Thanks for posting the whale story and aerial image thebestkite. I was searching for something early this morning and kept seeing fragments about a kiter passing over a whale. Good to know the details of what happened. He is one very lucky dude to be struck and come out of it ok. Even dolphins can clean your clock but good with a caudal fin strike if they're having a bad day. Something hundreds of times heavier doesn't bear thinking about, ouch! There is still more info about the incident at: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...012895,00.html

Headed up to Cocoa Beach with Neil and Gio last weekend to present kiteboarder rescue techniques to the United States Lifesaving Association (USLA). There was a power point presentation inside (hope to convert that to a video and put it up online here) and a demonstration conducted by Neil afterward on the beach.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/USLA_vr_s.sized.jpg
Neil and Gio walk through a Rescue Watercraft pickup of a kiteboarder


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/Neil_n_Gio_USLA.jpg
Explaining quick releases


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/Dolphin.jpg
After the presentation I cruised south down A1A and found a great German restaurant right on the Intracoastal. http://cafecoconutcove.com/ has a great location, excellent food at good prices. There was even a pod of dolphins tearing up the shallows during sunset. You can just see a dorsal fin in the photo.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/Sebastian.jpg
Stopped by Sebastian Inlet to checkout the surfing.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/Sebastian_2.jpg
This guy did land this spin and wasn't caught by the fishermen!


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/Salvage.jpg
An artist rendering of salvage three centuries back, rough time to be a Lucayan Indian. In another lifetime years back I used to be involved in UW archaeology through the State and the private sector. The Spanish 1715 Plate fleet that floundered off these shores has been the subject of much exploration and salvage over the decades. Today there are two museums worth a visit, one located just south of Sebastian Inlet and the other on the western shore of the Intracoastal opposite the Inlet. Interesting stuff if the wind dies or you want to checkout something different.
http://www.atocha1622.com/mclarty.htm
http://www.melfisher.org/


The Treasure Coast has a lot to offer watermen.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/rd_0.jpg


A first look at the Crandon Park Race Day appears in our new section, SE Florida And The Keys Forum at:

http://fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=126



http://www.fksa.org/albums/album365/rd_10.jpg

Taste the Rainbow..
 

Rooster Rock Photos From Yesterday
http://www.eclipsefilms.com/rainbow1.jpg
http://www.eclipsefilms.com/rainbow2.jpg
http://www.eclipsefilms.com/rainbow3.jpg
Winnnndy!

Great shots! Is all that white water wind generated, what would you guess the winds were at? Where is Rooster Rock, looks warm!

Rooster Rock is on the west end of the Columbia Gorge, it was blowin 50-- and NOT warm. The water was about 53º and the air was the same! That just about wrapped it up for our season.

Here's a video from the other day at the Oregon Coast: http://www.eclipsefilms.com/movies/DaPonds.mov

It looked nippy, with wind chill only more so. You do have some wild beautiful coastline up that way. It reminded me of some of the images from the Vancouver area further north.

Thanks for posting the stills and the video, nice job on that by the way. It really projects a sense of the place. Nice riding grounds you have out there.

OT - but it came to mind anyway (Disclaimer: this is not a promotion of insurance, it's a commemoration for a duck.)

Someone once said Barney Rubble was quite the actor, the same could be said about the Aflac duck.


What the world needs is more Super Ducks, wonder if they cleanup Thanksgiving dishes too?


Thought it boosted NASCAR a bit, made me watch it!


Eddie Murphy in this one?


Nipponese duck


Goats horn in on the act

Apologies for the duck-aside, perhaps they'll gear the duck up for kiting someday. That would be something!

Good time to visit Venice? Can you imagine trying to keep a kite flying in that box? Understand it was called windsurfing on CNN.


http://www.tgcom.mediaset.it/bin/283...rizzontale.jpg
From: http://www.tgcom.mediaset.it/fotogal...lery4452.shtml


.

Jupiter start race Picture
 

I really like the picture on page one of this posting.

Anyone know how I may be able to get a high resolution copy? Would love to use it as my desktop background picture, as it tells all of it in one shot.
Florida wind kiting speed and a great group of people getting together and having a blast.

Thank you for any help