Sept 27 2008 SUP Surfing

The waves today were the best that they've been since I got down here. There was no wind and nice glassy swell rolling through between waist and chest high. I had some of my best down the line SUP rides today. I'm starting to get the hang of getting this big board to turn on the wave so today's rides were much more fun and much longer than my past rides. These SUP boards are so big that you really have to move around on the board to get it to turn and then to get it to accelerate down the line. I love that fact that it's so easy to go to the beach for a quick surfing session although today's quick session turned into five hours. Not all of that time was surfing, but I'd be willing to bet I was out there at least two and a half hours and the rest of the time playing fetch with bandit. I think bandit likes the beach as much as I do. When he sees me putting my board in the van he gets all excited and can't wait to get in the van and go.

Air temp 88
Water 80

Sept 25 2008

Evening session out at Bluff Marina with OK 12m wind. Today was not the best wind as it was kind of up and down. I did talked to some locals that said it was really good earlier in the day.I think the wind out of the NE is better mid day and starts to get holey late in the day. It was still better than not going kiting. I landed most of my Railey to Blind and some nice high S Bends in both directions as well. I was thinking I was going to try a Slim Chance but the wind was a little to inconsistent for me to give that a try. Maybe next time.

Air temp 85
Wind 13-18
Water temp 80

Sept 24 2008

Another day Bluff Marina with solid 9m wind and sunny clear skies. Today I worked on more Railey to Blind and landed most of them and also started working on a Blind Judge. A Blind Judge is a Railey to Blind but you pass the bar while you're still in the air as opposed to after you land in the Blind position. I almost landed one of these but I still have a ways to go. Maybe the next time the wind's a little lighter I'll work on these some more. Getting drug by a looping 9m while holding on with one had gets tiring quickly.

Air temp 88
Wind 20-25
Water temp 80

Sept 22 2008

The wind was looking marginal for this afternoon but bandit needed to go for a swim so I drove over to Bluff Marina to see if I might just get lucky. Well after about 45min of throwing bandit his toy the wind started to pick up and some of the locals started to show up as well. I rigged my 12m and headed out on the skim board. I've been working on shuvits the last couple of times out on the skim but this time I wanted to work on jibing. Jibing the skim board is much harder than you would expect it to be. You have to have perfect foot work or the board squirts out from under your feet and you end up falling on your back. I must have practiced this for a couple of hours before I was getting to the point that I could jibe and ride away from most attempts. I was getting tired from falling so much that I decided to get the nobile out and just ride around for awhile and have some fun. I landed a couple of railey to blind worked on unhooked front rolls so I can start working on a slim chance. A slime chance is an unhooked front roll with a opposite rotation handle pass. More on that after I actually try one. All in all it was a good day on the water with some nice steady wind.

Air temp 82
Wind 20mph
Water temp 80

Sept 21 2008

Sarah and I had a good day kiting out at Bluff Marina today with me on a 10m and Sarah on her new 9m. The wind was perfect for working on unhooked moves so I practiced doing railey to blind and Sarah was working on her S bends. I'm getting better with the railey to blind now but still only land maybe thirty percent. This was the first day we've been able to use our mid sized kites as we've been in an odd weather pattern since Ike rolled through. The forecast is for more of the same light NE wind for the next week or so.

Air temp 82
Wind 20mph
Water temp 80

Sept 19 2008 Surfing with dolphins

The wind was light again today so I decided to go to the beach and do some SUP surfing. The waves were small, waist high and choppy but still fun and challenging. I paddled out to the outside break and had some fun rides and then on the way back out I noticed some dolphins jumping out near the outside break. I paddled out to where they were and they started jumping out of the water and swimming back and forth about a hundred feet from me. I think they saw me standing on the board or they heard it moving through the water and decided to come over for a closer look. The swam my way jumping a few times and then dove underwater and that was the last I saw of them. I was paying so much attention to the dolphins and paddling out towards them that I didn't realize how far out I'd gone. I looked down in the water when I was turning the board around to head back in and noticed hundreds of dinner plate sized jelly fish swimming around. I could see the tentacles hanging down a couple of feet from there bodies and knew I didn't want to mess around out there very long. I paddled back in very carefully and managed to catch a wave and ride all the way to the beach without falling off. It's funny what a little fear of swimming with the jelly fish can do.

Air temp 85f
Water temp 80f
Waves waist high

Sept 15 2008 Railey to Blid.....landed some today!

Yes, I finally landed some Railey's to Blind this afternoon out riding at Packery with Sarah. The wind was out of the North and a little up and down with Sarah on a 10M and me on the 12m and my Nobile. I would have been on the Lunacy, but Sarah seems to like that board as much as I do. We were both having a good day riding along doing our usual routines when I decided enough of the same old crap. On my first attempt I did the Railey and spun to blind so fast that I actually over rotated and spun all the way around, passed the bar and rode away. The second one was much better with less rotation I landed blind perfectly, with the board pointed straight down wind I had all the time in the world to pass the bar. The wind started to crap out a little and I was stoked to have landed a couple of new moves that I decided to call it a day.

15 Sept 2008

Air temp 85f
water temp 81f
wind 17-24

Red Fish Fishing....day before Ike

The house is all boarded up and nothing to do but wait, so I went fishing. I met Jerry from Jerry B's kayak shop at a secret location and we went off stalking some Red Fish. The water is a couple of feet higher than normal from Ike's storm surge so the fish have moved into some new areas. We paddled down wind for an hour or so stalking the banks and the shallow for fish when we spotted a couple feeding almost on shore. When the water is that shallow you don't see the typical Red Fish tails sticking out of the water, but instead you see their backs out of the water. They call this Humping. Whatever they call it we saw fish and started casting some gold spoons their way. The fish didn't respond to the spoons but they also didn't get spooked from our lures splashing next to them. After changing baits and tactics we moved along to some other areas in hopes of better luck. Jerry said that sometimes with drastic water fluctuations the fish will get "lock jaw" and nothing will work. Well all the fish we saw today seemed to have "lock jaw" and we didn't get one to bite. The good part is that I was shown an area that is close enough to paddle to but hidden from most power boats, so I should have some great fish stalking there in the future.

Lee

Sept 8 2008

I went to Bluff Marina this afternoon with plans to go kayak fishing but the wind came up and kiting looked to be the better option. Bluff Marina is at the southern end of the Laguna Madre in CC and is a newly developed kiting spot. There's a nice big grass rigging area with a fresh water shower and a fair ammount of parking spots. The wind was light at the start but kept building to the point that I was very overpowered on my 12m. I made the mistake of only taking out the skim board and the glide and left the Nobile in the van. I won't be making that mistake anymore! I would have had a great session on the Nobile but on the glide it was just good. The wind was so steady and the water so flat the I decided to try and ride blind for as long as I possibly could. I thinik I made it about a half mile before I started geting cramps in my toes and had to call it quits on the blind session. This spot is the closest rinding area to our houses (six miles) so I'm planning on spending quite a bit of time there in the future.

wind 15-22
water temp 87
air temp 90

Sept 6 2008

Today I decided I'd try riding in the Gulf rather than Packery so Bandit and I headed out up the beach to mile post 181. I met a nice couple that kite, Dieter and I can't remember her name at the moment, that were very helpful with all the local info on wind directions and where to ride. The wind was light in the 15-18mph so I tried the skim board in the surf. This was very challenging. After half an hour of that the wind had picked up enough for me to go out on the Nobile. It was good, the wind was super steady and there were some nice 3-4 foot waves rolling through would have been great on a surf board. While I was out a couple of dolphins came in and hung out where I was rinding. They would ride the waves in and then race back out through this one deep channel and ride in again. It was cool to watch. On my last reach out I decided to go out about a quarter mile and make up some lost ground from riding the waves and I see this Navy fighter jet flying toward me down the beach. The jet is flying low and maybe a quater of a mile off the beach toward me. I'm trying to pinch up wind in light conditions with my kite high in the sky and I look at how high my kite is and then look up at the jet and realize I'd better drop my kite to water level because I'm not sure the jet isn't going to hit my kite. I lowered the kite and watch the jet fly right over the top of me and as it passed by my kite bounced around in the air from the jet wash. I'd be willing to bet that if I could ask the pilot what his altitute was he'd say 100 feet or less. Exciting, cool and a little unnerving all at the same time.

wind 15-18mph
water temp 83f
air temp 90f

Sept 5 2008

Another light wind day in CC at Packery Channel on the 12m and skim board. Still working on the shuvit transitions and trying some small ollies and I mean small. I'm getting better at the shuvits, but the ollie thing has me a little baffled. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it someday. Anyway, I was having a great time on the skim board and decided I would try a flat 360 spin and keep riding in the same direction. Well I made it about 270 degrees around and caught my edge,looped my kite and drug myself through about 4" of water. In the process of dragging along I put my right hand down in the water or really on the bay bottom and slid across a couple of oysters. I waswarned that there are some oysters in the Packery area and I was wearing booties but I didn't think about crashing in the shallows and what would happen if some other body part came in contact with the oysters. There I was sliding along with my hand on the bottom when I felt this sharp sting like you would get if you poured saltwater on a wound. When I came to a stop I looked at my and my index finger and ring finger had many super deep cuts and there was blood everywhere. I've cut myself many times before, but I've never seen my own flesh look like raw hamburger. I was worried that I'd need stitches and that I'd be out of commission for awhile. I walked upwind to my skim board and rode back to the beach and self landed my kite and went to the van to get the first aid kit. I'm washing the wounds with fresh water when this lady comes walking around the van and asks if I'm alright. I said that I was fine and that I might just need a few stitches. Turns out that shes an ER nurse in San Antonio and she takes a look and said there's no need for stitches because there's no where to stitch. Remember the hamburger reference? Well I washed my fingers up with soap and water and then poured hydrogen peroxide on them followed by some large bandages. My fingers did'nt hurt all that bad and the wind was still steady so I put some duct tape over the bandages and went back out for another session where I made sure to stay in the deeper water.

wind 15mph
water temp 86f
air temp 96f

Sept 4 2008

First day of kiting in Corpus Christi, Texas. Sarah and I drove over to Packery Channel with the intention doing some stand up paddling, but it was breezy and we decided to try some kiting instead. I rigged my 12m HP and grabbed my skim board and Sarah rigged a 10m HP and rode the Nobile. The wind was about 15mph from the NE. I launched Sarah and asked a local instructor named Zach if he could give me a launch. Off we rode on the butter smooth flat water of Packery Channel. We rode for about an hour and I worked on my skimboard shuvit transisions and actuall rode away from a number of them. It's harder than you think it would be, but what you do is ride along and edge hard up wind while bring the kite to 12 and then you sort of hang from the kite as you shuv the tail of the board around and then land and ride off in the other direction. Maybe not that cool to watch, but it's fun and challenging. All in all it was a great first day for me in Corpus Christi.

Wind 15mph
water temp 86f
air temp 94f