Hatteras Trip

[Steve-O]

The outer banks is truly an East Coast kiting paradise. I am sure many of you have been and would agree. Flat water for literally tens of miles in all directions. Imagine all of Tampa Bay being flat water and you have some perspective. Downwinders in flatwater with lagoons and slicks for as long as your legs can handle. The ocean is killer too. Accomadations this time of year are very reasonable and food is good too. Cool to be in the water with so many other kites out there but also so much space. The season is from now until the end of June. Consistent SW winds from 20-30 almost every day. Water is warm and so in the air temp. Kite shops all over and the stoke is alive and well. Oh yeah, windsurfing is not cancelled. Sorry Trip. The one day we didn't have wind the Atlantic was serving up overhead surf with light offshore winds. Trip of Real Kiteboarding invited us out with his crew to do some stand up paddle surfing. Most of the crew was still uneasy on these boards, but Trip is a very good surfer and quite good on the stand up paddle. I stayed with the long board and had an epic sunset session. Most the boys left early, but Trip, Gabe, and myself stayed till dark. Thanks Trip for the invite and a memorable surf sesssion. You are first class and a true waterman.

Gabe and myself have some paperwork to finish up but we are basically finished and will be PASA Instructor Certified Level One. As you know, there is strength in numbers, and being a member of PASA provides a voice when SH*T hits the fan. When riding spots get shut down, PASA flies in to offer solutions and more often than not gets those spots back open. IKO is involved in the effort as well. Being a member of PASA has other benefits as well.....free subscription to Kiteboard magazine, 50% off IKitesurf.com, and rental status as well for those shops that participate. For those interested, I will organize a sign up day with Mike, Matt, Gabe, and myself to get those certified with PASA as level 1, 2, or 3 riders. It is a simple check off format, and for most would take a very short period of time (5-10 minutes). I will give the details of this as I put together a plan.

Gabe and myself are going to take all this knowledge we have learned from PASA and continue to develop our school in the beautiful northern parts of Pinellas county. It takes some effort to do it up there, but the benifits to all are huge. We sincerely appreciate all of the support you guys have given for our efforts. I know we are making a difference for everyone.

PS. Shout out to Chris aka "Hollywood" team rider for Cabrinha. He worked with me on a backroll with a kiteloop. Took about 30 minutes to build up the courage, but somehow I pulled it off on the first try. To have my PASA class cheering me on will always be a great memory. Blew up the next 3 attempts, but started to get the hang of them. I guess the next obvious thing is doing this unhooked...F16. Think I will stick with hooked in for awhile. Those of you that have tried F16's, I am sure you can vouch that they put on a hurtin when it don't go right. I'm not getting any younger.

Congrats on the hooked in backroll kiteloop!

I've found that the hooked in kiteloops are far more demanding than unhooked. An unhooked F16 doesn't throw you as high as a hooked in backloop... and when you are unhooked you can just let go, but when you are hooked in, you are F@#$%ED when things go wrong.

Typically an unhooked F16 will just rip the bar out of your hands if you are overpowered (that hurts like hell btw).

But hooked in will whip you to the moon and you'll be crapping your drawers when you see your kite under you while you are 20 feet up and coming down head first at mach 5.

That night we met at the skyway (pouring rain, night riding) Danny and I were throwing them for each other. I mistimed the backroll on one and when I looped the kite hard it whipped me up and upside down. I landed on my head in 2 feet of water and damn near gave myself a concussion.

Also, they can get expensive. Did one the a couple months ago and broke my board. That one kick ass kiteloop cost me $500. It was worth it though, it was a big one Too bad nobody saw it

Be careful with those in 25+, you will get your ASS handed to you.. but sometimes it's worth it. LOL