Friday came around which means its time to go head to the lake. I decided to go pay Marc Moline a visit. I was the first to screen the final version of MidWest What! It turned out amazing. Marc did a fantastic job. Im sure he is very glad to get this done. Saturday I drove up to little sable point to meet up with wykoff, tad and some of the local riders. We had a good session I was lit out of my mind all weekend. Saturday it was lit on my 16 strait to being lit on my 13. But the wind was kinda fluky up there. I did my good deed for the day on sat; I rescued a kite that was heading to WI after a safety release was activated and the rider didn’t have a leash. We wound up riding until the sunset. Noah put us up at his place, which is the coolest place ever. We got up early and tried to fix wykoffs 13m. we headed out to the lake and there were some decent size waves and put up the 13m and had one of the best sessions of my life. The sky was dark when we showed up but cleared to be a beautiful day. The wave built to become WAY over my head i felt like i was in the middle of spare change when some of those big waves broke. There were a bunch of surfers out and it was just me, tad, wykoff, noah and Kevin riding. I defiantly need a surfboard and a 9 hybrid.

more pictures at my flikr site like usual

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Originally uploaded by bryan elkus.

What a weekend! I headed to King of the Great Lakes Thursday morning. I got to the shop to find Damien, joe b and a couple other guys. We decided to all head up to little point sable. We had a very fun session. Practiced a hole bunch of tricks to throw in the comp. The wind was a little fluky for pretty much the hole weekend. But we rode til the sun went down. We headed back to Grand Haven. It is impossible to find food in GH after 10pm. We had to order a pizza to get our dinner that night. 1 am rolled around and the weather channel was on and it said it was blowing 13-14 so joe b eric turtle and I headed out to go ride. It was a little light but night riding is always a blast. Friday was quite an experience. The wind was very very light for the comp. But we all went out and threw what we could. All the pros were killing it. We all had fun. We meet ShyGuy, a slingshot rep, who was really cool and we got the skinny on the 07 gear that were stoked about. Chris and ryan got to test out the Link. We decided after riding all night that we would drive across the state to go catch the NE winds. So we drove over that night and spent the next two days in tawas/Oscoda and did downwinders. Getting 4 consecutive days on water was the best. Im gonna pay for it in the library this week though. Til next time…

There are tons more pictures on my flickr site from the weekend.

It was another Tawas weekend. We headed up Saturday morning. We arrived on the beach around 2pm. The wind was light so we did some downwinders cause we didn’t have much of a chance. So I tried throwing some kiteloop backrolls. A couple went well and most of the other well not so much. After about the fifth run back up the beach the wind started to really get good. I flew the 20 BEST Wharoo. I don’t really like the pully system at all. The bar it way to hard to keep pulled in all the time. I was surprised about how fast that kite could turn. After heading out twice on the 20 bow and an LFT I could stay up wind so I switched to my misft and the session begin. I took another two runs and put up the 17 fuel and had an amazing session working on a bunch of trick and playing in the waves. It started to rain a few hours later by that time I was very tired and called it a night. We packed up and headed over to jerry’s to dinner and festivities. Sunday, well lets just say we did everything but kite. It was a day of relaxing on the beach, volleyball, soccer, both at the same time, skimboarding. But the wind just didn’t want to pick up enough. We went to the Tiki that night and played some kickball and called it a night. Then it took 4 hours to drive home the next morning with all the traffic.

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Originally uploaded by bryan elkus.

So last Thursday I did not have class so I headed over to Lexington for the forecast of 20-25. It was going to be a great day. Well when I showed up its was blowing a whapping 12knots. So we all hung around and the wind slowly picked up. I went out on Tom’s 21m ocean rodeo. I was able to get up wind and ride for a little. Then the wind picked up and I was pretty powered on the 21m. I wound up dropping the kite which had no 5th line. I made it about half way down to the other state park before I got the thing back in the air. Luckily brian lefeve grabbed my new board for me. By the way I got a new board. 134 MISFIT!!! I love it. It rides terrifically. I gave Tom back is 21m and threw up a 17 fuel and rode on that for the rest of the day. It really picked up for a good 2 hours I was really lit on the 17. It was a great day. I finished the day off with tad for dinner before heading back home.

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Originally uploaded by bryan elkus.

lexington round 2, Wykoff and i drove up to lexington around 6am to catch the 20-25 predictions. ont he way up we turned on the radio and hear matt and keegan being interviewed on the radio about kiteboarding. That pumped us up even more to go ride. we got there and sat around wishing we brought the surf board as we watched the sets roll in. The wind was really north west and we waited 3 hours til the rest of the crew showed up to go ride. we drove up to sanilac and a few minutes the clocked north and really started blowing. We had a terrific 11 mile downwinder in the waves. It was a session to remember.

So Friday afternoon came around and the forecast didn’t look to hot at the usual travel spot so I decided to head over to Lexington. I’ve never been there so I decided to take the 2 hour trip across the state. I got there around 3:30 and it was light, real light. So I rigged up my 16. Lexington is a really nice place with a small public beach in a small town. Thankfully it didn’t blow up on me again. I rode for a little and couldn’t go up wind and the swim area was right there so I decided to head to the couth side of the harbor. It was flatter but there was absolutely no wind on the other side. So I got to the beach and packed up my stuff and walked back to where I launched to find kyle and brar pumping up their kites. Kyle had the “secret weapon” with him and a vegas. He let me borrow the 16 as he took out the rebel. The waves picked up as the night went on. Chuck showed up a little later to rip it up on the waves. It finally really started blowing as the sun started to go down. We had a terrific session playing in the waves. Lexington is defiantly a place to go back to.

I was back at Tawas again this weekend, who would have thunk it? Friday I went home to hand out with my family and go out to dinner with them for a late bday dinner. Saturday Ryan Wykoff and I headed up to Tawas at 6am to go session the 10mph SE forecast. My parents came up to hangout on the beach with me too.

Well it turned out that the thermal did not come. The clouds came in too early before it could heat up. But, it was a beautiful day so we all hung out at the beach. They also called for a 15mph S-SW wind for the night. I’ve been in search of a night session for a few months now. There was a cloudy when, 7pm came and went. 8pm the waves started up and so did the 17m and the glide. Unfortunately, my BEST 16m blew out again, what a great way to start off the night. Wykoff and I switched off kites for a while until there was enough wind for Jason’s 15m I had to borrow. The clouds cleared and the wind picked up. Wykoff and I spent the night ripping up the ponds and the lakeside for hours on end. Riding at night is something every abled kiter should experience. Rick showed up a little later and then I pulled out the camera and a spot light and filmed wykoff and rick for a half hour. We wound up riding until 3am. This session rivals the sunset session that tom and I had in hatteras. By then neither of us could hold onto the bar anymore. So we packed up and pitched our tents in the secret spot. Sunday we got up at 8:30 and pumped up again (crazy, I think so). We did a little downwinder to the parking lot where Tad pulled in with one of the best breakfasts we have had.

The wind was just not great for a while after that. It slowly died out, so much for the 20-25 mph forecast. The beach was quite the sight with some 25+ kites pumped and ready to go. We all hung out and waited for the wind. Scotty and I almost got killed by a kite too. That was my first real brush with kite death. Luckily, I was able to hit the deck, but Scotty got hit with the lines near his neck, luckily the kite didn’t power up and he was alright. 6pm rolled around and the front moved through and the wind came up for a little session. I pumped up my only kite remaining and grabbed the glide for a little session while everyone else was pretty lit on 16s. I rode for a little then put the kite down to test out the new camera casing. I headed back home a few hours later.

Well the birthday weekend turned out to be a great one. We headed up to tawas Saturday morning. There was no wind to be found even though we carried all our equipment out to the point just to carry it all back with out riding. Then we went for a swim and we all played a little volleyball in the water. Once we got bobby spotted a wind line. The wind suddenly changed from SW to NE. I grabbed my 16 and brian’s glide. But no luck, just not enough wind. We called it a night. We arrived at the beach in the morning. Not looking forward to the forecast for the day (SW@5 with storms and clouds). The wind had not stared up yet but we dragged out stuff down to the beach and the started to pick up. A huge storm came in view. The wind picked up and got a short ride until the storm got too close. It passed just east of us. We got good rides in on all our light wind gear for the entire morning. Later in the day it picked up for about an hour. I was totally lit on my 16m. We had a great session, what a birthday present! Then we packed up and headed up to the sable inn for a birthday dinner (thanx Lefeve). We hung out for a while at the campsite. Then we went down to the beach to get a better view of the stars and the Milky Way, which were glowing like spotlights that night. As we got to the water there was a very steady breeze. I was just not enough for our biggest kites, so we headed back to the camp and went to bed. So Monday was suppose to be an epic SW wind day. So we went into town to get breakfast. After that I spent time in the coffee shop getting all my homework done. I arrived an hour or so later to see everyone just starting to pump up their kites. After I walked to the point I pumped up the 16 rode (what timing). The rest of the day was history. It was full of unhooked fun in the 2’ glassy ponds, some tiny wave booters, log jibs and island jumping. It was a terrific day.