Photo Of The Day!!!

[Rusch]

Whats up,

Some shots from Lassing park just South of Downtown St.Pete.

Enjoy

-Rusch

From 4.27:







From weekend of 4.25:
Excuse the small size I'll make sure they are bigger next time











Love this one:

and this one:



DAMN:

Double Damn

[ricki]

The Miami Kiteboard Masters is coming up this weekend. Let's take a look back at other kiting events at Crandon Park ...



The Masters Event from 2008



A few scenes from earlier this year





Course racing with a difference



Kite4Girls 2006, trying something new



Irma flys with the Anhingas at Kiter4Girls 2005

[ricki]

Great weekend in Southeast Florida with the Miami Kiteboard Masters at Crandon Park ...


Surreal sky for yesterday's happenings. Strapless ride off, barefooting and more.



Large turnout for Saturday, tons of fun too



... and they ran the second stop of the Hobie Standup Paddleboard Race Series out the Miami Yacht Club, down along Government Cut and looping back over the Venetian Isles. Jim of Liquid Surf & Sail shown here pulling out on his Hobie as the pack runs out of MYC.



Gebi strokes north to arch west above Venetian Causeway. The cruise ship terminal shows up in the background



Jim moves in front of the new LS&S outlet store location on Star Island?



The folks pull back into the wind to make the finish where it all started back at MYC



Great weekend all around.


** Tons more photos to be processed to be put up on coverage of both fun events.

Stay tuned ...

[jetpack]

Here's a panoramic pic of Sunset Beach I took the other day (5/13). Session was easy going for about 4 guys on 16m & 17m.
Picked up around 5:45pm for 40 mins and I could ride my 12m. Took this after everyone had packed up for the day.

[ricki]

Went scooter free diving on the Vandenberg yesterday, huge thanks to Paul Menta of The Kitehouse setting me up with a boat and GPS. The Vandenberg is a large 522 ft. artificial reef and former radar tracking ship. She was sunk in 140 ft. off water about 7 miles south of Key West on Wednesday. Wore a Go Pro camera in a chest harness shooting stills every 2 s and hand held a camera for video. Thanks to Mike Hirooka for giving me a loaner camera and tons of mounting gear pending my camera arriving. I wanted to catch it shortly after sinking before the algae covered all the white surfaces up. I still remember a Stephen Frink shot of the Duane off Key Largo in clear blue water just after sinking. White on blue! Just put up a short video clip from my Canon G9 pending processing all this stuff into a video:




Here are a few stills as well from Mike's Go Pro camera on auto:


Viz. was about 50 to 60 ft. I think the cameras saw further than I could in some cases



The bow has a surreal aspect to it. Passed a couple of divers holding a Conch Republic flag up after of this point. There was about 1.5 mph current running north. With the scooter on high power you could motor fairly easily into it. On downwind turns you went flying though! Covered about half the wreck on one dive.



Both radar dishes were dislodged by hydraulic forces during sinking. They've been cabled in place to pad eyes on the deck to secure them for the time being



Coming up from the bottom at 140 ft., looking way up the side and to the sun.


Nice session, lots more to come

[ricki]

Here's a few more photos from Mike's Go Pro camera on auto during the free dives on the Vandenberg ...



Heading aft into the current before the pilot house deck. About to cruise off into that portal along the port wing.



There were a few SCUBA divers on the wreck, not a lot of free divers though?



Something about the wide angle distortion makes this look like a model in miniature to me. I need to have a closer look at the sinking footage. It almost looked like this dish was already secured at that time on the deck?



A look aft from closer to the bow.


More to come, anxious to get some projects behind me so I can start working on the video. Stay tuned ...

The video was finally put together, you can see it below:

[ricki]

A few photos from the Kiteboarding Masters Competition at Crandon Park. For those that may have forgotten, this is what wind or heavy breeze anyway, looks like.



Nice sky and a good turnout



Mike sets up



I've wondered for years about barefooting while kiting. Thanks to Damo's prowess, have my answer and the shot to prove it! Amazing athlete. He wrapped up with a "one-footer!"



Katrina catches a strapless aerial



Todd pops a nice one, sans straps



What is this called, strapless-footless?! Damo does a rotation on his finger tips. Has to be a name for this aside from real hard.

[ricki]

The summer eases on with the odd bout of useable wind out there. Still, overall, it feels like summer (i.e. not much wind). Lots of things to do though, this weekend was a busy one with a Standup competition along the barrier island in Ft. Lauderdale AND the 2009 Gulfstream Freediving competition off Hillsboro Inlet in deep water. Here are some shots from both events ...


The start off Bahia Mar near Tiki Beach Sunday morning.
Click photo for full sized image








Getting into position at the starting line offshore
Click photo for full sized image



They're off ... lots more photos to come from this one. Got some nice images of the action.



Here's an unusual GoPro Wide shot of Capt. Pam and crew, the chase boat for the event. She graciously set up no end of great shots during this fun event. The field of view is so wide that it will grab your face if you let it, e.g. note above!



... and for something a little different;



Heading about ten miles north and about four miles offshore, we head to the FII 2009 Gulfstream Freediving Competition on Saturday. The free diving rig, a lot of thought and development goes into competitive free diving. This rig has a diver retrieval device built into it, designated warmup stations, a stage line for technical/mixed gas rebreather safety divers at various depths and still more.



A look at the underside of the rig



Martin Stepanek surfaces after a qualifying dive to 60 m (about 197 ft.), without fins, for a future competition. He holds the world record of 113 m (372 ft.) for that discipline and 121 m (401 ft.) for Constant weight (mask, fins, snorkel).



Jared the event sponsor, prepares for his own qualifying dive.



Doug and Niki go down with the tech safety divers for the free diving competition for a group photo op



Here's a short unprocessed clip of a competitor dive using a GoPro Wide camera. It may not be all that sharp an image but the 170 degree field of view provides an interesting look!

Hope to put a video together on the freediving competition soon as well.

[ricki]

I just added a couple of unusual GoPro Wide shots to the post above this. Check 'em out, it provides if not a bit fuzzy, unusual perspective.

[ricki]

Any ideas what this is? That is aside from patriotic (red, white & blue)?