FKA Kiteboarding Forums - Photo Of The Day!!!

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- - Photo Of The Day!!! (http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=6089)

Delta 2 rocket! I saw this same veiw this morning over Clearwater........aj;)

Very good, top points! We had no idea it was going up, just walked out of the hotel early in Orlando this am and there it was. We were only about 50 miles away, you were about 150 miles away from Cape Canaveral. Amazing how far away these shots show up from.

More about this historic final Delta 2 launch at:
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...af-launch.html

Diving into the Devil's Den in northwest Florida ...

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album442/...kylight_rs.jpg
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A strange place in northwest Florida. Looking at the bizarre trees
intertwined over Devil's Den or a sinkhole in formation.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album442/...t_IMG_7458.jpg
Don't fall in. Doubt wildlife managed that all the time back in the day before the fences went up. Warm Mineral Springs reportedly resembled this, thousands of years back. Only in that case the hole was about 400 ft. deep, filled with mist and vines. Saber cats, ground sloth's and the like fell in and were entombed in the anaerobic sediments there. History repeats, on a smaller scale.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album442/rick_P8160137.jpg
Walking into the grotto for some free diving and at $9. a head it is an incredible bargain for a truly unique experience. The water is a refreshing 72 F, so bring your wetsuit. Kept fogging my lens up.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album442/stairs_IMG_7469.jpg
Entering the grotto. The camera image makes things look a lot brighter than they are. Still, you can see the brilliant wall coloring, deep blue water more readily this way. It is a fairly large, hemispherical chamber caused by the gradual failure and subsidence of underlying limestone. One of these days most of the roof will fall in and the bottom slip out below resulting in a full blown hour glass shaped sinkhole. No time too soon ideally.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album442/Sink_IMG_7543.jpg
They've constructed a stagging platform for divers to gear up on, to avoid silting the place out. You can free dive it but pay attention to the skull and crossbones signs at the mouths of the secondary caves. Also watch your head on ascent to avoid smacking into some of those inverted walls. For folks wanting to penetrate with SCUBA, make sure you are fully NACD qualified for the dive. Too many lost souls in the cave systems of Florida as it is. That is lunch easing down through the skylight for a group of spelunking cows expected in the afternoon.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album442/stairs_IMG_7485.jpg
A truly remarkable place, recommend checking it out. They even have a pool area and campground. I shot some poor quality,
likely surreal video, may put up a clip to show you things underwater.

More info at:
http://www.devilsden.com/

.

Video from one of the more bizarre dives in Florida, Devil's Den. Located along the northwest coast around Ocala, it is worth checking out. Apologies for some of the video, poor cameras were pushed beyond reasonable limits in low light. Still, there is some unusual imagery in there. The viz. was actually better than implied in the clip.

"Is that kite coming out of your car or are you just glad to see me" ;)

Wow that's a nice place to go diving!:p

Just saw this on kiteforum.* It is a pretty interesting speed kiting clip of a record attempt with a nasty wipeout at the end. The guy was around 50 kts. at the time of the wipeout on a speed sailing course (shallow, fast with ripples - no waves). I understand all he messed up were two sprained fingers.

* http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.p...b79a95ffdeeb62

Wiping out at half that speed can feel almost as bad at times. Speed vs. impressions, so 50 kts. may feel like a 100 kt. wipeout? Brave folks hitting the high speeds.

From Brien Mastriana's Photo page on Facebook, maybe off Indonesia, not sure.

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...5_606223_n.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._5258820_n.jpg

Impressive stuff in any case!

I was looking for an unusual historical image last night, still looking too. Anyway, came across some strange stuff in the Popular Mechanics archive site.

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HEADS UP! I AM CONVINCED that this is the future for kiteboarders. No more line, space, bystander issues. All the thrills, huge jumps without the peripheral issues. Well, maybe after a few beers?

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album447/..._air.thumb.jpg
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Free diving will never be the same again. Wonder why I never saw this before? Well, there could be a few reasons, air embolisms for some of those beginners?

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Who needs cable parks when you can have the bathing chute?!

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This would be better if you could tie in I think.