day ladies:)

My all time adventure (so far)...... Pier J and beyond....

2011-05-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

May 5, 2011

Pier J and beyond....

I hope you had a great Cinco de Mayo, I sure did. The day started by sending my two Wainman kites back to Kite Naked. Chris had asked me to sell them but I couldn't get his price. Ruth had a few of her friends over to celebrate and after a few of her mango margaritas, they were off to Second Street. I spent a little time in the garage repairing my directional foot strap when I felt the wind coming up. I packed up and headed to the beach.

Dr. Al, Harley Mike and I hung out at the camp for a while as the wind started to build. There were a few kiters on the water, including Britney having a great time. It was time to pump.

Mike walked up the beach, I launched at the mid-tower and Al just went out. It took a few tacks but I got to the pier and noticed the LB water taxi backing up. I jibed and was able to make it to the western end of Chaffee Island before I headed for the breakwater. The next tack was to the south end of White Island, where I jibed and went back to the breakwater again.

As I approached the breakwater for the second time I saw Gabor's kite come around Chaffee Island. Actually I was very happy because it's always advisable to have a companion while we were out this far. . . and he has a radio.
Here's a shot of Gabor and his new Sector directional race board. You can see more info about the Sector at http://www.airush.com/2011/products/sector/
Gabor and I "danced" for a while then he signaled towards the Queensway opening. I returned with a nod of my head and we started the adventure.
This is not a very good picture because it was taken after the fact, but you can see that there is a cargo ship right in the middle of this shot. I was trying to keep up with Gabor and there was this huge ship, right in my way! It didn't seem to bother Gabor because he was pulling off some huge ass jumps, getting the crews attention. In the meantime all I wanted to do was get around this behemoth. It took me a few tacks.
Once around the ship, we got to Freeman Island and Gabor signaled again to the breakwater. I nodded in agreement--let's go.
Our next challenge was getting to the windward side of Freeman Island, seen in the picture above. The wind was still pretty strong so not a big deal. We jibed and were on a starboard tack and. . . . . another ship was on the horizon.
OK, by this time you get that the pictures are pretty bad, but it's all I've got to tell this story. Anyway, after Gabor and I started going starboard back towards the breakwater one thing stood in MY way. . . . another huge ship. Gabor was able to crank his directional board, but it took me another tack to get around it. Once we were near the breakwater again he called out that Pier J was within our grasp. Let's go!!
Let's guess the time we were headed towards Pier J---I got on the water at around 3 o'clock, I screwed around for a while and then ran into Gabor. I'm thinking I was out for 45 minutes. Add another 45 minutes to an hour and we have a guess of 5:30 or so, as we headed for Pier J. Maybe not the best time for another "adventure run", but if we really gave sane, rational thought to what we do, we wouldn't be doing it.
This map might give you a better idea of where the weather tower is at the end of Pier J.
I took this shot from the end of Veteran's Pier at about sunset. It looks close here but it was really a challenge to get out there, especially at that time of day.
It was about this time that Gabor tapped his head; it was time to head for home. That got a big sigh of relief from me since I had already fallen a couple of times. My legs were starting to go to jello. I must say down winding back to Belmont was not that easy either. Gabor later told me I was going a little too slow and my board was sinking. Well that explains it. And here I put it off to shear exhaustion and lack of beer.

As Gabor and I hit the shore there was only one other kiter on the water. It was young Darrin who lives over on Bay Shore. Gabor came over and congratulated me for making it to the Pier J tower and said I was only one of four that have gone out there with him. We gave each other a high five and he headed back to Seal. Just then Klaus emerged from the camp and helped me to wrap up my gear. Talk about a sherpa angel when you need it! That was really appreciated since I was so tired. Dan and Kristin arrived on the ramp and the five of us headed home. Another great day in paradise.

We've come a long way since Lee, and more

2011-05-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

May 2, 2011

This is day to remember. The kiting community has come a long way since the passing of Lee.

Today, the wind, much like yesterday, turned from the normal direction, from the port, to directly side shore, out of the West. This was almost a repeat of yesterday. There was pretty good wind and then a big shift. Most of us enjoyed the change because it's fun going directly out from the shore, to the right of the island, but the wind was very gusty.

After about an hour and a half of these gusty conditions some of us were on the shore enjoying the warm sun. Trevor, Rulley, Kyle, Hank, Dong, Dan, Kristin, Steve, Harley Mike, and many others were enjoying the warm summer day. At one point a number of us were watching a kiter trying to get his black kite relaunched out near the marina entrance. We all were excited when his kite rose out of the water and went up in the air just to twist and go crashing right back into the water. There was a cheer as it went up and a big sigh as it went crashing into the water. This happened twice. Then nothing.

There was much concern at the Claremont ramp as we saw this kiter near the marina entrance being blown toward the rocks. Naji called to Danny at the Kitesufari tent to call the Lifeguards. She said "There was no response." Then Naji ran down the ramp to the phone in the box. He said "It was dead." Then Naji called 911. At that instant Dan and Kristin started running towards the peninsula. Harley Mike wrapped up his gear and drove to the end of Ocean Blvd. The entire beach was on edge. No one wanted to have a repeat of kiting incident of a few years back.

The next thing we saw was the Lifeguard boat racing down the bay full speed toward the kiter, simultaneously followed by a guard truck roaring down the beach with sirens blazing, from the pier. Then we saw a boat emerge from the marina and a helicopter overhead. What we missed was the first truck which had already arrived on the scene with a lifeguard furiously paddling out to the fallen kiter. All those workout sessions paid off as he fought the waves whipped up by the sideshore wind.

When all was said and done the kiter was rescued. The lifeguard with a paddle board and the two boats kept Shane from the rocks and picked up his board before there was any damage to his life or equipment.

Ruth happened to be on the peninsula walking Harley and Bebe Dog and saw the blue flashing lights, the downed kite and rushed over. She thanked the guards for their great rescue work, just as Dan and Kristin walked up with the kite. They wanted to let the guards know how grateful the entire kiting community is for their invaluable assistance. The watchful Lifeguard in the truck (Omar Navarro) noted that the original call came from a neighbor and they needed all of us to be their additional eyes and ears. Harley Mike drove Shane back to his car and everyone went home happy that we have a very tight crew of city employees that help us when there's a problem. Thank you City of Long Beach and all of the dedicated Lifeguards.

Dan, on the left, and Kristin, on the right, welcome Shane back to the Claremont ramp after his accident yesterday. We were all glad to see him today.

OMG.... today was awesome!!!

2011-04-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2011

OMG... today was awesome!!!

I'm tired right now so more tomorrow

Three days and counting

2011-04-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sunday and Monday

April 9, 10, 11

Saturday and Sunday were great days at the beach. Lots of kiters returned to Belmont to kite and catch up on things. The wind was pretty good but mostly it was saying "Hello" to the new season.

Monday

Today was a great surprise. I noticed a few kites in the air a little after 3 o'clock so I scampered down to the beach. I stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out whether to rig big (15 sq.m.) or rig normal (12 sq. m.). I chose the 12 and while going out Trevor walked past and said he was over powered on his 13.... so off I went.

My intention was just to just pass some time while Dan or Klaus arrived at the camp, so my first tack was to try to get to Chaffee Island. I didn't quite make it but when I jibbed I noticed the wind direction was very good and there was quite a bit of wind out there.

After almost getting to the pier I decided to jibe and see how close I could get to the windward side of Chaffee Island. I was not able to make it past the island on this reach so one more pass and I could get past the most western part. There were two kiters close to Chaffee but they were not going behind the island.

Once I reached the pier I knew I could easily get past the island. This is the point when you are by yourself you start the think of things that could happen and your escape plan. "If my kite goes down near the breakwater I could self-rescue to Seal and then hitch a ride home." Stop over thinking, nothings going to happen. When I made the jibe near the breakwater wall I didn't pull it off, so in the water to cool off. Then it was head for White Island. The wind was very strong in that section between the island and the wall, and the water wasn't too choppy either. Fun!! The wind was still strong as I headed for White but I could feel it dropping off a little so I jibed and headed to the break wall again. This was really fun because you are going with the swells and the wind was cooking. Actually at one point I was thinking of de-powering, but didn't want to risk it. BTW it's a lot more fun going out there with someone. Less stressful.

One more jibe and I smashed in the water face first. That wasn't fun. I got back up and I was on a port reach and crash, back in the water again. What was going on??? Was I loosing it?? That's when I decided to head back and see who was there. Enough excitement for one day.

As I zigged and zagged back to Belmont I could see Klaus was on the water so we rode a few passes and then the good old switch clicked and it was back to the beach. Fortunately I brought a few cold ones so Klaus and I just sat on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon. Later Steve Lee and Ruth and the dogs joined us to cap off the end of a wonderful kite day. No wind today, hope there's wind tomorrow.

OH Baby, Good wind today. Thanks to the wind god

2011-04-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

April 7, 2011

At a little after noon I got a call from Klaus, "The wind is blowing." I walked out and saw Michael D.'s van on Ocean and a few kites were out. It was time to hit the water.

As I pushed my cart to the end of the Claremont ramp I could see the wind was at least 20mph. Hmmm how was I going to go out on my 12???

The first kiter I saw tearing it up was Rully. It's hard to see but he was doing some great tricks very close to shore. Cool stuff!!! Michael D. was also one of the first on the water. He said he arrived at 11 and was on the water, on his big kite, close to noon. He left after 4 and had a great day after rigging his smaller kite. Check out the Queensway entrance in the background. Trevor, as usual, pulls off a great move right in front of me. What control. There were moments when the cloud formations just totally amazed me. While the wind was blowing over 20 the sky just captivated me. It's hard to tell how high up Trevor is but that's the breakwater behind him. Nice jump Trev.

My neighbor Christopher had plenty of wind today to pull off some of his windsurfer tricks. Radko was also out on his board today. Bongo was out on his small Caution today pulling off some unhooked jumps.

Klaus took off of work early because he didn't want to miss the wind today. He had the jumping down to a science with his 15 F-One. In the back ground are two Hobie Tri-foilers's. The are really fast and turn on a dime. They set a record of 43.55 knots in 1993 and it still stands. It looks like the wind is blowing Klaus sideways in this shot

You can get a pretty good look a Klaus's F-One board on this shot. He said this one jumps the best of all of the boards that he's tried. He looks forward to the Kite Expo to try some new ones Dan got to the beach a little later than some of us but pushed to catch up. The cloud formations behind Dan really makes this picture pop. Dan pulls off another port jump. It's like he's jumping over the ship... NO not really.

I finally caught a shot of Dan where the lighting was OK. Hope you like it

I think Drew is flying the new Naish Torch. As you can see he has it pretty well dialed in. I'm guessing that he's 4 maybe 5 body heights off the water. How high do you think he is???

I think I'm going to call this shot "Sky Pilot." Drew is up in the clouds and holding on.

Kyle got on the water a little late but there was plenty of wind left.

The clouds are starting to look a lot like rain. Hey, what difference does it make he's already wet

Gabor kited up from Seal. There was good wind out there.

I don't know how it happened but Drew is pulling off this trick just as the blue kite is going by. Double click to make the shot larger to get the whole effect.

At the end of the day everyone had a great session.

For more pictures check out, http://www.orangecounty.com/articles/break-18453-surf-lineup.html and http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v1/yG/r/9buiZx_-Qt8.swf?v=146544858744428&ev=0

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

2011-04-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

April 3rd, 4th and 5th

Sunday April 3, 2011

Tonight was a "Take the hard working gardener out to dinner night." Dan, Kristin and I took Ruth to a wonderful new restaurant here in Belmont. It's called Me Soo Hungry. It's on the corner of Claremont and 2nd Street. Mmmm GOOD!!! After kiting you should drop by and check it out. Excellent food, great service and good prices too. By the way please sign the petition to the ABC because ONE neighbor is stopping the owner from getting her beer and wine license.

WE CAN'T HAVE THAT!!! Check the place out and sign the petition.

Me Soo Hungry

Ruth's hard work has paid off, our front yard looks fantastic.

Monday Kiting

The wind actually started blowing early. Klaus texted me from work and asked if his wind readings were accurate. Winds were registering 18mph at 12 o'clock. I was working in the garage and couldn't tell so I went out in the street and saw three kites out. I think I saw Trevor, Dong and Hank on the water. The wind was really up.

I got on the water a little after one and got in a little kiting using my 12 and had a lot of fun. I was out at Chaffee Island when I noticed I couldn't get up wind any further. Ding, ding, ding. Time to head home while there's still some wind. Especially after dropping my kite yesterday down near the marina jetty. There were two other kites close to Chaffee but they were still powered up. Good for them. Kyle and I barley got in before the wind totally shut off.

That was switch number one, now switch #2

At about 6, when Dan, Kristin and I walked back to the house, it was just like summer. Dan and Kris headed to BBC to see the "Final Two" basketball game and I decided to take the dogs for a walk. The evening was fantastic. Warm and very beautiful. Bebe, Harley and I walked down to the Peninsula and were really enjoying the wonderful evening.

On our way home we ran into the Italian woman who is always riding her bike or walking around the Claremont beach area. Bernice stopped to say "Hello" and asked about the dogs. Then, another switch clicked and the wind started blowing like crazy. So intense that Bernice had to walk her bike down the alley using the apartments on Ocean to block the wind. I ran back home with the dogs.

It's hard to tell with a still photo but look on the lower left corner and see all of the dust from the sand. It was a real wind storm.

This picture, looking at walkers on the bike path, gives you a better of the winds intensity.

Tuesday

The wind starting blowing at about 2:30 so I grabbed my camera. On the way to the beach I saw this guy sanding a tree trunk and snapped his picture. His name is "Sunset Mike" and his business is converting tree trunks into tiki statues. Check out his website at http://sunsettikiworks.com/ Cool stuff. As I crossed Ocean I saw Bill's flag blowing off the pole.

As I headed down the Claremont ramp I saw Omar unloading his gear. I love his new car.

This is almost the same shot as the fourth picture up. This is looking West. I couldn't believe it Bart was doing a lesson. I'm guessing he had a 5 or 6 rigged for his student. Check out the seagull in the lower right corner. Cute!!

At 4 P.M. I was driving to the gym to try and relieve the back pain I was experiencing and the wind had really died off. Too bad guys.

At a little after 6, when I left the gym, this was the sight at the end of the Granada ramp. I love it when my trained seagull flys right into the middle of the frame. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

If you have read down this far please remember the date Saturday April 30th for the SCKA FREE Safety Clinic...... hope there's some wind.

Wind during the day and SCKA Social that night

2011-03-25T23:42:00.001-07:00

March 25, 2011

Wind during the day and SCKA Social at night

Dan sent a Facebook blast that the wind was coming up and he needed to go to the dentist. Unfortunately I had to go to our accountant. By the time we got back from Studio City Dan was just coming off the water. When I got to the beach he was chatting with Bart Miller about tonights SCKA Social event at the Belmont Brewing Company

Bart had a lesson so Dan loaned Bart his kite so he could kite out and check on his student.When Ruth and I were at our tax guy I called Klaus to make sure he got off of work early and didn't take the overtime. He said he got on the water at about 3 and kited for about 3 hours. I was in a hurry to pump so I didn't get any great jumping shots...sorry
First thing on the water Klaus and I did a passing hand slap. When he turned and went starboard we just kept going straight for the oil platform. Unfortunately the water wasn't any smoother out in the ocean, so when we jibed and were going port I signaled "Let's go into Seal." Klaus waved me off and we headed back to Belmont. He told me later he didn't want to get stuck there.
Klaus and I de-rigged to get to the SCKA Social event and we noticed Bongo still kiting. He told us later that he only got in 45 minutes and got to the beach late... next time.
By the time I got to BBC (Belmont Brewing Co.) I saw Klaus leaving, but had a chance to chat with Gabor Vagi, who needed to head home. He is currently trying out a Royal kite and race board
When I started going inside BBC I noticed the sunset and couldn't resist taking a few pictures. Double click on the image to see it big
By the time I got inside Dan and Bart were in full on SCKA discussion
Kristin and Darren were talking about kiting and other stuff.
And I grabbed a shot of Dan, Bart and his new student
Naturally I had to ask someone to take a group shot of all of us. Just put in mentally Klaus and Gabor who were in their warm cars. We look forward to the next social :)

Storm front in Long Beach

2011-03-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

March 20, 2011

My Sunday started out with a little tennis in the morning, then I drove over to my friend Steve's house to pickup a monitor adaptor. On the way to the peninsula it was obvious that it was raining and the wind was blowing like crazy... so I had to take some pictures

When I took these two shots I was hiding behind the Lifeguard building near the marina entrance. The wind and rain was coming down like crazy from the South-East.

Can you believe it, waves were breaking over the breakwater. Man the waves were really powerful today.

After I picked up the adaptor at Steve's and dropped off some of Ruth's fresh sugar coated blueberry muffins as a "Thank You", I drove back to the Claremont ramp and saw the force of the wind up close. Michael D sent me this wind graph of Belmont. Check out 2-4 PM. I looked at the time stamp on my pictures and they started at 2 o'clock until about 3. Michael said he went to San Juan Capistrano and there were 8 kiters on 9's or smaller. As you can see the peak was at about 7 and that's when Naji and I were chatting about the rain. It was coming in our bedroom window and I had to get to work...... mopping up the water and drying the floor.
As I drove up to the beach there was a woman trying to ride her tri-cycle with a child on the back. This did not look like much fun to me.
Over in the LaVerne parking a kiter was just wrapping up his gear. He said he had been out for over two hours and was tired. (Let me know if you know who this is so I can add his name)
I decided to drive out onto the Claremont ramp and caught this kite behind a giant sand pile. It may have been Bongo...I don't know. I was able to drive to the end of the ramp with Bart Miller to get an up-close and personal view of one lone kiter. It was David Lector. I didn't recognize the kite but I saw his truck on Ocean
At this point David was the only kiter on the water. He was cutting and jumping like it was a normal day.... NO PROBLEM....
Mean while those on the beach were wrapping up their gear....
When I looked back David's kite was in the water. I found out later he was using Susi's 5.0 and that the group had come up from Sunset because the waves were MONSTER down there. Belmont was their next choice. With Susi were Bongo, Jonathan, Morris and Peter.

I think in this shot David is on the left and Susi is on the right. I'm not sure who is holding the kite. What was great is he had a back-up team just in case.
I'm pretty sure David is on the left, then Susi and Bongo's to the right of the LG tower. Everyone is done for the day. Time for a warm glass of wine.
It's the end of the day and I came home to a leaky window. I spent the next little whild mopping up the floor and drying off the carpet. All in all it was a great day. BTW Steve the computer works great... THANKS!!!!

Belmont wind, a stingray bite & a trip to Sunset Beach. All good times with friends

2011-03-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

March 18, 2011

At about 12:30 Michael D. (on the left) drove up to the house and said he was back in town from Oahu and wanted to kite. I told him I would be down in a few. Then I called Klaus and texted Dan, Kris, Kyle and Harley Mike. He's in the center. The three of us met up on the beach. Michael was on the water when I arrived. I'm not as fast as I used to be.
I took this shot of our stuff on the beach. To me it feels great that the group is getting together again as the season starts.
As I pumped I noticed Michael was on the water and powered up.... I've got to move fast.
I couldn't help but notice the new SCKA Social Chairman, Bart Miller (www.socalkites.com) had a beach lesson. He recovered from his stingray bite from yesterday just fine.
"Do as I say not as I do".... I took a few passes but the wind wasn't very strong. I pumped my 12 again so had to walk up the beach a few times. On one of my launches I walked out one step too much in the water and OUCH!!! If you want to learn more about stingrays go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray.

I tried Bart's idea of pouring alcohol on the wound but decided to go for the tried and true remedy... hot water. After the soaking I walked back to the beach and since the wind died at Belmont the new plan was to drive to Sunset.
Well it looked promising when we arrived. Hank Sanchez was on the water so we got our gear.
Klaus rigged first but the wind died so he started chatting with a windsurfer from New York who was out here vacationing.....
Susi and Hank's silhouette against the waves looked like a photo op to me. They were waiting for the wind too.
We rigged but it didn't look promising so Michael D. did some beach repairs.
Hank, Klaus and I had a chance to catch up with our lives. We all look forward to trips to Lake Isabella and Sherman Island....and warm weather.
We packed up, but the wind did come back a little and Susi was able to get out.... next time guys
We all look forward to returning to Sunset, Huntington and Leo as the kiting season begins anew.

Gabor's Ocean Adventure

2011-03-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday March 13th, 2011

Gabor's Ocean Adventure with Xavier

On Sunday there was a number of us waiting for the wind to come up when we noticed a windsurfer going very fast down wind towards the marina. It was obvious that he had a large sail and a very wide board, other than that he was totally powered up. He was our wind barometer because if there was enough wind for him to go all the way to Seal there was enough for us.

Most of us were able to get out but it wasn't great, but I did notice Gabor out near the breakwater. Hmmm. Later he came in to Belmont and fill me in on his adventure.... here it is.

It seems Gabor's friend, Xavier Ferlet, was supposed to meet up with Gabor at Seal but left before Gabor was ready. So Gabor was playing catch up being 10 minutes behind a formula windsurfer. He told me that going up-wind Xavier was able to cut a little better angle.
Here is Gabor's first leg inside the breakwater chasing Xavier.
They stayed inside the breakwater past the Queensway entrance and about a mile past Pier J.
This might be a better map to understand their travels. Gabor came over to Belmont after his adventure all excited because it was so beautiful. Here's his eblast;
"Now that we have dusted off our gear and ready to loose a few extra pounds....
ARE YOU GUYS READY TO DO SOME SERIOUS KITING?

Let's go accumulate some mileage and discover the bay and beyond.... Get your safety gear (radios, cellphones, good wetsuits, whistles, knifes etc) and your Go-Pro's ready.

I have been kiting up to and way passed Pier-J and I can't tell you how beautiful the view from there looking at the LA area with the snow capped San Bernardino mountain range and the crystal clear blue water outside the bay...I feel so selfish to do it by myself (or occasionally with my formula windsurfing buddies).

IS THERE ANY KITERS OUT THERE WHO CAN SHOW THOSE WINDSURFERS WHAT WE CAN DO TOO? Maybe we could start up a race series.?

Let me know or just come to Seal Beach at around 3 PM any windy (9 mph or better) days.
Cheers, Gabor"
Gabor is on the left, just so you can recognize him. On the right is Simone Vannucci.
Enough said, let's go sailing with Gabor!!!

The wind blew and I played with my two hero's today

2011-03-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

March 11, 2011

The spring winds are upon us....time to kite.
Ruth and I along with the two dogs went to Armstrong Nursery today. Ruth wanted to get some new plants for our neighbors house. The are visiting soon and their front yard needed sprucing up. After we returned it was a quick visit to Subway and then pack the cart for the beach. When I arrived at about 1:30 this is what I saw, three fishermen in their kayaks returning from a day of fishing. Now the wind was up and it's time to kite.While I was pumping up I noticed that Carter had a lesson on the beach and Mike Moore and a friend arrived. What a great feeling I knew this was going to be a great day today.
When I started today I just wanted to play around and wait for Klaus. I knew he wasn't getting off work for about an hour so I wanted to work on my jibes and jumps. Then I saw three kites heading out to the breakwater. I knew one of them was Gabor, I figured one was Simone and I didn't know the third. I then headed for the back of Chaffee Island.
There was no way I could go up wind as fast or at the same angle as they were going but I wanted to play anyway. When I got to the breakwater and headed for White Island Gabor and Simone were blazing a trail back to Belmont. I couldn't believe the angle they were going and how fast.
I know this drawing is an approximation, but while I was heading for White Island Gabor and Simone were crossing in front of me heading back to Belmont. The were going down wind so fast I couldn't believe it. When I jibed and followed them there was no way I could follow them at that angle. My kite wanted to go starboard. That was incredible to witness.
When I got back on land I grabbed my camera and caught a couple of shots of Klaus. Here he is pulling off a jump when the wind was dieing.
My neighbor Christopher, on the windsurfer, and Klaus were on a port tack... having fun.
As the wind was starting to fade Drew Roeser and Trevor Nelson walked back up the beach. I think this announced the day was over.
I asked my neighbor Ray to take a picture of the three of us with their course boards. This was so great being between these two guys. Simone is packing and going to France on Sunday so this might be his last day in Long Beach.
I had to get a shot of each their boards too. Gabor was riding the Cabrinha 183 production race board.
And Simone was riding the Royal proto-type course racing board. For more info go to facebook.com/royalkiteboarding and click on tools. You will see the information on the Stealth course board.
At the end of the day the three of us were going our separate ways, Simone was going home to pack. Gabor was going to clean up and I was going home to take some pictures of Ruth's work.
Ruth totally cleaned out the old plants and put in new ones. All in one day.
Here is a closer look.
And the planter too. Great work honey...now it's time to clean up and have some dinner... maybe there's going to be wind tomorrow....... I hope!!!

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

2011-03-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

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.

We had some unreal clearing winds today

2011-03-07T23:30:00.000-08:00

March 7, 2011

We had some unreal clearing winds today
The day started with hearing the wind chimes tinkling around 11 or 11:30. Then I got a call from Dimitri that he had a fello Jet Blue pilot, Russ, that would like a "refresher" kite lesson. I met up with him around 1 o'clock. He had a 16 and a 12, so we pumped the 12. Then the wind really started to come up and the Turbo Desiel didn't like the gusty conditions. A bridle line popped. That was the end of the lesson. More to come later.
From the end of the Claremont this was our view looking West at around 2 o'clock. Russ helped me launch my Wainman 12 and I went out. One thing that happens on days like this.... sand gets in your eyes. And it hurts too. You can't wait to get on the water.
Dong was out as well as about 10 others. Besides being gusty, the water was also choppy and a little on the cool side...... but it was still fun.

Bongo's pictures go here

Dan and I de-rigged at about 5 o'clock but there were still a few kiters on the water until the sun went down. Sunset was at about 6 o'clock.

Spring Wind & MORE!!!!!

2011-03-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

March 6 and many days prior...

March 6, 2011

Spring has sprung. There was wind today & a lot MORE!!!!!

The morning started out by Klaus coming by at about noon to say that the wind was blowing. I told him I had a few things to do around the house and I would be there directly. When I got to the beach there was not much wind....but we were still going to pump up.
As I walked out the Claremont ramp I noticed a large group of people and their bicycles. I asked one of them what was going on and he said it was a Vintage Bike Club taking a ride. It is so great seeing our beach being utilized by the our citizens.
At 12:30 I got to the kite area and Klaus was ready to go. Now I was running a little behind so I needed to pump up and hope for a little more wind.
Dan and Mark Moore are on the beach. Mark said that tomorrow he will downwind from Malibu to a beach south. Good luck Mark. Dan is using his new wet suit. Last time he was out he was Cccccooollldddd!!! Today he was warm thanks to Bruce Jones.
Dan was pumped, I was pumped and Klaus was checking the wind. It was only about 10-12 but we went out any way. Dan took Klaus's F-One 15 and I rode Big Mama.
Dan heads out. He was one happy camper. While I was on the water I saw him doing his famous back rolls and kite crashes. Later he told me his lines got messed up..no big!!
At some point Klaus grabbed his camera and took some beach shots. Thanks Klaus. Here I am walking up the beach with Klaus's borrowed harness. This time I have my own kite.
Here's Dan on Klaus's directional pulling some air. Not bad for a 6 foot board.
When Dan and I did this passing had slap I was hoping that Klaus caught it on tape. YES!! Great timing Klaus.
Klaus is on the water. He told me later that he was a little sore since this was the first time on the water in a while. It's been a while for most of us.
I think this was Hank Sanchez doing a great trick close to shore. NICE!!!!
I walked up to Station 8 and met Simone Vannucci today. He's carrying a proto-type of the new Royal Course Board.
Check out Royal kites and boards at royalkiteboarding.com or on Facebook "royalkiteboarding" If you go to "wall" and then to KTA Thailand and see some great shots, or copy this address:

http://www.facebook.com/royalkiteboarding?sk=wall#!/photo.php?fbid=10150103341748879&set=a.10150103341038879.288672.107842408878&theater

more pictures to come
Today was the first big day so far this year. So happy to see everyone on the beach:)

March 6, 2011

Ruth sold her car today. Boo hoo :(
Yes, Ruth's 1988 Corvette drove away today for the last time. H8WIMPS was driven into the sunset for the last time. Since we moved to Long Beach and sold the business all we have done is move it from one side of the street to the other. We will miss all of that horsepower though.

March 5, 2011

Dan and I said goodbye to Juliana and Juliano Calli

Dan and I drove up to SLO to meet with The Kiteboarder Magazine publisher Marina Chang. On the way home we dropped by to celbrate the new job and relocation of Juliana. She will be moving back to Brazil. In the mean time Juliano is getting his Masters Degree at UCSB.
The reality that we will not be seeing Juliana on the beach in Belmont Shore made me a little teary eyed. We hate to see our friends leave.... on the other hand this will give Ruth and I a place to go on one of our vacations. And Dan and I plan on visiting Juliano in Golita. I hear the wind blows up there too.... See you soon guys.

February 25, 2011

Our darling daughter Sara's birthday is today.....

Happy Birthday little girl....at least in my mind you are still my little girl.
Sara and here long time friend Lena celebrate the evening by preparing a fantastic dinner for everyone. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH...
At the end of the evening everyone was fading from too much saki... but it was fun

February 26, 2011

Clearing winds come to Belmont.....
On Saturday February 26th there were some wonderfull cloud formations and some wind too
I wasn't able to go out but there was one kiter that could. When you double click on the picture look at those wonderful clouds.
Mr. Clew First...Christopher Augustus was able to get out and get a little downwind action.
At the end of the day the clouds were even more magnificent.
Ruth and I were driving up the 405 and I couldn't get enough of the sunset. It was wild because I said to Ruth "Hold the wheel for a second so I can take a picture." OMG... we could have been kild. This was crazy.

February and March, 2011

More dog pictures.....
One day when Dan dropped off his dog Loki to visit Bebe and Harley, Ruth decided to play "Dress-up." Everyone had on there Holiday Best.
This is a little closer shot of Bebe and Harley....CUTE!!!!
On this day Ruth decided it was Matchie matchie day. Often we walk up Ocean Avenue and take the dogs inside the little bay area. I think they like checking it out.
This was another walk up the peninsula. These little camera/phones are amazing.
I don't know what the occasion was but aren't they cute.

Happy Birthday Dan Corbett

2011-02-13T22:47:00.001-08:00

Dan's girlfriend Kristin pulled off the impossible, she threw a suprise 35th Birthday Party for Dan at the Belmont Brewery Company Saturday night. Congratulatins Kris the party was a blast!!!!

I don't know how she pulled it off but while Kristin kept Dan occupied a whole group of us took over the center section of Belmont Brewing Company. When Dan walked in he was really surprised.

Darren Mackaly and his girlfriend Jane Kruchko arrived at BBC early and started saving tables. As more arrived we would take over another table and another. I think we had four tables down the center of the bar by the end of the night. Great going guys.

Then mom (Ruth) arrived with her special birthday cup cakes. Mmmmmm they were really good with the beer and wine...:) :) :)

Dan and his little sis Sara enjoy a moment together. Her birthday is coming up soon too.

Dan's long time friend from USC, Dana Mones drove down to join in on the fun.

It's family posing time!! From the left it's Sara, me, Ruth, Dan and Kristin. What a group.

There were kiters too. Henry Khalili , Lise Shippam and friend Tanja Ja. We were all there to have fun, food and drink. It was a great time. Not shown were Mark and Carole Strauch, and David Lector.

More fun and more pictures. Kris, Rachael, husband Ryan, Darren, Jane and Dan.
I will have more pictures as soon as I download them from Sara's camera.

Until then, think wind!!!!

Happy New Year and two days of kiting

2010-12-30T23:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

Two baby shots to ring in the new year. This is Jacob Thomas Helm, Kristin's new nephew. He was born Dec. 29th at about 8 p.m. His weight was 8 lbs. 13 oz. and was 21 inches long.

This is Kyle and Elisa's little baby boy Sidney. Isn't he cute.....

If you have any other baby pictures to share please send them to me and I'll add them.

Hope to see you on the water soon
:) :) :)

---------------------------------------

Dec. 30, 2010

A little wind but clear and cool

It's about 3 o'clock and we are out for a walk. Harley in the closer dog and Bebe is in the rear. Today they weren't so cold, but maybe board. I was trying to get the kiters in the shot too.

It wasn't very windy but there were two guys trying to get out. Unfortunately there was more walking than wind.

As we walked up Bay Shore I noticed the snow filled mountains. So cool.

So we walked to the bay over bridge to get another shot of the mountains

Harley and Bebe on our way home. They loved the mountains too.

Dec. 29, 2010

Clearing winds. Windy and cold.

At about 4 o'clock Ruth sent me to the post office to drop off some boxes for her parents in Cleveland Ohio. I saw the wind was coming up and some kiters on the water. It was time to get home.

By the time I got home and grabbed the dogs it was about 5:30, but I wanted to check out the action at Belmont. Unfortunately Bebe and Harley did not like the idea of going for a walk. The wind was very cold, but they hung in there.

It's tough to tell but this is Kyle going starboard. He told me later that the guys that were out were Dong, Trevor, Chuck, Faycal and naturally Kyle.

This shot is a little closer but with the sun going down I was limited with what I could capture.

Under the circumstances this was a pretty good jump. I was trying to hold the dogs, and both were barking, with the sun going down catch a jump.

It's now close to 6 o'clock and it's starting to get dark but the group hung in there until the wind died.

I always find the sunsets amazing. As you can see by double clicking on the picture, the sun us going behind the island and there's still a little wind.

Clearing winds and cold

2010-12-29T23:23:00.000-08:00

Dec. 29, 2010

Clearing winds and cold

It's OFFICIAL, we now have two dogs!!!

2010-12-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

December 27, 2010

It's OFFICIAL, we now have two dogs!!!

Ruth arrives at the Hearts for Hounds site at the Marina Farmers Market on Sunday Dec. 26th

It was two weeks ago that Ruth came here to drop off some doggie clothes and we left with Harley.

There were plenty of cute puppies, but for us two is enough.....for now.

It's official, Ruth has all of the papers for Harley (aka Oreo). Next stop...home.

We got Harley and Bebe to pose on the neighbors wall. Aren't they cute together...OK it's time to take them for a walk and then feed them. Isn't this exciting????

More about the shooting

2010-12-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

Dec. 13, 2010

More about the neighborhood shooting

I admit I'm a retired guy with too much time on his hands so yesterday I walked around with the two dogs and talked to my friends and neighbors about the shooting of Doug Zerby.

Most of us have driven up and down East Ocean Blvd. looking for a place to park. Well you probably have driven by this apartment, which is right in the middle of the block between Santa Ana and Pamona Avenue. This is where the shooting took place.

I can't tell you how many times I have walked between these apartments when I go to the beach. Now it will forever have another picture in my mind.

This is a shot into the courtyard where the shooting took place.

And these were the news crews that lined Ocean from the early afternoon until about midnight.

This was a real life vigil for a man the was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Here is a report on one of our local TV stations. You can see it on YouTube by pasting the following into http://www.youtube.com, Long Beach Police Murder un-armed 35 year old LB man for watering friends lawn Belmont Shores LBPD or going to Inside Edition at, http://www.insideedition.com/news/5498/man-holding-garden-hose-nozzle-shot-to-death-by-police.aspx

I would hate to think one of us would point a water nozzle at somebody if we had been drinking too much and not live to talk about it. I'm sorry to say but I think this just got out of hand.

Dog Beach dedication, Michael Buble & fostering a new dog

2010-12-12T23:06:00.000-08:00

Saturday Dec. 11, 2010

The day started out with a walk to dog beach for the official changing of the name from Dog Beach to Rosie's Beach.

There was quite a turnout at Dog Beach. Mark Sandoval, the Director of Marine Services, spoke about all of the work Justin Rudd did in order to create Dog Beach years ago and that the city of Long Beach was behind the change to Rosie's Beach to honor Justin's dog.

Justin read a proclamation from Congresswoman Bonnie Loenthal and then the sign was revealed. WOW it looked great!!!

Ruth and Bebe, wearing their Christmas outfits, stand in front of the tribute to Rosie the Bulldog.

We later got dressed to go see Michael Buble. He was playing at the Honda Center in Anaheim. We decided to go to dinner near the venue and went to the Prime Cut Cafe.

Here Ruth is giving me a Birthday Toast. I guess your only 70 once so we are going to stretch it out as long as we can. Next stop.....Michael.

If you are just being introduced to Michael you can check out some of his hits by dragging this into your web browser and scroll down to a song you know:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=michael+buble&aq=2
If you want to get a sense of what his concert was like watch his rendition of "Fever"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiMAh2cLczY
or watch his perform "Save The Last Dance For Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmi3EPUrw6g
But unfortunately you can't get the real feeling of what a real superstar is unless you see him in person because it's about the feeling you get when he interacts with the audience. It is also impossible to describe the feeling of sound and visual other that say "It's over the top."

Sunday Dec. 12, 2010

Today we were going to go to the Farmers Market and get a Christmas tree...
BUT NO!! Ruth dropped by the pet rescue place to drop off some clothes that Bebe had out grown when she called me over to see what I thought of getting another dog. Instead of adopting the dog outright they let us take him home to try him on. The called it "Fostering the dog." I called it "No way can I say no when there are five women saying YES."

We called him "Harley" because "Bebe and Harley" sounded pretty good together.

Naturally Ruth had some Harley clothes to put on him, then we took them for a walk.

Here's a shot of Harley wearing real Harley Davidson clothes.

At about 6 o;clock, a little after dinner, I decided to shoot the afterglow of the sunset. Much to my surprise there was something else going on down the block. A shooting.

It took a little doing but I grabbed this shot of the scene. A man was shot and killed about a half a block from our house. It is actually just two doors east of Al's place. They had it on the news but I was only able to get this radio report of the shooting that took a mans life.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/12/12/man-dead-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-long-beach/

After our neighbors filled us in on what we missed we walked over to Alamitos Bay, near Bay Shore and First Street. The evening was spectacular. It was very warm and the reflections of the lights were really great. Unfortunately my camera couldn't capture the moment.

Ruth is standing in front of the house showing the dogs the Christmas decorations. Time to get in and give Harley a bath. I don't know what's in store the next week but I have a feeling we now have two dogs in our family.

OK, 70 isn't so bad after all

2010-12-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

December 3rd, 2010, my birthday....

OK, I guess being 70 isn't so bad after all!!!

Ruth, Dan and Sara have been talking to me for sometime about my birthday and finally came up with the idea they would do my birthday in two phases. Phase one was tonight and it was going to be small. Phase two would come when the warm weather arrives and people return from their kite vacations. We will have a much larger party then.

For tonight Ruth picked Bono's Restaurant on 2nd street but she wanted to make the table setting much more elaborate. She and Sara worked fast to put it together.

In less than 20 minutes they finished the center piece.

At 7 people started arriving. Here is Sara, Steve and Lenni. All ready to party.

Here's Dan and Kristin. Dan brought a few bottles of wine from his eclectic collection.

Pat and Terry were the people that introduced us to Long Beach. We used to water ski with them at Lake Havasu.

You probably recognize Klaus, in the center is Ruth and her sister-in-law Liz.

Ruth's brother Randy came over to give me a birthday hug so I gave him a head rub. A little tit for tat.

Ruth gave the table quite the festive feel with the red roses.

In keeping with our birthday tradition Dan gave the first toast

Then it was Ruth's turn to give me a toast, or was it a roast???

Sara followed her mothers lead and continued the toast and roast. I can't wait for the next party.

Klaus worked the room taking tons of pictures. Unfortunately he had caught a cold and was not feeling very well.

The food has arrived so it's time to eat. SMILE!!!!

Klaus came over for this fun shot and then he went home early

Now it was time for the cards

Everything went well until Dan's very sentimental card. I couldn't control it..

I don't think the waiter could fit 70 candles onto this little wedge of chocolate cake. That's OK I was able to blow out all of the candles with no problem.

Ruth gave me a present too!!!

Thank you all for coming tonight and to all that sent their Birthday wishes too. Sadly all good parties have to come to an end and I think all of the people in the restaurant were happy we were going home too. I think we were kind of loud,

That's a wrap for now, but I can't wait for part two. I have a feeling that the theme of roasting and toasting will continue. Until then in the words of my neighbor "Jim, seventy is the new fifty." I like that idea

I think it's going to blow on Saturday and THERE ARE CLEARING WINDS ON SUNDAY!!!

2010-11-21T19:14:00.001-08:00

November 20th and 21st, 2010

Saturday Nov. 20....we all hoped for clearing winds today

I was going a run for Ruth when I saw some kiters pumped and ready to go at Belmont.
But sorry to say there was no wind at 2 o'clock, but great clouds.

As I stayed at the LaVerne parking lot I noticed there was enough wind for the sail boats that were racing out near the breakwater.

This was about the time that Steve Lee came over and said "Let me take a picture of you since you're always taking pictures of us." I said "OK." I tried to relax as he clicked off a few shots.

As I waited around the wind started coming up at about 2:30 and kites started launching.

At about 3 I got back from my run and caught Dan just going out. There wasn't much wind but who cares.

Dan comes into shore. Not too much wind today.

Steve Lee comes to the rescue again and shoots this shot of Dan and me, and our dogs Bebe and Loki, at the end of the day.

Sunday Nov. 21....we GOT clearing winds today!!!!

At a little after 1 o'clock Klaus came by the house as the wind was starting to crank. I grabbed my gear and my camera and headed for the beach for a day of FUN!!!

As you can see the clearing winds really came today. Much better than yesterday.

From my house one of the first kites on the water was Bongo. He really knows how to have fun.

Dong was close behind and was really powered up, and looking good too.

Radko looks like he rigged the right size sail. "Hold on Radko."

Klaus was getting some rad air.

So was Dan. There was a little competition going at Belmont.

I didn't get everyone but here is Henry going out. Bobby and Steve were also on the water.

So did Kristin..and I think she was on a Best 10m. The wind was good!!!

Yup...that's Klaus pulling off another big jump.

and Dan too.....

At some point Klaus took up Dan's camera and grabbed this great shot of Kyle. There were may others on the water which included Mark, Steve, Drew, Andy, Faycal, Matt, Trevor, Michael D., Christopher, Luca, and a hell of a lot of other kiters.

Even I got some great kite time in today.

Klaus got in one last jump.....

.....Dan pulled off a few unhooked tricks...

And Kristin pulled off her first jumps. She did this land simulation for me so you could get inside her head because she felt GREAT!!!

Naturally I had to ask a stranger to take a group shot at the end of the day.

As we all went our own way this sunset tells it all. A beautiful end to a great kite day and who knows when we are going to get the next clearing winds. Enjoy the wind while we can.

Thanksgiving Dinner

2010-11-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Thanksgiving Dinner

The funeral services for Omar Salazar

2010-11-15T21:44:00.000-08:00

Sunday November ,2010

The funeral services for Omar Salazar

Dan, Kristin, Ruth and I drove to the city of Rosamond. It's just a little north of Lancaster. The day was beautiful, sunny and clear as we arrived at Rosamond High School. We met up with Rosemary, Michael D. and Annemarie, Al, Steve, Bobby, Naji, Henry and Faycal.

Omar was the son of Jorge and Pilar Salazar. Both Jorge and Pilar come to Belmont. Jorge kites and Pilar is an important support person on the beach. She has helped to launch and land, and is an enthusiastic photographer on the beach. She confided that she might want to take up learning to kiteboard. I am sure that she would have a beachful of instructors if she really wants to pick it up again.
During the services many people came to the podium. The speakers included former teachers, coaches, and many friends. They all helped to round out the picture of a young man many of us did not know well, if at all. He was a strong, brave young man who doted on his son and showed a bit of mischief in the twinkle in his eye. I don't know how she did it but Pilar also came up to the podium and talked from the heart. There was not a dry eye in the auditorium.

Thank you to all that contributed towards the flowers. They looked beautiful.

This is a closer shot of the card and picture of Omar and his son Orlando.

After the services everyone waited for the caravan to depart. Omar had to be taken to the funeral home until the final services on Monday in Bakersfield. He was also escorted by a Patriot group of motorcycle riders who headed up the procession. Omar's military connections were evidenced by the marine color guard and the ROTC young men who helped out in the proceedings any way they could.

As the caravan headed for the funeral home in Lancaster, we headed for the Rosamond Elementary School to await the start of the reception when the family returned.

Here's Ruth entering the elementary school cafeteria. She had prepared one of her favorite pasta dishes, a whole turkey and chocolate cookies. Mmmmmm.

It was wonderful that the women that Pilar works with catered and served lunch to all that attended. It's that midwest upbringing coming out in time of need. Then the family presented a video slide show of Omar's life. It was a touching moment and proved that Pilar has been taking pictures for a long time. Omar and his brother Julian were raised with infinite love and patience. The video album gave testimony to the importance of family in their lives and the fun and love that filled it.

After the slide show there was a moment when all of the Belmont kiters grouped around Jorge. We attempted to convey our condolences and feelings of sadness regarding his and Pilar's loss. We had no words to touch their pain, but we had to try to lighten their day, if only for a moment.

Thanks to Ruth she got us to gather for a lighter moment. Jorge seemed very happy to be surrounded by the Belmont gang.

Thanks Annemarie for watching Bebe while Ruth took some pictures.

As we headed home one thing was certain: each moment of every day, count your blessings and tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.

If you would like to read the newspapers account of the accident:
http://blogs.pe.com/news/digest/2010/11/twentynine-palms-marine-dies-w.html

Clearing winds and Halloween day

2010-10-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 28 and Sunday 29, 2010

Clearing winds and Halloween day

It was a beautiful sight when I walked down to the beach. I was taking Klaus's digital camera to take some videos.

I have a ton of pictures to share but in the mean time check out,
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=158876810817628

and check out thest kite videos of speed sailing in Africa
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=75790&refre=y&ntid=20&rid=4

No clearing winds today. Got shots of Bebe and sunset!!

2010-10-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

October 27, 2010

No clearing winds. Got Bebe shots a sunset and hope for wind tomorrow.

Today around noon winds started blowing out of the North. It was cool because I thought it might really rage....NOPE!!!!

So Bebe and I took a long walk because it was so beautiful we needed to get out of the house and get some exercise. First we went down to the beach and sent texts out regarding he wind, then it was off to Second Street to show off Bebe's Halloween outfit. First stop was the Belmont Athletic club and set it up so we can start working out the first. Next stop to Wells Fargo, then it was off to Von's. After we got milk, and half and half and we stopped by the pier.

It took a few shots of her on this little wall near Belmont Brewery. I finally got Bebe to give me a cute profile shot, but I didn't like the steal bars in the background.

This is the shot Ruth liked because it shows off her pumpkin outfit. Many people commented on it, you be the judge. Then it was down the bike path past dog beach and to the water fountain at the Granada launch ramp so I could get Bebe a drink of water. It was really hot today. Maybe 80 degrees.

There were no clearing winds today so I worked on the garage and rearranged a lot of stuff. The gave Ruth a hand cutting back her roses. Then her brother Randy came over around 6 o'clock and I ran down to take this shot of the sunset.

Randy left. Ruth fixed dinner. Sara was studying for a test and I was very happy to be able to maneuver in the garage once again without knocking down things :) :) :)

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

2010-10-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

I'm a bachelor again for 4 days

2010-10-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

Friday October 8, 2010

I'm a bachelor again for 4 days, OMG what am I going to do

I had to put up at least on picture from Ruth's trip to Washington DC......more to come

Saturday and Sunday were a gift

2010-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday and Sunday were a gift

Today, before I started this entry I took Bebe for a walk. I had to came back to the house for my camera because I could see a weather front coming. We may have clearing winds soon. Now back to kiting on Sunday and Saturday.

Sunday October 3 , 2010

It was a around noon when I decided to walk down to the beach to check out the wind. I noticed that Captain Kirks, So. Cal. Kiteboarding and Kitesurfari were all set-up on the Claremont ramp. They must have had lessons because the weather didn't look very promising.

Klaus came over at around 3:30 so we walked down to the beach. I was surprised that the wind was starting to build and there were a few kiters on the water. After a few minutes we went back to his car to get his gear and his new digital camera. I also grabbed my tripod and chair.

This was going to be a real challenge because between my legs I had the tripod to take high def movies and over my left shoulder I had my still camera. I knew I could take stills using his camera but I wanted to keep the functions separate. Check out the edited video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42CwYOrOnk4

Christopher and Radko were out today also but I didn't get them both in the same shot. Sorry.

Trevor stays in shape by jogging up the beach. Go Trev go. Jump Trev jump.

Kristin, Steve Lee and Dan arrived a little after 4. Not to worry there's plenty of wind. Kris is really getting her turns down. She hopes this wind continues.

Dan is in the building...or is that Elvis???

Here's a shot taken last Sunday by Kristin at Leo Carrillo. There was great wind both Saturday and Sunday. Actually I think the spot is Nickolas Canyon. If you have a Facebook account check out Dan's new video. Go to http://www.facebook.com/ and enter Dan Corbett and click on his 2 minute video.

Kyle was here to get a little too.

I think I captured Klaus and Michael D. doing a passing hand slap. Hopefully I'll be able to post the hi-def video when it gets edited together.

Dr. Al was having fun today too. Being right on the waters edge gave me a new vantage point for picture taking.

I know in the foreground is Rudy but I think behind his is Hank. Can someone let me know if I'm right?

Unfortunately Kristin's day ended on a sour note. Her kite hit the water and one of the strut valves popped open. OOOPPPPPSSSSS.

Over the years we have figured out how to use the two trees on the side of the house as a huge drying rack because there was water in the leading edge. It should be fine in a few days.

Saturday October 2 , 2010

It's 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Wind is coming up and there are kites on the water. Time to take some pictures since I can't kite for at least three more weeks.

Loki, Bebe and I went to the end of the ramp to take a few shots.

Bongo walks by with his directional. He's got that toe-side down.

Dong goes port in front of us on his new twin tip with boots.

Matt was one of the guys I started out with years ago. Check out the graphics on that cool Naish board.

Dan gets to the beach a little late but he plays catch up very well.

Really interesting cloud formation. I think the weather she is a changing.

Now this is how to end a session....grab your board and land on the beach. NICE!!!!

Kristin and Dan check out the water after the wind shuts off.

I don't know how "Bay Shore Don" is able to drive and play his guitar. Now that's multi-tasking.

What a beautiful sunset with the kites in the foreground. Another beautiful day in paradise.

Rain.....winter.....and a little skin cancer

2010-10-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

Friday, October 1, 2010

We had rain, a little operation and more fun at Belmont

What an unbelievable day today. A little while ago I returned from a store run for Ruth. It was raining as I pulled up in front of the house. How weird it that. Ruth met me at the curb and said "Did you see the rainbow?" I said "No." So I grabbed my camera and went up on the roof and grabbed this shot.

Then Ruth said "Did you get both of them?" I didn't see it. When you double click on the picture you will see the second rainbow, but it's very faint. Thus the arrow.

A little while before that Ruth and I were up on Second Street having a bite to eat. Can you tell we were at Apango for sushi. The occasion was a "Thank You Lunch." I was thanking Ruth for noticing this little bump on the side of my nose. Read on.....

There has been a little scar on the side of my nose for years from a previous dermatology visit. But not long ago Ruth said "Have you shown that to Dr. Gammer?" I said "No." "Well you should." He's our new dermatologist in Seal Beach.

One thing led to another and the biopsy came back.....skin cancer. So last Wednesday he removed it. Then on Friday I went to a plastic surgeon and he took some skin from behind my ear and repaired the area.

Don't double click on this shot if you don't want to. I got the stitches removed. The surgeon said is should be much better in a few weeks. And no kiting for about a month. Boo hoo.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Thursday was quite a different weather day. Klaus and I walked down to Belmont to check it out

By the time we got there most everyone was walking up the beach. The wind shut off.

Unfortunately Christopher was walking too...the day was over.

After Klaus went home I took Bebe for a walk over to Bay Shore to watch Ruth swim. She said the water was pretty warm for such an overcast day.

Bebe and I usually are up near the bridge when Ruth turns around at the buoy for her return leg. I grabbed this shot of the little girl as she was watching for Ruth.

As we wrapped up the day the sky was amazing. I heard that these clouds have been drawn up from Mexico. I just think it looks great.

Summer is almost over...and other stuff

2010-09-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

September 20, 2010

I'm just getting over a mild cold and today I was feeling pretty good so I took Bebe for a walk.

We went down to the beach...it was pretty sad. Hardly any wind, very few people on the beach and it felt like winter.

The beach was totally vacant except these two women. I dubbed them "The last sunbathers this summer." You have to give it to these two women for laying out today.

Then Bebe and I went over to the bay and watched Ruth swim. I thought she did great, but she said she could do better. Personally I don't know how she does it.

More to come.....

9/11/2010 "We will never forget" motorcycle ride

The group met up at Cook's Corner in the morning. Fortunately Michael D and Annmarie had reserved a table and shade. THANK YOU!! Klaus's mother and I followed Ruth and Klaus. They were on his bike, we were in the CRV.

Naturally we had to buy some t-shirts and beer before the ride.

At some point the lead firetruck headed out to start the parade then everyone followed.

Mike and Mandy mounted up.

Then Klaus and Ruth got into the line.

I was in our Honda and at the end of the line. Off they went.....into the smoke and dust.

The next stop was the Crab Shack. Just in case you needed to shake your legs.

Ruth, Mama, Mike, Mandy, Klaus and I made it. Somewhere on the road was Michael and Annmarie.

Next stop was the park adjacent to Marine Stadium for the 9/11 ceremony. It was wonderful. I shot a video on Klaus's camera but forgot to turn on the sound. It looks great.

Afterwards we drove down PCH to Huntington Beach for a great dinner. It was a great day.

9/10/2010 Klaus, his mom and I go to Universal Studios

Sorry I don't have any opening shots of the studios but we saved the best for later.

Klaus got me riding down the Dinosaur ride. Naturally it was fashioned after the movie but only the very end was fun, riding down the falls into the water. Good thing it was hot that day.

The most exciting was the Water World Show. We got great seats and Klaus shot some great pictures.

Naturally it's the good guys against the bad guys. Here are the baddies entering the scene.

This was an unreal moment when this sea plane landed right in front of us. How did they figure this out???

The story ends with everything blowing up and catching on fire. The climax was very exciting.

There was this one area where all of these "tall people" were walking around. Here the Pharaoh or whatever he was supposed to be is reading my palm. I will make lots of money.

Here we are the two tourists posing with the two "SCARY CREATURES." Check out expressions, that really reads scared.

Here's our closing shot as we leave Universal Studios. Klaus's mom and I did our Kodak moment.

9/5/2010, Kristin's sister Jonna is married to Pablo

This special occasion was held at the Maya Hotel in Long Beach. It was a great day.

If you ever want a fantastic view while having dinner or a drink, visit the Maya

9/1 thru 4 /2010, Klaus goes to Sherman Island

Here's a very cool shot of Klaus up at Sherman Island. I believe Omar took it. Check out the boat just behind him.

And here's one of Omar jumping in front of the same wind machines.

Party for Rijk

2010-09-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

September 4, 2010

The kite group and friends had a going away party for Rijk tonight. Boo hoo, he's moving back to Holland.

The evening started around 6 o'clock when Rijk dropped by with these beautiful lillies.
Let the party begin.....

One of the early arrivals was Kyle, Elysa and Sidney. Unfortunately I didn't get Elysa in this shot

Rijk takes a moment to say "Hi" to Luca and Monica. Mourat refuses to be left out!!

Here are four really happy guys, Sohrab, Rijk, Murat and Sako. The party is cooking now.

Juliana and Juliano drove down from Marina del Rey and wouldn't have missed this party for anything.

I heard that Mark and Carole rode their bikes over to the house..... ok, maybe they carefully drove this time. Happy times with the LBPD.

YES, windsurfers were allowed....Bea, Radko and Danny love to party.

I asked Tim to take a picture...but I guess he was thinking this was for his Facebook page. Tim, Ruth says you shouldn't get this close to the camera. Scary!!!!!

Here's three of the four amago's. Unfortunately Klaus was kiting up at Sherman Island.

Mr. and Mrs. Kitesurfari (Robert and Danny) dropped by for some of the great food.
They loved it!!!!

Are the kiteboarders of Belmont the all -time best looking, or is it just me?...Martin, Jane, Bobby, Dan, Joy, Party Boy, and Darren.

Now here's a group to draw to, Juliano, Naji, Dr. Al, and Gabor.

The women were in the kitchen doing all the work and preparing the food. Monica, Juliana, Joy, Ruth and Pat.

As you may know the party was pot luck. Ruth prepared pulled pork with peach BBQ sauce (which Ruth also canned), roasted chicken, Rijk's mashed potatoes with Harley Mike's kale, and Swiss chard (from Harley Mandy's garden), cooked with bacon and cheeze. Carole Strauch brought broccoli salad. Joy brought cucumber salad. Betty Howell, pasta salad. Juliana, green bean and Quinoa salad. Lenny, green bean almondine. Bea, strawberry and blueberry bars. Pat & Terry, crudites plate and dip. Dr. Bobby, hummus dip and pita chips. Dr. Al, fruit torte. Sohrab and Murat, fruit torte. Jane and Darren, oatmeal cookies. Monica and Luca, brownies. And there was a plethora of beer and wine. THANK YOU EVERYONE. Please let us know if we forgot anything, or I screwed up what you brought. Any other pictures of the food????

I turned around and Pat asked Ruth about Bebe's wardrobe. She begged Ruth to drag out all of Bebe's clothes. "Nice rack." I'm talking about the PVC three tier rack...what else???

Everyone was getting a kick out of Ruth coming out of the closet, with Bebe's clothes. She explained that ever since she had to put away her dolls and get serious, she felt something was missing, so Bebe volunteered to help her adjust to adult life. Beats cooking the books at a Hollywood sound studio.

As the evening started winding down Carole raised a toast to Rijk. We all wish him well back in Holland.

This was great getting everyone to take a moment and have a Kodak moment.

Matt got off of work late....but better late than never. Darren gives thumbs up, Matt is wearing the right color t-shirt, Alexandra got a new hair do and so did Bobby.

Even though a few people have gone home it's never too late for one more group shot. Dan's just has to show off those abs one more time

It's time to go home and stop shooting pictures. This is Ruth's absolute favorite picture of her boys, especially Rijk's happy smile. It made three days of cooking all worthwhile.

One more picture of the beautiful lillies. Goodbye Rijk. Hope to see you soon :) :) :)

Time for Dog Beach and another kite adventure

2010-08-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

August 19, 2010

Today started out "All About Dogs." First we went to Petco and purchased a few new clothes for Bebe and Loki. Dan was at work so he didn't mind. After that it was a visit to In and Out for burgers, fries and drinks. We stopped off at Mother's Beach to eat our lunch. Then it was off to Dog Beach to give the dogs a little exercise. Here Ruth tries to get Bebe and Loki's attention.

It's really special that Justin Rudd pushed for this space because it's great to take the dogs here and let them play.

Ready, set go. I'm thinking Ruth was giving the dogs a little obedience check here.

Yes, let's save the clothes. You know how those other dogs can just rip the clothes off your back and Ruth hates to drag out the sewing machine.

Wow, it's a picture like this when you recognize how big Loki is getting. And he's still growing too.

"Say Cheese." What a Kodak moment.

"OK Mom, I think we're ready to go......

...because Daddy says that the wind is up and there are a few kites on the water."

At about 2 o'clock I texted a few of the guys that the wind was up. The first to arrive was Juliano. He just got back from Brazil. I think he said he kited 13 out of 14 day. Boo Hoo. Here Mark is getting some air in his cart tire. I think it worked too.

Klaus and I were rigging when Kyle came off the water. He was a little cold since he wasn't wearing a spring suit, just shorts and a rash guard. I decided to rig warm and wore my long suit.

While we were launching Gary said "Are you guys doing an adventure?" And I said "We never know until we get on the water." Once on the water I think there were 5 of us that headed to the back of the oil platform.

This MapQuest gives you an approximate idea of our first reach. I couldn't believe "Harley Mike" because I believe this was his first time in the open ocean. Juliano does these tacks with no problem.

Next we headed for the back of Chaffee Island. When we jibed we went for the open ocean again by going past the south end of the breakwater wall. Then we headed for the windward side of White Island. As we started approaching it the wind started falling off and we jibed again. It was along this reach that Dan, Jorge and Gary joined us.

These three reaches were fantastic because the wind was really strong and as we came to the breakwater to make our jibe the water was so smooth because of the protection of the wall.

As we were going port, towards Freeman Island it was so awesome because there was this group of us just flying across the water and the kites made this cool vision because we were all going in the same directions and all together. We could feel the wind drop off again and that's when Gabor headed back to Seal and the rest of us tried to get back to Belmont.

Here is how we see Gabor when we kite with him, UP IN THE AIR. I didn't have any shots of him but if I had one of those waterproof cameras I would have taken this shot. Really!!!!

I noticed Gary was on a port reach heading down wind from Chaffee and he had a good head of steam. I changed directions and followed him in. Mike must have pealed off early because as I was swinging my kite trying to get in he was already on the beach. That's when I looked over and noticed that Klaus, Dan and Jorge's kites were in the water. If you double click on the picture you can see Dan doing a great job self rescuing.

Jorge on the other hand took a little longer to get in. He said later that you have to get wet once in a while.

Here was the whole adventure. I'm guessing it took a couple of hours. Maybe a little longer for Jorge and Dan.

Here we are the whole group. From the left Jorge, Gary, Dan, Mark, Darren, Mike, Klaus, Juliano and me. Gabor was back at seal taking a shower and heading home.

Another great Sunday day at Belmont

2010-08-16T02:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday August 15, 2010

A lot of kiters must have heard that yesterday was a stellar kite day so they came down to Belmont hoping for wind. It was not a repeat, but the wind did blow. Way in the background was the kids sand castle contest on the Granada launch ramp

Dan and I timed our arrival so that when Klaus came off the water we borrowed his kite and went out. He rigged a 15 and our kites were a little too small today.

Al was catching some Zzzz's so we decided to add some detail to this foto op. Double click to make it larger. No he doesn't drink beer.

That was about the time the beach gang packed around Al for a group shot. From the left side, back row, Radko, Bobby, Dan, Darren (holding directional board), Danny, John, Cloe and Mark. Front row, Klaus, Al and Dan.

Just about that time Cloe's boyfriend Chad arrives on the scene with a "little" hole in his kite.

Jeff, on the left, checks out the little repair to his RRD. Chad looks on. They may be calling on John Fitzgerald for help for the repair.

Steve Lee watches the Last Man Standing. Dan nominated Naji for the "Weekend With Bernie Award." A reference to the movie of the same name because...Dan heard a bell clanging as Naji was pumping his kite trying to get in.

Robert dries off the kite as Naji tells Steve about trying to get in from Chaffee Island after the wind died. He almost made it too.

Thanks Klaus for taking this shot of Dan and myself. It made my day. Then we went out to a Thai restaurant to celebrate another great weekend.

Hope to see you on the beach soon.

Klaus takes his camera to the beach....

2010-08-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

Friday August 13, 2010

Today is friday the 13th and Klaus decided not to kite but instead bring his camera to the beach....

Hey Klaus "Your zipper is undone." Just kidding. Yep, that's me getting ready. On the extreme right is the gardening cart that I use to transport my gear from our house to the beach and back. Sometimes I carry three boards and two kites. But not today.

I've been flying a Wainman 12 for the past few weeks because the wind has been strong enough not to have to use Big Mama, which is a 15 sq. meter kite. Anytime you want to use either size just let me know and I'll let you demo them......no problem.

For those that have kited Belmont, the normal way out into the bay, especially during the summer, is on a starboard tack. Sometimes during the winter we go out on a port tack.

I don't consider myself a great jumper. Today is no different. But today I'm on borrowed gear because I'm trying Klaus's new North twin tip.

Our windsurfing buddy, Radko, is trying to over take me.I don't think I won this one.

Here Rudy, AKA "Bongo", and I are doing a passing hand slap. The new thing that Klaus has been doing, when we are both going in the same direction, he will come up on my down-wind side and we will slap hands too. It's sometimes very dicey.

Klaus grabbed a great shot of "Harley Mike" going port. He looks pretty close to shore.

Gabor came up from Seal and was heading back before the wind died.

Another attempt at jumping.

Mark must have finished his lesson for Kitesurfari. That's usually when he can go out.

Mitch, the lifeguard at tower 10, the Claremont ramp, keeps a watchful eye on the kiters. Mitch also kites that's why it's great having him assigned to this station.

THE END!!!!!!

I think summer is starting, so lets do something

2010-08-11T23:36:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 11, 2010

I think summer is starting, so lets do something

At around 1 o'clock I texted a few buddy's that the wind was coming up early. This alert lets them start to make arrangements to get to Belmont. When Klaus got off work he came over, had one of his great Thai beers and headed for the beach. When we arrived it was blowing somewhere between 18 and 20 mph because the sand was kicking up.

Klaus walked ahead as I took a few pictures. Radko was getting his windsurfing gear ready as he anticipated Danny arriving at any time, and Mike had pumped up Big Mama. I thought it might be too windy for it but Mike proved me wrong.

As I got to the end of the ramp I noticed that Mitch Lyons was on duty today and he had a buddy there checking out the scene. The American flag also gives you an indication of the strength of the wind. You will also notice the ships we visited two days ago were still there.

Once rigged Klaus said he wanted to do something. He said, "Let's go past the pier and into the bay." Naturally I said "Sure."

We were on a good tack but the wind fell off and we couldn't get past the pier so we were not able to get inside this area of the bay. We went to plan B.

Since there was not very much wind at the pier we decided to go to the back (windward) side of Chaffee Island. We discovered the wind was really good and we also met up with a friend, Todd Case. He was out tooling around on his surf directional board.

When we got to the end of the breakwater I pointed to Klaus to head for the ships again but today the open ocean was a little rougher that it was two days ago. For us is was a little slow going but we got there. Ready to put on a show for the crew members we are sorry to report that there was no one on the railings today. Boo Hoo!! We changed direction and that about when we saw Gabor and a friend coming back from their open ocean jaunt.

When you double click to make the picture bigger you might be able to notice that there were two ships in the shot. Actually today there were quite a few ships out there maybe seven.

After we started heading toward the breakwater we noticed Gabor and friend had come down the back of the breakwater and joined us. We all then headed for White Island, again hoping to kite deep into the bay and approach Grissom Island. We got close but again the wind was very weak and we didn't want to drop our kites and do another self rescue thing. After that we played in the bay and eventually headed back to the beach. Gabor (the red arrow) headed back to Seal and we all had a great time. Another little adventure with Klaus.