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Note: While not kiteboarding, I plan to update my blog weekly (usually Wednesdays) - or when something special happens.
Sat 5/1 May Day - Elevating my right foot as much as possible today, two days after cutting it pretty badly. I spent about five hours in my van at Canadian Hole working on my website and visiting with various windsurfers and kiteboarders. With all the French Canadians it sounded like I was in a foreign country. Later did a little mandatory shopping in Avon and then drove up to Rodanthe where I spent a couple hours in the new Forbs Candy Coffee Shop in the Kitty Hawks kiteboarding facility.
- Spent the night with my foot elevated about 12" in Rodanthe, which is a little farther north so I am only 32 miles from Walgreens for antibiotics in case the swelling of my foot does not go down tonight. I try to avoid antibiotics as they throw my digestive system for a loop that typically lasts for months.
Sun 5/2, May Day - Glory be, the swelling is mostly gone this morning! I spent most of today back in the Forbs Candy Coffee Shop with my foot elevated. Did a lot of tweaks to my website, including new links etc. The people here are certainly nice. I am trying to pretty much ignore the kiteboarding and only checking the forecast once a day instead of twice.
- Spending the night in Rodanthe with my foot elevated after icing and redressing the still-weaping wound.
Mon 5/3 - It was my plan to spend most of the day on the couch with my foot up in the Forbes Candy Shop. I had some Internet from my van in the parking lot from Waves Village and discovered I could work on computer/website projects and take care of my basic needs with less walking by remaining in my van. Later in the afternoon I did some grocery shopping at the Avon Food Lion. I get a full-sized shopping cart and ride it like a scooter. That way I do not have to walk on my sore foot. The foot is no longer painful unless I try to walk. That is a good sign, I guess.
- It surely was difficult sitting on my butt when the weather is so beautiful and windy. Later I picked up my repaired seat harness from Charlie, visited a while then got online to schedule bill payment and spent the night south of Buxton.
Mon 5/3 - It was my plan to spend most of the day on the couch with my foot up in the Rodanthe Forbes Candy Shop. I had limited Internet connectivity from my van in the parking lot from Waves Village and discovered I could work on computer/website projects and take care of my basic needs with less walking by remaining in my van. Later in the afternoon I did some grocery shopping at the Avon Food Lion. I get a full-sized shopping cart and ride it like a scooter. That way I do not have to walk on my sore foot. The foot is no longer painful unless I try to walk. That is a good sign, I guess.
- It surely was difficult sitting on my butt when the weather is so beautiful and windy. I added a link to Waves Village on my Shops & Links page and later picked up my repaired seat harness from Charlie, visited a while then got online to schedule a bill payment and spent the night southwest of Buxton.
Tue 5/4 - Do I hate sitting on my butt! It has actually gotten sore from lack of circulation, but my foot is getting better. I checked out the schedule for Real Kiteboarding and this Saturday, May 8th is their Best Kite Demo Days so my goal is to get my foot in condition to be able to try out some Best Kahoona kites then. That will be nine days since the foot injury.
- In the morning, while sitting in my van, I organized my Big Pie Breakfast and did the necessary phoning and emails for arrangements and invitations. This is when I treat all the shop owners or their representatives to breakfast and talk about enlarging the sport of kiteboarding. As the son of a medical doctor, Barton, of Hatteras Island Sail Shop, had some good ideas of what I should have done with my foot to lesson the time to get back on the water.
- The plan I have been devising to speed up my slow computer will involves uninstalling various pieces of software, reinstalling some of them and, maybe reformatting my C: drive (Ugh!). If things crash in the process I may be offline for a while. I'll try to keep you posted.
- Later, in the afternoon, I stopped by Island Cycle and had a nice visit with John, the owner, and his two-year-old son. Spent the night at Doug's, southwest of Charley's.
Wed 5/5 - Hung in my van until just before noon, then drove south to Burrows Red & White market to check with Alan, the owner, about the Weather Channel kiteboarding video that disappeared from the web. Then to the library across the street for a couple hours. I tried to speed my computer up by uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials. That made no difference so I reinstalled it and, did some online stuff and continued software preparations for reformatting my C: drive.
- About supper time I drove up to Beach Pharmacy for foot bandages, Avon's Food Lion for onion and garlic powders, fixed supper then drove on up to the Waves DQ for the night.
Thu 5/6 - Cut my hairs first thing this morning, but ran out of time before I got to the trim. Then went to the Atlantic Coast Café to set up for my Big Pie breakfast at 8:00. Although I invited four shops, only Chris Moore from Kitty Hawk Kites showed up. We enjoyed catching up with what is going on in our lives and families, talked about kiteboard trips we had been on together and trips we are planning... and ked about ideas for increasing kiteboarding. It was a pleasure to buy his breakfast.
- Until noon I hung around the Atlantic Coast Café, visiting with others and taking advantage of their WiFi to update my website and download ActiveSync, my smart phone synchronization software. I'll need that if/when I wipe my C: drive.
- In an attempt to get my body moving again, I joined the Koru gym in Avon for a month, did a light full-body workout, used a high-tech exercycle and took a shower. My scheme to cover my cut with a bandage to keep it dry did not work out. It got wet, so I dried it with a blow drier and cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide.
- Spending the night in central Avon.
Sat 5/8 - The big day to get back on the water after cutting my foot nine days ago. After jump starting my van using my jumper pack, breakfast and a visit to Forbes Candies to recharge my jumper pack and get online for the weather, I drove down to Real Kiteboarding and found, from Ryan, that the Best demoes were going to be 19 miles south at Kite Point. I drove down and walked out to Kite Point with my wetsuit, helmet, harness and booties. I hate wearing booties as the board never feels secure, but it is a good thing I had them on when I stepped on a protrusion on the bottom of the sound right on my cut. Also I remember why a avoid Kite Point on a southwest wind due to its gustiness.
I got to see one of only four 2010 Best control bars in existence at this time. It has some incremental improvements over the 2009 version.
- Spent some time doctoring my R cut foot which was not in too bad of condition after the Kite Point riding, then, at Ride Hatteras, visiting with Luke and adding a logo to my SHOPS page for the Wind-NC link.
- Spending the night in Avon.
Sun 5/9 - No kiting today due to poor wind. I spent much of the day at Canadian Hole visiting, working on my computer/website and sunning (the latter for 20 minutes). I renamed my Smart Finance etc. web page to, simply, Smart Stuff. It will be a lot easier to tell people about it with the shorter name.
- My R foot was throbbing so I removed the occlusive cover, thoroughly re-cleaned it, applied three butterfly closures and applied a tefla pad. Then toward evening, courtesy of Free from Ride Hatteras WiFi I downloaded about 60 hours of my favorite talk shows.
- Early to bed (that means 10pm) in Avon because tomorrow's wind is forecast to be early and from the north. That means cold.
5/10 - Early to rise (that means 6:40am) for morning routine, to Kite Point with a pit/banana stop at Food Lion. There were already three kiters on the water when I parked along the road. I was fairly comfortable in my Oneill wet suit and neoprene hood, using my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4, Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” strapless surfboard and booties. Using booties with foot straps is horrible. I had fun doing four different kinds of switches in both directions until I scraped my left hand on oysters after I missed one of my switches in shallow water. Guess I'll have to learn NOT to catch myself with my hands, which seems to be a natural instinct. You know how a little blood spreads. My hand looked pretty impressive with blood al over it. I had about six significant cuts. More doctoring. At least I can still type on the computer.
- People surely can be nice. Julie offered to roll up my kite for me since I had to keep my hurt hand up in the air to reduce the chance of additional bleeding under the bandage. Thanks, Julie, you're the best!
Toward evening, I diagnosed and fixed my electric water system (needed a fuse), fixed my van antenna windsock (a grommet had come out) found a spray top for my hydrogen peroxide bottle (for my first aid kit) and rode a Koru gym exercycle for nine minutes set on interval, and studied another instruction manual page for my Corner Office graphing scientific programmable calculator.
- Spending the night in Avon.
Tue 5/11 - Lately I've had to use my jumper pack to jump start my van an average of once every couple of days. It could be that its battery is on its way out.
- You might want to check the annual fees for your retirement investments. You could end up with half as much for retirement. I just added the information to Suggested Ratios on my Smart Stuff web page.
- No wind for kiteboarding today so I spent time managing some finance online and talked to Alberto, who arranges the Brazil trips for Kite Adventures. Wait until you hear what we're cooking up!
Wed 5/12 - Two good kite sessions today. Since I had to wear booties to protect my cut right foot, and since foot straps and my booties are a horrible mixture I was forced to ride strapless on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard. The first session I did almost all jump switches. All that jumping was hard on my cut foot (see 4/29/10) and also my left cut hand (see 5/1/10) bandages lost their seal, so I had to redo everything. It turned out to be a good thing because the second session my hand bandages held thanks, in part to the expensive gloves by Thunderwear, which I have been carrying around for over 10 years. The second session I did all step switches and, actually became pretty good at it. Top speeds for the sessions were, respectively: 22.0 and 23.0 mph. The first session I was out about an hour and traveled 6.72 miles. In the second session I covered 9.98 miles in 1:20. Also I tried using my seat harness as a waist harness by simply not putting my legs through the leg straps. It worked pretty well.
- I enjoyed visiting with John Harris, owner of Kitty Hawk Kites. I topped off the evening at Rodanthe Water Sports with a visit with Helmut and Peggy, whom I had met about two years ago in San Carlos, Mexico.
- Spent the night in Avon in Charlie's back yard: very quiet.
Thu 5/13 - No kiting with today's easterly breeze. I spent most of the morning looking all over for black neoprene cement to fix a slit in theh leg of my O'Neill wet suit Evidently it happened when I cut my hand on the oyster bed. I got it and a new 6 meter Best Nemesis NXG. I thought it would be a little kite that I could just stick in somewhere. It is but comes in a HUGE bag that is larger than the bag for my 14m kite.
- I drove down to Salvo to get a little sun and met Joe and Peter and Peter's wife Vera. We may do the famous 1-mile downwinder from haNor1 to haNor2 (my GPS waypoint names) tomorrow morning.
- Spending the night in Rodanthe
Fri 5/14 - This morning was all about kiteboarding with Joe. When the wind came up we did the one-mile downwinder (his first downwinder) from the first to the second turnouts north of Avon. He got so he could ride pretty well in both directions - was very happy.. I did a bunch of step switches at 8-second intervals and also some when the board was pointed downwind on a jibe.
Found two nice nautical numbered water color paintings at the Hot Line Thrift Store in Buxton to give to Charlie in celebration of the installation of his bathroom sink & mirror. I found exactly the right-sized box and wrapping paper at Dolar Tree.
- Had a nice visit with Luke at Ride Hatters, picked up the new Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS receiver and got the screens and all configured to my liking, and for variety, had Kipperd fish (herring) sandwitch for supper instead of turkey. Spindling the night in Avon.
Sat 5/15 - Good kiting session today - the best I have ever had a Salvo Day Use Area. The wind there was not gusty like it usually is on a southwest wind due to today's WSW wind. Joe and I got there a little before noon. He was ecstatic about staying upwind for his first time. He really did well. I met Marcus there and we decided to go upwind (about a half mile) to the cross canal that takes us to the east end of the Salvo Slick. We had fun and each went back upwind to do the canal several times. I got off my strapless surf board once in the middle of the canal (the first time for me) but got back up and riding with little problem. We rode two hours; top speed in the canal was 24.1 mph; total distance was 15.8 miles.
- I moved the instructions for my programmable Corner Office scientific graphing calculator to the bottom of my Technology's Cool web page, so I'll still have it if my computer quits working. I'm still getting my digital ducks in a row for reformatting my C: drive to speed the computer up.
- Spent the night in Avon.
Sun 5/16 - No kiting today. I washed my van, which included a fresh-water undercarriage rinse after washing all the bugs off in preparation. Yesterday evening after riding at Salvo I had cleaned the raised white letters on the tires, so the van looks pretty nice now.
- Still reading the programmable calculator instructions, although I jumped down to the programming section because that is really why I bought it.
Mon 5/17 - No kiting today but we tried. Joe and Marten and Barbara (whom I met this morning) drove the 27 miles down from Rodanthe to the Frisco bath house for our first experiences - for them in the ocean and for me without foot straps. The 16k easterly wind had deteriorated to about 8 mph by the time we got there. It would have been an ideal situation with 1-2 foot waves; only if we had wind. We enjoyed hanging around the beach. Also it was the first time I gave a two-car radio kiteboarding tour using my little family radios. That part was fun.
- Hung around Ride Hatteras, later in the afternoon, got my computer files ready to send to the 1 terabyte drive for a backup, soaked R foot & L hand in Epsom salt solution and spend the night in Avon.
Tue 5/18 - Some wind early this morning, didn't last long & wasn't worth getting out for before breakfast. Got soap, paper towels and paper towel holder for Ride Hatteras' newly configured bathroom. Spent some of the morning and most of the afternoon copying my C:Documents and Settings & D: drives to my 1tb USB drive. Added a map of St Lucia to TRIPS and a link to Zenni Optical on SMAART STUFF.
- Spending the night in Avon
Wed 5/19 - Last night it occurred to me that I could spend some time in Norfolk with Anne's (my daughter) family since no wind is forecast for the next few days. I phoned Anne and she was ecstatic over the idea, especially considering that Robby will be away for the next few days. She said it was really a Godsend.
- Charlie, the owner of Ride Hatteras, left by plane with Toeside Tom for San Diego to drive down to Baja California where big storm-surge waves are expected starting Thursday.
Before leaving I put soap and paper towels and a holder in their bathroom.
- After a brief visit with Joe in Rodanthe I headed on north and arrived at the Norfolk Navel Station in time for supper and to look at "Bath-Time" and "Tea-Time" photos of Brooke taken by a professional photographer.
Thu 5/20 - Today I walked over to the Navel Station gym and had a quick full-body workout. I'll plan on going every day while I am here. I jogged back and my healing right foot seemed to do OK - a good sign. Anne and I enjoyed tea in the beautiful weather out front and then I "watched" Brooke sleeping while Anne took Katie Rose to swimming class.
- I tweaked and otherwise modified seven of my web pages today. Most noticeably removed a bunch of old stuff form my home page. I spent the evening visiting and trying to figure out my calculator.
Fri 5/21 - Robby arrived home this evening from his 3-day air force trip. We spent time catching up and planning for the weekend.
Sat 5/22 - All five of us did a combo trip which included a sports store, book store and lunch with delicious home made ice cream/yogurt for desert. I boght Katie Rose books about Benjamin Franklin, Louis Braille and Helen Keller. I started reading the latter, by Margaret Davidson, in the car on the way home. It is a very well written and captivating Scholastic book.
- My nephew, Shane, had his first plane crash. He has been flying radio-controled planes for several years.
Sun 5/23 - I watched Brook while Anne, Robby and Katie went to Pilotty, and then both girls while Anne and Robby went on a date. It was good to be able to help them out. One of the highlights of my weekend was reading the entire Helen Keller book to Katie Rose. We both enjoyed the close experience.
- I spent considerable time researching kiteboarding locations around Norfolk and Virginia Beach with various wind directions. It was interesting, but of no use, as the National weather Service has degraded Monday's forecast to northeast 5-10k.
Mon 5/24 - Said "Good bye" to Katie and Robby before they left for their respective schools, packed up the van, said "Good bye" to Anne and Brooke and drove the 133 miles down to Avon, stopping at various electronics stores trying to get a cell phone battery for Joe so we can communicate without his phone quitting after a few minutes. I made it to Avon, but with no cell phone battery.
- Spending the night in Avon
Tue 5/25 - I met Mike Sidel of the Weather Channel, who was doing a live segmet at the Avon Pier. I offered to get him and/or Jim Cantore kiteboard lessons at my expense. It would be pretty neat for them to highlight the lessons as both a human interest story and using the weather for fun. I'll try to send him a follow-up email.
- Two kiting sessions today. Joe was still around waiting for wind so this morning we met at the Avon Pier to plan our strategy for the northeast wind hovering around 20-25 mph. My ocean plans were jinxed by what looked like 10' surf - too much for me, especially with a surf board and no foot straps. We kited together at Frisco Woods Campground: Joe locally and me on a downwinder to the washout with Falon, Patrick and Komika. I was on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” strapless surfboard and 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-2. What a fun group and nice people! Later I tried out and tuned my 6m Best Nemesis and was able to stay upwind with it on my surfboard.
- Got an evening phone call from Mathieu on Claude's Canadian cell phone. They're here until Saturday - always a pleasure to hang
with Claude, Mathieu Dan, Karen, Richard, Lorraine, Charles Genevieve and little Victoria when they come down from Quebec.
- Spending the night at the Cormier's house.
Wed 5/26 - Awesome kiteboarding today with two great sessions, which it should be, considering it is the last wind forecast for several days. About 11:30 am I did a 1 ¼ hour, 6.9-mile downwinder from just south of Kite Point to Frisco Woods Campground with my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 and, of course my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard without foot straps. I started off by jumping up on the board with both feet and stayed up with all the transitions and (step) foot switches until I got close to my destination, then fell a couple times. The kite got wet in the rain but never touched the water. What a trip! Top speed was22.9 mph going through the Buxton Slick. While I was accomplishing all this Joe was down at Frisco Woods Campground trying out a new weed fin with his windsurf board. He shuttled me back to my van for lunch, nap and visiting around trying unsuccessfully to demo some Liquid Force kites.
- For the second session I rode locally at Frisco Woods Camp Ground for about a half hour on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” strapless surfboard with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2, trying to dance
on the board, which turned out to sing a tune and step to the music. The whole idea was to move around the board more comfortably. Falon, Patrick and Bobby came by on a downwinder from Kite point and invited me to join them for the additional 2.4 miles down to the washout. I only fell twice during the 1 2/3 hour session. We all arrived at the washout about sunset, with the wind still blowing.
- Spending the night at the Cormier's house.
Thu 5/27 - Beautiful day - for beachcombers and fishermen, but not for the wind sports. I drove down to Charlie's (kite repair guy) south of Buxton and got a small kite bag, suitable for my new 6m kite to replace the monstrous bag that came with the kite, did some shopping, dried and de-sanded a couple of kites at the move parking lot; at the Comier's paid a credit card online, updated my blog, added a link to my Shops & Links page, added SHADOW BOX to my Technology's Coool web page and enjoyed supper with the family.
- Spending the night at the Cormier's house.
Fri 5/28 - Today's plan: With E winds averaging 20 (16-22) at Frisco Pier at 9:45am and forecast to hold through the day, is to try the ocean with my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” strapless surfboard from just west of the Frisco pier - maybe going the .4 miles to the Bath House, the 1.2 miles to the walk-over opposite the washout or the 4.0 miles to the museum opposite the ferry docks. All this will be determined by the size of the surf and how I do for my first time on the ocean with the surf board.
- If the above does not work out, I'll probably hang in the ocean-side parking by the museum and provide shuttle service for others.
- What actually happened? Dan, Mathieu and I put in the Atlantic at the Bath House and slogged for about 3.2 miles toward the museum until there was not enough wind to keep going or to keep my kite in the air in spite of numerous kite loops. I ended the session by swimming in with the kite in tow. Thanks to Dan for help with my kite and my board.
- Spaghetti Dinner was with the Comier's, where I spent the night.
Sat 5/29 - Not much happened today wind wise but I did accomplish quite a bit. The Cormier's departed for Quebec at about 4:30 in the morning and let me turn the house keys in to Outer Beaches Realty. I really appreciated it and was able to do two small loads of laundry including my couch/bed cover, vacuum my van, take a bath, charge some of my electronics and still get the key back on time before 10:00 am. I managed to pass the leftovers they left for me on to friends next door and at the various shops on the island. That way I did not eat all the peanuts, chocolate chip cookies, Triscuts sauces etc.
- I spent most of the rest of the day monitoring the wind which never came and visiting Billy at the Avon Pier, Luke at Ride Hatteras, old and new friends (including Kristen and Jessica, her daughter, Matt, Bob Luis and his wife Marcia) at the Canadian Hole (where I also sunned and jogged). Later I had a delightful visit with Joan and Joanna, newbies practicing their kite skills with a 12m Cabrinha on the ocean beach at Ramp 38.
- This evening I boxed up my drysuit, wetsuit and oversized gigantic Best 6m kite bag for shipping home to Phoenix since cold weather is not anticipated for the rest of the trip. This way the suits will not deteriorate in the heat of the van and also gives me more space in the van
- Spending the night in Avon.
Su 5/30 - Good day w five sessions, mostly hanging around the first turnout north of Avon (my GPS waypoint HANOR1). John was giving Nick a lesson from the first turnout to the third turnout north of Avon (my GPS waypoint HANOR3) and invited me to join them with Nick's dad serving as chase transportation, which I did with my fully powered 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 and Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” strapless surfboard. Later Nick and I did it again only I used my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 and, for the first time since I cut my foot, my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board with footstraps. My jumps impressed Nick and his dad, but not me too much. At the third turnout, both runs, someone got stuck 2-wheel drive, blocking the road and had to be rescued before we could get out. So much for human intelligence!
- The remaining three sessions were short and local from the first turnout north of Avon. Mark, from Ocean Air let me demo a 6-meter North Havoc. (I had to make adapters because the Goof Proof gender of the North kite is opposite of the Cabrinha. Then I flew my new 6m Best Nemesis for comparison. The Nemesis has less low-end power and appears to have a higher maximim, which is what I wanted to complement my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2. I had to shorten the back pigtails to match my bar's lines.
- Spending the night in Avon.
Mon 5/31 - Happy Memorial Day! Spent the morning hanging around Ride Hatteras, backing up my changed files to my 16gb SD card and finding all the possible .exe programs to use to restore my C: drive, as it is not clear which to use, buying 6 tickets to Dave Ramsey's Phoenix live event (to give away), and arguing with Toeside Tom about the Reef in the Sound. After lunch I added thermal underwear and Pie Breakfast stress balls and pens to the box to ship home to Phoenix, went shopping at Dollar Tree and Food Lion, checked the current wind conditions along OBX, drove north, stopping at Ocean Air, First turnout north of Avon, Planet of the Apes (where I met Rick and Brian) and finally Kitty Hawk Kites in Rodanthe where I kited in the epic conditions, which is the reason I come to the OBX.
- I rode for 1 1/3 hours with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2, starting with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board until the right foot strap was abrading the top of my foot. Then I landed the kite to put on booties and switch to my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard without foot straps. Everything was just about perfect. I did a fast "dance" on the board and lots of foot switches, 100% by jumping with both feet at once. Top speed was 23.9 mph strapless on a starboard tack :). Distance traveled was 8.38 miles.
- After I got all my kite stuff wrapped up, I went over to Forbes Candy & Gifts where I saw Mandy and had the privilege to meet Anne and Lainie. Lainie is the gal who supplied me with ice for my cut food a month ago. It was especially neat to finally meet her.
- Spending the night in Rodanthe.