Today was another one of those hard decision days. It was blowing 20 SW and there was some decent swell. I headed out after work to take a couple pictures of Matt Lane at S-Turns. When the clouds took over and the wind made the surf a bit too bumpy I headed back to REAL to take a kite session in the slick with Carrie, Luke, Brian, Corey, Chris and Tommy. It was a fun session on the WLF and an 8m Havoc.
It has been a couple days since posting. The wind has still been cranking. Yesterday, we finally had a day off from the wind, and it was quite a relief. Today, the wind turned back on but slowly this time, letting us ride some larger kites, which was a very nice change of pace from the 6 and 8m kites.
The Watermen’s Retreat Ribbon Cutting was today. There was a nice turn out from the community. The weather couldn’t have been any nicer. After the ceremony was over, I headed out for a quick lunch session and rode the JWCF Slider with Dave Rakes and Brandon Scheid.
I took another quick session after work on the slider.
For those of you who were not in Hatteras for Nukefest 09, you missed out. It was consistently blowing 25-40 from Friday-Monday. I took a bunch of sessions this weekend, from the southside waves to sunset slick sessions. Saturday we headed down to the Sand Bar to see Matt Lane’s Band Camp-F play. It was a really good time hanging out with all the kiters and clients that were in town.
Tonight was one of those sessions that you don’t forget. The coaches had a meeting at 6pm. I busted out of work and pumped up and headed upwind to the Slick. I started the session off with a backdoor boost (jumping from the outside of the slick into the slick). It was blowing 30 and I was juiced on my 8m Havoc. The coaches were out kiting in front of REAL after the meeting, and I was doing speed runs in the slick all-alone.
It was the best feeling being up there lining up my tack, hunching down to take on the full power of the kite, flying over the buttery flat water inches from land. Then hopping to toeside cutting a huge fan of spray. Then pumping your kite two times on your healside getting up near the island again and sending the kite from 10 to 12 and booting until the ground looks far far away, then floating back down to the water. It’s a great feeling, that’s for sure. I did that for about an hour and a half until I was too powered and headed in. I went to send a huge boost before heading in and my backfoot ripped out of the binding and the next thing I know I was doing a massive one footer. I some how made it back down avoiding injury. I made it back to the backyard, then took some pics and called it a night.
The REAL Watersports retail bags made their first appearance in the shop this week. The bag was a simple design. We wanted to go for a classic, bold and simple look. So we kept the classic brown bag with a bold centered logo to make it standout. It seemed to work as I was sanding up in the board loft looking down on the floor and the first thing I spotted was a female carrying that bag while shopping for clothes. I like how these turned out better than the Watermen’s Retreat Reusable Bags, because the printing turned out far superior.
Yesterday was a pretty busy day. I missed a great surf session from what I heard. Best Team rider David Drinkwater stopped by to help out with the Red Bull Slider. There was a bunch of work that had to be done before we can take it out to session. The screws and plastic warp every winter so there was plenty of work to be done.
After work, Chris our O’Neill Rep came by the shop to do a little Tech session on the current and next seasons O’Neill lines. Thanks for the Tech, drinks and food.
The new DaKine light boxes showed up today. One of the new graphics is a sequence shot of Jason Slezak from last summer. It was one of the best photo shoot sessions to date. The session consisted of Jason and Dre hitting the kicker over land gapping two barrels. Here is the post from that session. Its good to see some of my work hanging in the shop, especially in a DaKine AD!
It was a pretty mellow day at work today. The wind blew SW all day then switched to NE. After work, I met up with Kyle of Detroit Kiteboarding, David Drinkwater and Jerry Chalk for a downwinder. We headed north to the Ranger Station. Up there we meet up with Rick and Scotty for a downwinder back to the house.
It was light so I rode a 12m Havoc and a surfboard under powered. Kyle and I had a late start to the session. We made it to the north of town where we meet up with chris and cory for a ride back up to the car. Although, I was a bit underpowered the small waves were a fun change to the flat water of the past week.
After the last weekend of extensive kiteboarding, I have been a little burned out on sessioning. I grabbed the camera and headed to The Slick to take a couple shots of Dave Betz for an article. Sam Bell was up there killing it. He landed nearly every trick but two that he threw. Lulu also gets a mention for charging harder than i’ve seen her ride in a while.
I wound up shooting everyone that was out for a little while. I then headed back down to REAL and grabbed a couple shots of Jason with a great sunset in the background.
