November in Maui

When the pineapple express hit Vancouver hard in late November-torrential rains and warm weather from the mid Pacific, it's time for some Maui winds!

Roland Lewis, a realtor buddy and I headed to Maui with our beautiful respective partners, Anne Marie & lovely Lisa in tow for a Hawaiian vacation.

I was looking forward to riding some real waves on my the Wainman 6'1'surfboard which I had picked up earlier in the fall from Chris at Kite Naked and I wasn't disappointed. While we were there we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Jaws and it was going off! very impressive to see firsthand.

Seems like when its warm and rainy here in Vancouver the weather is perfect for trade winds and waves in Maui! (take note-winks).

We pretty much kited every day on 9m or smaller and rode surfboards the whole time! Yea baby!
As usual the Smoke ruled and so did the Gypsy 6.5! (Awesome kites, give em a demo.)
Woo hooo- perfect timing for this trip!

see pics and drop me a note on the blog about your winter vacation!

the Fall storms arrive with a vengeance

All the hardcore Vancouver kitecrew had been hitting the beaches around here (Boundary Bay, Bellingham Bay) pretty good for the last couple weeks of stormy November southeasters and a couple southwesters at Ambleside-

...we've been getting hit every day or two with wave after wave of southeasters and then a southwest on the other side of every front as the weather deteriorates into fall & winter here.

I've been getting out at Boundary Bay every few days when I can get away from work.
Roland & I even found a secret spot with a left hand wave nearby!

The Smoke continues to amaze!
Great size, perfect for the lulls and sails overpowered very very comfortably.

The southwest direction is perfect for Ambleside right near the Lions gate bridge. This is an expert's spot because if you breakdown here on the wrong tide you are going under the bridge into a shipping channel- hope that never happens to anyone, as it will probably shut down kiting here. Crosses fingers.

A photographer friend  came along and took some photos, thanx Dale!

Nitnat lake kite fest

Every year there is a kitefest at Nitnat lake in the interior of Vancouver Island.
Its a thermal lake with the coast at one end and hot dry land inland so if the weather sets up it can be solid 20+ winds daily.

Unfortunately this year it had been a bit rainy and cool the previous few days so it didn't really have time to set up properly. However the wind gods came through at the last minute and although the skies were mixed clouds there was just enough wind for the event.

The first day was a long distance upwind race, most folks were on 12m and up, all I had was my 9m Wainman Smoke but I placed respectably in the top 3rd of the field regardless, racing on a OR twintip against raceboards and bigger kites.

The next day was gusty and holey, we did the boardercross with heats of 3 kiters, I didn't fair so well in my first race against the bigger kites partly because I got a last minute start from helping a fellow kiter in distress, just previous to the race.

Later that day was the freestyle comp with lighter winds.  I chose to sit it out and watch the fun.

The next morning there was a spectacular airshow by a kiter in an old war era plane (mustang?) lots of fun to watch as he made pass after pass over the lake, rolling and doing various acrobatic tricks in his vintage plane.

new wainman gear is in

Man oh Man, am I ever stoked!

The new Wainman Hawaii gear arrived from Chris at Kite Naked   -YA!
The new white Smoke looks wicked!
I have a couple kites for demo if you want to try an awesome kite...

...just saying...(laffs)

• Boss- 12 m.
• Smoke- 9 m.
• Gypsy- 6.5 m.

These kites are sweet: simple 3 strut design, bomber construction, great bar
and all the settings you could want. Drop me a note for a demo...

I also purchased a beautiful Wainman 6'1" Jimmy Lewis shaped surfboard
(in Ferarri Red no less) for some wave riding along the Oregon coast.

These boards come with the full kit- fins, straps, pads and even a padded bag with a driver!
How's that for value and protection for your sweet ride?!!!

check out all the Wainman gear at-

www.kitenaked.com  or www.wainmanhawaii.com

one of "those" days...

ya ever have one of those days?

You know- "Uncle Murphy's" breathing down your neck with his playbook in his hand making sure whatever can go wrong, does go wrong, but you soldier on because well what else are ya gonna do, and lo and behold,  life goes on (and on-grins) and maybe at the end something good comes out of it...

so I'm down there solo this time cuz, well, the gal pal was just plain tuckered out from following me around trying to keep up, and the payoff isn't as big for her as she doesn't kite that well (yet!).
anyways it was one of those late start days at Ft Stevens scoping out the wind at shipwrecks on a Sunday. The previous day I had noticed a small tear along my the inside of the seam of my center strut and I didn't want it to get worse or get sand in it so I put some sticky fabric on it the day before.

I made arrangements with a friend from home to leave my vehicle at Shipwrecks and carpool from to Lot C with my gear only to realize that the fabric had come off. I wanted to put something on it before the kite got wet so it would stick ( hmm this is turning into a longer story than I though-laffs) my friend wanted to head back out right away cuz he was driving back up to BC that afternoon.
So I tell him I'll catch up with him as soon as i could get back and head back downwind (sigh) to my car cuz I got a repair kit . I headed back toSshipwrecks downwind via car and in my haste to fix the first spot accidentally cut a worse spot in my kite fabric-yeesh-it never pays to be in a hurry, eh, kids?! BUT I don't notice it until i get back up to the lot the second time so once again I head back downwind ( not on a kite-arg!) to repair said mishap.

Anyways I'm trolling around waiting to hookup with some other kiters to get a ride back up wind to where I've already been twice! and I meet this guy who offers to give me a ride as soon as his friends show up.  I had been reading Chooch from NWkite forum talking about these Wainman Rabbits kites online, he had a couple and was travelling around to demo them at various location over the weekend. Anywasy i introduce my self and waddya know- same guy!

He offers to give me a ride up and as my kites sorta hooped I could use one the Wainman Smoke 9m.
Awesome! We hang out and I meet his posse, a large crew from Portland and  the Gorge, sorry guys no names. Great bunch of guys though. (uh... Stringer, Blair,... a couple more...urh..urh..nope brain hurts).

Anyways we all hookup for an awesome! downwinder , chasing each other through the waves & I get to try out thes awesome kites and Chooch sets me up with the contact info for Chris at Kite Naked who later generously hooks me up with these awesome! kites. We get two more awesome! ( do I use that word too much?) downwinders in before packing it in.

and that's how that bad day went from bad to good- just gotta keep keeping on.
Is that awesome! or what? (lmao)

Wait for it... ahhhhh....there it is... I love my life!

Summertime at the Oregon Coast

Man oh Man, I love the Oregon coast. From Astoria all the way through Lincoln City, Newport, Florence down to Pistol River and several points in between. If its not windy on the north coast, its likely to be windy in the middle or at the south coast and its a heck of a nice drive if its not, with lots to see and do along the way.

In the 90's I used to drive all over the coast discovering places to windsurf all up and down the coast. Now I still travel down from BC for some of the best kiting around. And its really not all that far away if you're going for a weekend- 5 hrs door to beach (!) and I'm hitting the waves at Shipwreck!

Lots of great trips this summer but most to Astoria/Ft. Stevens area and around Manzanita and a fairly unknown spot called Netarts. Ya I know, I'm giving it all away but that's what we're here for right?!
Besides how many people you think read this blog anyways-laffs.

If its not windy? Go surfing!

I love my life!

hot water at hunter

So I've been wandering around with this frickin' cast on my right hand.
The cast goes right up my fingers so i can barely grasp anything although i suppose that's the point.
Have you ever tried to everything left handed...I mean everything... (laffs) pretty tricky.

Finally got a waterproof cast on actually the cast they use these days is waterproof but you have to reqiuest a goretex lining which dries out rapidly. So I'm about a month in to healing my mild thumb fracture and am gonna spend some time kitng with a cast on.

I met this cool cat from Switzerland, Patrick who I've been driving around to local kitespots.
Took him to Squamish a few times and then we went down to the states. You should see this m.f. kite!
He has a cool weblog at unhooked.ch - apparently you can actually fly kites...as in way off the ground!!!  Check out the winter kiting entry for "Lunghin Pass " .
Be sure to press the British flag for english language translation.

We met the folks down at Bellingham kiteboarding and Andy & Andrew clued me into a couple nearby spots, Locust and Hunter, that I have seen people talking about on the pskite forum.
Super friendly gang at BKB and highly recommended for lessons and gear if you're in the area.

Locust is a giant shallow bay which gets a thermal flow very regularly, while not as windy as Squamish, it also blows even when the weather is crappy at Squish. The shallow bay is great for learning new tricks or teaching.

Hunter is further south at the end of a beautiful drive along the Chuckanut. Its is a muddy shallow bay and the water heats up. We were kiteing there in May in shorties and one day it was so warm the water felt like sitting in a hot bath when you fell.  We kited that day in rashie and shorts and its not even June!

There is a great spot to quaff a beer after at the Chuckanut Manor nearby, and happy hour apps are half price. Or you can make the short drive back up to Fairhaven or Bellingham for a variety of some wonderful restauarants after.

All in all a fabulous May and June...even if I was in a cast...

I love my life!

ack!

Just Fricking great! -broke my wrist ( scaphoid) at work.

frack no kiting for a while! Arrggg

3 days later!

I knew it was gonna be a good (read: windy) day when I witnessed a runaway boat, slip from its mooring in English bay and drift in unmanned to head for the rocks below my apt on Beach ave. The coast guard came to the rescue just in time (Yay coast guard!) and towed it into False creek, 

they left it on the beach high and dry as the tide went out ...oops.

 Matt Williamson from Windsure and I hit it big on the last day of March with winds were gusting 35+.

I was fully lit on my 7m Slingshot Rev, and Matt was overpowered on his EH 9m kite and had to quit shortly after he started but we got in a few passes along the swell at the point by the pool together first.

At one point the swell went right past the point and you could ride it along from the upwind point to past the point at the pool. that was fun!. I was stoked riding next the seawall as the sheeple wander along all bundled up wondering what the hell these two crazies are doing on the water in this wind.

I had brought my camera so when Matt came in I had him take some shots as I downwinded further along the seawall in fierce winds and freezing conditions. I was numb but pretty exhilerated by the time I hit shore at English bay.


We retired in style for beers to the Sylvia hotel.  Later we noticed someone heading out on a red 12m Best kite right at Englsih bay ( was that you?)  but it had quieted down a lot and he struggled to get out with the onshore winds.

Lester T. came by after work for a last minute session before dark and I got some pretty artistic shots of him in the fading sunset.

All in all an awesome day on the water


good times! I love my life!

spring northwesterlies in the Bay

Brrrr the cold northwesterlies are hitting English bay...

That means frigid temps and cold gusty wind from the Alaska front northerwesterlies.

The second beach is kind of a crappy launch unless the tide is right and often not as windy as Jericho but the swell is pretty cool and sometimes even brings out a few surfers and its sure fun sailing right next to the seawall. I invited a couple photographer friends, Dale Rollings and Assad Masade down to the 2nd beach spot to shoot but the cold got the best of them before too long.
Heres a couple good shots though.
Thanx guys!

Valentines day in Baja!

So Lisa couldn't make it down for Christmas but I had to have a vacation with her somewhere hot and windy.

We had a great time stayed at Villa de los Suenos again with Brian and kited at North beach.
Lisa took lessons with Megan at exotikite and I ripped it up with BJ and a young ripper Franck,  our hostess, Betsy's son.

For V-day we had a "most excellent" meal at a place I can't remember the name of (doh!). It was the largest lobster I've seen, including the ones I caught scuba diving in Cuba in previous years.
I'm sure going back there next time!

Lisa got some great shots of me kiting in the shorebreak while we were there. Thanx Babe.