Puerto Rico trip (day 7)

Time to Ride!!!!

Yes, that is what is on my mind, and about all I have planned for the day.

Also, it is time to get Becky out there practicing with me.

So after a decent breakfast we both pump up and walk upwind a few hundred yards.  I meet a local kiter as I walk, who happens to work at the jetski rental place on the beach.  Very nice guy.  He was interested in where I was from, if I was an instructor (more on this in a minute), and he also had some questions about my LF Comp harness.   His girl friend has the same model and complains that it rides up.   Becky showed him and his girlfriend her Dakine harness board shorts, and recommended she get a pair.

After the meet and greet Becky and I lay out our lines and rig up.  I plan to follow Becky and retrieve her board for her, should she wipe out and get dragged too far away from it.

I launch her, Sean launches me...and we are off.  Becky has a few small problems, but overall we have a good 1/2 mile downwinder together.  However, downwind we have been traveling.  Towards the end of the beach I start to think it is time for Becky to head in, when instead she keeps riding out further towards me...until she wrecks and downs her kite. 

I hoop and holla, and then I get her attention.  I try to make it apparent to her that she needs to get her kite up and make it to shore ASAP, as in there is no more downwind area, just a straight line to the beach if she holds her ground.  Also, we are both getting into the reef which is literally like 12 inches or less under the water.

I ride in and self land my kite.  I end up with a seaweed salad on my lines...dammit that sux!

Anyways, Becky does get her kite up and in one last desperate ride she makes it to shore....with no downwind space to spare, holding her ground the whole way in.  I laugh when she gets in and tells me that she was chanting a mantra to herself the whole time while making that last ride in, "Bitch, you better get your act together Becky.  You better ride for your life bitch".

So, after a little help getting the seaweed off my lines, I launch and head out solo for another hour or two.  Then I come in when the wind starts to back off.

As you can see in the above picture I was wearing my Urban Surf instructor rash guard.  Why?  Well, most of my rash guards are either black or they don't have sleeves.  Black is of course hot in the sun, and I was already chaffed under my armpits from wearing sleeveless rash guards.

Anyways, it turns out to be a great way to get students in Puerto Rico.  It seems like most people there have not been exposed to the sport.  They tend to come hang on the beach, point, watch, and very much get excited about the jumping and hang time.  Adding an instructor shirt meant these gawkers all felt at ease coming up and asking me about the sport.  I could easily have lined up prospective clients from these encounters.  So yeah, I learned wearing an instructor shirt when riding or teaching lessons is a great way to drum up new business.

Ok, so now the wind is down, riding appears to be over....but after a beer or two I just can't help but want to get back into the ocean.  I just love it!  Becky and Sean join me. You will notice Sean has on a fluorescent yellow shirt I loaned him, which we hope will reflect as much sunlight off of him as possible, making his burns bearable.

At first we try launching Becky into the air....

Next we all try our hands at body-surfing.  I seem to have the best form and get the furthest each time, although you can see Sean certainly has the most style.

Sean body-surfing with style...

"look at me Mom, no hands"

Becky's face says it all as she misses the wave, "This Stinks!"

OK, she caught it that time....

Sean's turn....

Ryan cleans house though with massive rides to shore.....

At some point I grab the camera and decide to take picture of waves, hoping to catch a cool pic or two of the lip rolling over me.

And while you can see I got a couple OK shots, most looked like this.....

However, I did get two really cool ones, and with a little color correction they turned out like this....

So yeah, I was pretty stoked at the end result.

After thouroughly wearing ourselves out playing in the surf, we head in and start putting kiting gear up.  While we are sitting drinking beers......

We look down into the bushes below us....

No silly, look closer....

Yep, we find little crabs that live under the bushes in the yard.  They must come out at night and scavenge.  Of course, I jump down and rummage around until I capture one.

And boy oh boy does this little guy put up a fight!

After letting him go, Sean gets a great picture of the "light" beer we have been drinking all week.

Puerto Rico trip (day 6)

Day 2 exploring the island)

Today, is the second installment of the "WindRocker Puerto Rico Exploration Series", where we head west from San Juan along the northern coast of Puerto Rico to where we eventually turn back around in Arecibo.  But that is not all, we then get back in time to go on the BioBay tour.  "BioBay" is short for Bio-luminescent Bay...yes this is a super cool experience....more to come shortly. 

map of our day 2 exploring (in red)

I failed to mention that both yesterday and today I planned the direction we would travel based upon satellite images of the tropical storm Emily, and used this info to guess where the best weather would be. In the two days of exploring we never really saw much rain, so I guess I did a good job. We found out later that it rained in San Juan both days...so I guess I was more than successful in my predictions.

So, as I mentioned we head west, following the same pattern as the day before, looking for that hidden gem of a beach.  We find several beautiful beaches, however none of them had a large enough beach to launch, and all most of them had a land mass blocking the wind from directly hitting the beach.  In other words, we first found a bunch of beaches located in sheltered bays.  Great for sunbathing and swimming, but definitely not a wind mecca.

However, we were not giving up.  Becky had a property we are trying to find, which has a private beach that looks pretty amazing from a google satellite map.  So, we at least want to check it out before heading back and giving up on this coast.  And it is a good thing we did because while we did not find the property Becky wanted to see, we did find two great beaches that definitely get wind, have a great spot to launch, downwind room for lessons, and there is even a spot that lines up waves for those wanting some surf action.

wish I had taken a panorama pic of this beach!

Around 5pm or so we decide to head back to the condo.  We need to be back in time for our 8pm pick up for the BioBay tour.

So we get back, eat some food and drink a few beers, and then catch our van ride to Fajardo where we meet our guides.  In the van we meet three other Americans going on the same tour.  All very cool katz!

When we get there we sign in, and then have a few minutes to walk around.  I eye all the local street meat vendors, and while the smell is great, I don't explore any of it with my taste buds.  We do get this great picture of the local restaurants pet parrot.

The guides then fit us with PFDs and give us a quick kayaking instructions. 

Becky and I already know the best method for us in kayak together from rowing across to Jetty Island together more than once or twice.  And that method is that I paddle, while Becky relaxes.  Yes we make better time, and we enjoy not banging oars together every 30 seconds.  And trust me when I say that we see a ton of people having serious issues.

brief kayaking instruction for the inexperienced....

So yeah, after the quick tutorial on paddling, we are off.   Once our entire group is loaded into their respective kayaks, we head across a bay which also houses a marina, until at the edge of the water we enter a small waterway, roughly the size of a 1 line road, that winds up through the mangrove trees.

Sean and OK paddling through the mangroves in front of Becky and I

mangrove forest is uber thick and dark at night

The trip through the mangroves takes about 1 hour and is roughly 1 1/2 miles of paddling to get to the bay.  The mangroves are very cool.  We get to see blue crab mingling under the roots of mangroves.  We also see a green tree iguana hanging out in the tree branches over hanging the waterway.

A funny thing to mention:  on the second night we were in Puerto Rico, Becky notices all the nature sounds that are out and about at night. This happens right as we walk through the Ritz Carlton Hotel property.  She then asks me, and is quite serious, if I thought the noises were a recording being played by the hotel.  Thus this becomes an inside joke everywhere we go, because as you may have guessed, if this is a recording, it just happens to play everywhere on the island each night ;)  Here is a video of the nature sounds you hear...and Becky poking fun at herself.

Roughly one half of the way to the bay, I start to notice the bio-luminescence in the water.  Faint at first, but it gets brighter the further in we get.  I splash around several times showing Becky, who has never seen bio-luminescence before.  We try getting some pictures and videos, but unfortunately our point and shoot light sensor is way too noisy at night to make out the glow.

Once we reach the bay, I am impressed with its beauty.  It is amazing, over 2000 acres of a 8-10ft deep flat water bay, rimmed 360 degrees by the mangrove forest.  I instantly dream of kiting some night here, bio-luminescent trail glowing behind me, glowing water spraying off the kite after a relaunch.  Probably not going to happen, but I can dream.

The bio-luminescence in the bay is amazing too.  If you have ever experienced it, say in the Puget Sound, then you know how cool it is.  However, the plankton that cause this effect bloom year round and have a density of over 1 million of them per square inch.  My guess is that the Puget Sound levels are 50-100 thousand per square inch.  So yes, at least 10 times brighter than  anything I have experienced in the northwest. 

If you hold your arm under water, it really does look like you are in the movie Avatar.  Reaching in the water, pulling out a handful, and letting the water drip down your arm and legs is uber cool as the glowing plankton flows down your extremities.

Years ago visitors were allowed to swim in the water, but due to concerns that sunscreen and bug spray may damage the plankton bloom, swimming is no longer allowed.  There is a "photoshopped" picture that shows what an extended shutter speed of the bio-luminescence would look like.  When you move your arm or oar underwater, this is very close to what you see.

The bay is home to shrimp who eat the plankton, and tarpon who eat the shrimp.  Becky and I paddled out to our lonesome and sat still for a few minutes...then I would bang my oar on the kayak, making a loud boom, scaring the tarpon away...which would cause a glowing outline of spooked fish as they zig-zag across the top of the water.  Yes, very cool indeed.

We get some fun pictures of the experience....

Ryan working, Becky relaxing....

Sean and OK

Becky and I...

After we complete our trip, we meet under the tours tent for complementary water and snacks, and then we grab a group picture.

Becky and I really can't say enough about this outfit.  The guides were all helpful and fun.  They spoke multiple languages so there are no barriers due to language in the group.  Becky also did some googling before we booked and they have the highest rated tour.  If you are in P.R. and want to take the BioBay tour, then definitely call these guys.  www.kayakingpuertorico.com

On the way back, all of us Americans were pretty pumped from this wicked tour, plus we had all connected a bit with each other on the tour..so of course we exchange facebook info during the ride back. 

OK. Well, that wraps up the "WindRocker Puerto Rico Exploration Series" and while we got to see quite a bit of the island, I still feel like I need another month here to take in everything there is to do and see.  Yes, we want more P.R. in our future.

Next stop, tomorrow....and there better be some more kiting in my future or I will not be a happy camper! 

Puerto Rico trip (day 5)

In the above picture you get a inside look into the next 2 days.  As tropical storm Emily barreled down on Puerto Rico the wind was shotty at best between convergence zones.  We decide that this would be as good as time as any to start exploring the island.  Since Becky and I have plans to potentially end up on P.R. we decide to start looking for that hidden gem of a beach that could play host our headquarters someday.
And while both Becky and I had a blast exploring all the beaches on the northern coast (and I literally mean ALL), later on in the trip Sean, when asked if he had fun riding around the island, described the next two days as "riding in the back seat of a rental while Ryan drives down the coastal roads until he randomly pulls over, jumps out of the car, tromps through whatever brush is between the road and the beach.  Once at the beach he then puts hands out to his sides assessing the wind conditions. Then two minutes later, his wind and beach assessment over, we pile back into the car to drive another 5 minutes where we repeat the process again."  So yeah, I guess the island exploration was more entertaining for Becky and I.

And yes, that does pretty much describe the next two days.  Thus we start day one of the two day "WindRocker Puerto Rico Exploration Series".

Day 1 exploring the island) 

We travel the northern coast from San Juan to the east until we finally turn around in Ceiba.

map of our day 1 exploring (in red)

As we drive along the coast, there are many times we went through very "rain forest-ish" landscapes.  Here is a quick video Becky took while I was driving that shows much of what the local backcountry looks like.

We loved a few little spots we found.  One beach town in particular, although I will refrain from naming this little gem we found.  However, I will show you some pictures.  Several of the beaches look to be pretty well setup for wind, especially in the A.M. hours.  Also, I locate a flat water lagoon, with surfing readily available just down the beach.  Overall this looks like a decent setup.

secluded little beach

Lots of space on this beach ..but alot of beach trash/driftwood

 this is the gem though... room for launching, shallow water..... and surfing down by those buildings

And a flat water lagoon that is sheltered from the surf by a reef. 

Just sea grass on the bottom of waist deep water.

We also stop in Luquillo for a wonderful Mai Thai and Mojito at a cute little restaurant.  this town has lots of surf style character.  We liked it.

Once we get to Ceiba, it is getting dark so we head back to our condo. 

On the drive back we take a more direct route.  This takes us over the iconic bridge covered in flags that you can see when your aircraft is landing upon arrival into San Juan, Puerto Rico...and yes, the flags were blowing tonight just as they were when we arrived.  The flags blowing in the wind are a great welcome sign for any kiteboarder traveling to P.R.

We then walk down to the Old San Juan Casino where on the top floor there is a BBQ restaurant.  The sky is dark, and the city lit...but we are told to come back for a sunset...so we decide to forgo the "overly priced" fare and come back later.  We did have one drink each...but I guess I wasn't feeling like being nice either ;) so time to jam somewhere else for dinner.

So, we end up at a Chili's.  I know, not very authentic, but reasonably priced all the same. Yes, more drinks with our food!

Next stop bed, and then tomorrow we head west.