coastalsoul kiteboard blog & photos

kiting "Puerto" Alberni

2010-08-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

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"

2010-07-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-26T21:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-09T23:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

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.

November in Maui

2009-11-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

When the pineapple express hit Vancouver hard in late November-torrential rains and warm weather from the mid Pacific, it's time for some Maui winds!

Roland Lewis, a realtor buddy and I headed to Maui with our beautiful respective partners, Anne Marie & lovely Lisa in tow for a Hawaiian vacation.

I was looking forward to riding some real waves on my the Wainman 6'1'surfboard which I had picked up earlier in the fall from Chris at Kite Naked and I wasn't disappointed. While we were there we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Jaws and it was going off! very impressive to see firsthand.

Seems like when its warm and rainy here in Vancouver the weather is perfect for trade winds and waves in Maui! (take note-winks).

We pretty much kited every day on 9m or smaller and rode surfboards the whole time! Yea baby!
As usual the Smoke ruled and so did the Gypsy 6.5! (Awesome kites, give em a demo.)
Woo hooo- perfect timing for this trip!

see pics and drop me a note on the blog about your winter vacation!

the Fall storms arrive with a vengeance

2009-11-10T15:56:00.000-08:00

All the hardcore Vancouver kitecrew had been hitting the beaches around here (Boundary Bay, Bellingham Bay) pretty good for the last couple weeks of stormy November southeasters and a couple southwesters at Ambleside-

...we've been getting hit every day or two with wave after wave of southeasters and then a southwest on the other side of every front as the weather deteriorates into fall & winter here.

I've been getting out at Boundary Bay every few days when I can get away from work.
Roland & I even found a secret spot with a left hand wave nearby!

The Smoke continues to amaze!
Great size, perfect for the lulls and sails overpowered very very comfortably.

The southwest direction is perfect for Ambleside right near the Lions gate bridge. This is an expert's spot because if you breakdown here on the wrong tide you are going under the bridge into a shipping channel- hope that never happens to anyone, as it will probably shut down kiting here. Crosses fingers.

A photographer friend came along and took some photos, thanx Dale!

Nitnat lake kite fest

2009-08-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Every year there is a kitefest at Nitnat lake in the interior of Vancouver Island.
Its a thermal lake with the coast at one end and hot dry land inland so if the weather sets up it can be solid 20+ winds daily.

Unfortunately this year it had been a bit rainy and cool the previous few days so it didn't really have time to set up properly. However the wind gods came through at the last minute and although the skies were mixed clouds there was just enough wind for the event.

The first day was a long distance upwind race, most folks were on 12m and up, all I had was my 9m Wainman Smoke but I placed respectably in the top 3rd of the field regardless, racing on a OR twintip against raceboards and bigger kites.

The next day was gusty and holey, we did the boardercross with heats of 3 kiters, I didn't fair so well in my first race against the bigger kites partly because I got a last minute start from helping a fellow kiter in distress, just previous to the race.

Later that day was the freestyle comp with lighter winds. I chose to sit it out and watch the fun.

The next morning there was a spectacular airshow by a kiter in an old war era plane (mustang?) lots of fun to watch as he made pass after pass over the lake, rolling and doing various acrobatic tricks in his vintage plane.

new wainman gear is in

2009-08-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Man oh Man, am I ever stoked!

The new Wainman Hawaii gear arrived from Chris at Kite Naked -YA!
The new white Smoke looks wicked!
I have a couple kites for demo if you want to try an awesome kite...

...just saying...(laffs)

Boss- 12 m.
Smoke- 9 m.
Gypsy- 6.5 m.

These kites are sweet: simple 3 strut design, bomber construction, great bar
and all the settings you could want. Drop me a note for a demo...

I also purchased a beautiful Wainman 6'1" Jimmy Lewis shaped surfboard
(in Ferarri Red no less) for some wave riding along the Oregon coast.

These boards come with the full kit- fins, straps, pads and even a padded bag with a driver!
How's that for value and protection for your sweet ride?!!!

check out all the Wainman gear at-

www.kitenaked.com or www.wainmanhawaii.com

one of "those" days...

2009-07-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

ya ever have one of those days?

You know- "Uncle Murphy's" breathing down your neck with his playbook in his hand making sure whatever can go wrong, does go wrong, but you soldier on because well what else are ya gonna do, and lo and behold, life goes on (and on-grins) and maybe at the end something good comes out of it...

so I'm down there solo this time cuz, well, the gal pal was just plain tuckered out from following me around trying to keep up, and the payoff isn't as big for her as she doesn't kite that well (yet!).
anyways it was one of those late start days at Ft Stevens scoping out the wind at shipwrecks on a Sunday. The previous day I had noticed a small tear along my the inside of the seam of my center strut and I didn't want it to get worse or get sand in it so I put some sticky fabric on it the day before.

I made arrangements with a friend from home to leave my vehicle at Shipwrecks and carpool from to Lot C with my gear only to realize that the fabric had come off. I wanted to put something on it before the kite got wet so it would stick ( hmm this is turning into a longer story than I though-laffs) my friend wanted to head back out right away cuz he was driving back up to BC that afternoon.
So I tell him I'll catch up with him as soon as i could get back and head back downwind (sigh) to my car cuz I got a repair kit . I headed back toSshipwrecks downwind via car and in my haste to fix the first spot accidentally cut a worse spot in my kite fabric-yeesh-it never pays to be in a hurry, eh, kids?! BUT I don't notice it until i get back up to the lot the second time so once again I head back downwind ( not on a kite-arg!) to repair said mishap.

Anyways I'm trolling around waiting to hookup with some other kiters to get a ride back up wind to where I've already been twice! and I meet this guy who offers to give me a ride as soon as his friends show up. I had been reading Chooch from NWkite forum talking about these Wainman Rabbits kites online, he had a couple and was travelling around to demo them at various location over the weekend. Anywasy i introduce my self and waddya know- same guy!

He offers to give me a ride up and as my kites sorta hooped I could use one the Wainman Smoke 9m.
Awesome! We hang out and I meet his posse, a large crew from Portland and the Gorge, sorry guys no names. Great bunch of guys though. (uh... Stringer, Blair,... a couple more...urh..urh..nope brain hurts).

Anyways we all hookup for an awesome! downwinder , chasing each other through the waves & I get to try out thes awesome kites and Chooch sets me up with the contact info for Chris at Kite Naked who later generously hooks me up with these awesome! kites. We get two more awesome! ( do I use that word too much?) downwinders in before packing it in.

and that's how that bad day went from bad to good- just gotta keep keeping on.
Is that awesome! or what? (lmao)

Wait for it... ahhhhh....there it is... I love my life!

Summertime at the Oregon Coast

2009-07-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

Man oh Man, I love the Oregon coast. From Astoria all the way through Lincoln City, Newport, Florence down to Pistol River and several points in between. If its not windy on the north coast, its likely to be windy in the middle or at the south coast and its a heck of a nice drive if its not, with lots to see and do along the way.

In the 90's I used to drive all over the coast discovering places to windsurf all up and down the coast. Now I still travel down from BC for some of the best kiting around. And its really not all that far away if you're going for a weekend- 5 hrs door to beach (!) and I'm hitting the waves at Shipwreck!

Lots of great trips this summer but most to Astoria/Ft. Stevens area and around Manzanita and a fairly unknown spot called Netarts. Ya I know, I'm giving it all away but that's what we're here for right?!
Besides how many people you think read this blog anyways-laffs.

If its not windy? Go surfing!

I love my life!

hot water at hunter

2009-05-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

So I've been wandering around with this frickin' cast on my right hand.
The cast goes right up my fingers so i can barely grasp anything although i suppose that's the point.
Have you ever tried to everything left handed...I mean everything... (laffs) pretty tricky.

Finally got a waterproof cast on actually the cast they use these days is waterproof but you have to reqiuest a goretex lining which dries out rapidly. So I'm about a month in to healing my mild thumb fracture and am gonna spend some time kitng with a cast on.

I met this cool cat from Switzerland, Patrick who I've been driving around to local kitespots.
Took him to Squamish a few times and then we went down to the states. You should see this m.f. kite!
He has a cool weblog at unhooked.ch - apparently you can actually fly kites...as in way off the ground!!! Check out the winter kiting entry for "Lunghin Pass " .
Be sure to press the British flag for english language translation.

We met the folks down at Bellingham kiteboarding and Andy & Andrew clued me into a couple nearby spots, Locust and Hunter, that I have seen people talking about on the pskite forum.
Super friendly gang at BKB and highly recommended for lessons and gear if you're in the area.

Locust is a giant shallow bay which gets a thermal flow very regularly, while not as windy as Squamish, it also blows even when the weather is crappy at Squish. The shallow bay is great for learning new tricks or teaching.

Hunter is further south at the end of a beautiful drive along the Chuckanut. Its is a muddy shallow bay and the water heats up. We were kiteing there in May in shorties and one day it was so warm the water felt like sitting in a hot bath when you fell. We kited that day in rashie and shorts and its not even June!

There is a great spot to quaff a beer after at the Chuckanut Manor nearby, and happy hour apps are half price. Or you can make the short drive back up to Fairhaven or Bellingham for a variety of some wonderful restauarants after.

All in all a fabulous May and June...even if I was in a cast...

I love my life!

ack!

2009-04-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

Just Fricking great! -broke my wrist ( scaphoid) at work.

frack no kiting for a while! Arrggg

3 days later!

2009-03-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

I knew it was gonna be a good (read: windy) day when I witnessed a runaway boat, slip from its mooring in English bay and drift in unmanned to head for the rocks below my apt on Beach ave. The coast guard came to the rescue just in time (Yay coast guard!) and towed it into False creek,

they left it on the beach high and dry as the tide went out ...oops.

Matt Williamson from Windsure and I hit it big on the last day of March with winds were gusting 35+.

I was fully lit on my 7m Slingshot Rev, and Matt was overpowered on his EH 9m kite and had to quit shortly after he started but we got in a few passes along the swell at the point by the pool together first.

At one point the swell went right past the point and you could ride it along from the upwind point to past the point at the pool. that was fun!. I was stoked riding next the seawall as the sheeple wander along all bundled up wondering what the hell these two crazies are doing on the water in this wind.

I had brought my camera so when Matt came in I had him take some shots as I downwinded further along the seawall in fierce winds and freezing conditions. I was numb but pretty exhilerated by the time I hit shore at English bay.

We retired in style for beers to the Sylvia hotel. Later we noticed someone heading out on a red 12m Best kite right at Englsih bay ( was that you?) but it had quieted down a lot and he struggled to get out with the onshore winds.

Lester T. came by after work for a last minute session before dark and I got some pretty artistic shots of him in the fading sunset.

All in all an awesome day on the water

good times! I love my life!

spring northwesterlies in the Bay

2009-03-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

Brrrr the cold northwesterlies are hitting English bay...

That means frigid temps and cold gusty wind from the Alaska front northerwesterlies.

The second beach is kind of a crappy launch unless the tide is right and often not as windy as Jericho but the swell is pretty cool and sometimes even brings out a few surfers and its sure fun sailing right next to the seawall. I invited a couple photographer friends, Dale Rollings and Assad Masade down to the 2nd beach spot to shoot but the cold got the best of them before too long.
Heres a couple good shots though.
Thanx guys!

Valentines day in Baja!

2009-02-25T17:13:00.000-08:00

So Lisa couldn't make it down for Christmas but I had to have a vacation with her somewhere hot and windy.

We had a great time stayed at Villa de los Suenos again with Brian and kited at North beach.
Lisa took lessons with Megan at exotikite and I ripped it up with BJ and a young ripper Franck, our hostess, Betsy's son.

For V-day we had a "most excellent" meal at a place I can't remember the name of (doh!). It was the largest lobster I've seen, including the ones I caught scuba diving in Cuba in previous years.
I'm sure going back there next time!

Lisa got some great shots of me kiting in the shorebreak while we were there. Thanx Babe.

Christmas in Baja

2008-12-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

Spent 10 days hanging out with Brian Johnson, at a beautiful hacienda, Villa de los Suenos,
in los Barriles, 40 min north of SJD airport & about an hour south of La Ventana.

Everyone else seems to go there (LV) but i prefer Los barrilles as it has a bit more infrastructure. Besides the swell is better IMHO at North beach. Got to ride an new Santa cruz 6'4 thruster surfboard that my friend Cam sold me.

Some other friends were there at the same time, Brian (Bailey) Hewson and his lovely gal pal Gina, and Pierre. We spent the windy days chasing each other around in the swell. Got some good pics too.
I have kited with these guys a bunch along the Oregon coast.

The definite highlight of my trip was kiting in the swell amongst a pod of dolphins, as the dolphins and I cruised next to the beach and downwind towards town. Wow, my heart swelled like it was gonna burst out of my chest- thank you God or universe! I love my life!

Missed my honey, Lisa, lots but made up for it with her on Skype at night...

The wind shut off after a few days mid trip, so I extended my stay from 7 to 10 days and thankfully got some more wind before I left. Oh and I missed Christmas at home and lots of snow-dang!

Apparently I just got out before it started snowing like crazy in Vancouver for weeks and then when I returned it stopped...go figure.

I tried to convince Lisa to come down but she had family obligations to fulfill at Christmas.

So... I talked her into coming down for 10 days in Feb at valentines day instead!