kiting "Puerto" Alberni

Alberni Inlet gives up the goods!

Almost every afternoon since last Sunday in the last week I've kited at the  wildwestwatersports site  up the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island-
either on my 9m. Smoke or the Blade 10m. and a couple days over-powered on da'Boss 12m. 'cuz I wuz too lazy too re-rig as the wind built during the day.

 it's mostly a late show with wind starting as a small breeze noon-ish,  increasing or a  later start and then a steady build to full power for the evening session. Yesterday there were a couple 7m kites out

Dock launch lift off

Chasing the Frances Barkley into town

Playa Puerto Alberni launch aka "the big blue whale"

the big blue whale

your uh...intrepid reporter (cough, cough) filed this story recently for the Alberni valley times

this will become the ramp for launching kites from the dock at the wildwestwatersports site

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At sunset, Monday July 26, the Wild West Watersports gang with help from Brad Berry Enterprises
launched the kite ramp at the old plywood site and new wind sport park at the end of Third Ave.


Made from a recycled fish farm pontoon and weighing approximately 20 tons and more than 90ft in length over the past weeks Wild West Watersports and many friends and volunteers have been
grinding, sanding and painting the old pontoon in readiness for placing it at the end of the dock at the old plywood site so that watersports enthusiasts including, kiteboarders, kayakers and windsurfers can access the beautiful waters of the Alberni inlet.

the excavator playing roll the logs

Brad Berry, his excavator, and ground support Paul Wagner, rolled the giant pontoon along the ground in similar fashion to early Egyptian pyramid construction methods with logs generously supplied by log salvager, John Christmas. Logs were placed perpendicularly in front of the pontoon so that they were able to roll it along the ground towards the water.

dumping it in the drink

a little leverage for the final push

It was a real community event as the windsurfers and kiters in attendance that day along with their families watched in awe as Brad artfully manipulated the boom sticks like toothpicks to easily roll
the twenty ton 90 foot behemoth, dubbed the Blue Whale, into the water with a massive splash as the sun disappeared over the horizon." - Alberni Valley Times, freelance contributor, Rod Frew

almost there

Oh ya the kiting has been good too! Grins.

Lit on the Gypsy 6.5m

two days in a row completely overpowered on 6.5 Gypsy with trim strap fully depowered...sheesh!

Talk about hook in and hang on!

jumping in with the Gypsy

lit on 6.5m Gypsy

I kited Tue at Alberni inlet at port Alberni, Vancouver Island. The wind was steady and just got stronger all afternoon.

I was actually out playing on a 3.7m windsurfing sail for a while!
 It's been nearly 10 years and although my gybing skills are a bit rusty it was a blast to get back on the "pole smurfer" and go blasting across the inlet fully lit. I even got a few jumps in.

Later in the day Matt Williamson of Wild West Watersports and I were out on our small kites fully powered . We kited all the way downwind in the 2-3 ft inlet swell right in front of the isalnd to the P.A. Harbour Quay and put on a show for the folks hanging out there. coming back up wind was easy so powered we palyed around a bit in the flat slicks behind the log booms (FUN!) and were back up to WWW HQ in no time.

The next day, Wed., with family and friends in tow, we ventured out to South Chesterman Beach near Tofino. Matt & I optimistically rigged up 9m kites. It was hard to tell in the nearly offshore wind. Over my shoulder while I was setting up the lines for my Smoke, I watched as Matts kite pulsed dramatically in the heavy gusts. Matt returned from the waters edge and pronounced it WAY to strong for our 9s .

We swapped into our small kites again and  I walked up the beach with my lines swirling behind me trying to catch up with  Matt.  DOH! I wont do that again, the 40+ gusts severely tangled my lines as they dangled behind me on the walk upwind. Oops.

south chesterman (look closely for kite very deep in Cox bay)

beach break down the line on Gypsy

After a half hour of untangling them (newbie move) I headed out thru the 2-3' shorebreak. I made a few passes to judge windspeed and direction behind Leonard island. There was a bit of a hole there but I wanted to check out the school bus size rollers I could see outside of Cox Bay. I manged to "ride" a few easy looking ones but the wind seemed kinda fickle and I didnt like being that far out without a buddy or support so I headed back in closer. I spent the rest of my session riding the small but really fun shorebreak in the offshore wind with friends and family as audience.

all in all two really great days! I love my life.

kiting under the Golden Gate Bridge!

Drove into SF for the day and kited at Chrissy field

I went out initially on the Smoke as it looked windy on the outside
didn't make it too far before i decided to come in and rig up the session saver-
the big Boss 12m.

Matching nearly tack for tack I kited out with the racing sailboats towards the famed golden gate bridge. I had windsurfed here in the nineties but that was over at Coyote point and then down along the coast at Waddell Creek. This was Golden Gate Bridge up close and personal!

outside the bridge was illuminated with the late afternoon sun. Once outside the bridge I played in the undulating swell making giant toeside turns on my wainman surfboard-woohooo! Does it get any better?

well let me tell ya honest to whatever God you believe in,
as i was thinking literally, this very thought (does it get any better)

yes it does!

a dolphin surfaced alongside me -WOW!
my heart nearly leapt from my chest in joy.
A few tacks alter another dolphin popped up breifly to check me out,
or maybe it was the same one saying : "hey nice turns fella, leave some for me"

After half hour of swinging giant turns on the swell I decided id better heard in in case the wind dropped. As I headed in there was a giant, i mean GIANT as in really really big container freighter drawing LARGE swell of his bow wake. me and a fellow kiter grabed as many rides as we could in the 5'+ swell on the way back in next to a tourist boat that cheered us on.

great sesh!

what can i say except for "I love my life!"  grins

best y'all

KITENAKED BBQ

woo hooo !!! boo ya!

going off at Sherman island!

3 days of butter flats behind the islands
under the full moon
great folks, great fun, awesome food-thanx Maui Mike
team Wainman Hawaii & Kite Naked crew

da'Boss!

kitenaked roolz!

mucho gracias Chris!

home is here

Well back to reality- I'm back in Vancouver after a great two weeks in Los Barriles, Baja.

Had some great fun down there with friends and met some old pals from windsurfing days. Hi Mike!

Stayed over in Edmonton with new friends I met on the plane-thanx Justin & Sara, come check out kiting soon. speaking of kiting...

Sam & I went out Wednesday at Locarno beach (with the windsurfers) the day after I returned brrr...

I was on 12m. Boss and smooth water due to tide conditions. Sam & I got an hour and a bit before it died.

Nice to be home in this beautiful city!

Way to go Canada-14 medals! ( dang I missed the Olympics-huh??)

...later...

Fridays are always a good day

Up at dawn today...just couldn't sleep.

Like that Rumi quote " Do not go back to sleep, the morning has secrets to tell"

I extended my visit for a few days to take advantage of wind and after a move which ironically (or perhaps synchronistically?) was from Casa Rosa, one house back from the beach, to the house we had originally wanted on the beach, Casa de las Palmas. The flight switch was no big deal but  now I  have to sleep over in Edmonton airport-oh well, worth it for a couple extra days of wind with FREE! beachfront accommodation (thanx Steve & Carolyn) and more wind in the mix.

The wind has been pretty solid 9m. the last few days and the swell is small, more beach break than anything but you can definitely bang off a few turns here and there and its sure fun to play in.

Blew a line set (too many downloops?) on the afternoon session and had to self-rescue in from the outside the little bay, havent had to do that in a while. Wrapped up my lines, grabbed the tow handles and the Smoke worked beautifully to tow myself in with asap. I was almost planing laying on my board, huh!

I watched a bit of Olympics over a nice barbecued steak & salad dinner-Go Canada!
Nine golds so far-did you know the Olympics were in Vancouver this year-laffs.

I hit a pelican with my lines yesterday. Hope he's ok. I guess they don't know the "one kite high- one kite low" rule of thumb. Sorry Mr. Pelican. I was the "upwind rider" I should have stayed clear...

I love my life!

Off the hook in la Ribera

I spent last couple days riding BIG sea of Cortez swell
a welcome change after the near shutout last week.

I also extended my trip to add a few days of wind in forecast.

Tuesday was off the hook-OMG-fricken Un- Believable on a scale of 1-10 maybe 25!-grins)

Sam Durrant, his son Charlie, and Charlie Crocker from Gorge and I kited downwind well over 15 km. along the coast from Los Barriles to la Ribera. We figured about 1-1/2 hrs but it turned into almost 3 AND we left late (oops) at 2:45 and arrived just barely before dark at 6ish.

Charlie C. and I were on surfboards and small kites and Sam( on my 140 OR Mako) and his son Charlie were on twintips and Sam was holding down a 10m! Cabrinha Switchblade.
His son, Charlie was riding unhooked waves on his 7m Rev and twintip,
I was riding probably my best ever on my 6.5 Wainman Gypsy and my 6'1" surfboard.
It was good thing I had straps, as a lot of the waves were probably 8-10' faces
-this shot (from '09 last year ) is beachbreak in front of los Palmas and its already overhead.

A lot were easily as high as I could reach up.
The ones we chicken jybed and ran from were probably larger!

Easily the best rides of my kiting "career". WOW. Even blows my Nov. Maui trip away (that day anyway). We "guesstimated" easily 10-12km  as the crow flies (straight across the bay). We hugged the coast riding a dozen or more breaks along the way so probably 15-18km. of coastline and by the time you figure in tacks we probably kited twice that or maybe more than 20 km.!


I had a serious cramp in my back foot from slashing toeside & back and we had to put in a couple times after wipeouts because we wanted to stay together for safety. Getting back out after a short rest thru big beachbreak was a challenge!

By the time we landed at La Ribera, the sun was low and we pulled a few last ditch rides on the large waves there in the beautiful sidelight. We landed at the beach with sand flying sideways. Unfortunately no photos from the ride, nothing but awesome memories!

Wed was good too! laffs

(but hey you probably shouldn't come here its not that good )

Dante says hi and Lester got his Guinness!

see y'all back on the water in Van soon. Brrr

If you wanna see more pics (coming soon)  and read more updates
please add yourself as a follower to my new kiteblog

the coastalsoul
Rodrigues, Juan lucky guy!

I gotta go its getting windy

Mui Ne

My old windsurfing buddy Zev just got back from travelling Asia and made a stop in Mui Ne before his return. He sent me  a couple shots and hey waddya know they got Wainman Rabbits over there!

killin' it

This is one of the most awesome vid clips I've seen.

Oughta get you "pumped" up for  killer sesh

and its got Wainman Kites in it-natch!

Click below to open the link, press play and sit back cuz you might get wet...

killedthewind

or look for the link in the side bar-"A Year in the life"

Los Barriles, Baja Feb 2010

so... I'm headed to Los Barriles on the east cape of Baja next week with some friends for my second(!) kitesurfing trip this winter -Yay!

We are staying right near North beach with my good friend Sam Durrant from England who lives here in Vancouver now and his son Charlie and two of Sams friends Rob and Pat.

I try to travel to Baja at least once every winter. Last year I made it down twice, once in December (totally avoided Christmas at home-YES!) and then again with my sweetie Lisa, for 2 weeks including Valentines day. That was fun...

This time- its a guys only trip! Cross your fingers for wind.

See ya on the water. Pics to follow.