Dawn Kiting Session

[ricki]

I had wanted to get out kiting today and take advantage of the last day of good wind for a few. Trouble is it wasn't going to happen during the day. So, I woke up around 5:30 am, checked the wind, tides and time of sunrise and headed out. I wanted to get some dawn color shots for a change, sunsets being more conveniently scheduled as a rule. Here are some images that came out of it using the new GoPro HD2 camera.




The sun is up and climbing in this shot. I launched before sunrise despite which it was still fairly light out.




Winds were ENE about 19 gusting to 24 kts..




GoPro does a nice treatment on spray.




I wanted to try shooting around the inlet and through a gap in the north jetty. The wind direction, speed and tide phase were conducive. You don't want to get sucked into the inlet nor have your kite stall in wind shadow in a place like that. Also, it was before 7 am and there was no one on the normally crowded beach. This later point has stopped me from trying it for years. So, I decided to run through the gap.

George Saunders of kiteflix.com shot Andy Hurdman running through this gap in an early kiting video in 2003, "Day 1." It was always a favorite of mine for the score and visuals. I can't find the actual video on the Kiteflix website anymore strangely enough. It does show up at the link below, preceded by a commercial unfortunately. Anyway it is an excellent early video, a classic today I would say.

http://www.spike.com/video-clips/pv5css/day-1

You can read what George had to say about the video at the link below, including "Day 1 does not have to be January 1. With each day the Sun rises you get a "do-over." He has a point there, I tried it this morning. http://www.kiteflix.com/day1.html



Here is a short clip that I shot this morning in the cut.








Turnabout and head out back into the inlet.










I am glad I rolled out of the sack and came on down to ride through the dawn. It was a good start to the day or as George would say, Day 1.


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