La Ventana - Day 8 (recap) Monday -the 8 mile ride

Well, it's Monday, day 8 of our kiteboarding vacation. So far I have been able to kiteboard 4 days in a row. The sky is clear today and the sun is up, so as expected as the air temperature starts to rise the thermal winds start to pick up and blow.

Several of us have been planning on testing our newly developed skills with a true endurance ride. The plan is to start at the hot springs, 8 miles north of La Ventana, and ride downwind along the shoreline all the way to Casa Verde. I have done nothing like this yet...this is big!

The good part, and the main reason I am not really nervous, is that we have at least one veteran rider for every newbie. The veterans plan to pair off with the newbies and then help with board retreival, kite relaunch, or any other unforeseen mishap that the newbie gets himself into.

David Webb, the owner of Casa Verde, lends us his vehicle to get ourselves to the hot springs, and Becky comes along to help us launch and then drive David's truck back.

On a side note, I am a little worried that it may be too light of wind for me.  I am bringing my 11m, while everyone else is bringing 15m kites.  I am hoping that I can make it work since I do not have to try and stay upwind. 

When we get there we unload and start pumping and rigging our kites.

Here is a quick video of us rigging up.

me pumping up

walking my lines out

This video shows the lay of the land at the hot springs while I connect my lines to my 11m Eclipse Nano.

In this video I tell Becky what the plan is.

While we were pumping up Casey was taking video with his Go Pro action sports video camera.  The Go Pro mounts to his helmet, his lines, and his board for some wicked footage of riding.  He tells us that his plan is to speed up the pumping and rigging of kites for a video he plans to make of the downwinder.

We are all ready, so Becky gets the crew of us to line up for a group shot. Here is a video of us getting ready for the downwinder group photo.

the end result: the downwinder group photo

Anyways, we start launching.  I am the 4th kite on the water.  The wind is really light for the first half of the trip.  I had to work the crap out of my kite to keep myself moving and pretty much went downwind as fast as possible.  Here is video of me riding away from the beach.

 

Casey stayed with me the entire time.  We both rode out in front of the pack and were the first ones back.  We all averaged about 14 miles of riding all together since it is not possible to go straight downwind.  I got to practice lots of transitions and turns.  I got downlooping my kite down pretty well too.  I even started jumping and was landing them pretty consistantly.

Good thing Casey was with me though, because I inverted my kite after a jump I did where I didn't throw the kite back in front of myself fast enough.  Then my control of the kite was reversed...had as hell to ride.  So I pulled myself into shore.  The shore was way to sketchy to self launch so I would have packed up and walked 5 miles back to La Ventana barefoot.

But Casey came to the rescue.  Had me land his kite, we fixed my lines.  I launched Casey, then while flying his kite, he launched me.  WHAT A PIMP!   I was so happy to have him with me!!!

Becky meanwhile drives back with one kiter, Alan, who was having issues with his kite.  As she drives back she sees two kites in the distance....one she recognizes as our blue 11m Eclipse Nano.  So she slows the truck slightly and captures 2 videos and 1 picture, both Casey's kite and my kite weaving throughout the sky as we ride the shoreline in the distance. 

the 11m Eclipse Nano in the distance as I downwind it--- 8+ miles

In these next two videos you can see our kites as we are riding the coast. And you get to hear Becky say that she is proud of me in the first :)

 

So, my feet are killing me...they really ache like crazy...but when I can see Casa Verde in the distance I am soo happy that all fatigue disappears.  When I get in front of Casa Verde I do two huge jumps...and land both.  Seriously I got at least 10 ft off the water.  The wind was nuking by the time I got back.  I was really hoping that Becky would be there to see me, but she actually didn't get back until I was walking up the beach from where I landed near Baja Joe's.  What's new I guess....

 

Here is the video that Casey made from his riding during the downwinder, as well as other shots from his week in La Ventana.

 

La Ventana Kiting 2010 from Casey Culberson on Vimeo.