Photo Of The Day!!!

[ricki]

Here are some shots of my good friend Capt. Slate of Atlantis Dive Center in Key Largo and his son Hunter on the reef.



Here they are again backlit



Getting crowded!


Photos: Rick Iossi

*

[ricki]

Vacation time is coming up, there's always the Grenadines to consider, although for wind earlier in the year might be better. More to life than just wind, or so my wife says. Wonder if it's true?



Ripping along the north shore of Mayreau



Batfish signal?



A clear day at Tobago Cays



Photos: Rick Iossi

[ricki]

btw, all the shots above on this page, except the one taken off Mayreau were shot with a small amphibious camera. It is rated to 10 m or 33 ft., shoots still and video images. It is good to have something portable while your riding, doing shallow free diving, snowboarding or just hanging out on the water. I understand they just came out with the 1070 sw replacing the model listed below.

* Olympus 770 SW 7.1 Megapixel Camera


3.6” W x 2.3” H x 0.8” D !

For more info: http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...p?product=1287

[kent]

Rick,

Thanks for the advice. I just purchased the 1030 SW. This thing is killer. 10 mega pixels and underwater to 10 meters. Unfortunately I had to buy 2 of them, because the first only lasted 4 minutes in the bay. I dropped it and lost it forever before even taking a shot!!! I went out a bought another the next day and had a great weekend! I'll post some pics later.

Kent

[ricki]

Hey Kent,

Damn that sucks! Nothing hurts a photographer more than deep sixing a camera. Sorry that happened.

I've been using the following system with some success on and under the water, walking around, on the snow, etc.. It works pretty well.

I got one of these Lowepro camera pouches:


http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/produ....do?oid=146439

I run the wrist leash through the neck strap. That way if I drop the camera, it hangs off the camera bag. If I am kiting, I run the neck strap through my impact vest so the lot won't fall off in a bad wipeout. I tuck it under my impact vest when not in use to keep it out of the way.

If you don't wear an impact vest an idea might be to use one of these camera floats. Or, better still jury something on your camera neck strap.


http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-Floati.../dp/B0014DURIW

Show us some shots from your new camera!

[ricki]

The first Tampa Kiteboard Masters in 2006


Damien pushing a lot of spray. This event may have been run in the highest wind of any contest in Florida to date to my knowledge.



Kent rips along



Billy Parker still at it after sunset. It was a long day but still looking good.


Sorry for the fuzzy images, not only was it windy it was also sort of dark at times.

[ricki]

My apologies, my image file was incomplete on the drive I pulled the above images from. Took me a while to tumble to the fact and longer still to find the missing images. Success though and all is well with the world again, at least this small part for now. To make amends, wanted to throw a few more images up from the event.



Raul prepares to launch Kent into a solar worm hole? What sort of QR do you use in a worm hole?



Jayson loops one



Sun is back and looking mighty fine!



Billy lands one as the sun falls beneath the horizon

[ricki]

Back in October 2001 I tooled up the coast to visit Greg Kuklinski and checkout his new kite line, NEXT in Ft. Pierce, FL. It was developed following the Seasmick line of bridled inflatable kites. These were the original SLE or flat kites years before they caught on in a big way worldwide.






Gangs all here. That is Greg on the right holding the kite, Jeff Beige of Best Kiteboarding today on his left. Out in the water is Irma, the kiting wonder woman along with Mike.



Greg strolls back upwind in failing breeze. Note he is totting a famous Ft. Pierce split tail directional. I think Gebi had one of those for the recent Masters comp. in Miami. The photo was taken before a big beach renourishment project. Glad they got their beach back.


I was looking around trying to find some old Internet information on the line and came across this from ikitesurf in 2001 shortly after these shots were taken in Ft. Pierce. It also followed a really light wind session with a NEXT at the first kitesurfing competition in Florida held in St. Pete:

Originally Posted by FKA

I am also considering getting one because of the great depowering characteristics of the kite, i.e. no lofting? I have tried them out twice. Once with their largest model in winds that were around 13 mph sustained and still did ok. The next time I tried the next size down in faiing winds, but it still handled well and was surprisingly foregiving. The kites are a bit more technical to fly than inflatable sleds drawing characteristics from both sleds and foils. I think that they are worth a go.

Rick

Took over four more years for the industry to snatch on to the concept, develop it and bring a sea change to kiting as we know it.

[linhster]

I kite in Ft. Pierce (not as often as I like) and Greg is one of the most influential person in the kiting arena. I guess a true pioneer in the industry. He has many followers I can assure you.

Thanks Rick for the pictures.

[ricki]

You're welcome and yes, Greg has been a key guy in the kiting scene for years. Not quite sure how he manages to have all those attractive women around so much of the time. Must be a gift or something?





He even makes Dave look good, well maybe not as good as Dave with his "grille" in place. That is quite a fashion statement. Have a couple of shots of LW Dave with his appliance in place. May have to put them in a future POD posting.



Dimitri scoping out a GK design a few years back at Surf Expo


.......... ///
........ -(@ @)-
--oOO-- (_)--- OOo--
..... Kilroy was here!

Well at least now we know Kilroy was actually from Greece




Greg playing in some small swells off the Inlet

Greg, Gebi, Doug and Dave carried off a dramatic kiter rescue of some kids that had their powerboat flounder in Ft. Pierce Inlet in heavy seas a while back. More about that at: http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=144...ight=kuklinski




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