3/20/04
This post is for yesterday, my travel day, but as you all know traveling never works out like you want. Yesterday I had a flight at 5 out of minneapolis. The flight went to Huston to connect on a smaller plane then to Browsville. So far, everything was fine. Once we arrived in Brownsville we loaded our bags in our ford rent a car and went on our way. Once we got to the causeway to come to Padre, that is when things went wrong. There was over 100,000 hispanic people in there cars just to go cruising. Fist when my dad and myself saw it we figured there was a wreck and we would easily make it through the crowd. So we went into the the mess and then after a long wait we know that it would take hours to get through it and tried to get out. Impossible. Then we got forced onto the bridge and no going back after that. There was tons of people drinking, smoking and listening to as loud of music as possible. We left the airport at 9:55, we got to the causway near 10:15, then the last 4 miles took us a grand total of 3:30 minutes. Finally we got to be around 2:00. But do not be scared by this. This is an annual thing that people do down here only one this saturday during spring break!
3/21/04
Today my dad and me slept in to make up for the rough night of a slow car ride. Got some breakfast at our condo complexes little tiki hut. Some good breakfast burritos! Then called the shops and found out that today there wasnt enough wind to go. It was about 10 which is plenty to snowkite but now water I guess. So my dad and I went to both the kiteboarding shops. Both really nice shops! Then went to on the beach to get some new booties(the spit toed oneil ones! Really nice!) and a wetsuit top. Also we went to the grocery store and there to great us was the Budwiser Texas Bikini Team signing posters. Its spring break down here, should have expected! But I also went to check out the kite spot tommarow. There there was two kiters. One had a what one person told me was a 20 meter hydro foil and I thnk somebody on a a Naish 25. Both really underpowered and moving the kite around as much as they could but because of the size, very slowly. That pretty much sums up my day here and tommarow is supposed to be 15-25 and will be great kiteboarding!
3/22/04
Kiting Finally! it wasnt too long of a wait for wind but I got some. This morning it wasnt very good. My dad and I again went to a few shops and looked around. We also went to the end of the island or at least where you can drive to. It was cool seeing all of the huge sand dunes. We went walking around some and jumped off of some little cliff ones on to a really nice soft sandy landing. Then that afternoon my dad and I were giving up on the wind. We decided to go out to the beach and right away we got caught in a gust. Right away we headed to north flats to meet Shane there to go kiting. Shane let me use a big floaty slingshot 144 cm board. I went out with my 13 meter GTO. In the 15+ mile an hour wind and home I would use a 9 meter on the snow but water requires that much more wind. The wind was just getting started and was pretty gusty and I was overpowered in the gusts. My first ride on the water I got a 150 and then lost my kite in a lull. After a little bit of being over powered I went in and Shane lent me a 9 meter fuel. Sure enough the wind died right as we did this and I was under powered. But I lived with it and moved my kite around a lot. I got a few good runs and a couple of good turns. One thing that you really have to get down is water relaunching. It can be annoying when you have to swim around trying to get your kite the right way. One time I got it so the back was sitting in the water and pulled the front lines, bad mistake! Just tons of power and no board on being pulled. I have decided that knowing how to kiteboard on a snowboard and knowing how to wakeboard are big parts of learing how to water kite. I caught on very quickly compared to some. I was out for 45 minutes. I got 3 great rides staying up wind and most of the other time I was trying to relaunch the kite but becuase it was light wind. For the clinic it is the windiest month down here and my bad just fair wind is rare. Anyway tommarow blowing 20-30 south east which is perfect for north flats.
Thats pretty good for second ride!
3/23/04
Today it was really windy and still around 9 is blowing like crazy! A 5 meter kite and a 144 board was the set up for the morning. I was over powered in the morning with my 5 meter and getting in the board was tough. I would hold the kite bar with one hand and try to hold the board with the other. The only problem is with a 19 inch bar, a ton of wind and a 5 meter kite it had a mind of its own!
I would look down for 5 seconds and my kite would be all over the place and pulling into a dive rite through the power. I got relauching my kite in the water down but after a couple little drags and being overpowered I decided to wait till it died down. Later the wind hadn't really died but it was getting to the point that I would go out or not at all agian for the day. This time I used a 119 with my same 5 meter kite. I also did everything that I could to slow down the little jittery kite. So I got up and riding and after about 100 yards I started to lose my edge on my board. Then I foucused more on the board and not the kite and sat down in the water. Dumbly enough I straitened the bar out and the kite powered up and I was launched!!!! I got a good 15 feet off of the water and landed 50 down from my starting point. Then my kite hit the water and I had a second to breathe. But it hardly seemed like that when my kite relauched, powered up and took off again. I got not as high or far this time but it was still the same crash. So when I hit the water I pulled my release from the kite. The kite hit pretty hard that time and when I finally got up I noticed my kite was dead on the water. My dad came rushing out in the 2 feet of water and was hoping my little kite wasn't ruined. He looked at it and the valve just popped. Then when he let go something I never thought would happen. The kite filled up with air and started to go right to the middle of the power zone. After it flew for a second and dragged me a little I got it to go into the water and just rolled the kite back up. Now that I think about it it reminds me a lot of what Denis went through with his kite, but my landing was problably much softer!3/24/04
Today was my last day here in South Padre that I will get to kite.
All great things have to be brought to an end eventually. Tommarow I have a 1:30 flight and in the morning pack all of my stuff that is drying overnight. Today it was the best day for kiting. The sun was out, the wind was strong and it was really hot out. I was getting kiting more and more down. I had a few 1000 yard runs today just smooth, fast and awsome. I really hope to get back down here either for the clinic or right when I get out of school in June. Its been a great time down here learning to water kite and I definately suggest for everybody that you come down here for the clinic. Great place, great people, great time!