Work to Live not Live to Work

Spring's almost here :), Winter's almost gone :(

2010-02-08T09:33:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a crazy winter so far. Made it up to the Camas Prairie for some snowkiting once and only a few times have I gone out for kite landboarding.

So the Camas trip was great, I hitched a ride with Josh and Joey and we headed up after i got off early on a friday (or was it a thursday?). We made it up there and ended up trying the right side of the road known as snowpark. Oh man, we had a hell of a time trying to get ourselves going. not only was the snow deep and I was walking around up to my hips in my snowboard boots but the wind petered out after a little bit. Josh got setup and off he went immediately. He got about a half a mile out and the wind died. Way out there, and he was stuck. So he had to pack up and ski back. Luckily that wasn't me or i woulda had to just walk back cuz i only snowboard. Anyways, after failing terribly over there we decide to give it a try elsewhere. Off we go to the snowmobile park and wow what a difference! The bummer part was i was already quite tired from the last stop but after the wind hit my face i had another rush of excitement.

Got setup and with a little help from joey (ok, a lotta help) i was finally good to go! Thanks Joey.
We were flyin' for a good 3 hours and the sun went down. After the sun set it was FREAKIN' COOLD. anything that was wet froze solid immediately. So after that we went home, and kristi and I ended up going out for some teriyaki. Good day i would say :D.

Since then i've gotten out twice. The day after the camas trip i was able to go and do a little boarding but ended up pulling a muscle in my calf about 30 minutes into it. So i took it easy the past few weeks. This weekend I was able to get out though! The sky finally broke open to show some sun and a good little bit of wind.Kristi was able to make it out and enjoy some sun as well! It was great because it had been so long since she was able to come since it's been so coold. Of course my good friend Bob was there and we were able to chat a bit and do some flyin'. The wind died shortly after but i was able to get one run in on the board and then did some static flying.

It was great to just get out there and enjoy some cold wind and warm sun.

New Board!

2010-01-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

So I was able to get a new board with some of my christmas money ;) . I got the MBS Comp 16. I replaced my old board because the deck was technically meant for "juniors" and it didn't have very much "give" when i was standing on it and jumping on it. PLUS i am actually over the suggested weight that it should carry so i decided well, time for a new board! It arrived on Friday and I was able to use it on Sunday!

Sunday was great, it was 45 degrees inc wind chill so that's amazing! I was in a tshirt for a little bit of the time it was so warm out! Wind was decent when i showed up 14mph but died down to a bit under 10mph after that. We still had fun though, Tyler had his 15m phantom and me with my 15m synergy we were able to use this sidewalk and get going fast even though the wind wasn't so great. At the end of the sidewalk run i was able to manage a couple of small jumps which was fun to do in such little wind!

The new board is so awesome, it's smoother, longer and it is overall more "beefy". I love it. Here's a pic!

Ankle Troubles...

2009-11-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

So awhile back I was flying my 5m Ace (which isn't nearly as floaty as my 15m synergy) and was doing some kite jumping. I remember one specific one that i came down hard on my foot and i felt somethin happen on my left ankle. I walkedi t off and didn't think anything of it. (this was like a year ago). On and off since then my ankle has come out of socket (or seems to be). I thought it would fix itself but doesn't seem like. So off I go to the foot/ankle doc. We shall see what happens!

Don't Leave me Wind!

2009-11-25T08:35:00.001-08:00

I was able to get out again on Friday last week (November 20, 2009). I had the opportunity to go in the early afternoon at about 3PM. I got out to Simplot and this awesome guy, Bob was out there flying his 4 line Revolution kite and his 2 line stunt kite. Winds were doing pretty good at about 15mph+ and so I decided to go over and talk with him. This is the third time i've seen him. The first time I saw Bob he was taking his walker out onto the field with his kites right on top of the walker. Bob's a 72 year old kiter, he used to be a sailor for many years and windsurfed till 1977 which is when he got arthritis. He now is an avid kiter and is my personal hero. This guy was out there and we chatted for awhile. After talking with him I went back over and setup my Synergy. Got that thing up after one inverted launch and i was goin good! Doing some good jumps and grabs etc... Bob was totally living vicariously through me because he was watching me the whole time and making comments. Bob, you ROCK!

About my session:

It was freaking awesome, I flew non-stop (except for one inverted kite line tangle) until dark from 3PM so it was probably a solid 2.5 hours. I was out there and it was just perfect, a bit chilly but I couldn't tell the difference. Joey showed up with his gimp leg, dangit. Gotta get that thing healed up so you can get progressing on your landboard again!!! Anyways he was out there and asked me if I wanted to fly his 10m synergy. "nahh... i don't want you to have to set it up"(I was flying the 15m already) Joey says "Dude... at LEAST it will give me SOMETHING to do!" Me, "Ok man, if you end up wanting to set it up, I'll fly it." So Joey sets it up as i'm boarding and next thing I know i'm looking back and he has it in the air and he's standing on one leg flying that bad boy! HA!! Joey that was freaking awesome. So Joey flew it till dark just sitting down letting it pull 'em, standing up etc... Good times. Tyler showed up for about 15 minutes cuz he was in the area but only had about 15 minutes to stay and didn't end up flying. I was able to show off one good big jump and landed a perfect backloop 360. Awesome day all-in-all!

Oh, and I also attempted a good amount of 360s, i'm pretty sure i've got it down now. I over spun on one of 'em and landed on my back, knocking the wind out. Good times... :P .

Let your spirit FLY

2009-11-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks i've just been going crazy with things to do. School, work, etc... No wind, or if there was wind, I was at work or in class. Yesterday was the day that i only had one evening class and the wind was blowing. it was warm, abnormally warm, and I was at first thinking YES! I"M GOING! I'm going to skip school and GO!. Then, it looked like the wind wasn't going to survive till after i got off work so i was like "yay... i don't get to fly... i get to go to class instead.....*scowl*" That was what i was thinking. BUT!

Things turned around and the wind kept blowin'! Weird winds though during the day: at one point 5mph at another gusting to 43mph! When I got off the wind was a 18knots, steady as ID winds can be. So off I went, red bull in hand, music blaring and driving to simplot (Meridian and Nampa were already peetering off). I got out there and my good ol' (he's probably in his 70s) friend was out there flyin' his stunt kites. Last time I saw him out there he was walking out on the grass with his walker and his stunt kite on the walker. This guy's my hero.

Anyways, he was out there already flyin' and so I set up and started to preinflate the kite. Got it all set up and launched it. I had a few difficulties at first, like it inverted itself, and i had a line stuck but after all that it was fine.

Flying felt GREAT! BTW: it was like 50+ degrees outside. I hopped on the board and off I went. Took me a bit to get back to feeling comfortable (since it's been like 4 weeks since my last flight) but after I was feeling good I started to attempt my 360s :) . Landed ONE finally! I didn't have enough wind to keep going but I at least landed one...

It was a great evening of flying, I flew till it was dark. After I got done, I came home, ate a couple things and went to the gym to run a mile and do some weights. HA! Good times... :)

The Journey to Synergy

2009-11-02T10:03:00.000-08:00

So it's been crazy lately so I haven't had any time to blog about what's been up. I have recently made a change in my kiting quiver. One day I was attempting to fly my 16m scorpion and it was giving me fits on launching it in the light/gusty Idaho winds. I went home frustrated YET again. I ended up deciding I was going to sell it, I also decided that I wasn't flying my Ace 5m anymore so I was going to sell that. I sold both kites in an attempt at getting the new Peter Lynn Charger. I was hoping to get enough from that and a few other things but just when I was able to have enough they pushed back the release date and raised the prices on me.

I ended up deciding to get the last year's model for cheap. Synergy!! So now I have only one kite a 15m Synergy and Kristi has her 2m Hornet.

Now that there's some background of what's happened with regards to the Kite Quiver.

I've had the kite for about 2 weeks now and I've had one really good kiteboarding session and 3 other times where I just flew it static. The first time I flew it in about 15+mph... i was quite intimidated because of how fast it was in the air. The new bar/lines is AWESOME! I was able to get back and forth down the field with no problems. I came back to where I started every single time. I also was coaxed into attempting my first 360s. After doing some nice 6ft+ jumps with tail grabs etc... I attempted my first 360. MAN it was scary!!! I got waaay up there (or so it felt) and did a nice and slow 360. I ended up on my face all 5 times I tried but by the last try I was SO close but I had to head out. The next few times i've flown were pretty good. I did have one scary session though:

The wind was NUTS it was gusty and nasty. Gusting up towards 30mph with lulls down to almost nothing. I was at Simplot and I had 2 soccer fields to myself. I launched with the help of my lovely wife and soon after I realized somethingw as wrong. The bar was WAY further out than I normally had it. I looked down and realized that my spreader bar was not hooked into my harness correctly! The spreader bar is where the lines attach to my harness so that meant that if i lost the spreader bar... bye bye kite/bar/lines!! I attempted to fix it impromptu by pulling it in towards myself but to no avail. I had the kite fully depowered, and at zenith it lofted me a good 3 feet off the ground, just SITTING there. I ended up pulling the emergency line shortly after that and packed up and went to get pie instead.

Yes, I said... I decided to live another day and go and have pie and coffee with my wife. I think it turned out to be an excellent decision. Gotta love PIE! :P .

Soooooo that's about it. I'm hoping for another good kiteboarding session soon to land those 360s! Oh, I also decided recently than next summer Im' going to hit the water and learn to kitesurf. Ohhhh yeah.

2009-10-12T07:45:00.003-07:00

Hahaha, well... I created the blog... posted two blogs and haven't been back! Well.... I have a good craigslist trade/sell ordeal that I will be posting soon...

Wii!!! I got one!

2009-08-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

Next deal:

My brother was going to trade his Xbox 360 for a Wii but ended up having someone trade him for his old paintball gun and $75! He still wasn't going to play his Xbox 360 so I bought it from him for what he bought it for a few years ago ($75). So! Nathan got 100% return on how much he bought it for, and I went and traded the Xbox 360 for a Wii... STRAIGHT across!!! Kristi and I showed up at the house and man it was just BEAUTIFUL. In meridian there was a subdivision that seemed like all the houses were monsters, and were all rustic looking. THey had dark wood, stones, etc.. It was really cool!! Anyways, we traded it flat out: One Xbox 360+One wireless controller+NCAA 2007(football) = One Wii+Two Controllers+Two Nunchucks+One controller cover+Wii Sports+Wii Play. I'd say I got a sweet trade!! Kristi and I got home and hooked up and played for at least an hour playing Wii Tennis, Wii boxing(she kicked my butt), Wii bowling(again, butt kicking), and then created our own mii's. It was a good time! Pictures will follow. ...(eventually)

2009-08-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

"DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME"
I just had to share this story, and that is the only point of this blog to share my story of the weekend . So a cold front has moved into the Idaho area this past week and towards the end of the week it caused some suh weet winds to come into town. We decided to make a little road trip to a place that has better wind that in town (two hours away). When we got there it was about 70 degrees and the wind was about 25mph and turbulent (even though this soccer complex is out in the middle of farm country :smug. So anyways as we started, my friend was a bit nervous to put up his 15m phantom but I was like dude! you can just pull your emergency release right away if it seems to be too much.

We got both of the kites up (his phantom and my scorpion). His phantom was perfect in those winds, we had the internal strap on his completely loose, and it was mostly trimmed in so it was quite manageable. My Scorpion was freaking SCARY. Because after the 25mph turbulent winds it became more like 20mph gusting to 30mph. The Scorp isn't as forgiving as the phantom so I ended up pulling the quick release. . . Anywyas, jump to the end of the day and we had both the peter lynns packed up and it was still 20mph gusting to 30mph. We pull out the 4m crossfire just for some "daring" fun . I had flown it earlier and was able to scud over 100 ft continuously which was a blast! So I dare tyler to take a go at it, he grabs it and goes... as he goes down the field he's moonwalking and doing some pretty sweet jumps and ends up at the other end of the field in about 30 seconds and ended his run with kitekillers deployed .

Ok, my turn on this thing... I weigh a bit more so the 4m is a little more manageable for me. I start the scudding and he dared me to do some jumps, and you know... You've gotta try and out-do your buddy right?! I take it across from 10 to 2 slowly and get a decent jump.

OK STOP:
So far, all day long we had held back, we were controlling the kites to jump as high as WE wanted, and to go as fast as WE wanted. We were holding the kites back and not letting them do what they truly wanted to do in these winds. This was the moment I let the kite loose (bad idea)

As i'm scudding i get ready for my next jump in my head i'm thinking (alright this is gonna be good). I bring to the left and let it ZOOM to the right as i run back and THWAAAAAAAAAP!! I get LAUNCHED. Not like a slow lift but like a youtube video where the dudes get TAKEN by the kite. While I was up there looking down I kept my cool (as much as i could) and had the automatic reaction to redirect, i kept thinking to myself as i'm falling "come on where's the redirect! COME ON! COME ON!!!!" just as i get a bit of lift again from the kite i go THUMP. I landed and deployed the killers breaking one of them. No injuries thank God and I'm glad I was wearing my knee pads ad the same time cuz those came in handy .

After talking with my brother, wife and Tyler we figured I was about 25-30 feet up (there were 10 ft soccer goals right next to where I was). 25-30ft is a little too high for me, ESPECIALLY with a 4m kite.

So that's the story.... now... what's the moral of the story?

When playing with fire, know you will get burned if you let it out of it's cage.

Great Craigslist Trade/Fixup

2009-08-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

A few crazy things have happened recently, I got a free 53" rear projection HDTV off of craigslist. I ended up buying a $50 convergence chip kit that included some resistors and the chips. I ended up soldering the chips on there, as well as the resistors! The problem was that i put the wrong size resistors on, so i had to order some more. After that the TV WORKED!!!! HUGE MASSIVE BEASTUS!

After I had it working for a night I traded it for a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop 15.4 inch monitor, 512mb ram, 1.7 pentium m processor. Which I am now selling. Hopefully after my $75 up front for that TV and probably 5 hours of my time I will end up with a pretty good size profit :D.