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Note: While not kiteboarding, I plan to update my blog weekly (usually Wednesdays) - or when something special happens.
Thu 4/1 - Happy April Fools Day. No fooling I finally made it to South Padre Island's famous North Flats about 6:30pm. That gave me time to rig and ride for almost a half hour before sunset, thanks to the additional hour, courtesy of Daylight Savings Time. Peak gust was 25.7 mph
- Covered 622 miles on the road today - Spending the nights now in or near South Padre Island, TX
Fri 4/2 - Got up and went out the North Flats relatively early this morning, as it was forecast to be windy only in the am. It was good meeting old kiteboarding friends from Texas, Colorado and Canada. Beautiful sunny, windy morning. Had two, almost hour long, sessions, both with my 8m kite, as the winds were averaging about 20, gusting to 29. The first session was with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board. I did one or two good jumps, lots of carves of various types and, generally was more aggressive and felt comfortable.
Sat 4/3 - I went early to the Louie's Back Yard parking lot for the South Padre Island Windsurf/Kiteboard Association (SPIWKA) swap meet to give away some kiteboard footpads and set up a sign for a $20 drawing for people who visit my website. Since there was little wind, I visited the SPI kiteboard shops. Toward evening Joel, from South Padre Island Kiteboarding, was out in light winds at the North Flats with his 14m kite skimming along in water only a few inches deep with a strapless/finless skim board. He is pretty good at jibing by spinning the board 180 degrees with his feet. Although I was tempted to join him, I seased the opportunity to take a series of tests of him in action with my Sanyo video camera and new Canon still camera.
Sun 4/4 - Had two kiteboarding sessions nicely powered with my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4
and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board - could have been three sessions except for the first one: After some riding together from the South Flats, a friend and I decided to do a downwinder the 1.3 miles to the North Flats. After I arrived at our destination I spent the next three hours looking for him, driving around, making phone calls and even involving his parents, who were also concerned. Finally we found him hanging out with a friend. He did not go where he said and did not notify anyone of his whereabouts. Must be nice to be young and carefree!
- The second session from the North Flats I worked on jumps and jump jibes. Top speed was 28.2 mph (12.8% higher than the peak wind gust of 25 mph.
- I added shop hours to my links for South Padre Island.
Mon 4/5 - A couple of kiteboarding firsts after checking out the Pier 19 restaurant (yes it really is on a pier) where I will host the Big Pie Breakfast Friday morning. First, I rode for the first time without a wet suit this season - just my board shorts. Second I rode my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 surfboard for the first time with foot straps. Sure had trouble getting going on it, but compared to no footstraps could go faster (27.0 mph), jump and jibe a little better. The jibes were not pretty.
Tue 4/6 - Awesome kiteboarding day of three sessions, all with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2: two downwinders on the gulf of 3.4 miles from the Pavilions in Isla Blanca Park to the Wana Wana Bar. The first was with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board (thought I'd start with what I felt most comfortable with, considering I hadn't been in the surf for about 10 months), and the second with my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 surfboard with foot straps added. I did well both runs. Got off my board about four times each but managed to get back to it ok.
- Then to Laguna Madre (sound) for some relaxing plane ol' fun with the 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board, doing jumps, jump jibes, carving to toeside jibes and jump switches to healside & toeside.
- The evening was not so awesome. I had found a note on my windshield suggesting that I had spent two much time on the beach with my kite in the air and should not have been doing beach jumps. The authors were nice enough to leave their phone numbers so I could contact them as soon as I figured out their area code.
- About 9pm I was by myself, minding my own business, parked in the SPI Convention Center parking lot reading a book when the SPI Police Department, in the form of Officers Rigsby, Chaves and Caranta stopped by to check me out and remind me that there was no camping within the city limits.
- Spent the night parked on the beach - van is surely getting crusty with salt spray!
Wed 4/7 - No kiteboarding today due to mild wind, so I hung around Isla Blanca Park at the south end of SPI near the Pavilions, laid in the sun, cleaned the white letters on my tires, took a shower, drove across the causeway to Port Isabelle for a car wash that included a fresh-water undercarriage rinse, scheduled an advanced kiteboard lesson for tomorrow, hung around a couple kiteboard shops, added a solar light to Technology's Cool, $20 drawing to my Home Page and caught up on email and this blog
Thu 4/8 - good day kiting with a peak gust of 30mph around 11am. At the North Flats I rode for about 25 minutes before returning to shore to phone Air Padre to see if my scheduled lesson was on for this afternoon.
- Good lesson with Jeff, the owner of air Padre. We worked on techniques that applied to jumps that would transfer to other maneuvers, such as the 360 spin, off which I did lots. Never quite landed one but became technically much better and no longer intimidated by them. The intimidation for me is more the idea than the actual doing. During the 2-hour lesson we also worked on air jibes (I call the jump jibes). For the lesson I tried a different board, a GK waist harness and used an 11.5m Best Kahoona kite.
- Thanks Jeff!
Fri 4/9 - No kiteboarding today due to insufficient wind. Started the day off with my Big Pie Breakfast at the Pier 19 Restaurant for the four kiteboard shop owners on the island. None showed up to get the goodies and good conversation so I enjoyed eating by myself and reading The Myth of Market Share by Richard Miniter. Since I had planned on buying breakfast for others anyway, I spotted a father and his three children and told the manager that I would pay for their breakfast. Within a few minutes the wife and a fourth child joined them, so the ante went up a little, which still cost me less than the shop owners would have. The family appreciated my favor and that made me feel good.
- I had arranged to have Dan's Auto across the causeway in Port Isabelle check my van's squeaking serpentine belt. It was squeaking a little when I left Phoenix and has become continuous and has gotten progressively louder. Yesterday it was so loud it almost hurt your ears. How embarrassing! When Dan looked at it today there was no squeaking whatsoever. It took him less than two hours to get the belt and tensioner replace so the problem should be permanently fixed now.
- While in Port Isabelle, did some major grocery shopping at HEB, spent a couple hours on the Internet at the library, checking email and adding a weather link to the OBX sectioin of my shops web page. Later I purged some St Lucia photos and spent the night in Port Isabelle.
Sa 4/10 - Went to the SPIWKA swap meet and, gave Patty Hoben her $20 from my last drawing, started another $20 drawing (which no one ever won) and put my old Garmin Street Pilot c330 up for sale for $30. It did not sell.
- Drawing: Enter between now and when I leave the Island (SPI) by sending me an email through this website with "$20" in the subject line - no emails unless you are the winner and definitely never any spam. Your chance of winning is good, because the only people who know about it are those who I have told about it personally or who have read today's blog. (No one entered, so no one won the $20).
- Dan's Auto did a good job again. This time correctly installing a replacement radio antenna for my van, repairing the botched up job from the company in Phoenix. I gave my old Garmin Street Pilot c330 to Dan with complete electronic user manual in exchange for a future oil change. He was blown away, being his first unit.
- Three riding sessions today. First one I was overpowered with my 14 m Cabrinha Contra and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board (my van's weather station showed a peak gust of 22 mph - only did one tack. I did try a small APEX Ion Xpine waist harness courtesy of South Padre Island Kiteboarding. It may have bothered my back a little.
- Second session was with my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 and the same board with a john shortie spring suit. Got chilly so ended the session after about 29 minutes and 3.53 miles.
- Phenominal third session, changing to my triathlon 3/5mm smoothskin wet suit. Was comfy for a little over two hours of riding, covering 20.1 miles with a top speed of 28.4 mph working on jumps, spins carves, kite loops etc.
- The air certainly is "dirty" here. My weather station gets covered with sandy, salty grime, especially on the upwind-facing surfaces - and it is about 12 feet up in the sky.
Sun 4/11 - Three sessions at the north flats, trying to see how fast I could go relative to the speed of the wind as measured by my van's weather station. The best conditions for this are a fully powered big kite, fast board, broad reach, smooth water and as much wind as you can hang onto. All tries were using my 14 m Cabrinha Contra. The first run I went 36.3% faster than the wind with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board (max wind 20.1 & max speed 27.4 mph);
- In the second session, with my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 surfboard with the footstraps, I went 26.6% faster than the wind and the session involved a .6 mile walk-in. There were lots of other kites in the water at times due to the gusty off-shore conditions. The main reason the kite wouldn't relaunch was it had softened due to a slow leak in one of the struts, which I intentionally did not isolate because I did not think I was going to be out very long. This sport certainly keeps one humble and occasionally lets you know when you do something stupid.
- Record of 41.3% faster than the wind was the result of my third session with the Contra and Fish with footstraps .
Mon 4/12 - Today was mostly rainy with little wind. Good chance to update my blog, socialize and fix my expensive prescription glasses I must have sat on.
- Since it was somewhat windy I went out to the North Flats in the evening. What a sloshy mess - mostly standing water from the rain. Although I had a slight headache, I rode at 6:40 for about 40 minutes; tried the usual including spins and am glad I went out.
- Spent the nighht at Beach Access 5. Had to get up in the midlle of the night (actulay 6am) to jumper-pack start the van as the battery indicator got down to 10.89 V and the van would not start. I'll have to watch my voltage more closely. Hopefully the battery is not on its last leg.
Tue 4/13 - Two sessions: After breakfast, stopping by South Padre Island Kiteboarding and a little grocery shopping I drove down to the Pavilions (south SPI, Gulf side). It seemed to me there was enough wind to ride but no one else was there so I decided there probably was a reason and went to XL Kites and used their free WiFi to schedule a credit card payment, research the charge for the botched antenna installation, phoned the comppany for a partial refund and downloaded my checking account statement information.
- Back down to the Pavilions, I found a 20 mph 75-degree-to-shore wind - and a few kiteboarders out. So I went out for my first session with my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 surfboard with the foot straps. Went north and then back south to where I started, but was so close to shore I had to start again. This time I went a ways and dumped the kite in the water and ended up walking back a half mile. The second session I did about the same only the walk was a fifth of a mile. Andre, there, suggested I get more speed to either punch through or run from the waves - also not to oversheet the kite, which could be the cause of my dumping it in the water.
Wed 4/14 - One wonders what the good deputy was doing at 9 in the morning looking into the private area in the back of my minivan, why he would park his truck blocking the entrance to Access #5 just to talk to me, and how he got the authority to ban me for the day from Beach Access #5 and the Isla Blanca Park but he did, he did and he has. After talking around some of the shops, I understand that this particular deputy has developed a pretty bad reputation. Here is the complaint I will be filing with Cameron County:
SPI Complaint against R Hernandez: Inappropriate Confrontation and Excessive Force Incident: Approximately 9am 4/14/10 at Access #5- Most of the rest of the day I visited kite shops and got their take of my morning experience and mailed off checks to the IRS & Arizona Department of Revenue for my tax due. Toward evening I went out to the North Flats (since I was banned from Isla Blanca Park) to kite my heart out and get the frustration out of my system from this morning.
I was discretely relieving myself in into a bottle the back of my mini-motor home van with privacy glass, which I have been doing for over 30 years with no one ever noticing.
I was inappropriately detained and confronted by Constable Hernandez for "exposing myself in public" and "disorderly conduct." He appeared to be very angry, was abrasive treated me with disrespect, unnecessarily grabbed me by the right elbow and forcibly moved me to where he wanted me to stand outside my van, where he, with his hands, dug to the bottom of the front and back pockets of the cargo shorts I had on.
Without permission, Constable Hernandez entered my van and, without my permission, rifled through the personal items I store in my ash tray.
I believe this conduct by an officer of the county is inappropriate and uncalled for, especially in dealing with a 68-year old visitor to the island
Feel free to contact me if you need more information.
Thank you for your time.
Thu 4/15 - I drove to Port Isabelle, visited the library there, researched the wind forecast at SPI, Corpus Christi & OBX, wrote the above complaint, put my van through two fresh water undercarriage rinses/car washes and spent the night in Port Isabelle.
Fri 4/16 - A busy day getting off to Norfolk to visit my daughter Anne, Robby & family. The day started with an oil change at Dan's Auto after which I filed my complaint from April 14th with Cameron County. Constables Horacio Zamora, Captain Robert Mora, Lieutenant Silverio Cisneros and others were very helpful. Thank you, guys! Although filing the complaint took about half a day, I believe I did the right thing.
- Finally got away with a full tank of gas about 2:30 pm, spending the night at Channel View, TX (near Galveston) after covering 385.6 miles.
Sat 4/17 - Keeping the pedal to the mettle, trying to get to Norfolk before Katie Rose's bedtime, I drove 697.4 miles to Valley, AL for the night (about half way between Montgomery & Atlanta).
Sun 4/18 - Made it to Anne & Robby's in Norfolk, VA about 9:30pm after driving 697.4 miles for the day. Total drive from SPI was 1766.9 miles. Got a good night's sleep in the guest room of their house on the Navel Air Station.
Mon 4/19 - Major events today were seeing Katie Rose's school (she's in kindergarten), updating this website's links for weather and VA Beach kiteboarding, reading stories to Katie, watching and playing with Brook, and, of course, visiting with Anne and Robby.
Mon 4/20 - Hung around with Anne's. My daughter Anne had a cow when she found I was storing my drinking water in an old jerry can that had had diesel fuel in it. She helped me find a replacement: a 6-galon fresh water tank from West Marine in Nags Head. Went on an excursion with Anne and Katie to the YMCA where I had a good workout and watched Katie's swim class. Later we all ate out at a Anne & Robby's special restaurant, had a rip-roaring game of tag with Katie Rose, read a bedtime story and caught up on this blog.
Wed 4/21 - Went with Robby to GSS (Global Supply Solutions) to look at the most unusual shoes/booties you've ever seen: Five Fingers by Vibram; picked up Kattie at shool; made a complete shopping list; went shopping at a thrift store and Wall-Mart with Anne; Walked Brook around the house; read Katie a bed-time story; resolved my checking account; planned tomorrow's drive; updated this blog.
Thu 4/22 - Last night Katie suggested that I stay one more night. After checking the wind I decided it was a good idea and came up with a whole list of things to do online and with my computer during the day. The list was mostly frustrating: I backed up my data drive to a 1tb external hard drive I brought along, then the mistake. I started an image of my C: drive. After over two hours of churning, the image was not half done and, while waiting for it, got my things packed, so aborted the process. The source of additional frustration was my new Foretrex 401. I followed the procedure given by the Garmin email and the 401 still did nothing.
- Watched Brook during Anne and Robby's appointment as we had arranged and then stayed for the night with the real final bedtime story for Katie.
Fri 4/22 - Walked Katie to school (a 20-minute walk) and jogged back. Beautiful sunny morning, but my spring allergies did kick up a little. Spent a half hour on the phone, mostly on hold, with Garmin and was disconnected when the representative was getting a Foretrex 401 like mine. Following the procedure he later emailed me did no good >: (
- The visit with Anne (my daughter), Roby, Katie Rose and Brook was an exceptionally good one - especially considering it was during the week when they were busy with closing on their new Oklahoma house, getting ready to move, Anne's Polity, Katie's swim lessons, school and kindergarten homework, plus other things. I was able to watch the kids when it did the most good. Neat! Finished packing up the van and got away from the Norfolk Navel Air Station at 1:30pm.
- Arrived at Nags Head West Marine about 4pm and spent the next two hours on my new water supply system. The $76 6-galon tank they had saved for me was too wide so I bought their 5.5 gal jerry can for $16.99. It is a perfect fit and works beautifully with modifications I made with the ideas and assistance of Lisa and John Michael at the Nags Head Ace Hardware located at Mile Post 11 on the sound side of the Croatian Highway. Now Anne can breathe easy as I drink my tap water from a jerry can that does not smell like deisel fuel.
- Made it to Kitty-Hawk Kites in Waves about 8pm. Gotta rest up for the big winds forecast for Sunday!
Sat 4/24 - Stopped by the first four kiteboarding shops to say, Hi
, as well as Ride Hatteras, Avon Pier and Food Lion. In the process I studied more high-wind kites and waist harnesses and switched to an articulating hook on my waist harness.
Sun 4/25 - Chasing the wind today, as I do any day when it is expected to be windy.
- About 1:30 for an hour and a half I was mostly fully powered on the sound with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board. Getting out was an experience, as on the first try the left steering line evidently got wrapped around the wingtip and shortened it about a foot. I did not notice it until after the kite arced up and over through the power zone and I sailed through the air, superman style. Spectacular, and exciting, but not what I had in mind. I walked my kite back to shore from about 50 yards out and relaunched normally. Including the walk in, I was out for about 1.3 hours and traveled 7.32 miles.
- I aborted the second session even before, AJ let go of my kite. I could have gone out and had fun but, the wind in the upper 30's, was a little high considering the launch and landing environment.
- That evening, I had a delightful visit in Dave and Meg's 5th-wheeler with them, Bob & Martha and Jim Lukey, whom I had met at Kitty Hawk Kites (HKH).
Mon 4/26 - Famous 6.5-mile, 2.5-hour downwinder from Planet of the Apes to KHK with Jim Lukey: his first time on this one so he did not take the canals. We both had fun and even jumped some of the little narrow grass islands on the way. I broke my personal speed record with 34.0 mph in the No Ache Island (Planet) slick. You'd think someone would pass a law against having so much fun as we had!
- Spent the night in Hatteras village near the ferry docks after getting on the Internet from the library parking lot in the evening.
Tue 4/27 - On a west wind, had the best session yet with my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 strapless surfboard using my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 downwinding from the Washout to Frisco Woods Camp Ground. I made most of my foot switches, including step switches & jump switches, although doing them to starboard (the right) is more difficult for me. My maximum speed was 20.9 mph with a peak wind gust of 23.3 mph.
- My driver's power window made a loud POP and then quit working, although the motor still ran. I ended up using clear packaging tape to keep the window from falling open. From the NAPA in Buxton I ordered an after-market regulator
which includes a new motor and everything, because they don't sell the cable separately.
- Spent the night at Charley's in Buxton to be handy to pick up the van window in the morning. Boy it's cold. Forecast low of 45 degrees tonight.
Wed 4/28 - I picked up left driver's window regulator for my van and then stopped by the Hot Line Thrift Store. I bought a $3 Columbia sweatshirt, ideal for wearing under my drysiut: no hood to interfere with the dry suit's neck seal, Ύ sleeves that give the wrist seals room to work, both inside and outside pockets and a two-way zipper. I never darken the door of stores that sell this expensive clothing - except for thrift stores.
- I did a downwinder with Sylvan and other French Canadians from their Avon rental house, using my dry suit for the first time in about two years, with my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 and on my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 strapless surfboard. When I got down 2.9 miles to where their truck was parked, no one was around so I figured they had continued on to south of Kite Point. Although I thought they were ahead of me, it turns out that they were slower and ended up looking for me when I did not arrive at their truck. In the mean time I was walking barefoot along Highway 12 and hitchhiking the 3.7 miles back to their house where my van was parked. It looks as though I was the bad guy this time, not doing what we had agreed. In addition I didn't kite too well, missing a lot of my foot switches. The drysuit turned out to be a good plan, considering how much time I spent in the water.
- Later, a little before 7pm I stopped by Ace Hardware for a small spray can of penetrating oil to use on the rear hatch latch mechanism, which has not been working very well. It took me about an hour to remove the trim panels and get everything back together, working properly now.
- Spent the night in Avon
Thu 4/29 - Today started well and ended up pretty bad. I drove up to Waves and then after lunch I went to the beach, laid out in the sun a short while and did a beach jog; then saw my friends Matt, Trip, Dave and Tommy who run Real Kites
and looked at various kite bar systems some more.
- About 5:30, with winds in the mid 20's I went out at Kitty Hawk Kites, Waves with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin tip board. During the 40-minute session I made a lot of jump jibes and better one-handed jumps with dinky board grabs. I didn't correctly land any of my attempted spins, but did, for the first time, over rotate on one by about 90 degrees. At least I got the full rotation and then some more.
- I rode to shore and switched to my Naish Custom Fish 52 x 17.5 strapless surfboard and actually did well for 20 minutes, making most of my jibes - all with jump switches!
- CUT MY FOOT - Things deteriorated while I was walking out with the surf board for that last session. My right foot stepped on two objects - felt like solid metal. Back on shore after kiting, I noticed I was leaving blood prints on the grass. Not good, especially considering what dogs do on grass. I played doctor, loaded up my spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide, cleaned the wound out, applied occlusive bandages and elevated the foot all night. Didn't get much sleep due to the writhing pain until about 3am.
- After kiting I tore my seat harness by backing over the safety line while the harness was hanging on my rearview mirror.
Fri 4/30 - After soaking my right foot in Epsom salt for a half hour and examining it, I decided I should have a professional look at it. I drove 46 miles north to Beach Medical. They said I had waited too long for stitches so they used steri-strips which are sort of super butterfly closures. I phoned PacifiCare Claims, went by the library for a photocopy and then to the post office to mail in the $85 bill for reimbursement.
- Drove down to Buxton for a beach access meeting then on to Charlie's 65 miles from Beach Medical to deliver my harness for patching and for the night.