[Pedro]

Bob, that sucks you got stung by the sting ray....thanks for sharing, now I know what to look forward if it happens to me.

This past April I spent three weekends in a row kiting in Isla Morada and kept running into giant sting rays....it was cool to follow them just to see them closer....then one monster changed course, crossed me perpendicularly and I surfed right over it! It scared the hell out of me because I have heard how much it hurts...lucky for me, the animal panicked and scurried away.

These sting rays are about 4 feet wide and very dark in color....can you tell me if all of them sting? I understand that there are some that are benign and harmless (Sting Ray Beach - Cayman). I just don't know if we have the good ones in Florida or not.

Anyways, I agree that one of the better parts of kiting is not just where it takes me, but what I see in the water. Nothing (so far) beats the humpback whales spraying and jumping in the water I saw in Manta, Ecuador. That was surreal. It felt like I was kitesurfing in Sea World! If any of you get the chance to go to Ecuador, the wind blows in Manta 18k-30k every single day from June-December...excellent place to kite.

Paul Menta just teamed up with a friend of mine down there to open a Kite House Ecuador. Check it out in the Kite House website. It's far away, but well worth it. I'll be down there again this summer for sure.