Season is Looking Good

The season hasn't really started, but this was a good warm up week. Saturday was probably the best wind of the week. Fernando came down from Hermosillo and had a decent day. Here he is in the photo below throwing a nice move. Roberto is back in town after the river water ran low in Colorado, and he had good time on the water although his normally flat water spot near the gap had waves coming over the rocks and entering his kite area. Jeff showed up but his session was cut short with equipment problems. My day ended early. Fernando launched me and at first all seemed well as the kite was high in the wind window and just sort of hung there for a moment. Then it fell back into the power zone and instead of rising smoothly into the sky, it went into a spiral. One line was tangled into a loose knot at the kite, either from the wind flapping the kite or from some debris on the beach. It yanked me off my feet and then drove me into the ground. I don't remember much, I think I was knocked out for a moment. Next that I recall, I was in the water pulling my safeties as Fernando was trying to get to my kite. Obviously I survived but such a simple accident could have been disastrous as there was a rock wall just downwind from where I launched. I will be out of the line up for a couple of weeks as I crunched my shoulder pretty good and can't lift my arm at all right now. It feels like torn muscles. Time will heal all.

First Session

I had my first session of the season today. It was northwest, about 12 to 18 knots. I didn't last long, only a couple of hours, but it felt great. The beach was deserted. Soggy Peso is open but still no water or electricity and the road out to it is terrible. They did a good job of cleaning up the crap off the beach in front of the bar, but a lot of sand is gone. Here are some fotos. We need to do some serious clean up to make the beach kite friendly.

A lot of the sand was washed out into the bay, making it shallow a ways out and the waves break further from shore. Wave action is already pushing sand back up onto the beach so this beach configuration may not last long.

The Season is Coming

Not much to report. I've been back in Mexico for a week now. San Carlos is slowly recovering from the historic storm that hit a few weeks ago. Only a few area still have problems with water service and in general it is business as usual in town. The main road before you get to Charlies Rock will be out for a while more and other parts of the road are still in sad shape.
The Soggy Peso is open. The beach was reshaped by the storm, washing a lot of sand into the bay and covering up the reef that sits just offshore.
The wind has been shifting to the north in the afternoons the last three days and we may get enough to kite today or tomorrow. At least it is a sign that the season is coming.

No Wind....Wind

I am still in Cape Cod and the weather has been nice, but not much wind.



I can't complain, though, because back home in San Carlos they just got slammed by tropical storm Jimena. Lots of damage. No serious injuries but a few homes lost and many damaged, roads washed out, loss of electric, water, and phone. Click here for pictures.

I also don't want to complain because we had good wind today.