-
- Lou's Kiteboarding home page
-
- Lou's Comedy home page
|
|---|
NOTE: 1/30/2008 I took a class with Arizona Defensive Driving School, Inc. Completion #2624-38
Sun 5/31 – Good day in several respects. As I do every year here, I hooked up with the Cormier’s from Quebec. Mathieu and I did the one mile downwinder from the first to second turnouts north of Avon (my GPS waypoints HANOR1
and HANOR2
respectively). This was my first strapless surfboard downwinder. It actually went quite well. My skill getting up on the board improved. However the four jibes I accomplished were as disgusting as ever, but I did ‘em. Top GPS speed was 24.8 mph - strapless!
- spending the night in north Avon
Sat 5/30/09 – No wind today. I found that the best way to dry the van carpeting where it got wet from the leaky water container was to use my little 3” 12v night-time fan suspended about 4” above the carpet from my tripod hook.
- This the morning I did some shopping and then spent most of the afternoon and evening at Canadian Hole working on my website. Not what I had planned to do, but I got the idea how cool it would be if others could avail themselves to the weather forecast information that I use and decided it wouldn’t take too long to add the 15 weather links to four of the locations on my SHOPS & SERVICES web page. Yea, right! It took most of the afternoon and evening to get it right, but at least my carpet is dry!
- I plan to curtail my blogging until I get caught up on some other things like a letter to my tenants in Phoenix, tweaking my van and organization the drawing for the Kitty Hawk Kite Condos.
- Spending the night in Avon
Fri 5/29 – Now I remember why OBX is my favorite kiteboarding location. We had southwest winds (the preferred direction) all day and into the night. Spent the morning taking care of business; the rental house and my latest brainstorm, among others. You’ll soon be reading more about the brainstorm here. In a nut shell, I cooked up a drawing for all the workers on the new Kitty Hawk Kite Condos in Rodanthe, officially the Waves Village Condos. They are busting their butts to get it finished so it can start earning money for KHK. The prize would be my 12 m Switchblade II and, maybe, my Gastra 170 cm board..
- About 2:00 pm I went out with my 8 m Switchblade on my 7’2 – strapless! I got pretty good at riding it and even did about four real bad jibes. Then about 6:00 I did my favorite downwinder from Planet of the Apes to Kitty Hawk Kites in Rodanthe (6.8 miles) with Craig. In the process we did three slicks, three canals and I got to rescue Craig’s kite – all in about two hours.
Thu 5/28 – With little wind forecast until maybe late in the day, I spent (wasted) more time looking for a 5-gallon jerry can for my water. Finally, in Buxton, I bought the only thing I found that would fit the allotted space in the van, a plastic 2.5 gallon gasoline can. Now I’ll have to get water about twice as often (twice a week), but only have to carry 20 pounds of water when I refill.
- At Ride Hatteras I found $25 salvage bar and lines to complement the power train (chicken loop/de-power system) I already have for the Cabrinha Switchblade II I am selling. Now that the kite is complete, I should be to get about $150 more for it. Got the bar, pump, chicken loop and kite lines all assembled and adapted to the kite, now ready to sell.
- Got my oil changed at Cape Point Exxon in Buxton, since I was going by and they had a rack available. They were not able to rotate the tires at this time.
- Rounded out the day by doing a sun/run at Canadian Hole, buying a new daKine seat harnes and configuring the kite lines for the Switchblade IIcc.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe
Wed 5/27 My LOCATIONS web page has an all new look! A good day’s no-wind project along with drying out the carpeting of my van. There is quite an area that was water soaked. At first I thought my plastic 5-gallon jerry can was leaking, but maybe I was just extremely sloppy and spilled a lot of water when I was filling my water bottles from it a couple days ago. At any rate the jerry can is now empty and the carpet is mostly dry, thanks to parking the van with the sun on the carpet most of the day after removing the
Tue 5/26 – It was a beautiful day for fishermen and beachcombers. I saw not one kite in the air. I got Scott’s birthday package mailed and spent most of the rest of the day working on my kites – mostly the Cabrinha Switchblade 4. I got the bladder repaired – a long tedious operation. Also worked on my old Cabrinha Switchblade II that I am selling.
- Spent the night in Waves
Mon 5/25 – Stayed up north around the Nags Head area most of the day. Little wind today, so today’s projects included researching (of course) and buying a new LED head lamp to replace the one that quit working last night. The new one is small, light, has four modes… and has an obnoxious strobe effect on other than the brightest settings. Did a sun-and-run – pulse was 144 after the run. This evening’s project was sewing: modified and divided the pockets of a new
pair of cargo shorts so my cell phone and other electronics will fit. Monday is my treat night, so I got a 2.85 oz slice of lemon meringue pie – tasty but LOTS of calories. I also got a birthday gift ready to mail to my son, Scott. It will be a surprise to him because I’m pretty sure that he never looks at this blog.
My goal with the new van battery is to never let it discharge below 11.8 no-load Volts. So far it has not gone below about 12 V. I learned that no-load voltages of 12.6-12.8 = full charge and 11.8-12.0 = full discharge. You can discharge the battery further and the car may still start, but the battery can be damaged. Hopefully, armed with my new knowledge, my new van battery will last a long time.
In the late afternoon, drove down south to Waves where I spent the night.
Sun 5/24 – The voltages are looking MUCH better with the new van battery, which has 20% more cranking amps than the one I got under warranty in Texas. This morning I went to a bunch of stores looking for 1) the table leg floor socket 2) sun shield material for the van and 3) butane/propane canister for my Jet Boil No dice – anywhere for any of the above. Also I am preparing an OBX resources page for LOCATIONS here on the website. I am updating some of the waypoint names, which will not appear online until I get them all done and uploaded.
- I kited from Wind Mill Point (my GPS waypoint haWindmill Point
) with my 8 m Switchblade II – first time, ever, trying my new 5’2” Naish Custom Fish – STRAPLESS (no foot straps)! I was amazed how difficult it was to get up riding and also how easy it was to go upwind in low wind conditions once I did get up. I even did a few carves to toeside and a crummy jibe in each direction. After about 40 minutes of that, I switched to my ol’ comfy Litewave 130 x 39 Stealth (with foot straps) and did a downwinder to Jockey Ridge (my GPS waypoint haJockey Ridge
). Later I went out at Windmill Point for a short sunset session on my 14 m Contra with the 5’2” Naish Custom Fish – strapless, again. Getting up and riding with the larger kite and lower wind was like starting all over again.
- Spent the night in Nags Head.
Sat 5/23 – Having to jump start my van this morning for the third time in three days cinched the decision to take to long 60-mile drive up to the closest Wal-Mart to have the battery replaced under warranty. Jeff, there was very helpful. The old
battery was less than a month old. I think Wal-Mart has one of the best auto battery warranties in the business. I spent most of the last half of the afternoon in and out of the Wal-Mart store getting sox, sewing needles, battery terminal discs, occlusive bandages etc.
- Still stopping every conceivable place to find a replacement flush-mounted table post socket for the floor of my van. Other stops included a $13 kite pump at K-Mart (same as the $30 ones from Cabrinha),
- On my drive up north there were a couple of kites out at Wind Mill Point with winds that peaked at about a 15 mph from the south. I couldn’t get distracted, though, needing to get my battery replaced.
- Spent the night in Naggs Head (I think)
Fri 5/22 - The peak wind gust I measured all day on my van’s weather station was 10 mph - a good day for no-wind projects. This morning I got my apparently defective 12 m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 submitted for warranty, with the help of Eric. That involved inflating it and taking a number of required pictures of the kite, including its serial number panel.
- Mailed a 100th birthday card to my Aunt Vendla
- Purged ALL the rest of the files from my little Sony ICD-R100 digital recorder’s A
folder. Whew!
- Helped by giving moral support to the crew painting Kitty Hawk Kites' slider in preparation for this weekend's demo days. Unfortunately there is little wind forecat for the three-day weekend. Maybe some Monday (Memorial Day), but nothing great.
- Spending a second night in Waves
Thu 5/21 – Today I might have gotten in a low-wind session in the morning if I didn’t have things to take care of… like my left foot. I found Dave, a customer at Ride Hatteras, who was willing to help me cut some dead skin away; then soaked in Epsom salts and covered with an occlusive bandage.
- like immersing my 12 m Cabrinha in the sound to find the leaks – six of ‘em all at the six skid pads near the wingtips. Every time I pump it up the leaks get worse. I’d say Cabrinha has defective skid pads that are abrading the bladder. The kite never leaked at all until yesterday. Now it will scarcely hold pressure for 10 minutes.
- Hunting far and wide, unsuccessfully so far, for a replacement flush-mounted table post socket for the floor of my van. The old one is cracking up.
- Like running the van through a car wash with undercarriage rinse.
- Spending the night in Waves
Wed 5/20 – Today was not a real satisfying day. Yesterday I got a minor gash in my left heal while landing my kite. It hurt today indicating that I did not get it clean (cleaned and patched it well this evening). For no apparent reason my new 12 m kite’s main bladder started getting soft. I discovered this, fortunately, before going out on the Atlantic Ocean just south of Avon Pier. After pumping it up a second time I did have time to do some pretty neat beach jumps and a couple of heal drags across the beach. Today’s surf was expected to be between 4 and 6 feet, but I missed it. Maybe that is a good thing. Did some grocery shopping. Spending the night in Avon.
Tue 5/19 – Today’s high was around 58 with a cold north wind and a little sun toward sunset for a while. Had two kiting sessions today. The first one was a short one around 11:15 am trying to ride on the 5’2” Naish Custom Fish in too much wind for a surf board beginner. I went only a little over half way to the Washout, my intended destination. Mark Hanes made it all the way. A kiter cought my kite for me at a house on Osprey Way. I did about a 10 foot butt drag landing the kite although my 8 m kite was at the edge of the wind window and fully depowered,
- The second session started around 5 pm. Had fun with my trusty 30 cm twin tip board. Still lots of wind but the familiar board made all the difference. Did quite a few pretty good jumps and various carves. Did not try to jump too high, due to the high winds. Did I say it was cold? I was ok while riding, but got chilly in my wet suit later. It took me about an hour to quit shivering.
- In the afternoon while waiting for the wind to decrease (which it never did) I started purging files from my little Sony ICD-R100 digital recorder. It had accumulated several years worth of names, notes etc. Thus far I got rid of about 13 minutes in 43 files. Now the little goodie is more useful for things such as recording the weather radio for quicker access to the forecasts.
Mon 5/18 – It was cold last night and forecast to be colder tonight – upper 40’s and windy. I never got on the water today, although, when the temperature warmed up to 54 degrees (berr), Mark did a sound-side downwinder from Frisco Woods Camp Ground to the washout on his 7m kite. I took a few test videos of him riding on the way down. We had a cold driving rain most of the day.
- The grip dip from my camcorder viewfinder project has been gradually dissolving the Rubbermaid container I had stored it in as indicated by the container getting softer to the touch, the lid starting to sag and the outside of the container smelling like the dip grip. I bought peanut butter and jelly in a glass jar, dumped the contents into my almost empty peanut butter container, washed the jar out and it should store the dip ok.
- Spending tonight xin Frisco due to tomorrow’s forecast northeast winds.
Sun 5/17 – Around noon I tried the Naish Custom Fish rental to possibly replace my old Gastra 170 cm air craft carrier for low wind in flat water and for the surf. During my one mile downwinder the board seemed pretty responsive and got good reviews on the Internet. I’ll probably spend the bucks to buy one, but first want to get rid of the Gastra because I do not have room in my van for three boards. I tried to get up on a surf board without foot straps. My antics certainly kept the newbie’s entertained.
- I met up with a regular OBX friend, Mark Haines, from Cincinnati. We will scope out the weather tomorrow morning and probably do some riding together. A powerful cold front came through this afternoon and tomorrow’s forecast is for N WINDS 25 TO 30 KT WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS UP TO 35 KT.
Sa 5/16 Spent last night in Buxton, NC as a 10-50 mph south wind was forecast for today – an no wind project day. Turned out to be a southwest wind about 20-25 mph so rode at Waves, NC. It was demo days for Liquid Force, so I tried out a 10m kite and two directional surf-type kite boards. Accomplished several rather ugly carves from healside to toeside and a few puny jumps. Then I did a $40 rent/demo of a Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x a7.5” – barely able to fit in the board room (compartment under my bed in the van.
Fri 5/15 – 9:00am: Have had heavy rain for the past hour, and from the looks of the radar , it will intensify before it quits - usually kills the wind. At times like these I appreciate my little van – comfortable and dry working on my website.
- I did some shopping and then went out to the Ramp 43 area at the end of the pavement on the Cape Hatteras light house road. Gene Mereue had told me about the place which is good on a south wind. There wasn’t enough wind to go out in the surf so I put up my Contra 14 and showed off with some beach drags and beach jumps. I gave Joe an up-close and personal demonstration while Rob, his dad, looked on. Evidently others were also looking on, as when I was finishing up rolling up my kite a family came by my van with enthusiastic questions. Of course I told them how neat kiteboarding is and suggested that they take lessons.
Thu 5/14 - Did an ocean downwinder on a southeast wind. The water was really turbulent – a lot of crashing froth with me in the middle at times. I held my own, though. Did lose
my board about three times but was able to get back to it each time. The wave action helped make it easier, keeping the board ahead of me so I simply had to body drag to it. I had intended to go from the Buxton motels to at least the Avon Pier, but had enough in 4.6 miles to Askins Creek. I hitched a ride back to my van with… Dimitri, of Eclipse Kites.
- Sun & Run sessions: pulse after run (well, jog) was 130
- Project wise, I did the final rubberized dipping of my camcorder viewfinder adapter – now letting it dry for a day before trying it on the camera. Added an index cap to my van's weather station’s anemometer mount to give it more lateral stability, as the weather station started looking a little like the leaning tower of Pisa.
- Tonight I watched the first part of Real Kiteboarding’s Surf DVD, so I have some things in mind to try tomorrow if there is enough wind to go on the ocean. Forecast is for S 20-25 in the afternoon.
Wed 5/13 – This will be dubbed as a no-wind day. There were a few kiteboarders out, but nothing to get excited about, so I spent the day visiting, shopping and working on my camcorder viewfinder adapter project. Took some more pictures of the project and did the dipping of the viewfinder adapter. I used Plasti-Dip from Home Depot that is normally used for rubberizing tool handles. I spent forever (not quite) finding a suitable container for the black rubberized liquid. The container had to be large enough to accommodate the adapter, short enough to avoid air space that would allow the liquid to dry out and have a tight seal for storage. I finally found something by Rubbermaid, got the adapter dipped and dipped about everything in the van that I could find, not wanting to waste the stuff.
- For the first time here on OBX I ate out - at the Atlantic Coast Café and thanked them for their free WiFi by adding a link to their website on my SHOPS & SERVICES web page.
- Spent last night in Waves and spending tonight in Frisco (24.5 miles south) in anticipation of 20-25 mph southeasterly winds tomorrow morning – good for a north-bound ocean downwinder.
Tue 5/12 - Not much wind today, but from the north which meant Kite Point on Pamlico Sound, south of Avon. Not quite enough wind at Kite Point to stay upwind so worked my way .3 miles down to the next turn-off south (HASOU1 in my GPS files).
- Pump lubrication update: The combination of Dry Lube and WD-40 seems to be ok on the pump #1 (plastic shaft), but resulted in sort of a lumpy black mess with pump #2 (aluminum shaft), hopefully not dissolved rubber seal. Both are Cabrinha kite pumps. Latest try on pump #2 was to lubricate the shaft with power steering fluid after cleaning all the gunk off with paint thinner (mineral thinner). Stay tuned.
- Drove up to Kitty Hawk Kites in Waves where I put my 12 m Cabrinha Switchblade II on consignment. If you’re interested in it, let me know before they sell it.
Mon 5/11 – Stopped by Ocean Air and met John who wanted to do an Atlantic downwinder in spite of the dreary weather. Of course I was game. I put up my 12m, but would have been more comfortable with my 8m. I did quite well until my board came off my feet out beyond the breaking waves, so it was not redily washed up on shore. In the midst a little sleet (John was probably correct when he declared it was only hard pelting rain) and blowing wet sand, we mutually agreed to scuttle the rest of the downwinder, walk along the beach back to Ramp 38, hitch hike down to my van and drive it to his rental house near the beach from which we left in the first place. I felt good that I did not get cold in my full wet suit (just cool) – even without wearing a helmet.
- After all that I thought about going down to Frisco Woods Camp Ground on the sound sidde to catch a side-on-shore wind, but it was still raining, I was dry and my wet suit was wet and cold. Instead I worked on my camcorder viewfinder project. Took some photos in case I want to send the project into a magazine and cut the bottom out of the square container so it fits over the LCD screen and checked the placement and focus of the lens from the loupe.
Sun 5/10 – This morning I visited with Charlie, Chief Honncho at Ride Hatteras; not too much wind today and the best of it was in the earlier in the day. That was fine with me, as after last evening’s rowdy session I experienced some pain inside my left knee. That may be evidence that I am getting older, bolder or that I am a pansy. At any rate iced it several times and took it easy on an Ocean downwinder. The Atlantic was relatively flat and the winds mild. I only did a couple little jumps, a couple kite loops and a lot of carves from healside to toeside.
- I fixed my two kite pumps around sunset. Big mistake, as the mosquitoes attacked me when I was outside the van and then haunted me the rest of the night inside the van. I learned: Dry Lube does not work; WD-40 appears to work if you use it on the pump rod BELOW the top (unscrew the top). Don’t use it above the top unless you want it to collect sand and dust and to ruin your pump seal.
Sat 5/9 – Epic conditions today. Did my favorite flat-water downwinder, anywhere, from Planet of the Apes. Went into a number of inlets, played in the No Ache Island slick for over a half hour, rode through my usual three canals and the Salvo Slick. I took out at Salvo Day Use Area because I didn’t want to push things too much on this, my first real downwinder of the season. Also it was getting late for lunch.
- Drove south to the first turnout north of Avon (HANOR1 in my GPS files) where I met Jim Jacobsen, Bret Howell and Harry Hasllet. We did a 2.3 mile sunset downwinder from there to the old coastguard station that we call Chimmi Changa House ( HACOAS in my GPS files). The wind had picked up considerabally. I believe I was the lightest on the largest kite – my 8m Switchblade II. The others were on 5m kites and such. Needless to say, I was pretty well lit.
Fri 5/8 – Made it to Hatteras Island, NC; visited three shops (Kitty Hawk Kites, Hatteras Island
Sail Shop and Real Kites); rode a little from Kitty Hawk Kites’ new Waves site; writing post cards to mail tomorrow before the postage rates increase (gonna save 7 cents!); big winds forecast for tomorrow.
- Highlights of my arrival was one of the shop guys saying Arizona Lou! Welcome home!
and another giving me a special handshake and a hug (no not that kind!).
Thu 5/7 – Mostly drove today after shopping & doing a heat/chill/heat of my lower R arm. Due to the above, getting to bed late last night and changing to Eastern Time, I didn’t get away from Conyers until about 11:00 am.
- Spent the night in Tarboro, NC.
Wed 5/6 – Changed my priorities slightly: Rushing to OBX to kite has taken a back seat to treating my right forearm and giving it more time to heal before hitting
the water again.
- Phoned into the Herman Cain Talk Show on WSB, Atlanta, GA to give some views on the Fair Tax and ROTH IRAs.
bottle
Tue 5/5 - Big decision (for me) today was to not go to the emergency room or urgent care (my only options for medical coverage away from home) in Houston for the inside of my right forearm – shows a little swelling & feels like a bruise but has no discoloration. I have been treating it for about 10 days and it has not improved. I try not to rush to the doctor without first treating things myself, but I don’t want to make the same mistake I made last year. I had a painless top right biceps detachment. By the time I got to Phoenix, three months later, it was too late for likely successful corrective surgery.
- Drove 540 miles today to Picayune, MS. With much driving @ 70 mph, got 22.6 mpg, which is pretty good for a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan. High points of the drive were taking about 25 miles of bridges over some LA bayous and crossing the mighty Mississippi.
Mo 5/4 – Spent last night off the island at the Port Isabelle, TX Wal-Mart so I’d be first in line to get my van battery replaced and oil changed. Then on to Dan’s Auto to get a new front H/AC blower motor and speed control resistor installed. Also to the Port Isabelle Library to backup my eeePc to my 300g hard drive and a few critical files backed up to the Internet.
- Comparing the forecasts for OBX and SPI, I made the decision to head out at 4pm. Drove 198 miles to Refugio, TX for the night. Tonight's Blog is courtesy of the DQ's wifi south of town.
- Before I left Port Isabelle, I gave my queen-sized cool-weather comforter to a Mexican guy who said he was going to Mexico and would give it to someone who needed it.
- Thanks to all the folks at the South Padre Island (including all those from Colorado), the shops and the old and new friends. I did get out to ride on the Brownsville Ship Channel once and made downwinders on both Laguna Madre and the Gulf of Mexico. Nineteen days riding out of 19 days on the island is pretty good!
Sun 5/3 – Was going to eat breakfast at the Grapevine Café using the $15 certificate I won at yesterday’s GPS Speed Run, but decided to check out the wind on the gulf at the Pavilions (look for SpPavillions on my GPS LOCATIONS for the exact spot).
- Ended up having lunch at the Grapevine Cafe after doing a gulf downwinder, covering 13.0 miles on the 6.4 mile downwinder to Access 5 to the north. Got separated from my board once (no board leash) but got back to it ok. I did tweak my right shoulder in the process. Good run! I handled myself acceptably in the surf – even caught a couple waves - sort of.
- Yesterday and today I stopped by the South Flats to check how the South Padre Island Kite Roundup was going. I hear that the pros have been putting on quite a show but I missed it all. After all it was windy and I was out riding!
Sat 5/2 – I lost again – got dead last (3rd out of three) in the GPS speed run. However, With 34.8 mph I did break my old personal speed record of 32.4. Eighteen days of kiteboarding out of 18 Days here at South Padre so far.
Fri 5/1 – Around 9 am my van was the third vehicle out on the North Flats. By 4 pm there were about 32 vehicles and about the same number of kites on Laguna – and that does not include the hardy but dwindling windsurfers.
- Did a 1.3 mile fun downwinder from the South Flats to the North Flats with Nancy and Frank. Frank has been kiting only four days and was not staying on the board very well. By the end of the downwinder he was riding for extended periods of time. Needless to say he was pretty stoked about it.
- Later I got a lot accomplished: organizing my kiteboarding GPS coordinates to add to LOCATIONS here on my website, managing my SFR rental property in Phoenix,resolving my checking account and actually getting my 610 kiteboarding GPS points uploaded to my website (see LOCATIONS)
Th 4/30 – This morning’s project was to contrive a communications helmet so an instructor could talk to me while I was riding – specifically for a jump lesson. The project involved internet research, tie-wraps, my hockey helmet, family two-way radios, Dollar Tree cell phone holders and condoms. The end product might remind one of the Princes Leah look with the hair buns on the side of her head.
- Took a jump lesson (not using the communications helmet) from Jason of South Padre Island Kiteboarding
South Padre Island Kiteboarding, who gave instruction and demonstrated technique as he followed me around with his kite. During the lesson I did a Superman and donated my most expensive ever ($32) sunglasses to the bottom of Laguna Madre.
- Weather station is not working properly, as the + & - keys are sticking
We 4/29 – Wearing my bran new Logo T-shirt, I took all the Kiteboard shop managers out to breakfast. Well the half of them that showed up. I presented my Pie Theory and then all enjoyed a nice breakfast and visit.
- I had two sessions on the gulf today using my big twin tip as a surf board. The first was 40 minutes of local riding before lunch and the second one was a 3.4 mile downwinder to the Wana Wana Bar before supper. The surf pretty high and I did pretty well both sessions.
4/28 – I spent the morning and some of the afternoon finishing up my logo T shirt project and showing the rib-knit practice shirt off at some of the shops. The shirts look pretty good, but next time I’ll use the enhanced print mode to make the colors stand out more.
- I talked Jeff & Lori into driving the 16 miles from the North Flats to my point on the Brownsville Ship Channel. All three of us rode for almost an hour. We had better wind than anybody on the island.
Mon 4/27 – They say a person worries about the right amount, but about the wrong things. I do not know what I should have been worrying about, but it was NOT matching the T shirt colors. After spending a couple hours on the matching project and printing out a strip of small test logos of different colors and after ironing on the tests, I found that the transfer’s white
background is actually transparent – naturally perfectly matching any T shirt color. Spent most of the day arranging for an ink jet printer to use for the test iron-on transfer, visiting friends and finding a hand iron.
The conditions at the flats were pretty miserable with the tide flooding way up and gusty off-shore winds. I finally got to the gulf for a brief surf session. I’m glad I went out and did pretty well, never letting the kite touch the water and never losing
my board off my feet. I even jumped a few turbulent waves coming my direction to eat me up.
This evening I got my T shirt images flipped and everything should be ready to print out tomorrow – no color matching!
Sun 4/26 - The wind blew all last night and all day today. Since it was from the southeast it was gusty on Laguna Madre, but I kited there anyway because I wanted to demo (try out) different boards from Naish. Yesterday I demoed a Naish Helix kite. I liked the light bar pressure.
- Before kiting today, I fixed the anemometer on my van's weather station. That means getting the powder-fine sand out of the bearing. What a tedious job.
- I compared boards: 1) Naish Haze 136cm (good for carving & speed), 2) Naish Thorn 134 (good for pop and jumps) and my own Lite Wave Stealth. I'm pretty happy with what I have, although it would have been nice to have had the Thorn for yesterday's GPS Speed Run. Way downwind and with an off-shore wind, I got my kite tangled (twisted and half inside out) attempting a kite loop with carve to toeside in gusty winds, got the kite untangled, did a drift launch and kited back to shore. Much better than walking back in chest deep water towing a kite.
- It is impossible to match on-screen colors to printed colors - especially T shirt colors, but I worked on it late this afternoon for my website T shirt project.
Sat 4/25 - 10am, spent $10 to register for this afternoon's kiting division of the SPI GPS speed runs and then updated my website and yesterday's blog.
- In the speed run I came in second place with 23.4 knots (26.9 mph). Speedy Marcell got first place with a little over 35 knots. My second place prize was a $25 gift certificate from On The Beach where I bought a pair of driving sun glasses and Chums.
- This evening I figured how to change the background of my website logo from transparent to tan - hopefully to match the color of the T shirts with which I plan to use it.
Fri 4/24 – This morning rode the gulf from Pavilions 2.6 miles to Access 13. Cut downwinder short after swimming in twice because the kite would not relaunch due to low-pressure bladders. Then, contrary to the forecast, the wind all but died.
- For the afternoon - reworked van's weather station mount (now steel reinforced) with supplies from Ace Hardware and, in the evening, attended the South Padre Island Windsurf/Kitesurf spring dinner - probably 300 there - majority, windsurfers.
Thu 4/23 - My friend Christian was supposed to phone me about meeting up at the Pavilions for a gulf downwinder, but never did, so I went to the South Flats since the wind forecast looked better tomorrow for the gulf and today for Laguna. There I and found newbie’s Matt and Rick. While Matt was contemplating a popped strut bladder, Rick and I did the 1.3 mi downwinder to the North Flats. Although Rick had only one day of kiteboarding under his belt, he did quite a bit of riding and kite re-launching – on his 11m – a sizes bigger than anyone else dared take out. What talent!
- I used my 8m high wind kite and did higher, longer and further jumps more constantly than ever before (but still unpredictable). I know some were high because the tops of the windsurfers’ 16’ masts were blow the horizon – I think. I’m not entirely sure because during most of the good jumps, I was controlling my float and contemplating how I was going to land the things, which I did most of the time.
- For those of you who have bugged me about my board leash: I stopped using it a few days ago. Also, for the record I have been doing most of my riding in just my kite shorts - what freedom to be out of the wet suits.
- Instead of going out again, I worked on the mount for my weather station’s anemometer, which came off at the Pavilions. Fortunately the anemometer landed in a sand dune at the front of the van and was not damaged.
- At Beach Access #11 this evening I had a lovely visit with Keith and Marie of Keep It Clean Janitorial Services. They might even be interested in kiteboarding!
Wed 4/22 - I phoned the managers/owners of all the kite shops and invited them out to breakfast on my dime – Lou’s pie theory. More on that later
- What a day for kiteboarding! This is why I came to South Padre. The south wind started and gradually built 8during the day. I found Kevin, who also wanted to do a downwinder from the south flats to the north flats. We found Jim who joined us. Neither of them was up to kiting in the canals, but I had fun in them (you can see them on Google Earth). Kevin and I made a second downwinder. I was FULLY powered and my jumps improved. I hated to come in – and the wind is forecast to be good through Sunday.
- Around 5pm I decided to practice taking action kiteboarding pictures and videos with my new camcorder, which did not seem to work properly. That lead to an all-evening project of reading the instruction manual (on my computer of course) and organizing and reformatting SD cards.
Tired but happy – and it is still windy!
Tue 4/21 – Spent the night on the island then to Port Isabel on the mainland to do an fresh water undercarriage rinse – twice to get it good – after driving in the salt water and mud on the North Flats the last two days.
- Worked on my website T-shirt project. Hope to have my logo and URL on a muscle shirt. I now have the iron-on transfer kit and the shirt. Just need more time to get the graphics finished, but the priority is kiteboarding. Speaking of which:
- Did my first '09 gulf downwinder: from the Pavilians (Isla Blanka Park), 3.4 miles to the Wana Wana Bar. Would have gone further, but there was barely enough wind. My "aircraft carrier" was pretty good in the mild surf. Five buks and a taxi got me back to my van.
Mon 4/20 - Spent most of this morning in and out of Wal-Mart & locating new wiper blades. Among other things, I bought a digital cooking thermometer. Now I can use my Jet
Boil to heat water with an alarm at the exact desired temperature without wasting fuel. Boy does Jet Boil heat quickly!
- Worked awefully hard trying to do a gulf-side downwinder, but it was not ment to be after a Jef's stuck kite pump nozzle and other problems. Finally got in some good riding on La Guna Madre from the north flats.
Sun 4/19 – Since it was forecast to not be windy today, I hung out at a couple of the local shops and then went to the county park on the south end of the island for a shower and a little sun bathing. After a late lunch my van weather station indicated a northeast gust of 30 mph so I headed to the North Flats where I found most of the parking and rigging areas under a couple inches of water. Didn't like the idea of driving through it, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
Sun 4/19 – Since it was forecast to not be windy today, I hung out at a couple of the local shops and then went to the county park on the south end of the island for a shower and a little sun bathing. After a late lunch my van weather station indicated a northeast gust of 30 mph so I headed to the North Flats where I found most of the parking and rigging areas under a couple inches of water. Didn't like the idea of driving through it, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
- It was worth it. I did pretty well on my jumps and was much more relaxed doing them, using the hints I got from a video and Joel this morning.
Sat 4/18 – Got to the swap meet early and inflated my kite. I started the price at $499 and reduced it by $25 each half hour. Had a few lookers, but no takers.
- Spent much of the afternoon visiting with Mark Doyle & company at the XL Kite shop (see Shops and Services for their link).
- Had an excellent 1:20 late afternoon session at the north flats with my 12m kite & 130cm board. Reasonably good jumps trying to apply Joel’s ideas (see 4/17). GPS distance: 10.3 miles. At one point I counted about 50 kiters out on the water.
Fri 4/17 - First thing this morning I stopped by South Padre Island Kiteboarding to get the low down from Joel on jumps then took my torn 12m Cabrinha Switchblade 2 in for repair, so I can sell it at tomorrow's swap meet here. I think they did a good job.
- Rode out at the north flats and stayed upwind better than any one else with my Contra 14 and 170cm board. Naturally the best wind was early while I was messing around getting my kite repaired
Thu 4/16 - Although the wind was about 60 degrees off shore, after stopping by Air Padre to join the South Padre Island Windsurf/Kitesurf Association, I rode, with about 40 others at the North Flats . There, I mentioned to Jason, from South Padre Island Kiteboarding, that one of my goals was to carve to toeside with a kite down loop. He said to start the carve BEFORE looping the kite. It worked!
- Anna and Jacob, from Canada, were taking lessons. Anna offered to take pictures of my kiteboarding with her 20 mp Canon. She took around 977 photos. I started going through them tonight.
ffi
Wed 4/15 - Enjoyed a brief visit with Mary Beth and Johnnie in San Antonio, about four minutes from my route on I-10. Then on to South Padre Island.
- I rode on the Gulf of Mexico for almost an hour with my 8 m kite from the Pavilions on the south part of South Padre Island. I did reasonably well, considering not riding waves for about 9 months. This is the first time I rode locally in the surf, without making it a downwinder, although I DID have to walk back
Tue 4/14 - Made it as far as San Antonio, TX, parking out front of a friend’s house for the night.
Mon 4/13 - No wifi here in Santa Cruces, NM so am updating my blog with my cell phone as a modem. Yes, I DID make it the 394 miles to here, leaving Phoenix about half past noon. It surely is comfy working here in my little mobile office.
- Although the forecast winds at SPI are not great, meeting up with my friends there will be.
- Saw the longest train yet: Southern Pacific along I-10; over a mile long; six big engines pulling and one pushing; going 45 mph via my speed match.
Sun 4/12 - Easter dinner with Harold Dean and Burnadette and family, my x-inlaws. Always a good time. Harold is into technology and his latest project, Live Walpaper, is a large plasma TV with a live high-def image of a pegion nest. You get a good close up of the feeding and nurturing of the chicks as well as an occasional domestic squable.
- Back home now pulling loose ends together for the trip. You'd think I'd have it down after all these years, but it is amazing how many things change with different computers, power supplies and gadgets. You try packing everything you will need for the next 3 1/2 months!
Sa 4/11 - Digital TV conveter box: installed & programed so my analog VCR, VCR/DVD & TV will be happy while I'm gone. The hardest part was disabling the auto shut-off feature.
- Downloaded Go FTP 2.1.85 to download some van pics, courtesy of Brian Goldsgurry of Kite World Magazine. The pics will eventually make their way to THE VAN LIFE.
- Final shopping before departure
Fr 4/10 - Rod Layman, is a cool dude into skate boarding, surfing and SCUBA diving - and is entrigued by kiteboarding.
- He is the pastor at George and Cindy's (my brother & his wife) church where we shared a Good Friday service in Mesa, AZ.
- Programing my VCR and VCR/DVDr combo to catch as much of NBC's Tonight Show as possible sans commercials during my trip nearly strained my brain.
Th 4/9 - My new prescription glasses arrived from Zenni Optical (www.zennioptical.com). I got regular bifocals and progressive lenses to try both - both for less than a single pair of glasses would have cost from the corner optician. I think I am going to settle with the progressives.
- DEPARTURE DECISION: I have decided to depart Mon the 13th. Destination? I will decide, that morning, depending on the forecasts - likely SPI or OBX (Outer Banks, North Carolina).
- I guess I did ok at the HOA meeting, as the board (two of the three board members were there) moved to consider my resolutions. Funny: I, the only non-board homeowner there, have had more experience in association matters than both of them combined. It was neat being asked for information and input regarding their decisions.
We 4/8 - NOAA has downgraded Saturday's wind forcast for SPI (South Padre Island, TX), so I will delay my Phoenix departure to arrive there the day before the next blow. In the mean time...
- I prepared for tomorrow evening's HOA (Homeowners Association) meeing which I will now be here to attend. Due to our management company's "interesting" approach to things, I will suggest that our board pass two resolutions: 1) Election to the board shall be by written secret ballot; 2) The management company shall publish information submitted by board candidates as it submitted and without alteration.
Tu 4/7 - To make the trip a little easier, for van: made new window box, reinforced sunshield holder, made office drawer divider, reattached "kitchen" counter top, made sand-proof cover for weather station buttons and loaded all kiting equipment for the trip.
Sa 4/4 - Uploaded new BLOG page to website and added BLOG button to the top of every web page - Whew! And to think I'm sitting here doing this when the wind at South Padre Island right now is blowing South 22 mph, gusting to 30!
- Installed ball-valve whole-house shutoff down stream from drip system controller, to prevent an aquatic catastrophe if a water pipe breaks in my 13-year-old house during my big kiteboarding trip. I have a knack for stretching a small job to an all-day project - especially when I then had to replace the master shut-off gate valve which wouldn't turn back on!
Fr 4/3 - Got BJC-50 printer working with eeePc900ha, so am good for the road with it
- Installed software and saved hard drive image of Asus eeePc900ha computer to 500gb external USB hard drive - now in fireproof box
- Set up BLOG - new web page
Th 4/2 - Set lawn sprinklers most of day, as a half inch of "rain" is needed to water in the pre-emergence
- Trip to West Phoenix to Fry's Electronics for USB/DB25 cable to use between eeePc900ha computer & Canon BJC-50 printer
- Couldn't stay out of the gym any longer - to LA Fitness + shopping
- to bed late
| Canon BJC-50 Color Bubble Jet Printer |
" |
Tu 3/31 - Camcorder experiments - surely has lots of neat features! Two of the best are being water (sand) proof and being able to save about 6 hours of video to one 8g SD card.
Mo 3/30 - Researched my Vanguard mutual funds & determined that I needed to do some shuffling due to my 2008 IRA contributions without earned income.
- Finished AZ and federal taxas and submitted them electronically!
- Contacted Go Daddy, my website host, to see why my info@arizonaloukiteboarder.com emails are not being forwarded to my regular email - they're working on the problem
Su 3/29 - Skipping my daily gym workouts now, determined to get things done and get gone to SPI (South Padre Island, TX.
- Drove over to Mesa for lunch and to visit with my brother George & his family
Sa 3/28 - Front yard work: Pruned little Brazilian Pepper tree, trimmed my four natal plum shrubs and dwarf myoporum ground cover - should last the four months of my big kiteboarding trip
- Reorganized all files for New Drivers & Downloads and Recovery and copied them to the new 16g "Recover" SD cards for my eeePc900ha net-book computer. Now, when I finally leave on my trip, I'll have backup plan in case of a computer catastrophe.
Fr 3/27 - Found: value of all your vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, ATVs, boats etc) should not exceed 50% of your annual income - unless you want to be financially stressed
- Bought two 16g SD cards
Th 3/26 - Fry's Electronics has super neat oscilloscopes - would be fun to experiment with if not so expensive (appx. $1500 - $4200)
- Putting the camcorder through some tests - expect 12 hours of recording on one 16g SD card.
- First heard of the Tata Nano, new car from India for $2000
| SanyoVPC-2 water proof camcorder |
" |
We 3/25 - As a reward for getting to bed early for an entire week I splurged on a new SanyoVPC-2 camcorder. The main reason: this little unit is waterproof down to 4.5' for an hour. That means it should also be sand proof - important with kiteboarding. All you do is wash it in a bowl of water and dry it when you are through.
Back home in Phoenix now, March 10th, getting ready for my big spring/summer trip: Sending my Asus eeePc900ha netbook computer in for repair, getting my van's emissions and annual checks, getting things organized, cleaned up and getting taxes done are high on the list of things to do. Of course, working out at the gym will be part of my schedule.