Kite Munchings, Stingrays, Rocky kills it in Germany & Welcome The Danish Duo

Well this past week delivered some awesome riding with the waves from approaching storms. I trust everyone got a taste of the action, whether it was surfing or kiteboarding. I know I did. I took an afternoon off work and T-Todd, Jeremy, John Cole and I did a 10 mile downwinder from Port A to the fire station. It was sweeeeet. Totally lit on 12 meters and some monster rollers. I was having such a blast with T-Todd out in the big swell on the outside. We rode for a while within 100 feet of each other which made for some exciting moments. It was almost as fun to watch him cut up a wave as it was to ride it myself. Hang time was ridiculous when you hit a 8 foot ramp totally lit and send it, my harness started to get uncomfortable from hanging in the air for so long.

Unfortunately my ride was cut short when I started getting too fancy with the down turns and loops in the big swell and eventually I got caught paying too much attention to the wave and not flying my kite and so... it got munched, blew a strut and ripped off my 5th line. It was a blast while it lasted though and the long swim in was kinda fun in the big swell. The walk back to the car was made easy when the lifeguards gave me a lift. Jeremy went down too but for a Rookair he showed us all he has skills - major props to you dude, you've come a long way. Eventually John Cole went down too but T-Todd made it through relatively unscathed with only a broken fin. Patrick showed up a little later and was killing it too until he lost his board riding strapless in the surf. Luckily he had a second board. Lots of carnarge but everyone was still all smiles. Great times. Riding waves is such a blast, I hope we get some more storms!

In other news, Master Patrick took a hit in the foot from a sting ray this week. For anyone who doesn't know, the best thing to do is get it in hot water asap. As hot as you can stand it. Cold water will make the pain worse. Add a little clorox to the mix as well to kill any bacteria and to reduce the chance of infection - all this according to Captain / Paramedic T-Todd.

We are happy to have two new members join the WKC. Please welcome ACE Mike Danish and his wife Rookair Duffy! Both have been riding a lot a Wildcat this summer and have some serious skills as I'm sure you've noticed. They are on the East coast chunking sick moves at the moment but they will be back soon and I will do up a full post with some pics so you can find out more about the Danish Duo. Ha. Great to have you guys on board! It occured to me today that with the addition of ACE Danish, all the sickest riders in town are in the WKC. Sweet.

Speaking of sick riders, ACE Chatwell had a great comp in Germany taking 7th place!!! Awesome dude! You are the man! Rocky should be home any day now. Thats all for now. The forecast looks weak for the next few days but maybe by this weekend.

Later.

Thank you Dieter & Barbara Krins!

Stand up and give a major round of applause for Dieter & Barbara Krins. I'm sure most of you know Dieter & Barbara and have kited with them on some occasion. They are dedicated riders who really live the kiteboarding lifestyle. I received a call from Dieter this past Sunday. He said that he had some gear that he would like to donate to a good cause. I told him how the WKC is always in need of gear for new riders and kids to learn on so the next day T-Todd and I went to over to pick up the gear. They had seven kites to donate (yes that's right...seven kites: 4.5m all the way up to 14m) along with wetsuits (one of which was brand new) booties, and a couple of bars. Wow, now this is what the WKC is all about. We are going to get all these kites put together with old bars and parts from Prokitesurf and the other WKC riders so we will have a whole fleet of gear to get new kids going on. Its going to be great. The wetsuits will be great for new riders in the winter too. Thank you so much guys, your generosity is overwhelming and an example for the rest of us. We very much appreciate it.

If anyone else has anything they want to donate to the WKC mission, just let me know. Whatever it is we will put it to good use or sell it and re-invest the cash in new gear for Tenderfeet to learn on.

P.S. Dieter & Barbara - I'm going to come ride with you soon at some different spots. I've been spoiled here at Wildcat and Rockport. I'll keep in touch and we'll get together soon.

Congrats Rookair Liam "Serious Fun"

Chalk up another awesome weekend for the WKC. Wildcat started blowing a 1pm on both Saturday & Sunday built from there long into the evenings. The Mcginnis family, T-Todd, Patrick, Howizard, Kansas, Jeremy, Josh, Brent, El Jeffe, Slick Rick, Danish and Duffy, Nick, Ben and others all showed up to shred it up over the weekend. Weekend highlights included an awesome night session at Rockport on Saturday night. Rookair Jeremy, Protege Sean, and Captain T-Todd were all attempting new moves with some spectacular wipe outs. It was fun to watch and great to see the guys pulling the trigger, super powered. I of course landed everything perfectly while eating a sandwich. A large crowd soon developed including the Po-leese. Turns out they had heard about local rippers Sean and Liam and were there just to see them ride. Other highlights were ACE El Jefe simply showing up to ride on Sunday. His paramedic / fireman training has been keeping him busy. Liam was especially charging on a mission to earn his "Rookair" rank and guess what - he earned it by consistently hucking some big 8-10 foot jumps, table-top style. Pretty good for a kid who's only 2 inches taller than his board. I've also seem him do some sweet backrolls on occasion. Congratulations Rookair Liam! Liam also gets the quote of the week. After our night session at Rockport he said, "I had some serious fun today!" Me too buddy. Me too.

Pump it and chunk it.

Kiting 911 & Captain T-Todd beats down Master Kansas

So I'm driving home from a hard day of oil & gasing and I notice the wind is up on the causeway. Ten seconds later Howizard calls to say the wind is up. Game on. I text everyone "Its blowing at Wildcat!" and just like that everyone shows up in what seemed like minutes. Captain T-Todd, Master Kansas, ACE Howizard, Lurkers Danish and Duffy, Nick Alvey and moi along with some other somewhat familiar faces. It was like a kiting emergency and it turned out to be a great session on 12m's. T-Todd, Kansas & Howizard ripped across the bay and back. Apparently Kansas and T-Todd had the First Inaugural WKC Bay Crossing race on the way back and T-Todd won by a mere 100 feet or so. They were both flying 2006 12m North Vegas kites so it was actually like one design racing. Kansas cried for about 10 minutes but then he was ok and said he would just try harder next time. Danish, Duffy, Alvey and I stayed behind to ride freestyle. It was a pretty sweet session, not to mention totally unexpected. The awesome sunset made it even better. Pump it and Chunk it.

Hurricane Dean - Surf's Up!

Master Patrick called in "sick" today due to sick waves at the beach. No wind as of yet but hurricane Dean should change that. Below is a report on Dean issued by Baker Hughes (the company I work for). They are keeping a very close eye on it.

The Situation
TS Dean has been upgraded to Hurricane Dean. Dean is a currently a mid-level Cat 1 hurricane. Not much has changed since late yesterday. Dean is expected to cross into the Caribbean, over the Yucatan and then into the Gulf of Mexico (on Tuesday 8/21). Dean’s development is being slowed by dry air to its north (seen in brown on the satellite photo- this kills convection).The models (which use data from satellite observations) are having some issues as should be expected at this point in time. Please keep in mind that anything beyond three days out can often be invalidated by a number of variables. Tonight the hurricane hunter aircraft are scheduled to be in the storm taking on-scene precise measurements and as a result the models will become much more accurate/dependable starting on Friday. As the hurricane moves into the Caribbean the water is warm and there is no significant dry air to compete with. Dean should become a Cat 3 or 4 while in the Caribbean. There is a strong chance Dean could become a Cat 5 hurricane while in the western Caribbean. Waters in the western side of the Caribbean are at record heat levels not seen since 2005 (Katrina/Rita). As far as landfall it is anyone’s guess this far out and making plans based on the Weather Channel or internet should be discouraged. Currently, there is no frontal systems forecasted to come through our region until late next week (low pressure troughs steer the tropical systems north- in this case pushing Dean into Louisiana). The State of Texas is treating Dean as a threat to the state and anticipates landfall sometime early Friday morning 8/24. At this point the state is planning to kick of contra-flow and begin evacuating the coastline starting next Wednesday 8/22.

Workin it & Custom WKC Gear.

There has been some decent kiting going on this past week. A few good 12m days for sure. Last Sunday saw a great turnout at Wildcat and although I couldn't be there, T-Todd repeatedly assured me that it was one of the best days in years. Such good freinds I have. Apparently Nick Alvey even showed up! Sorry I missed you bud. In other news, ACE Chatwell had some of his gear stolen at the last comp but I believe its been replaced. He's in Germany now getting ready for his next comp on the 17th. Howizard has been riding smoother than ever (if thats even possible) on a new kite that he's testing. Its cool to watch him ride like he used to before he hurt his back doing all his old school moves. I think I even saw a deadman. This new kite apparently easy on the old boy's back but also has great performance. Hence he is getting cocky jumping all the piers in sequence and he also jumped directly over me once while I was riding full throttle towards him. Classic Howizard of days gone by. Good to have you back bro. Rookair Josh is on a serious mission to make it to the Protege rank attempting kiteloop back rolls and 360 transitions etc. Keep crashing dude. Its the only way to learn. I almost knocked myself out twice this week throwing slims in 12 inches of water and so I am sporting a suedo black eye that kind of looks like I'm wearing emo eye liner. Great look for a oil field engineer, very machismo. The McGinnis family has been riding a lot at Wildcat and Mark is definitely riding at a Rookie level now. Protege Sean is attempting dangle passes - its hard, I know. Just keep trying dude and you'll get it. Rookie Liam is attempting front rolls now too. Rookie Brent is thinking about learning to jump. Be sure to call him a wuss if you don't see him try next time he's out. Master Patrick has been teaching a lot and has discovered that he gets bigger tips if he throws down some stylish moves on the huge school board at the end of his lessons. Work it bro. And lastly, apparently Tenderfoot Stef is MIA because....get this......she is cleaning her house - very lame Stef....very lame. Mom and Dad are coming you see and I guess she needs to clean the light bulbs and electrical outlets and stuff before they get here. In her defence, she doesn't have a bar to ride since Josh sold the Boxer she was using. I gave her an old 12m Airush so if anyone has a bar you can lend her that would be cool, she's got everything else. Of course there is always Daddy's check book too. Work it girl. Oh, and your girls WKC Tenderfoot tag is in (photo by the other tags).

"Custom" WKC gear is now available. For $7 you can get the WKC logo put on almost anything. Its usually next day service here in Portland. I tried it out on my board shorts and it turned out great. You can pick your thread colors to match you gear too. Ask me or Rookair Jeremy about it and we can get it done for you. That's all for now. See you on the water. Pump it and Chunk it.