Sunday, be careful!

[Wolfie]

I was right 1-2 miles north from 8-11 kites somewhere 4-5 miles south of sand key. I was there with Chris Barrs and Skemp the pimp. I have never seen so many kites at in the area (Indian Rock??). I should have come down to see you all, I do not know who it was! It was a fun wave smashing day.

[Steve-O]

Solid day at Sunset in Tarpon Springs. Noon had solid 30knots and it finally backed down to about 25knots in the afternoon. Epic day and what a beautiful flat to ride. Tried a 9M but was just too much to hold down. Craig Whiteleather had a 7M so we switched. Thank you Craig, it is amazing what 2 little meters will do. From then on it was game on. WSW had a windsurf demo day at Sunset as well. It was fun to share the water with some fast windsurfers. Truly and epic flatwater spot on a NW. The flat goes forever and ever....especially nice on a lower tide. There were only 4 of us sharing a flat 3 times size of East Beach. Glad to hear everyone had a great time. Still blowin!!!

Gabe and I will be taking off to Hatteras at the end of the week to complete our PASA instructor certification. Got some dry suits just for the occasion. Chris Moore of Kitty Hawk Kites is hooking us up for the week. Real Kiteboarding will be providing a slew of Jimmy Lewis boards to play with. See you all on the flip side.

[bryanleighty]

dan and i hit backside skyway for a few hours ....we were the only ones there..

wind was gusty at times but def. perfect 9m waroo weather..
going to ride the gulf just seemed like way too much work..

good stuff indeed ... got in more riding this weekend than i could have hoped for.

[TampaBay Noob]

Originally Posted by Steve-O

Solid day at Sunset in Tarpon Springs. There were only 4 of us sharing a flat 3 times size of East Beach. Glad to hear everyone had a great time. Still blowin!!! .

Steve, sunset gotta kind of hectic for me yesterday. Remember when you were tacking out west and I was in the water waving my arms? You pointed out the location of my board after a failed front-roll dragged me away from it. Well it was a little worse than what you thought was going on. Yes, I needed my board. But, my spreader bar came unbuckled somehow on one side during the crash. So at first I thought the bar just came unhooked, no biggie, then I saw the spreader bar attched to the chicken loop and got worried. I was getting pulled by the only buckle still attached with no way of disconnecting myself from the kite because my leash was attached to the chicken loop. I grabbed the bar and just dragged near shore unhooked and dropped it to the edge of the window until I could get someone to run out and grab the kite. Unfortunately it was so windy nobody could understand what happened when I was yelling at them. Luckly, I didn't get hurt it the end. I'm still not sure what happened?? I've been riding since november and never had this problem before. I wanted to keep riding with you guys but after the incident, i was a little freaked out and just wanted to go to work. Looks like you guys had a blast out there, as I did for a few tacks anyways. My first kitemare I guess.....

[bryanleighty]

what kind of harness do you use? if its got the clip-in on the sides you need to rig some sort of lock there to keep that from happening..

yes on standard riding its all good, but if you get twisted the pull from the kite can easily dislodge a side.

i use an OR session harness with fully strapped in sides.. no issue like this can ever occur unless a side strap breaks.

-Bryan

[TampaBay Noob]

i use a DaKine Impact Harness

[toby wilson]

Make sure it is as tight as you can get it and you shouldn't have any problems with the hooks...

[Unimog Bob]

I started off with one of those Dakine impact harnesses. Make sure you take the end of the strap, once you have it chinced down, and double it back and pass it through the buckle again to lock it down.

[Steve-O]

Hey man, I knew you were in some kind of trouble, but I had my hands full and was way overpowered on a 9M. Last thing I wanted to do was get close to you and cause an even bigger problem. I knew Gabe was still on shore and would take care of you as I am sure he did. Far from a kitemare as you didn't panic, and you had some other riders watching your back. You made a lot of great choices that day. You chose not to ride until some other kiters showed up. Not all, but most kitemares are a result of bad choices. It was alot for us all.

Howard showed up with a 12M C and some huge board and got himself into a real jam. As quick as he was there, he was gone.

[C. Moore]

I thought I was the only one riding a 12m kite Sunday. I was able to hold it down for the most part but my foot strap broke and came in for a bit to fix it. I went back out and had some fun in the waves. I need more days like that more often.