The perfect day?

[OliverG]

The perfect day?

Ah, yes, the elusive perfect day? Does it exist? Mine?

Waking up without an alarm clock to the smell of coffee with sun pouring in through an open window spilling out onto the floor in an comfortably furnished bungalow on a tropical beachfront. As I get up out of bed, still sore, in a good way, from kiting the day before I pour a cup of coffee and put some mellow music on and take my cup through the doors that open up to the lanai. I sit down, put on my sunglasses and look up and down the beach, out at the ocean and behind me to the mountains. The air is still fresh from a brief tropical rain the night before and birds are greeting the day from the trees, geckos skitter up and down nearby palm trees and a cat walks by lazily and stretches out on the deck, yawning.

My gear is sitting on the edge of the deck, near the steps, and next to a quiver of fresh '07 kites, lay my bar, harness and board still lightly crusted with powdery white sand from the beach after coming in and de-rigging after an evening sunset session the day before. While drinking coffee I see the faintest stirrings the trees and the palm leaves are gently swaying in a light breeze. The wind will start to come up within a couple hours but I can already see some texture on the water showing the promise of yet another great day. Breakfast is ready and and local fresh tropical fruit, a lobster omelette and banana pancakes are served followed by more hot coffee.

I lay on the deck on a chaise lounge and catch some sun while reading, but before long the steadily increasing breezes urge me to rig, but there's no hurry, so I take my time. White caps start to build, but here's the catch: the wide open beach which is slightly crescent-shaped and runs for 100 yards or more on either side of me is protected by a reef about 100 yards out beyond which there's head-high, clean surf. But inside the reef it's butter and the water, even though plenty deep, is so clear you can see your shadow on the sandy bottom while kiting.

The day brings a morning inside butter session, followed by an unhurried lunch with all the local offerings. And an icy cold beer. After a brief rest to digest, I decide to hit the surf outside the reef and spend the afternoon working on bottom turns and timing. I've gotten four hours on the water total, so I head in to chill on the deck for a bit and have another cold one and some appetizers. Should I kite again before the day's over? Why not, so I go out for another inside session and spend some time practicing some new tricks and nail a few tough ones, giving me stoke for the next day to practice more. Oh, and did I mention that good friends are staying in nearby bungalows and have been shredding on the water with me all day also?

So we all throw down and push each other and come in just in time to witness a blazing red and orange sunset of an impossibly large sun going down on the water making it look like fire. After showers all around we regroup to grill fresh fish one of the girls bought on the beach from a local fisherman, mango salsa, grilled prawns, sashimi and sushi accompanied by beers and margaritas. Or mojitos, or mai tais, whatever. After a great dinner and drinks on the deck, we take a taxi into town which is a couple miles away and hit the club. Come in around 1 or 2, get a good nights sleep and wake up the next morning and do it again.

Cheers,
Ollie

[fearlu]

Now that, is what I'm takin' about.

[windhorny]

8)

[Greg]

some day everything will be totally perfect.. again.
A strong North-easter comes cranking into town and blows HARD for two days straight! On the third day hugh swell closeout the No-Name passage, spray bursts fly 100' as waves pound light house point. Everyone has taken shelter..
Pumping up a 10m in the shelter of Listers beach I look out and see the front has now clocked 45 degress East. A string of a thousand waves peel down the sandbar from No-Name to Sunset Cay. Past No-Name waves collide with backwaves rebounding off the light house wall. Open ocean swell surge forward as they pass into the Channel and hit the wall, everywhere along the sand bar is pounding, pick your poison..
Outside is where its really at, my homies and I want to hit it so we plan a string of attacks. Each will grab a wave as it converges with another, taking as many turns as our legs can hold as we pummel the pitching apex repeatedly trying to outdo the other for hardest turns. Gaffing the intire bowl is the ultimite goal. Each rider takes turns pulling layback lip slides before exploiding in the impact zone or dropping sideways into the bowl, lines going through the wave while narrowly escaping being swallowed by the foam ball.
Each of my Bro's are stoken my day as they put on there best proformance..

someday..
Yuri, wash your hands!

[windhorny]

8)

[Bulldog]

Thanks for that, Ollie. I could practically smell the grill and taste the beer cleaning the salt out of my mouth!

It's been awhile since you posted more than a sentence or two; I always enjoy reading when you do.



But the question is, does this spot really exist, how far away is it, and when's the next trip...

[Bulldog]

Okay, it might not be "the" perfect day, but I had "a" perfect day last week. It was actually two days, but since it started at 3 pm Thursday and ended at 4 pm on Friday, it was technically 24 hours.

Thursday afternoon I just barely made it down to Alameda for the tail end of a storm session. I had one of my bulldogs, Lulu, with me for entertainment pre- and post-session. I hit the beach when Ollie, Yoko, and Charlie were all done or coming in, got to visit for a few minutes while I set up my gear. Dave was still out on his new 12.

I got to fly my 12 Vegas, which is my favorite, and just as I launched it, the wind came up and I was borderline OP, which is how I like to kite. There were still plenty of folks, including Yuri, on the water, and the chop and swell felt like home. So even though we were kiting in a squall, I felt safe and comfortable to immediately start throwing moves that I haven't been doing in storm winds or on the coast in waves this winter.

It was short but sweet, lots of air, spins, downloops. Then the wind dropped and everyone came in. I hit Picante in Berkeley for a big bowl of tortilla soup and a beer and headed home.

I checked the snow report before bed -- only 3 inches reporting; probably not worth the trip the next day. Still, I pulled my kite stuff out of the car and loaded my ski gear, just in case. I went to bed tired, got up a little late, sat down yawning in front of the computer, click on the snow report: 30 inches! I am OUTTA HERE.

On the drive up, the snow started falling at 3000 ft. This is like hitting the Rio Vista bridge and seeing whitecaps. You just know you are going to have an epic day.

I hit Sugarbowl at 9:30, along with alot of other people. It was snowing hard on the mountain, though, so after a few runs, the liftlines were gone. The snow, meanwhile, was absolute perfection. Three feet of the lightest snow I'd ever skiied, anywhere. Like good wind makes good kiting easier, good snow makes you feel like you can do anything. I dropped a dozen cliff faces, sticking most of them. Yesterday I was floating on water, today I was floating on snow. By lunchtime my legs were burning.

By the end of day, I was soaking wet and sore as hell, just like the day before.

[OliverG]

Thanks for that, Ollie. I could practically smell the grill and taste the beer cleaning the salt out of my mouth!

It's been awhile since you posted more than a sentence or two; I always enjoy reading when you do.



But the question is, does this spot really exist, how far away is it, and when's the next trip...

It's an imaginary place made up of a combination of all the different spots I've travelled to for kiting with the best of everything. More to follow...

[Greg]

dreaming..?
life is what you make it..
we have total sickness right here

[OliverG]

I'm totally stoked on the Bay Area, but the world is a big place and to live is to dream...