Thursday, January 28, 2010

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.

1 comment:

Tiffany and Gavin said...

Awesome pictures Joey! It looks like a lot of fun. I'm glad you told us about the ski boot because I was reading it and thinking, "Is he CRAZY!?! He's going to have to get it amputated if he's not careful!" :)Also, glad you stuck with the Bromigo name.