Adventures at the Camas

Well, It's been a while...I'd bet that's the most common beginning to blogs. Well, nothing like being mediocre, oh well. Anyway, since the last post Josh and I have been out snowkiting a couple more times. Each time was different, but in some way rewarding. We made it out one saturday with Josh's family. That was the only way Hilary would let him go. Michelle tagged along too so she could help with the kids. Naturally, there was no wind.
(This is seriously one of the only pictures of me and my kite)

We did show up earlier than the wind normally does, so the wind was not to blame. We found a decent hill for the kids to sled on and they had a good time.

Meanwhile, the wind was slowly starting to build. I went and drove around a little to see if anyone else had made it out and was kiting. I saw a couple guys up in the hills, but that didn't look to friendly. We ended up catching a decent amount of wind near the Pine turnoff. Josh was on his new Flysurfer, so he was cruising around just fine. I was underpowered, but still managing to get out a little ways and make it back without losing any ground. It was okay, but not really. Just enough to be frustrating.

Two weeks later on the 18th and 19th of February, Josh and I headed back up to the Camas for Snowkite Soldier. The wind forecast was a little light, but we didn't mind. We went up planning on camping in the snow to save a trip back to Boise. We met up with a couple local guys that had a trailer and a motorhome. They also had some firewood. That was the nice part. If we hadn't have started a fire we would have gone to bed at around 7:00 p.m. As it turned out we sat around the fire and talked for a couple hours and then hit the hay. Josh and I both slept in our tents and were warm thanks to the clouds that had rolled in.
During the night it snowed a little bit. It was completely calm all night though.
The sunrise was kinda cool looking.

Once we made it up, tons of people started showing up for the event. Murphy's law of course mandated that it would be windless. It was. We met some guys from Flysurfer that helped Josh get a little better acquainted with his kite and how to tune it. They were some funny Canadians that kept say "eh". Classic.

Well, that brings me to today. The forecast and wind sensor for today indicated 20+ mph and gusty to possibly 45 mph. We were a little spooked and nervous about going out, but fortunately forecasts and sensors don't always tell the whole story. We hit up the snowmobile park and the wind was a steady 16-18 mph. Perfect. We set up and off we went. The snow was firm because it's been in the forties recently. Fortunately it had snowed overnight. The wind had kinda whipped it around so there was probably 1"-2" of soft stuff on top. It was again...perfect. We cruised upwind super easy and Josh finally got a day good enough to start jumping in. The main reason he decided to get into kite sports was for the hang time, so he was super pumped to be able to get in the air. I didn't see all his jumps, but the ones I saw were pretty decent for being his first real chance to do it. I'm not so brave, but was able to jump a couple times. It's violently awesome. To jump you basically have to turn the kite a different direction than you're moving and then pull the bar in. It totally yanks you off the ground. Freaky at first, but if you've got the moves (I don't) you can get pretty high up. There was a guy there boosting 15' in the air and just floating. It was cool.

About a half hour before we packed up, the wind kicked up another couple mph to around 20+. I was tired and was doing okay staying upwind and cruising around, but it was more work than I had the energy for. I kited for another 15 or 20 minutes before I decided to go chill by where we had launched. Josh kept going for about 15 minutes, but eventually came in and we helped land each others kites. On the way to the car the wind picked up even more. Three local guys happened to be heading back from a kite trip to Utah and decided to stop on the way home and see what the wind was doing. They showed up just as we got to Josh's car.

All in all, we both had an awesome time. Easily the best time ever. Hopefully the snow stays around long enough for us to get another session in. I'm ready for it...well, not today...I'm to tired.

A delayed Kiting post

The snowkiting season is in high gear in our neck of the woods. Who would have thought that one of the best areas to snowkite in would end up being an hour and a half away. Josh and I along with our snowkiting buddy Nick, took off work early on the 14th of January and headed up to the Camas prairie to try our luck at hitting the wind just right. Fortunately we did...eventually. We followed some other snowkiters from Boise up to the prairie. By some ridiculousness we ended up going to a different spot than they did. It was all just a case of bad communication. Anyway, after we stood in a large empty field for an hour, we decided to hit up the spot that everyone else had gone to. Cha-ching! It was blowing in the mid teens, which ended up being perfect for us. You see Josh and I are relatively new to the sport of snowkiting. Josh has been able to get around better than me for a number of different reasons, but that day was just right for figuring out some technique issues. For me, it was because I had none. Fortunately I was able to find some and ended up figuring out how to go upwind. What a cool experience. Just incredible.

As you can see, Josh was cruising around like he owned the place, and what a big place it is. You might be wondering, if you've visited this blog recently, how I was able to get out and snowkite with a bum ankle. Fortunately for me, ski boots offer a phenomenal amount of support. There was a little bit of straining to get the boots on, but once there, I was doing just fine. After our session, which ended only because it was getting dark, all the swelling in my ankle was gone. The ski boot had pushed all the fluid out. It was weird looking. I'll have to get a picture of the screw heads poking up. It's really weird if you don't know what they are.
These first two pictures are of Josh and his 12m Naish Element. I found a 10m Flysurfer Pulse1 online yesterday and told Josh about it because he's been thinking about getting a different kite. It was a good deal and he somehow managed to talk Hilary into letting him get it. It ships on the 29th of January. He's super stoked about it and I am too. Maybe he'll let me try it out.This last picture is of our buddy Nick. We have basically the same kite, just different sizes. He has a 15m Peter Lynn Synergy and I have a 10m. They are even the same color. I had mine first though so you shouldn't accuse me of copying. I'll try to post some more pictures from our next sessions. Unfortunately they probably won't be of me because I don't often take pictures of myself. Just a side note that has nothing to do with kiting...we renamed our fish Bromigo. Like, "what's up bro?" and amigo, or BM for short.

A tiny addition to our family

I'm not really an animal person. I love animals, but not enough to take care of one. For Christmas, however, Michelle's brother Spencer got us a Betta. As a surprise to me, I was pretty stoked about it. Like I said, not really into taking care of animals. The first couple of days he got a double helping of food because Michelle and I hadn't quite decided who was going to feed him. Side not...I'm not sure if he is a he...if you know that sort of thing, I'd be glad to know. Anyway, I decided to take the responsibility to feed him. It's actually been kind of fun. When someone comes into the room he goes to the top of his jar and waits. If you tap lightly where you're going to put the food in, he goes to that spot. I'm pretty sure he swims other places, but for the most part he chills at the surface when there's anyone in the room.


Since it's been a week since we got him, we figured we should probably give him a name. Michelle is all about the nick-names, so she didn't really mind what the name was as long as there was something shorter she could call him. I decided on Alpha. You know since he's a Betta? I know it's lame, but what else would you expect. Michelle decided to call him Alphie for "short." Anyway, it's been a piece of cake taking care of him so far, but we still have yet to change his water...we'll see how that turns out. These are pictures of Alpha's home. He's a handsome fish if I do say so.