Tangles

Three Great days

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Happyinsurf.com
Lets all grin when we are in the water!! No need for a grumpy face.

Soft tissue shoulder injuries take time to heal. Been just getting back into the gym and doing light rehab weights. Talked my logical side into taking a break and to allow myself to get back to kiting just a little bit when there in surf and wind.
It was a four hour road bicycle ride in the hills of the beautiful mountains, daydreaming and running into a few paragliding buds at the top of the second long climb up in Little Sycamore. Apparently they had shot up in a real good bit of thermal lift earlyer and were just starting to come down from the adrenaline high. This is a very challenging site to launch, nail the thermals and land at a serpentine road site down on the highway far below with crazy raod racing mortorcyles bulleting by. Helped Vic untagle his bridles after a little off launch bush crash and remembered why DeerMaster, Rod, Vic and crew were such a hoot to hang with. These guys are driven to paraglide. Vic is just recovering from a very bad ankle sprain on landing but was out ther flying anyway.

Road the rewarding gravity induced downhill to PCH via Starbucks for a couple of fruit juices and back down to the house, to find the trees were starting to really do a wind induced limba... Leo Carrillo was averaging 18mph on ikitesurf, so raced up to County Line to be the first one out. It is always heaps more fun when you don't expect the wind to blow. It's like a gift under a Christmas tree that unexplicably showed up in your living room in April. Had the surf and wind for an hour to myself before the gang noticed the beach cameras and one smiling guy out under a kite. It was great hangin with Alidad, Bayless, Alex Kamiskas, Dave and a heck of a lot of new to the area kiters. Wow, what an influx of new faces. The wind swell was showing at the point and long smooth rides were the norm.

After about three hours, it was time to let my shoulder rest and get home to work till two am. What a great day. They were calling for no wind on Sunday so it was working all morning, a soft sand run at Zuma/say hi to old lifeguard buds and then...what the...? am I really seeing stuff move in the trees under this overcast. Johny Regan called from his lifeguard unit near Deer Creek and comented on how great the new south sell looked and said "bummer there is not enough wind for you to kite into it Trumbo as your shoulder won't let you paddle in"..That got me fired up to drive up there and throw up a 12 m GK trix though it looked like a pointless exercise with not a single white cap under the grey skies.

I was really questioning my logic here (is this just a poor as it was cold and not very windy but the waves were epic. Johny had pulled up in the unit with old lifeguard bud Rex walking up. John said, "I've seen you zipping around in this much wind on those arc sort of kites of your Trumbo.You could go in this" He was profetic; amazingly I was well powered and pulled into about twenty perfect butter smooth bowls with nice vertical lips to smack repeatedly as they peeled perfectly off of our lifelong Heavens surfing haunt. Mertin saw how much fun I was having at this sunset sesion from way up on PCH and ran down the trail to join me. With only a couple of surfers way up wind, there was no competition for the waves. The wind would go great for twenty minutes and then lull to sub kiteable for 8. I left after two great hours with Mertin out there on his little 132 chasing the dark water with no caps each time a long gust would come through. Finished off the evening at the gym working my shoulder and wondering how so many of those gym types get by on the mudane repetitivness of jogging on machines and living a no adrenaline and non outdoor sport life...

Today was predicted to be ricktor scale winds and though Disco (Mike) called early and told me to get out there and not miss it, my work first priority had me chugging away till 1:30 and the wind was starting to do the 15 to 35 mph bit. Mike was just driving away from County with a huge wind and wave generated smile on his mug and waved that contented, "told you, the early sesion was the one to get look" He pulled alongside with the window down and just had to say how freaking much fun he just had and was heading back to work stoked.

Got a couple of hours strapless on the nine m GK trix and the 6'4" underground thruster surfboard till it just got crazy with the gusts..You can bump and jump wakeboard stle in this sort of stuff of course but that's not my focus these days. If I'm not working, it would be nice to be having the most fun possible. Time to drive..

Can't wait for that smaller six meter Eclipse Kima to show up. It would have made that session and the later one. Dimitri and Gabe from Eclipse both popped me emails today to say the kites are on the way. Drove down to Topanga in hopes the gustyness for strapless riding would be substantially reduced but it was not to be so. Our bud Allan Sarlo was being filmed by waterman Dave Ogel of Ogelvision at County and there they were again at Topanga. We laughed and I threw up the nine meter GK and underground strapless again.

Fun little waves reeling through the inside but darn if I wasn't WAY overpowered and unable to surf the waves properly.. It can be very frustrating and you are supposed to be out their having fun so.oh well, time to come in with a smile. Just too big of a kite. Everyone else was struggling and unable to throw their rigs till Jamie showed with his strapped in small surfboard and a tiny little kite that he could just huck around...till he also succumed to some gusts on the inside and closed down his session. I went in south of the headquarters and uncerimoniously dunked my kite into the inside drink to keep from dealing with the forty mile per hour gusts from hell screaming through. Klaus was rippin it up and down from his house just north of Topanga and down to the north beach. He was having an absolute blast ripping it up and throwing huge air. On days like this, the extra height and concomitant weight was no issue. He was airborne every other second. Vicarious enjoyment of a session is a great thing in sports.

Dave Ogle was next to his van south of Topanga headquarters as I walked up the beach with the kite floating on the wind under my arm. He gave me a laugh, big cheer and smile as if to say, I know you had fun even though your setup was totaly wrong.

Dave had seen me as a patient in the morning and he had the admirable will power to give his injured muscles a bit of a rest and shoot pictures for the day and stay out of the conditions he and the rest of us crave so darn much. Wow, a patient that actually shows patient compliance on a high wind day with surf.. Will the miracles never end?? While dumping a warm detergent bottle full of Topanga ecoli lousing fresh water over my head, I reflected on just how good life was for us (not the ecoli).

It is easy to focus on everything from relationship, hopes, worries to student loans and coporate taxes and become obsessive on goals while missing the beauty of our lives playing out right there in front of us. Walked across the street shamelessly in a pair of kneeless, oblitereated old levis that a bag person would scoff at with a tattered old shirt that I would never embarass my girlfriend with and walked into my favorite Thai food restaurant Cholada amongst a hoard of tragically hip turned out couples and parties, to sit down alone with a mind full of wonderful images of the day for a fantastic Vegan meal. Thai Spicy actualy was delivered... What a great three days. They are calling for sceaming winds again tomorrow but have a casting way out in the boonies in the middle of the day and working office stuff in the morning. It is worth working to the wee hours to experience life outside of neon fenced human corrals. We all have to copromise but there always are options. It was a weekday and the number of kiters was staggering. Either their investment firms did the Bush belly up or they have figured out, family, work and fun into a really productive model....Good on them!!
Economy Ecshmonomy.. Life is still good. Live it!

How do you like the Fish Lips logo

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:22:00 +0000

Here's the simplistic Happy Surfer logo for the Fish Liips/Monkey Lips, MonkeyAir all natural skin care line. This is a shot of Huel Howser...spelling.. interviewing MA this winter at Leo Carrillo State beach. This is our local MonkeyAir haunt and where I spent most of my life lifeguarding, surfing,windsurfing..etc...great times and great people to hang with in the State Parks. We are doing a kitesurfing Monkey
Air booth at the Leo Carrillo Wale festival April 19 for the State Parks.

Have Fun and we will see you at North Beach Leo Carrillo on the 19th of April!!

Been a while but it has been fun.

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Wow, it has been ages since I last posted a blog here. A wonderful lady distracted my mind and heart away from many of my regular sports addicions and allowed me to focus on looking into the ways we could help our friends the most through MonkeyAir.com and of course think of ways to possible spend a lot more time with her. Lots of great memories and a good friend for life iregardless of what the future holds. I am one exctremely lucky guy.

It is a very exciting time for kitesurfing now with the imenent release of the new PL kitesurfing kite, the Charger, a lot of great inflatable kites hitting the market and empty beaches in Baja for the summer again with the US toursitos thinking that something really bad might happen if they head down...HINT... we did about ten trips last year with empty beaches, waves and great wind. Our US buds who have homes down there have had no problems. We just zip through the sleeping border towns and enjoy the wonderful Baja hospitality we always have. Keeping a cautious eye is always prudent and we will certainly do so but also listen to what is realy happening and ignore over generated hype.

The kitesurfing, paragliding and surfing in Baja this last year has been fantastic. The fantastic woman in my life did a trip down to San Felipe with us and had heaps of natural talent but as her job literaly does depend on her looks, a fall and a scrape could cost her a booking. A shame as she is a real outdoor beauty lover and has incredible athletic abilities. Vic and Strat booked about eight hours a day of perfect conditions on that particular San Felipe trip and it is odd how you don't even miss the water when you are with the person you want to be with.. Hmmm.it sure was nice... She has found a new love in mountainbiking now. The problem with people who learn quickly is of course the fact that they won't know when they are over their heads. Just got to keep her off of the knarly single track..

Lots of great days through the winter with surf and wind during Santa Anna switch arounds up at C Street and even some winter time thermals here. Was able to test a bunch of different kites with Dimitri Maramenides showing up to hang for a few days this week so we could test out his new line of Eclipse kites. The Kima is the wave kite I have been fiding to be a worldwide absolute wavesailing hit on pretty much every forum and through my grapevine of lifelong wavesailors. This tube kite has a more D shape or delta like but unlike the other deltas we have tested does not show the propensity to stall a turn while still haveing lots of power, huge range and phenomenal turning speed the others we tried just have not had. The gang here tested the nine meter kite in bugger all 12 mph winds and I was able to do some down winders with the amazing ability of this kite to be truly thrown all over the sky and deliver some good grunt. Definately will be selling this kite to my wave customers. The power of the nine is significantly more than say my other sle wave sailing tube favortite, the GK trix. In hopes a 6 and nine meter Eclipse Kima will power my season along side of course the new PL kites, Gk's, O.R's and Cautions. Like to try as many as possible.

Dimitri pulled out the eclipse thruster for us to try and I have to say, though high aspect, the thing turns very, very well though not a snap around it's center like the kima but rather a fast, fast pivot around it's wingtip and then huge acceleration through the window. This is a really great kite and getting a lot of phone calls on this one as well presently. For an all around kite, people will love the thruster. The Nano is a great grunty, beginners and all around ride with big grunt and a bit slower turning than the others with a more bucket shape.

The new Eclipse bar is fantasic in it's abilty to with one hand do a quick release and reset of the mechanism. It is a pioritory metal quick release system that is fantastic. I am not big for the below bar cleat for adjusting the depower but the truth is you never really have to!!! You set the kite up on it's knots and only really ever need to adjust the below cleat for arm length discrepancies. The big metal pivot below the bar actually worked and the kite goes to leash very well when droped. 265 pound Klaus and feather weight girlfriend Michel both tride the Kima and were amazed at is smooth gust absorption, ease of flght and stability. It is an arc in just sitting over your head but it is damn good for an inflatable kite. On twenty meter lines it is an absolute rocket and hard core Peter Lynn Synergy pilot Vic said it is probably the one lei kite that could bring him over to the lei "dark side" snicker....

Dimitri and I had a hoot cruising around and showed him the local sights, and even got him to chase us in my truck during a paragliding thermal run. Great guy with no real ego though one of the best in the world and owner of eclipse kiteboarding.

New to Monkey air will be a page written by docs and health care specialists including myself, that practice solutions to Anti Aging and longevity through natural products and services. Been doing this my whole life and been working with the absolutely best all natural facial and body topical and internal products as extreme sports lifestyles require the ultimate skin and body care. Been doing this my whole life and been working with the absolutely best all natural facial and body topical and internal products as extreme sports lifestyles require the ultimate skin and body care. Look for Fish Lips Naturals that are a long time coming after a life of lifeguarding and sponsorships with petroleum based garabage to put on my skin and wondering "why in the heck women and men pay so much money for such absolutely horrible products to put on their sensitive skin?" If you could not eat it, why are you putting it on your skin. The products we are releasing have more effective natural ingredients in them than anything you will find on the market plus a lack of the toxic ("can you say radiator fluid?...yeah really, they use that in over counter skin cream as a preservative" ) type of ingredients and instead only using natural anti bacterial and antifungals. We even have a no bug body lotion from all naturals we have been also using on pets for a long time with great results. The last few years have brought raving testimonials of these products from around the world and as my sister and brother in- law have been in this with me from the start, I know exactly how great this stuff is. The chemists just told us "the product has way too many great ingredients for any large firm to make and not loose their shirts and don't know how you guys plan to do it." We did and our friends are getting great results. Yeeehaa... Lots of exciting things here for us at MonkeyAir and looking forward to a fantastic summer season of trips and helping our friends stay forever young and happy on the water, in the air, on the mountain bikes ) and in every other outdoor sporting venue.

.

Another great San Quintin trip

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:35:00 +0000

Eight days of great surfing, daily kitesurfing and paragliding. The beaches were empty and the visuals spectacular with pelicans off of my wingtips and below my feet in the air while watching porpoise play in the waves below. You would follow this up with hours of downwinders in the surf. The Fourth of July was the only day of no wind but fantastic surfing for three hours in the am with just two buds with homes at the point down there. Surfing is a blast without the usual crowds we grew up surfing with around here. Thanks to all our buds that showed, including Pam the Pelican and Peter the Poirpoise. Here's a few shots of John, myself, Tom and his son Jarid who was doing great with his kite lessons and was hard to keep from jumping between sand dunes under the PL kites.

Salad Bowl went OFF!!

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:19:00 +0000

Got back from my casting and had planed on a bike ride this morning but the wind was averaging 15knots by 11 am.. Had to race up to see what Mother Nature was giving us. The towers were flying the no kite flags but the north end of County was showing a bit of left over south swell with a new wind swell push from the west and nobody surfing it!!! Mo snuck up behind me on the County overlook and after telling how good Avalons (Salad Bowl) below Deer Creek looked, we raced down to his place below El Matador and droped of his truck so we could have a return vehicle and scored an epic three hour down winder with some great waves at Salad B,County for an hour, Staircase, Harry's house, Honaroos,etc. Drove back up to Salad B to see far more wind and solid nine meter conditions but it was to be the first day of our local Malibu pool to be open for lap swim, so avoided the temptation only to find the pool not open yet do to chemical imablance problems...Doooohhh..... The three hours were cool and I got to do dinner with a funny friend from New York.

Yesterday was perfect 12 m synergy conditions alone at the Slot and worked West to Staircase. Ali, Mo, Billy Wilson on his pole board showed when I was leaving after three hours and proceeded to kite till dark. It is wierd breaking the old habbit of staying out till the wind quits, but have actually been acomplishing a lot when not hanging with my girlfriend, the Pacific Ocean quite as much. snicker....Happy Aniversary to Katherine and Kramer. The get together at the Malibu Cantina was a blast and their kiteing bud from Hi Holly was a lot of fun and hopefully will be along on our next Baja trip with Mike and Sue Flanagan plus the usual motley crew of wave and wind afficionados.

Vic got some good paragliding with Bill in the desert at a well known launch and claims it is to work almost every day of the summer with great launch and landing zones. Early day is a bit too large and can stuff pargagliders over the back so is hang gliding time however later afternoon settles down and is 15K foot thermal wonders. Hard to break away from the good local wind and surf conditions to paraglide inland but might have to do the two hour drive out to hit the spot. The Eagle crew has been heading out there a bunch and scoring it is the rumor.

Have fun everyone.
Traig

6 Days of Baja

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:03:00 +0000

Wind every day for kitesurfing and good paragliding each morning, a bit of surfing with evenings spent in the sand dunes with the gang under a full moon. Beautiful conditions for John B, Paul,a few San Diego kite buds, Mara and myself. A last minute phone call to Paul got him driving M down for her lessons. Thanks Paul.

Mara's kite skills improved dramatically after a session on the land board with the 12m synergy. We took turns landboarding with the combo over the trip and had a ball. Her aptitude for the sport is clearly evident and having spent time in Cozumel with some kite instruction in smooth trades a year ago didn't hurt. The next thing we knew, she was making her transitions with just a few minutes of coaching and getting a few waves while participating on our long down winders. She is our refer to surf instructor, so, figure she has a lot of water skills under her kite harness, scuba tanks,etc. Mara is fluent in Spanish and became our MonkeyAir postergirl for the trip with her fun bubbly attitude and hitting it off with the locals. The beach was basically empty except for our vehicles and 6 mile downwinders with inumerable lip smacks the norm.

What a great trip. Here are some shots we got of Mara and the gang showing a bit of landboarding,the showers at SQ with Fidel and crew, Old Mill restaurant and a shot from the air of the point I was surfing. I got home last night to find some great surf and word of some wind and ten people getting stuck on the outside yesterday with their kites at the slot when the wind died down. Watch for the wind suddenly backing off if out at the slot. Best bet is to stay close to shore at the north end of Nicholas if you are not wave skilled. Have fun. Hope to get you along on our next wave clinic trip down to Baja. Summer is for fun!!

Bike, run paraglide kite. Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Four hours on the road bike pushing canyon hills in the heat Saturday and then just a blip of wind showing. Got a bit of kiting on Thursday and Friday by waiting till the late evening for wind and putting on the running shoes or sand tire feet for the running workouts. Wish the local pool was open for lap swim.

Four paraglide flights yesterday with fantastic thermals booming over Neal's house below the 1350 and cross countries into the mountains south with returns back to the coast to ridgelift to County Line. Neal got so worked up with us hollering at him and flying over his house, that he grabed a bud and raced up to launch to join us in the air. Spiraled into County on one instance to kill all the alititude and found a nice open spot to landin on a Sunday. Anoush was coming out of the water on a surf and we got to trade some great kitesurf stories of the last week with the south swell. The guard in the tower was an old junior guard student of mine and cool with the landing on the beach. Vic and I landed there a second time later in the day and my old bud/LG sup Bo said to not do that one on weekends. He also turned me on to a lap pool in TO while our Bu pool is being repaired. Cool, and will go there today after an oil change and TJ green machine fridge refill.

Good solo session up at Deer Creek after the paraglide with the 12 trix on 20 m lines and the rear adjustment of the bridle making a big difference with added grunt and even more stability for a tube kite. Gary from Ventura showed a bit late and offered to give me a ride back from County to do a downwinder. I took him up on it and realilzed that I could have spent a couple of hours down there as it was just starting to fade there as well. Oh well, the three hours at Deer were great and no complaints. The waves at County were still excessively flooded from high tide then anyway. Need to sell the lightwave board and Surftech McCoy lazer zap with straps and pads to a lighter guy so I can test some other fish. My Xanadu fish is ready to find a new home at a good deal. Might just replace that with the same, however, there is a very cool balsa laminate fish that caught my eye. hmmmm? Only strapless these days and want to experiment with other boards as usual. Been like that experimentning with boards since nine years old and surfboards from garage sales.

Klaus got his new trix 12 here and wants the bridle modded and Bayless and Mo are doing the simple bridle adjustment to test the efficacy of the strings in that configuration. Always surprising to see what a small adjustment will make. Hope everyone out there is having a fun summer. I have a few new syergy kites in here from the shipment last week if anyone needs one as well. 10, 12 and 15.

Back to work....

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:12:00 +0000

On return from a great Baja trip, it was time to go to work for three days and miss the smoking local winds at Leo. At least the swell was not up to add to the torture. Was able to go to the gym, run soft sand six miles and do the push up sit up bit of my lifeguard days at each tower prior to the first day of work and then it was two days of long hours but laughing my ass off. The gal who was paired up to play the maid in the bit was incredibly talented and had a fake Russian accent that had the entire crew howling with laughter.. She grew up in a small R town with a couple of chickens and a pig...and on from there with the joke lines... Lots of people thought she was really Russian. I was playing the scumbag rich hubby who was chasing the maid around. Crack up and totally out of character for my persona but got great laughs going through the motions. Now I know what those gold chain,caviar, club type "tragically hip" no morals type of guys feel like. Ha, ha..Guess some gals are actually atracted to those scumbags. Hopefully they did not take my character to be my real persona.. That would be horrible but playing the character took my thoughts off the usual sports and more towards how that gal got to be such a darn good actress in the few years she has been here from Florida. It's simple, focus, focus, hard work and stay focused on what she liked to do the most. No leaving the city and keeping her sports to the gym and jogging at the local park. As in kitesurfing, distance running, swimming, surfing, biking,paragliding or any other endeavor, what makes you better is time spent immersed in it. If you enjoy doing something enough and if you have the additional cognitive stimulous as she did in her work, so much the better and rewarding. Years away from doing stand up and a bit of a recluse has me rusty in that area. Hitting town again and classes as before to hone the skills. She was a great motivation. After seeing a patient in the morning it is workout, teach kitesurf and study.. Motivation is a great thing.

We have had fun wind every day this week and I have been popping out at Deer Creek after the morning run or bike/errands/work to go on down winders to the slot. It is summer rules on weekends and John R. (head lifeguard at Leo) told me he was considering a total ban of kiteing anywhere in the County to Leo area before five on weekends or weekdays when the no launch flags are up on the towers. Launching elsewhere and just staying off the shore was always ok in years past. Hope he does not go with that. I was the only guy out on Sunday as I started at a different spot and worked my way down. He pulled up with the light bar going and we chatted a bit. He said, you look like you are having fun as usual Traig but will magnet people in by being out. He smiled and said "go have fun and finish your sesh. So it was a run down to the Slot and hopefully he will be cool with alternate launches and a shlog down to the wind line at North Beach as long as we stay off of the beach when the people are there. Will see. His big worry is the influx of kiters in the surf lineup at Secos during a large south swell. These conditions at Leo are of course what we live for year round here in Bu. The number of kiters and bonehead rulebreakers in our ranks and those of the windsurfers and one very vocal and complaigning poleboard rule breaker with no wave ediquite and a knack for whinning to the guards about wanting right of way on all waves over kiters, etc. has changed our playing field and threatened both sports. Follow surf ediqute rules and be safe.

The sky and water have been magnificent colors and the porpoise were jumping two feet from my kitesurfing student today in the Leo area do to the huge school of bait fish that have been at our coast section the last few days. Sharon did great in his lesson and was up on his board. Hopefully get him up again tomorrow. Even a job loving fertilization specialist Phd Md. can find the time to sneak out to learn. It has been a month since flying his venom last but he is going to increase water time now after fun of this lesson. The stoke on the dude's face today was priceless. Teaching lessons can certainly be rewarding that way.

After the lesson Frym and a lot of other kite buds rolled up for a kite session in nine meter conditions. The no strap 6'4" Miranda was under my happy feet. Once again trying to not use straps.... ever. The week down at SQ resulted in no knee pain, do to lack of jumping and just doing the old waveriding strapless as has been my favorite for years but hijacked by the frequent Jhonesin for jumps and of course the necesary lofts over set waves... No more straps for me. Might have to get a reel leash..gag....to save the old styro surfboard when in the rock zone of inside Leo Slot or County.

See ya on the road, trails, sky, water or sand. Be cool to put space in there... Maybe when those space shots get affordable for us normal schmoes. Live life, forgive, forget, formulate fun and move on. Can't wait for the next SQ trips surf downwinder. You can hit more lips in one day than Mohamid Ali did in his career.. Fun, fun, fun with no straps and a board friendly sand beach...

Oh, here is a quick shot from work and that very talented actress who actualy managed to smile after being stuck with me..Told you she was good at her craft.

Great Memorial Day trip to SQ

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:44:00 +0000

San Quintin delivered daily epic paragliding and all but one day of kitesurfing for a great trip. The gloomy forcast only held for two days and one of those was kiteable. There were basically no motor heads down there on the beach and it was just three of us on the entire beach doing six mile down winders with screaming wind and fun shoulder high waves to destroy all day Memorial Day. Crazy fun solid wind every morning for paragliding had Vic and I hucking our cheese with fun wingovers taveling the full extent of the sand dunes from Sycarro (our paddle in surf spot) to the north/west end of the dunes below Pabion where we spent a few nights camping when not spending the night in the dunes and enjoying the rich Baja star filled nights.

No straps for the entire trip had my knee feeling great and short lines on the trix kites and strapless fish with synergy 15 proved wave leathal long distance lip smacking combos. Vic lived on his 12 m synergy and John was a trix pilot. Mike and Tom Mc Gill were trading off on using my 5'10" underground directional with straps and both absolutely love that board.

Mike Flanagan, John Bayless with his daughter Aly doing great on her second lesson session along with Adam and Mike of the Bayless crew plus, Tom, Jeff and Blair Frank, Jeramy and a few San Diego kiters made up our good time crew. What a fantastic time with friends and good vegan food at our new haunt down there. Cooked cactus is mui bueno. Some pictures I shot while Vic and I chased each other around the sky show the north and south end of the birms and you can see the increase in wind speed on the water that would be our reminder to land the air toys and get on the water with the kites for another four hours... YEEEEHAAAAW!!!

Unfortunately had to leave solid wind and a forcast for another five days of the same to come back for a gig here in work/work to impress the gringo land. It was so good down there that though getting home by one in the afternoon today and seeing good wind at Leo, let it go in order to get some work done and do some rehab exercise at the gym. John Bayless gave me a ride to his place to pick up the turbo P wagon from his house and told of a great solo County session. Tomorrow morning is a long hill climb road bike ride and then a late afternoon fitting in Hollywierd for a two day shoot with some funny dialogue.. Life is fun. After about 185 out of the last 200 days with a good kitesurf session, a few days off won't hurt. The strapless stuff with 20m lines and the 6'4 surfboard had me spoiled down in SQ anyway.. Can't wait to go back down. Just missing a nice sports gal to share it with.

Epic Leo

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:46:00 +0000

Saw some fantasic waves while driving by Leo slot today and spun around for a quick surf session. There was wind in my face at the top of the stairs and reeling waves from the point well past the stairs. Got two and a half hours of perfection to myself with the fish and 15m synergy before a winsurfer bud joined in the wave riding magic session. The rest of the crew showed a bit later. Five and a half hours later I got out with a huge grin that is still glued on the mug.

The water was so clear, you could see fish over the rocks while bottom turning and cutting back at the boil rock.

One bonehead windsurfer was snaking us left and right and even hit me with his board while trying to pinch me into the boil rock. Gave him a little piece of mind on wave ediquite and then realized it was a total waste of time. Like talking to a brick. Three of us yelled at him that I saw during the day, and there were probably many more, but the Bardman will never learn or listen. What a hazard in the lineup. Snaking, shoulder hopping and kicking his rig out at you are his three best moves. Comical: Even visiting Ian was yelling and giving the dork the indicator finger when Bardman totally pinched him and forced him into a close out section strapless for the umpteenth time. The word was that Bard actually jumped on Ronny's back later and was trying to shove him under water or was just really horny, after a mast versus line tap incident. His goat at home must not be giving him any. Ron should have tied him to a rock and left him on the bottom.. ha, ha.. Even with this sort of foolery, we laughed and cheered each other on through the epic session. Even the ding dongs add to the variety of the days entertainment. Fun, fun, fun. You just have to laugh at some people and move on. Life is too much fun to waste on them.

I was supposed to head down to San Quintin at four in the morning tomorrow but a last minute request casting is keeping me here for an extra day...Darn... work always comes first. Luckily the students are not showing till later. Hopefully the forcast down there comes round. Should be some great surf and wind the next few days and then a lull in wind with some clouds prior to returning to regular conditions with the following weekend.

109 degree bike ride, paraglide, kitesurf sesh..nice

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:41:00 +0000

This mornings hill climb three hour bike ride with the group over in Agura had temps showing 109 on one of my fellow riders watch thermometer.. Yikes, Puerco did not seam that hot but I was guzzling my water and steam was coming out my ears with my nose whistling
.
An hour at the auto shop afterwards and it was off to Deer Creek to pick up Vic from PCH where he had landed paragliding and to huck my cheese of of the cliff for a flight. Vic's colapse crash in the bush on launch should have been a good indicator. The wind was going really West and I ended up runing around and through every bush and bit of cactus on the hill before stalling the wing down and relaunching for a very bumpy and wacko wind change flight with a landing with Vic at the beach below. Vic thought he was going to re-inact my hillside..er landing at the bowl with a heli ride out. Tons of sink there.

Deer Creek was coming on for kitesurfing and Bayless showed up to check it. It was a classic day where Deer Creek was the best spot within 50 miles early on. Got out there with a tip flick from Vic and had a hoot hucking the 15 synergy and actually using a straped board against my own advice to see how floaty it was. This kite boosts HUGE!!! John drove south to check Leo again and Vic had to run to a friend party. Playground all mine.... An hour and a half all to myself at Deer was enough and wrapped it up to drive south and check Bayless and company at North Beach Leo. It looked a bit packed with kiters but fun and even saw a few synergy kites lit up very well down at Zeroes. Must have been Alidad and another. The traffic on PCH was so bad, I ended up going to Starbucks for some fruit juice and water and read the paper till the bumper to bumper opened enough to take the back way home to Point Dume. The crowding on PCH this early in the season, is a scary omen for this summers comute to wind, waves and flights.. Might be taking the bicycle to the beach and leaving the gear there.

San Quintin for Memorial Day Monkey Air trip again

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:45:00 +0000

It has been pretty much wind with or without surf daliy for the last four months around here it seems and the season opener San Quintin MonkeyAir kitesurfing clinc is here already. I am leaving Tuesday the 20th and coming back the 27th for a gig. Others will be staaying down longer and heading down different days during the week. If you would like to get wave sailing lessons from us, upwind lessons or even the basics with the option of just a basic guide fee service, give us a call or email. We hope the south swell on the way will not be too steep and hit our beach down there for some great wave sailing. It looks like a fun small group for this trip and new sand tires and brakes are on the truck as of three days ago for the beach driving. We will be camping or staying at the Desert Inn hotel in SQ. Paraglide, surf or exercise mornings followed by landboard and kitesurfing downwinders is the usual course of daily events. Swithching up the restaurants each night and just having a nice relaxing time.

The wind has been cranking here each evening this week. It has generally started up slow with a great early peak and then backing of enough to make many pack up and head home before the real wind show till dark. The late evening sessions have been stupendous. An early morning bike ride, get some work done, a surf ski or other early afternoon workout and then kite till dark has been daily grind this week.

A clicking noise in the newly done front wheel and brake area means a possible drive to the auto shop in the morning and maybe do a club bike ride before since will be over the hill anyway. Have not ridden with the group in a heck of a long time.

A few shots that bring back some good memories down at SQ.

Low tide was all that was missing.

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:52:00 +0000

Friday was three hours on the road bike in the hills with the "Scatante ciao!!" jersey. Billy Wilson pulled along side me on my last sprint hill home to yell,"what are you Italian Traig?" The bike was followed by a gym workout, a phenomenal paraglide flight with just a great late evening lone one hour kite session and a hint of a promising south swell.

Saturday was 2 hour mountain bike around a trail runners race way up Puerco and across the Backbone trail. I miss running every day hope to be able to go at lest three days a week again soon. My mountain bike ride was a great workout after the prior days road bike hill training. It is much easier to get a great workout on the mountain bike than my roadbike in general and there is some actual adrenaline over rock gardens,singltrack etc. You don't even have to contend with the gold chain, manicured road bike team spandex yuppie scene. There are some really nice people on road bikes but man are there ever some grumblers. Everything around here is a 40 minute minimum climb up before starting the other climb and trails so mountain bike works.

The problem with mountain biking is of course when you are doing the technical bits and the inevitable dab over numbers of days ridden. You can just do the easy stuff and get a great workout...but... Doing the rides to help rehab the knee and of course smacked it good with a front wheel wheelie dismount bike frame knee smack. Laceration, heaps of swelling.. Errr..sort of defeated the purpose Saturday..Oh well. It was still fun and a great workout.

Fridays flight with Vic and Jeff ramping back and fourth to the second and third bowl from Deer Creek south, with solid kitesurfable winds was great. I finally landing at County with full speed bar and heaps of altitude to kill. Vic went for the field on the east side of PCH and in the lee of the Bay Club.. He got droped severaly and thought he might crater. Scary time for him and last time he tries to land there in the strong stuff.

Next came a kitesurf session with a bit light winds when the tide was low enough and then good winds as the tide was too high to get much out of that new showing south swell. Heaps of my old buds were doing the annual Mugu to Leo paddleboard race my old lifeguarding partner Gary Fortune puts on annualy. Cool to catch up with friends after so long.

Today was to start with a run but a late start secondary to work meant paraglide was the first activity. A great paraglide with Jeff and Rod off of the 800 the first time as white out conditions prevailed and you could not even see off of the 1500. Great solid West bowl ridge lift with a landing at Salad Bowl. Rod did his first day at the West Bowl. We got a ride back up and as it cleared a tiny bit, flew off of the 1500. Lucked out and hooked a super tight string of thermals just West of Neal's house and played it for about thirty minutes as Jeff and Rod first landed on the 500 and then relaunched to hit the bowl. That mustang really can turn and pulling it tight snap turns is where that kite has been at for me with huge rewards in performance and altitude when there is lift. The problem only comes when it is a bit light and Vic weighing forty pounds less on the same size wings can get me on the ridgelift stuff.. Darn..Might have to start sneaking a cynder block into his harness while he is not watching prior to launch..

The altidude from the thermal over "The rock and cactus store" allowed me to make a straight run for the third bowl with just enough altitude to work the lift up into it and away from the PCH power lines. Jeff did an amazing show of flying by making up a few hundred feet of altitude at Salad Bowl and working his way up the second bowl and then up into the third to land with me at County. Rod said Jeff was lifting his legs to clear the power lines at second bowl to scratch back up.. I would have just landed as I did yesterday there on the first flight in similar circumstances. .. YIKES!! The Deer Master can sure fly that wing.

Cruised on down to County Line with insane tail wind and speed. Hucked the last turn hard over the water to coast in and unlike yesterday did not need the speed bar to penetrate and land. Turning early and drifting backwards is a nice technique, I should practice more when the wind on the beach wind is solid. Yesterdays flight had enough onshore wind to ridge lift off of the Whalers village condos on the beach.

A couple of ranger buds were at County and after B.Sing with them and Disco who was waiting for wind, it was back up the hill to get the wheels and on to North Beach for my appointment wiht the new South Swell and some kitesurfing as first one out test dummy again. The tide was getting high quick but that first half hour had some fun waves all to myself with good wind prior to all of Malibu and Ventura showing to kite. I got the ultimate test dummy needed treatment with friends setting up my gear as I put on my wetsuit as they wanted to know if it was Leo or to Zuma as it was going off down there already. It would have been stellar if the tide had just been lower at Leo. Ian showed and came to B.S a bit later. The kid is a good guy and a ripper. Watch for him in the pro tour wave riding some day. He is young enough and seems driven that way. Note to self.. Need to get that J footage of us from that studio. Ooooppps... Got a patient. Gotta run Had to race home to take care of her. As she walked out I realized that low tide was all that was missing the last few days.. Tom and his girlfriend actually even got me to go out to see our buds Regae band. Not a bad weekend and never went to Barns and Noble.

Kitesurf Recluse

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Having always been fortunate to be participating in numerous sports while involved in several jobs to pay for them, watching football games and other sports on TV or even turning the thing on, only happened a few times this lifetime. Not that I don't admire the athleticism of any pro athlete regardless of their mastered atheletic event, Mother Nature and her waves, wind, etc kept my running, bike, etc shoes, wetsuits, reserve chutes on and in the activity and never sitting with a beer in hand in front of the boob tube turning the brain to mush and the stomach into a spare tire, or so that was my excuse to avoid the idiot box in the past.

So it was just another day up at five am to drive down to Long Beach to do a shoot with some guy named Payton Manning and dude named James Brown who would be doing the job I was originally cast for. Happens all the time and just part of the game. Always flattered and stoked to get work. Figured these guys probably did not kitesurf, whomever they were, but if this was James Brown the singer, this could be one very fun guy to hang with and I was lucky for the opportunity.. Found out who Peyton Manning was pretty quickly on set as well as James Brown and he wasn't the singer but the very personable and fun sports anouncer on a bazillion TV shows.. Quarterback Payton told great inside football stories/insights and James went on about all sorts of fun stuff while the photog did his thing. The photog and his crew would throw a football around on the breaks as the energy of one of the sports stars turned them into kids again, just craving to get some of that fun. Like groms learning to surf or kitesurf in the waves. The session was a hell of a lot of fun and eye opening. Payton was as pasionate about his sport/profession as many of my kitesurf, surf, bicycle racer, lifeguard competitor, paraglider,chiropractor, surgeon etc. friends. What they want to talk about and who they are. The person embodies the sport or profession and exudes the excitement and enjoyment of the activity through their skin. James would have been the loquatious ex pro surf rider type who talks the talk and knows all the players/surf rippers on the beach and Payton Manning playing the role of Kelly Slater. Same personas but different sport with the bottom line of, all great people to be around and football reaching a lot more housholds than kitesurfing/surfing of course, with the associated ga,ga factor and pressure on it's players to be public image figures.

Good people, and when driving by the white caps at Topanga on the way home from work, the experience had me smiling and not bumed to have missed a kitesurf session, with the realization, that maybe looking at sports illustrated/ people magazine instead of scientific american, at Barnes and Noble this Saturday evening could re-open my world again. Who knows maybe even get on Match.com and get a date and start doing stand up again. See, work can be eye opening.

It's easy to shrink away from society and become a kitesurf, triathalon, etc recluse. The awareness of disasociasion from the other semi advanced primate tribes out there you used to like interacting with, is not always easily grasped or noticed. It is a subtle thing as you slip away and sort of become a hermit in the mountainous boundaries of the "new sport"/ girlfriend or whatever you uncounscioulsy form. I like being a social monkey so might put down these books being studied and board dings in the process of repair and turn on the tube. How do you get that quarter inch layer of dust off of the screen and who has an old couch I can borrow? Can I get a supersize popcorn bag with that? Hold the trans fats...

Good old California

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:58:00 +0000

It was a two hour road bicycle ride in the local mountains with an escape home as the wind on top of the hills had me thinking along with the wind flow vector forcast that Leo would be coming on soon. The wind, ended up not coming up early so it was a fun paraglide flight off of the 800 with some tight little thermals followed by a surfing session at Heavens with the Xanadu 5'10" fish strapless. There were some great peaks and texture on the water so left my synergy 15m rolled up on the beach with the harness and bar. After about forty minutes of surfing, the wind had come up enough to make me consider, as there were now white caps on the outside. Tossed up the 15 syn with the strapless Xanadu and had a great time of consistent shoulder high waves down the beach with one tack returns with the synergy's great upwind performance. That Xanadu strapless is the perfect atribute to the syergy's flying performance needs. It took an hour for the gang to show up and storm the beach, pumping up kites like mad men. Kited another hour with them but the tide got a bit too high and killed the surf so in I came with another great Ca. day under my harness.

A gal was sitting in the back of her truck with her dog "April" when I landed at the 500 from paragliding and offered to give me a ride back up the hill. She asked me how I managed to have so much fun after hearing about my bike ride that morning and the paraglide flight. I just told her you are as young as you want to be and work just enough to pay the bills and still enjoy life. Sure would be nice to have some really flashy toys, but it is not worth it if you have to give up the lifestyle and not play till you are 80 yo. Been fortunate enough to have worked every morning this week and still have gotten back to BU for a kitesurf session each day with yesterdays late evening 45 minute go out do to a callback the least play day. I think Niki and her dog understood the lifestyle and offered to give us a ride back up the hill the next time she sees us flying up above her. Some people get it and some never have enough wealth and will chase the mighty green back to the grave. Whatever does it for you as long as you keep that exercise/stress management and stoke time available. The best is of course if you can have both sides of the coin and many of my friends do. You are my heroes.

Tom went back out on his 13 VII for a last wave or two yesterday evening and here is one of the shots.

Leo doesn't get much better

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:34:00 +0000

Been taking it easy and just riding strapless only the last few days to rest the knee and hip. The south swell they have been talking about started to show with intermittant sets yesterday evening in the last hours before dark of our kitesurf session. Coming back from work down town, it was obvious the wind was on this morning. Gregor called from the OR where he had already found out it was blowing and went on about his Maui trip and obivously trying to talk himself out of the necessity of going out again today here after two weeks in Maui.. We can all see through each others water time psychosis but pretend not to notice when yakin to one another.

Got on the water at North Beach Leo at one oclock with a 12 m synergy and the old strapless becker fish. The sets were really showing and the wind swell added to the wave height and began building on it's own. After a couple of hours it was time for a less floaty strapless 6'4" underground directional and ear to ear grins for all of us in the super consistent surf and solid 20mph wind.

The place was getting packed with kiters and many were heading up the coast towards County with about 35 at one point at Leo. The waves were so consistent it was not as much of a problem as you would imagine. Vic was lit well on his 12 synergy and after four hours of constant fun came in along with Tom on his 13 VII and myself as the wind just boosted up big time.

The 10 m synergy had gone to a customer and all that was small in my car was a 9 m GK trix on 20 m lines. Put up the kite with the small for my weight lightwave directional and had a kite chasing hoot for an hour along side Ian from SB strapless and then when the wind died a bit joined in the strapless riding with the UG again. This was the session of the day with nonstop short period but sizable, perfect peeling wind swell off of Heaven's reef. Had the tunes in my ears the entire time and ended up keeping my old floppy head lid fishermans cap till one of the last wipeouts of the day delivered it to King Neptune. It disapeared with the rushing down coast current and the setting sun. Many stayed on just to BS with bros and marinate themselves in the glow of a great surf session under kites. It just does not get a lot better than this. Morgan, Frym and even Ian's photographer echoed our corous of "what an amazing sesh". We had hooted at each other on crossing paths through the stoke mist to the point of loosing our voices. Never seen a bigger smile on Vic's face after a rigth from the other side of Heavens' to the mid of North Beach. He said he still had more depower on his 12 m syn and was blown away by it's range.. Talk about a happy camper. Tom McGill went out again late and Jeff, Fish, Mara and I yaked and shot a few shots of him as he got a few on his good old trusty Sithsonian worthy UG 147 wave tray.
Gotta luvit.. This sport still rocks!!!

Kitesurf addiction rehab

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:00:00 +0000

A nice little ripping sensation zippered through my right hip about four weeks ago while heading out on a goofy foot stance through a wave kitesurfing. There was an obvious s/s injury but the pain was very low and managable/ trivial at the time and the waves were good so ignoring my own advice, I kept kitesurfing...for the next four weeks daily as well as surfing, biking, running, etc... as the condition worsened and could no longer be ignored along with my painful right knee which greatly prefers no strap kiting now (though some camera stuff had me doing otherwise) and proper and consistant joint support work/crosstraining, our perfect kitesurf weather of late would just not allow.

Not being able to sleep last night with the pain in my hip and an aching knee put me on the wind rejection train for...er... well one day so far. They say start fighting an addiction one day at a time. The wind was smoking all day and fortunately shipping, kites, tons of work on the phone, internet, customers and paitients coming by kept me from going absolutely crazy. When the wind bowed over trees outside of my door, had me doing the kitesurf withdrawel two step, the good old lap swimming pool up at Malibu Park saved me. It was windy enough to even kite there today, darn it. Almost rigged my 12 m synergy on the pool deck.

Got a call from our paragliding bud Steve who took the nasty fall and destroyed one lumbar vertebrae(replaced with spindle) and severely compromised another. He has a year of rehab in front of him and is in hopes of getting back under his paragliding wing in seven months. Point is... there actually is one this time...honest, really,,what the hell was it?? Oh,yeah; When you injure yourself, take the time to properly rehab. Scar tissue now can lead to a very serious surgery later that could well be disabling. That and cary a trash bag in your car, when it fills up you can just toss it in the can...More so the first point though as Steve Martin already belabored the second.

So it is no straps after time for resting the hip and lots of joint support work for this water monkey. Indoors at a gym on a nice day is the most counter intuitive thing possible to my outside mind but will do it for the knee and other joints. The local one is pretty quiet and the girls stop talking to you in about three minutes when they see your watch is not a real Rolex/you make a joke about their plastic surgeon choice or... so distractions from the job at hand (joint support and not watching the wind and waves out the window) are transient and self limiting.

Tomorrow it is another mountain bike ride early, then the gym, work on the P wagon, audition work and talk myself out of kitesurfig for just a few minutes more till the pool opens and escape from the arenaline kite wave sailing craving in favor of the endorphin rush of a good swim workout. Maybe a paraglide in the morning.

These are a few pictures of a couple of heffer babes who are always there to help me launch my paraglider. Once again, it is always good to have friends.. MOOOOOOOOOve your but monkeyboy and get in the air!!

South Swell and wind magic

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:50:00 +0000

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Yesterday was all time County line magic with a 12 m synergy and a strapless thruster surfboard then the good old Xanadu 5'10" fish. A four hour bicycle ride in the local hills provided me a great view of the perfect but very crowded glassy sets rushing every south facining beach in Bu. The eddy broke down and the wind came up. I was first on the water and imdediately having an absolutely great time. Bowls to hit everywhere and rides from the point all the way down the south tower frequent. The one shreder surfer out was hooting and chearing me on. What a rare thing. Cool dude and we exchanged a few waves at the point and I pulled out a heaps so he could drop in. Vic and John hit it about forty minutes after my water entrance and Vic got a sic in and out barrel on his goofy foot stance with a hucking left. Three hours of absolute wave heaven and I came in. Kiters just kept coming and Ali went out as we left. He was getting some fun waves lit well on his synergy 12 and could have used his 10m. Somebody found and did not return his underground 141 firebird mutant that washed down to North Beach last week. Hopefully it will show up.

This morning was a fanstasic paragliding flight off of the 1300 foot launch of Deer Creek with great lift marked by loads of acrobatic hawks and a few crows. Real bullets going up and it was nice to see Vic's truck with a few other pilots pull up below me while coring a tight bullet thermal. He got on the radio and let me know it looked like I was really getting whacked around up there. It was so much fun with the unreal bright spring colors below and sparkling blue ocean to fly over today. Must have been up an hour and a half and landed as the gang was coming down and did not want to be an air hog. We had plenty of altitude to transistion just about anywhere to look for thermals but were very stoked with what we already got. After not flying for quite a few days, this was a real treat.

Driving up the coast to County Line from the flight, a bit of wind was evident though the swell had droped dramatically from yesterday. We checked Leo and wind was on with nobody out but the waves were minimal. I was able to sneak out with my 15 synergy and the lei gang sat on the beach or tried to get out and drifted back down wind and in at County Line. Some ok waves at the point but the inside got really light after a while and a down winder to Leo was in order as a bunch of kites looked powered down there by this time. Staircase was rockin and got a bunch of glassy waves there before spending an hour or so at Leo before heading back up the coast to see who was on a syunergy at County as the wind was smoking now. These kites FLY upwind. It took two tacks to get to County. Amazing!!! It was Gary from Ventura getting some good waves at Bombora and mid beach at County. He came in to tell me how much he was digging the kite and put a big grin on my mug to hear it. Bayless ran down to the beach at County to see why I came in and decided his Leo session was enough as well. The thin surf suit today did not quite keep me warm after three hours or so and the core temp was well down. Air and water temp was down. The tunes on the little swiman ipod shuffel once again added a great bit of pleasure to another great session. What a fantastic spring. I was going to head up to Santa Cruz to get some wind and waves but it has been so good here, the necesity has just not been there as of yet. Whales and porpoise around again today and it always feels like hanging with family when they are in the water around you. You just know those playful surf nut porpoises are saying "this guy is dropping in on us again??" Man, watch me zip past him again on this right."

Tax day twofur kitesessions.

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:54:00 +0000

Everything that can bloom is in full display on the gorgeous drive into Jalama. The yellows of mustard contrasting the bright greens with orange california poppies, purple blossoms, etc, add into a calidascope of visual delight only bettered by the addition of glimpses of a white capped Pacific near the end of the canyon in. Have I ever missed the J!!!
The film team was there on time and my old bud and J local Penetentiary Paul was rigging his windsurfer to go out before it got way to strong with the "50mph gusts like yesterday" I threw up the 12 m synergy with a spot from the paid Au surfer on the shoot. Was getting some massive airs and quickly realized it was gusting far in excess of 30 mph and the UG fish was under my feet to make it through lulls and over set waves. Half an hour of to the moon jumps with time to stop at the Lunar Taco Bell for a few seven layers no cheese, no sour cream on each boost had me head in after half an hour for a kite change. Aussy ran up to me to tell me the crew had not been filming me as the camera was not ready to shoot yet. Hollywood generaly does not have the water sports thing dialed and this is par for the course and I got a good chuckle out of it as they were raving about the jumps and appologized for the camera not running yet thinking I had come in to pack it up. No, no, just getting the brand new 10 m, synergy that was supposed to be sold out.. What a great kite,and made the next hour and a half in the extremely gusty stuff manageable. About this time a bunch of my buds from the Santa Barbara kite group showed up. This gave me a quick in to land the kite. I rand over the John, Ian and crew and pointing at the camera and crew said "work the camera. That is the brand new high def three dimentional big screen camera they are testing for their new feature film!" You don't need to tell kids twice to thow it all down for a motion picture camera and crew. The strapless show came on as the wind steadied out.. Really wierd thing happened, in that I felt satiated and wanted to rest my knee and riped abdominal muscles and shook all my buds hands and said goodby to the camera crew to take a few pictures while heading back out through the canyon with my little dig camera. Everyone shook their heads and said" your leaving?????" Granted I do like to stay out for five or six hours a lot but today the thought of shooting the beauty on the way out and getting back to Bu to kite with my buds for a second go out had me rolling.

Malibu was blowing on my return and Mo and Billy had called while I drove south to alert me that County was the spot. On return the 12 synergy and Xanadu bought my admition for a heap of fun little waves for an hour twilight session. Mara stoped by just as I was about to leave to show me how well her chin had healed up post surf accident and lots of stiches. Great to see her bubbly and positive attitude and bouncing back to surf again already and looking for a twin tip board prior to going directional on her kite. She will make a nice addition to our kite group in Bu. My friends come out of the woodwork to come chat when she is around. It is always good for a laugh. Chatting with friends always makes me feel very, very lucky to be living this life. Tax day is good with me. They can't tax you for having to many friends.

Some Jalama drive in and beach shots above with the photo crew slaving away to catch the kids on film I passed off to them. I am going to bring my road bicycle up to the off ramp of the 101 to do the road out and the side road to J and back loop. The visuals are out of this world after this winters well spaced rains and concomitant blooms... WOW!!!

Chase the camera boat

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:11:00 +0000

Today was spent driving back and forth up and down the coast in a vain attempt to conect with a boat with a high tech three d camera that was to film us kitsurfing. Looks like I am heading up to the J manyana with the big wind and 11 foot surf forcast to meet them though it will probably be good here and not risking the 20 knot differential of top to bottom gusts if the current forcast holds up there. I have been so darn fortunate to spend years of my life chasing wind and waves up at the gorgeous Jalama location that iregardless it will be fun to visit as it has been to long away from the J.

The wind came on here early and then backed off as I was on the phone in my car. Got back out around one and then handed off my 15 syn to Tom as to drive down the coast to check it for the boat and film team. It is very hard to explain the dynamics of kitesurfing to the uninitiated in Hollywood. No, the wind is good out to sea a few miles where you are but it is only 2 mph at Topanga...No, really... Always fun when you actually get them into the sport and then you get the..."I get it now!" . I got back to Leo again around two and a session for myself with some fun wind swell through Leo North Beach. The mustard in the hills and wales at the kelp bed were but a few of high points of the areas beauty today. The wind really came on and started screaming later on and in came the 15 synergy after three hours in the air and up went a 9 m trix as to fly something different for the first time in a while. About this time Heidi and her friend showed up and I got Tom to jog over as my kite was in the air already, to be sure her assistant knew how to launch her synergy ten in such strong/ gusty wind. She got off ok with her friend giving the kite a mid shove accidentally and producing a momentary taco. The kites inherent stability saved the launch and Tom told her friend never to push on the kite in the middle as you might with an lei that way in the future. Heidi got a few fun waves and was jetting straight up wind. The picture above is of her setting up on a right, for a bottom turn on her 10 m synergy kite on one of the inside waves at North Beach Leo.

Felt like summer today

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:59:00 +0000

Started out with a nice ten mile run with Loren's girlfriend up Sycamore Canyon with Lauren chasing on my mountain bike. Next came a drive to the bike shop to set them up with new road bikes. While there a phone call alerted me to 19mph winds up at C Street, already!!!....It was noon...yeeeehaw.. Bolted to C Street for a fun three hour session. We taked all the way up to Emma Wood again and did the usuial chase every wave you can on the way back. Went to TJ's to load up on frozen food for the cave and while driving home saw Leo coming on.. Raced down to the beach and got another fun in warm air summer feeling session to the setting sun at Leo. What a great day. We were all hooting and cheering each other on. Great time. The 15 syn with the fish was once again the perfect combo for the day at Leo and C Street. The defrosted bags of 250 dollar TJ food was a small price to pay.. It should all still be good...

Great kitesurf Saturday at C Street with old buds

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:06:00 +0000

A call came in from Lauren our San Diego based,world traveling seal bud, that he was going to be up at Mugu with his great girlfriend and whatryaoin? After a way to hot and late in the day mountain bike ride to the top of the hills and several computer checks and phone calls to rally the gang, we all shot up to C Street. It is sure a lot more fun taking the high mileage old turbo P wagon up the coast with that racing exhuast hum resonating off of the seaside cliff walls up PCH. Saw Heidi on her new exotic road bike pulling away from some dude who was chasing her. Cool to see she is having a blast in the bike scene.

Arival at C Street had Lauren/girlfriend, Alex and Vic with his Vet watching some very fun conditions with quite a few kites out. The wind only got better throughout the day and the gang of us on PL kites upwinded all the way to Emma Wood and riding anything that resembled a wave on the way up and back. Next came the point wave with about ten of us hitting it. What a blast. Lauren had not kited do to a heavy travel schedule since last Christmas and was very happy with the go out. His girlfriend is a competitive half marathon runner and tomorow morning has me running with his girlfriend up Sycamore Canyon in the morning as he paces us along side on my mountainbike. Then it is off to performance bike shop for the couple to look over his and her road bikes and maybe if Loran can find a used mountain bike. He is a bit shorter than and there is someone I know with a barely used full suspension bike that might want to sell it. Hmmmm??..

Gary was ripping it up at C Street on his new 12 Synergy. He has figured it out already. He did come in to borrow my Xanadu later.. He has the bug and needs one.. Vic and I were on them as well and tried to convince Lauren to use his fish instead of his twin with the 16 VII. He did well on his combo but would probably have had more fun with the little waves on his fish. Hope tomorrow afternoon goes off as well. Lauens gal unfortunately has to take a train back to SD and then a flight home to Canada and her hospital job so no kitesurf water lesson for her. They are to come on the Fourth of J trip to SQ so that one will be even more fun. Our visit to our buds Tips Tia food in Ventura was a blast. It was great to see Chang and we all had some great laughs. The drive home in the P wagon, chasing Vic in his Vet down the freeway for a while was fun and the clear night sky through the sunroof with my 5'10" twinfin Xanadu" girlfriend in the passenger seat was the icing on the beach life cake.

Steve's paragliding crash and Gary's first day on synergy

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:40:00 +0000

On the eve of my leaving for Sayulita, near Puerto Vallarta for Hedi and Anoush's wedding, Steve had called in the morning asking if I wanted to go paragliding at the 850 foot launch at Deer Creek. I was up at Eva Hollman's boat yard and the amazing board repair doc had just put my trusty 5'10" xanadu old school fish board back together in time for the trip. Having to run errands all over town, turning down Steve's invitation to go play was the only choice. Steve and I had been talking after a previous very good flight a few days prior and he had commented on how many paragliding friends had broken their backs. I made the usual observations about people going out in unsafe conditions and trying to make their often only or at least favorite sport "work". Gusty and strong winds, etc. are easily overlooked when previous flights in those sort of conditions just luckily worked out. Unfortunately Mr Fate has a way of catching up with you. It was with great sadness that I heard of Steve's plumit from the air to the hard asphalt below after a perfect launch. The initial cause guess by a reporting pilot bud who was there was the timing of changing wind direction that afternoon with the associated rotors created. The paramedics came and an ambulance took him away. It was only later that we learned he had brocken his back. The degree of injury was not clear and intial phone calls could of course not be answered as he was heavily sedated. Thank goodness he is now abulatory and his condition improving. Steve is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and lived to paraglide. We had planed on getting him down to Baja this summer to teach him to kitesurf. Be sure to send some good vibes his way and drop him a phone call to wish him a quick recovery. Think safety and mixing your sports so there is always another fun and healthy activity to participate in when another should be avoided do to non favorable conditions. We are all guilty of taking controled risks and a good friend being injured should raise a question as to our motivation in taking those risks beyond a logical level so often. Lets have fun but stay alive and in one piece so we can keep the most important thing in this life close to us; our friends.

Gary from Ventura came down to my BU cave this afternoon to pick up a bar to use with his new synergy as he sold Heidis old 13 VII and 10m VII with his bar to a fellow in the bay area to pay for his new 12 m synergy. It is to be his one kite quiver for a while. Though there were heaps of things to do business wise afer seven days away, his energy to get into the water was contagious and out the door we went to Leo with a 15 mph average ikitesurf reported a few hours prior. The wind had backed off by the time we arrived around 4 but slowly built a few miles per hour towards dark. We started in around 10 mph average and got some 14 mph average stuff with gusts to 17 or so. I used the 15 syn with the good old becker 5'10" no strap surfboard with about a million miles on it and Gary tried my xanadu with his new 12 m syn. He was intitially chocking the kite unbeknownst to him and not getting the potetntial speed/power generation out of it though he was raving about it's great performance. A bit of tweaking with him tightening depower strap an inch each run had him ripping up some fun little waves and zipping up wind in very light condtions to his delight. He couldn't stop talking about how great a combination the synergy and the fast and floaty surtech Xanadu wave rocket was. He is now saving to add one of the boards to complement his now one and only kite for his local wave at C Street.

You can really control the power of the kite with the substantial fins of the fish boards and the efficacy of the flat rockered and wide tailed, energy conserving design makes all condtions a joy. A little mutant and one of these or a small directional and a fish make a great quiver for most of our local lighter kiters with heavier guys like myself running a couple of different dimentioned fish and a good real shortboard thruster surfboard with good rocker and volume we could surf on normally but with the ability to add straps if needed on the choppy days of kitesurfing.

Tomorrow morning is knee rehab again on the road or mountain bike preferably with a swim in the evening if this colds symptoms decrease by o swim thirty manyana arvo.

So long as space remains
So long as sentient beings remain,
I will remain,
In order to help, in order to serve,
In order to make my own contribution.

A nice little prayer from the Dalai Lama. His lessons on taking the focus away from ones self, the development of compassion and people putting too much effort on material development neglecting their inner values can add a lot to a guys airflight home from Mex... His book, "An open heart" really gets you thinking about our daily motivations, actions and focus. Good stuff... Nice spirituality without the nasty religous aftertaste. Available at a bookstore near you..snicker...

Heidi and Anoushes wedding in kitsurf paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:22:00 +0000

Thanks for the pick up from the airport and the complicity in the beach shinanigans Gideon.
Yep the picture of Gideon sailing away under a synergy with the "Club Yuppie's with Sand" (think Caddy Shack) beach restaurant menu/slash surfboard under his feet would have had me down there rolling on the sand laughing still.. The longboard/menu would have been returned and gained the extra value of a great gringo story to go along with the exorbitant costs of the food posted on it.

I was able to walk self assuredly past the platoon of radio clad guards two more times before being caught on the day of best wind and surf by the guards/guest servies special forces. When they stopped me to ask where my colored wrist band of the day was, no visitors were in sight to sneak a peak and do the hungover vistior who forgot to put it on improv. So, it was the "is the front desk this way?" quesion came out while standing two hundred meters into their complex whilst overlooking the wind and waves reeling off of the reef....DOOOOHHH!! The gave me guard escort fitting for Julio Eglacias to the front desk and watched my face show no reaction as the front desk manageger gave me a very thourough quoute of room rates for villas amid my quesions of daily massages and perfectly dimentioned kite rigging babe request. Using the pirated dirt trail just outside of the guards shack would have to wait three days.. Nuts....

I got wind all seven days down there with great 15 synergy and 12 synergy conditions and a quick two hour sneak drive north away from my buds wedding facilities confirmed good thermal winds into some great wave zones up there. Even local fisherman there could say " you should have been here yesteday senior!!". Though my syns were vacum bagged down and I had reprimanded myself to be content with a good swim workout and surf in Sayulita in the morning, the sight of perfect wind again at the north of Buceria wave spot produced a frantic unpack, rig and one hour kite session. The white facial salt crust adorned durring the session, cernainly cracked around the corners of my smiiling sun leathered face on my flight home whilst conversing with and gazing into the gorgeous brown eyes of the beautiful tv travel show host gal seated in front of me. You just gotta love Mex. Aididad and Anoush were good and stuck with the wedding party throughout the trip and will come back down with us next year for the wave sailing group trip. Hedi and Anoush had the best wedding and beach party I have ever been to under the gorgeous Mainland Mexico moon and with the benefit of a Cuban band one night and mixed bands the next. Unreal event put on by some real beach people to tie the knot properly with surf wax. Great friends and gorgeous Sayulita Mexico again as a home for the festiveties. Come with us next year!!!

Thanks to our great friend and team rider John Bayless for dealing with a UPS custom clearance nightmare here in our absence. 366 bucks for just one box for custom clearance alone of three synergy kites from the factory.. yikes... The EU/Dollar bit is really spinning things these days.

Magic March kitesurfing to the loss of the other sports.

noreply@blogger.com (Traig, the Kite-Monkey) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:53:00 +0000

Between here at home in Bu and up at the C Street point break playground, there has been wind and waves 98 percent of this month. Just incredible conditions making it very hard to sneak in a workout of any other sorts. Luckily I was able to do a quick two hours of climbing in the hills with my road bike yesterday prior to a till dark wavesailing session up at County...again.. Todays anticipated trip to the pool to swim laps wasinstantly canceled with Vic's call to say Deer Creek is going off with three paragliders thermaling to the moon and you had better get up here quick.

It was a fantastic paragliding flight with bullet thermals. The wristwatch altimeter showed max altitude when chasing a beautiful red tailed hawk who was kind enough to show me the way to some great altitude. Not long after I was whited out as the clouds along the coast shot in very quickly. Jeff the "Deermaster" was up there with me when the clouds rushed in and we had a heck of a time avoiding each other when all you could see was a faint gray arc of the other guys wing coming at you in between bullets of lifting air. These were not the smooth thermals we love so much but sharp hard tight ones that whip your canopy back and you need to bank very hard as to not be spit out them and loose significant altiude while low where your really can't afford to. Casey, Vic and a couple of other guys were able to escape below the rush of low clouds/fog, as they were lower and landed at the 500 foot launch or there abouts. Jeff went for the lower launch through the clouds in hopes of some visiblity. I climbed up the mountain in a small V shaped area of limited blue sky cleared by, you guesed it, a strong thermal. Dooohhhh...Going straight up when you need to go down with what looks like a inpenetrable sea of white about to swallow you. Now I was trying to use big ears to reduce my paragliders projected lifting area to land but the stong thermal lift would have none of that as my vario screamed it's beep, beep, beep you are going up like a rocket song. Drastic measures needed to be taken or I would be forced to land in some very turbulent winds in the leeward rotor of the hills above or in the huge jagged rocks and cactus fields imediately below. By going full hands up for speed forward and then performing few tight spirals with some g's, enough altitude was lost in the base of the canyon and speed gained to accelerate towards the clearing spot just at the intersection of two dirt roads at the most wind shadowed area of the entrance to our 850 ft altitude launch area. Unfortunately, where there is a strong upward thermal, there is equally strong sink near it. With my speed increasing in the dive and the sink added, it looked like the side of the mountain in nasty terrain would be my fate but not so bad as you can flare and come in soft on a paragliding wing. Forutnately my speed through the sink was maniupulated into suden lift with a turn and flair, and a landing at the instersecion worked out perfectly.

Five minutes later, the ground hugging fog cleared up and the gang came back in the back of Casey's truck and yelled "cool, good to see you still alive Traig and that you did not crater in. We totaly lost sight of you as we escaped to a lower launch for a landing and had no idea what happened to you."

We usually use radios but today only a few of the guys had them and the conditions on launch did not suggest such rapid movement of the clouds inland and the crew thought it was not necessary...Another lesson..again.... So, after this flight, running some errands to get ready for PV, and on the way back home, finding some pre frontal winds at Zuma to share with a bunch of my buds kitesurfing was a nice addition to another great day in another wonderful month in a very fortunate life.

Saw Heidi riding her bike (or at least it looked like a very cute asian gal on a bike that was jamming in with a good lead over two other gals on PCH, that could have been Heidi and I appologize for honking if it wasn't her) on the way to the paraglide hill today and felt guilty not being on my bike but heck.. can always ride. Rode the hills yesterday morning... why the guilt? The exercise addiction has just been there since childhood so superseeds the adrenalin rush in some ways probably though that has been there from the first base jump head first when the darn doc droped me on child birth... You don't always get wind and flying conditions like this so live it while you can. Life is far too short.

Puerto Vallarta for Anushes and Hedis wedding next Wed and Gideon is down there now with a report of solid thermals each day plus there is to be a good swell hitting when we arive... Man, I won the fun lottery. Not a heap of money but at least the sport opportunities are golden.

Yesterday as John Bayless and I joked and thanked our lucky stars for another great four or five hours of kitesurfing, Ali had just shown up to get a session. My knee was too sore to hang out and kite more with my bud so got a few pictures. He got some great waves at twilight and this is one of the pictures attached. He is having a great time on his synergy kites. This is Ali on the 15 m synergy with his 5 foot UG surfboard directional. He also uses a fish surfboard for light wind wavesailing.