LAKAWA

Just finished Touching the Void by Joe Simpson during our recent Padre excursion. This is a GREAT book! I had tears welling up on the plane ride home as I got through the part where Joe is crawling back to base camp (after crawling down a mountain for 3 and half days with a severely broken leg) and ...

Got back yesterday. This was our sixth trip down there in the last five years and I think this was the best one yet. We arrived on Thursday morning and I rode that afternoon and the next seven days to make it a clean 8 for 8 daily ride ratio. I took a 14M T3, 9M T2 and a new 11M T3. Used the 9M one ...

Thanks Tighe, your explanation makes more sense. I thought I read somewhere someone worrying about pulleys jamming but I don't recall it being in connection with the TD1 bar so that was just speculation on my part. The plastic coating is nice and grippy when wet and that is an advantage in the summe...

I'm guessing the plastic sleeves make it harder for the leader to slip off a bar pulley and jam. The sleeveless spectra does not hold its shape as well, which is an advantage in winter when the plastic becomes too stiff. Personally I am not too worried about the sleeveless spectra jamming and will p...

This has been discussed here before, but just thought I would share my experience. The few times I got out this winter I left the original plastic coated leaders on my T2 bar. They worked ok because it wasn’t super cold for any of my sessions. Anyway I stopped into Midwest Mountaineering to visit wi...

The beer was good, and Kite Island was too. The reports of the Island being inaccessible are greatly exaggerated. Drive on at Wayzata Beach, just drive around the chains unless there is a peace officer standing there of course. A sloppier option is the Wayzata Yacht Club access. Of course there are ...

I'm bringing beer.

I might try to get out to Kite Island this afternoon. We are headed to Padre Mar 19-27 so I am training for that.

Sorry to hear about the injury Jim and Patty! A few weeks back I banged up my left side tripping down the stairs at night after stepping on a toy ball the kids left on the top step. No video available of that one, but time is the great healer and I'm feeling much better now, bruised ego and everythi...

As long as there is a little sun and/or moderate temps it should be fine. Yesterday was very good. It's rutted up and rugged, but when it softens up it doesn't matter, especially on skis. There were snowboards also and I only heard good things, no complaints. Great to see the gang out there yesterda...

I work in the office buildings right next to this gigantic ski jump by Bush Lake in Bloomington. I often wonder when the jumping happens. Well, there is some going tonight...

http://www.minneapolisskiclub.com/jumping_home.htm

Looks like a neat spectator sport!

My new mantra. Tantra & Shakra to follow. Well I’ve been wondering how my parent’s farm would work for several years. I knew it would be a challenge. So for my first winter sesh I went for it. Shoulda just rigged next to the house and gone off into the closest field, but wanting an adventure I s...

That is great news! Congratulations! As a relatively new dad who has been reduced to pulling his 3 year old son around in a sled on cross country skis and the 1 year old isn’t even ready for that yet let me tell ya fatherhood brings a few lifestyle changes. More so with the second kid than the first...

Not a bad vid of a pro blowing a risky trick. Don't try it at home. Soundtrack sounded like Green Day covering the Clash covering some other band. I used to like Green Day until I went to see them one too many times. Sometimes it's better to listen to records than go to shows, sometimes it's the oth...

I just picked up a DVD copy of George Greenough’s The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun . What a great vid. Well, at least the music and theme are great. The actual surfing seems a little suspect by today’s standards, but since I don’t do that I cannot comment. This video is like a more pure version of M...

It looks rideable at Waconia even now. If it lasts until 6pm I might have a shot...

Average wind is a tougher one for me, because the wind is so variable around here. In my sailing log I created this year I pasted a copy of the iwindsurf graph for the day to get an idea of what the trend was for the day and the spread between average and gust readings. It’s pretty subjective on how...

Kite size is all 14M T3, except for the 11M T3 Tighe let me demo in the spring. I used my 9M T2 for 3 or 4 days in Padre this spring and some in the late winter (right after I bought it). I kind of fell in the habit of just kiting in lighter wind this season so I was mostly on a Door 159 with a few ...

Here's the rest of it. Why keep track of the day of the week? I made a concerted effort to sail more weeknights this year, and I was pretty surprised to find weekdays accounted for just over half of the sessions. Fridays are key!

Ok, so I kept track of my sessions on the water locally this season. Got out yesterday for a decent evening light wind sail on Waconia, 8.4M planing full on for an hour until it started getting dark... at 6pm! That made 50 this year. It was quantity over quality, cuz I have to stay local due to fami...