Winter Update

Wow, it's been a while since I've put anything up here. I swear, it's not because I haven't done anything fun. In fact, I've been having a great time in the last few months.

Kayaking season came to an end, but not until football season was in full swing. I was lucky enough to snag a seat to a Gopher game at the new stadium. The day was really cold, but the game was fun and the stadium was awesome.



My neighbor Rachel was kind enough to invite me to join her Broomball team this year. I hadn't played since college, so I was really looking forward to getting back on the ice! I definitely wasn't disappointed. The team was nothing but great folks and the competition was good every night. It really livened up the winter, and I hope to do it again next year!

New Year's Eve Kim left for 2 1/2 weeks in India, which looked and sounded amazing. So jealous! I started getting ready for a couple short trips of my own. I spent a couple days in San Diego attending and photographing Jocelyne and Alex's wedding - Congratulations guys! Then, Matt and I headed out to Colorado to meet up with Pete and hit the slopes. Pete was an awesome host, and we got three very full days of trees and powder at Copper Mountain and Mary Jane.




For Valentine's Day Kim and I tried a new experience - throwing clay at Fired Up Studios in Minneapolis. We did an introductory lesson and got to make 2 pieces each, the best of which were glazed and fired and now serve as food bowls for the cat. Really fun date idea and I highly recommend it.




After that we had an evening of culture at the Guthrie watching Kim's co-worker's son in MacBeth. The director put an interesting spin on the play and we had great seats.


Then, for the first time in two years, all the conditions were finally right for Kiting! Nora invited Caleb and I down to Lake Pepin to rip around in warm temps and steady winds. It was one of the best kiting day's I've had, and it felt great to be back out.



Caleb also had a heck of a day, going from a beginner working on getting moving to ripping around the lake as quick and easy as anyone out there. It was awesome to see him tear it up like that.



So, that's a quick glimpse of what I've been up to. Now that Spring's around the corner, stay tuned for all sorts of fun stuff!

Kiting!

Kim and I headed down to lake Pepin today to meet up with Nora for some kiting. We tried Maiden Rock this time, which was better for a South Breeze than the beach we were at last time. The wind was better than last time, but still not consistently strong enough to pull us on the boards (I was busy or out town for the good wind days, so we had to deal with borderline winds today). Also, I'm wishing that my kite had more struts on it. When it would sit on its trailing edge in the water the struts wouldn't be able to support the kite, fold, and the kite would load up with water. That made it tough to re-launch. Nora's bow kite, which is smaller but actually has more struts, held its shape and re-launched pretty easily. We did have both kites in the air quite a bit, and each managed to get up on our boards. I actually had about a 3 minute session of up-down-up-down continuously as I would get up on the board, wipe out but not come off the board, then get right back up again. It's a little more tricky than using the board behind a boat. We wound up spending three hours in the water while Kim was getting scorched on the beach. It was a fun day, but I think next time I'm going to try heading up to Mille Lacs for some consistent winds. Thanks to Nora for bringing the camera - I shamelessly copied these pics from her blog. She has even more posted there, though, so check it out!

Kite & Kayak

I finally got to take out some of my favorite toys this weekend. On Friday I drove down to Lake Pepin to take out my big kite and see what water kiting is like. Nora was kind enough to show me a perfect kiting spot, as well as to stand in waste deep water (and a mushy clay bottom) for an hour helping me try to get the kite airborne. As usual, the wind was perfect when we were setting up the kite, but then shifted and died once we were ready to go. We did get the kite up a few times and got some practice with body drags, but it was never steady enough to actually get on the board. Next time. Huge thanks to Nora for showing me the spot, helping with the kite, and taking the pictures.

Saturday Graeme and I drove out to Jim Falls for some kayaking. The city of Jim Falls, WI has several recreational water releases for whitewater paddlers each year. The water was mostly class II with one tougher drop, but no play. It was great to get on the water though, and it's always fun kayaking with Graeme.

Sunday was my first time this year out at Wausau, and it was worth the wait. The whitewater course was redone this year to make it both more playable and more friendly. Hats off to the designers because every feature on the river is now a fun spot. Not only are the features better, but because there's more of them the crowds are more spread out. It's great! Despite a very rusty morning, I had a great time in the afternoon hitting a few cartwheels and a loop. Bill, Bob, and Brian J all drove out for the afternoon and it was great to see them again. The only problem is that it seems like those guys have been improving all summer and I've been regressing. Still, it was fun watching Bill hit his loop and Brian trying loops and wheels. Those guys are really ripping it up this year. Definitely good times.