JETTY JAM 2010: June 19th - 20th.

Kiteboarding at Jetty Island in Everett WA,  photo: Katina Arnott

The Seattle area is having its first ever summer kiteboarding and SUP beach party and competitions.  And I am super stoked!!!  Not only is Jetty Island one of the dopest beaches around Seattle, long and sandy and beautiful.  But there is going to be a sound system on the island...and guess who will be DJing?

That's right...ME!  I am bringing DJ Noisemaker and Charles Sidious to DJ the event with me.  That way I can take breaks when the wind is up  (let's all pray for wind) and get some action on the water.

I am also excited because my parents are planning to come spend the two days there as well....and since they have never seen me kite, I am pretty stoked to go out and jump my heart out.

It is really cool that Urban Surf and the City of Everett have come together for this event.  It shows that Everett is recognizing us kiteboarders and is investing time and money to promote our sport and Jetty Island.

Here are the details if you want to come...it's free, you will get tan, listen to dope beats, watch races (kiteboarding and SUP), learn to fly power kites with the free clinic, and a bunch of other fun stuff to do on the island.  The Everett Parks Dept will be running the passenager ferry for all those that want to come check it out, so no worries as to "how you will get to the island".

Anyways, I would love to see everyone come support this event!

Here are the details, which can also be found at 

http://www.urbansurf.com/urbansurf/news/Jetty-Jam-2010/ 

Urban Surf Jetty Jam -  June 19th - 20th:

A Board Sports Festival held on Jetty Island in Everett, WA. Sign up today!

Activities Include:

- Stand Up Paddle Race around the island (1/2 & Full) * $15 participant fee

- Stand Up Paddle Clinic & Demos

- Kiteboard Race * $15 participant fee

- Free Kiteboarding Intro Clinic

- Skim Board Freestyle Demo

- Free DJ Beach Beats & Tunes

- BBQ & Prizes

- Live Music of Rootdown - Outdoor evening stage a Lombardi's

- more demos on June 20th weather permitting

Free Ferry Service to and from the island. Family friendly event for all ages and abilities. Bring your friends, it will be a fun filled day of board sports play!

Sponsored by: Urban Surf, The City of Everett, The Port of Everett, Everett Parks & Rec, Naish, North, NPX, Amundson

Rates and times are listed below. To register, please go to our Events page. For more information, contact jeffro@urbansurf.com

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9:30am - SUP RACE (Skipper's meeting at the 10th St. Boat launch: 9am)

- Full Island Challenge $15 (Includes Weekend Parking Pass)

- Half Island Challenge $15 (Includes Weekend Parking Pass)


1:00pm - SUP CLINIC: (Meeting near music tent on Jetty Island: 1pm) FREE

2:00pm - KITEBOARDING RACE (Skipper's meeting near music tent on Jetty Island: 2pm)

- Race Fee $15 (Includes weekend Parking Pass)

4:00pm - KITEBOARDING INTRO CLINIC (Meeting near music tent on Jetty Island: 4pm) FREE

12:00pm - 4:00pm - BBQ ON JETTY ISLAND, FREE for all participants / Donations welcome

5:00pm - 6:00pm - Freestyle expression session / Best Trick and Big Air / Open participation

7-10pm - LIVE MUSIC & PRIZES: Outdoor Stage at Lombardi's Restaurant

See you there!!!!!

Do you want daily forecast info for Jetty Island?

Then check out my friend Jeffro's daily Jeffrocast.  Jeffro is a great guy, an awesome kiteboarding instructor, and he works for Urban Surf (http://www.urbansurf.com/) here in Seattle.   He runs the kite school and also holds free weather clinics once or twice a season.  I encourage you to check out Urban Surf's weather page as well.

On the link below, daily Jeffro gives his valued opinion on possible conditions for Jetty Island in Everett WA and posts it on his twitter site.

http://twitter.com/jeffrocast

Cabarete Trip 2010

That's right folks.  Becky and I are heading back to Cabarete, our favorite place in the D.R. this July 19th - August 3rd.

Danial Stoner and family will be meeting us for one week.  A few other kiters have expressed interest in coming, although no one else is confirmed (as in already paid for airfare and having reservations at the hotel).

Anyways, it is going to be tons of fun, and is an excellent place to kiteboard, or even to learn to kiteboard.   In fact, tht is where Becky and I got our start into the sport.  So, if you want to know more, and maybe even join us for a truly affordable kiting adventure vacation, then check out this thread we posted on pskite.

http://pskite.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5158

WindRocker logo update

WindRocker logo update:

After receiving some helpful feedback, especially from Becky and Joaquin Hubbard, I modified the design. Becky said to fix the hair.  Joaquin suggested I add sun glasses (definitely helps the cool factor) as well as make the R spraying from the board more apparent.  Of course once done in color it would stand out even more, but at the moment I am just working on a solid B&W design. Here is where it currently stands.

Thanks for all the input guys!

Here is a full name/logo pic.

WindRocker logo idea

So, I am working on a WindRocker logo.....

I whipped this out as a prelim idea.  Any thoughts on the different designs?  I am kinda leaning towards the first one now.

Becky thought I should make the connection between the two people....

Do the headphones on the rider help?

The summer season has started...

So on Friday, May 7th 2010, I got off work at 3:30pm (1 hr early) and carpooled up to Jetty Island with Loki.  I had an epic 2.5 hr session on my 14m.  It rocked getting to ride the summer winds on the season opener at Jetty.

Ross, a high school buddy who just bought his gear, showed up and I gave him a land lesson and even had him body dragging by dusk.

picture taken with phone on 2010 season opener 

On Saturday I headed there again....really the wind sucked, but Ross got out there and practiced his body dragging, and even got the chance to try getting up on a Glide.  Which he did and he is stoked as hell.  He thinks that he will get to skip "tea bagging".... we shall see.

Anyways, I hope to have some pictures of me jumping very, very soon!

Stay tuned....

PSWIND --- it's back up and running!!!

So, I am pretty stoked.  Last year I start a service, called PSWIND.  Basically it allowed anyone that joined to send a text to a number, and it would rebroadcast that text to all other members of the group.

The idea behind it was that a member could share real-time wind reports with each other via SMS messages, which any old phone can receive.  The only problem was that the group grew to over 140 members, and the service wasn't free.  It actually would cost me about $4 each time a text was sent, due to the size of the group....not to mention there was a monthly charge for the service of $30 as well.

Needless to say I shut the service down in Nov.

Fast forward to about 2 week ago.  I saw a similar service on a Irish kiting forum, the difference was that it posted the text to the top of forum.

http://www.pskite.org/ is our local kite forum for Puget Sound kiters here in the Seattle area.  We have a wicked good web developer now who has done a ton of improvements to the site. Once I showed him the other site and the text feeds at the top of their site, and after he did a bit of digging, he thought that we could have something similar and even one-up them by "reviving" PSWIND.

So, now PSWIND is up and running better than ever, it costs no one any cash out of pocket to keep running, and many of us could not be more stoked to start sharing the wealth of wind here in the northwest.

It posts the text to a live feed at the top of pskite.org and it also broadcasts the text to all group members.  There are even preferences you can set up for the type of alerts you prefer.   Even cooler is the fact that the text shows which member sent the report, which is a great way to be popluar and have many beers coming your way from the other PSWIND members.

So, yeah, not only are there a bunch of site that give wind sensor reports, but here in Seattle we get reatime reports from fellow kiters who are kind enough to share the wind....and the stoke!

If you want to know more, or if you want to join and receive real-time wind reports from other kiters, then check out this thread at http://www.pskite.org/.

click here for PSWIND (Pugest Sound Wind Info Needed Daily)

It's official, I am a jumping machine!

I wish I had pictures! I wish Becky could corroborate my story!

Unfortunately I have neither, but that doesn't change the fact that on Sunday at Locust in Bellingham I was a jumping machine on my 11m!

No kidding. Finally it has all come together, everything I have worked for the last 9 months has paid off, and now I can jump with ease. Granted, I am just boosting big...but I am also landing consistantly.

I did do the infamous backroll-to-kiteloop crash...but I bet later this week I will pull off my first backroll.

All day at Locust I stayed upwind...way upwind in fact. I pulled off all the transitions I have been working on, and was downlooping like a madman.

One thing I can say, is that boy-oh-boy I am sore today.  Every muscle in my body, and especially in my stomach is sore.   I am going to be in great shape by the end of summer.  Watch!

I can't wait for the Northerlies to kick in...Hopefully tomorrow, so I can ride my 14m Raven and really get some air.

Also, Becky had her longest rides on Sunday and is finally feeling like becoming a decent kiteboarder is well within her reach. I am very proud of her. She doesn't give up, keeps pushing herself, and it has finally paid off. I think she will be a great inspiration to other women trying to get into the sport, because she will be able to honestly tell them that it wasn't easy, but if they stick with it and keep practicing, it won't be long before they can rip just like the boyz.

Anyways, no pictures yet, but I am sure that I will get some good ones in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!