Kettle Run

A good rain storm sent the Kettle level up to about 2000cfs, so Dennis and I headed up for an afternoon session. We carpooled, which meant park-n-play at Blueberry and Teacher's Pet. We also met "Stretch" as we were getting geared up, but he was done for the day. The water was pretty big, but not quite the ideal play level I remembered. Good wave surfing on the Big Wave in Blueberry. Carving was easy and I even managed to get my boat off the water on one or two bounces. The wave was pretty flat, but it was still possible to hit and hold a back surf if you were careful. Dennis met his nemesis on a frustrating wave right below the big one. It looked like a great play feature, but it was a long and difficult ferry out to it and it seemed to fade away the second you got there. Noble efforts were made to make it work, though. After tiring ourselves out in Blueberry, I decided to check out Teacher's Pet. It looked nice and deep, but attempts at both loops and cartwheels ended with my bow meeting the bedrock in an unfriendly way. The surfer's left side seemed deep enough to work with, but I couldn't find any way to get lined up on it. Kind of frustrating. On the upside, Dennis proved himself to be quite a lensman with the big camera. He actually did well enough that someone who doesn't know me might believe I could actually paddle! Big thanks for taking the pics. Finally, we were treated to a beautiful evening for the drive home. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Kettle Day

4 of us (Brian J, Caleb, Roger, and I) headed up to the Kettle to get some play before the water goes away. The level was on the low side, but there was still fun to be had in Blueberry, Dragon's tooth, and Hell's Gate. We also did the cliff drop and went over Wolf Creek Falls. Wolf Creek proved to be the most interesting part of the day. The water was low enough that a couple of us got hung up on the lip. This happened to Roger, who then teetered over and penciled into the pool below. He went in perfectly vertical, causing him to slice through the water and Piton off the rocks at the bottom. He jammed one ankle pretty hard and put a nice dent in the bow of his boat. Thankfully, neither boat nor ankle broke, so he should be back in the game soon. Note to anyone running it at low water: After Roger hit, Brian J and I checked the depth below the falls and found it was less than 4 feet. Still safe if you can avoid going straight in, but worth thinking about... Also, found that if you give a hard stroke off the lip of the falls, you can do a 180 in the air and land soft, but flat. Fun way to go, and it avoids the piton issue.

My water camera is on its last leg, so I'm saving it for Scuba from now on. Brian J took some videos and pictures. When I get the CD from him (hopefully in the next couple days) I'll post pics from this trip and last week's verm trip.

Verm Trip

We had a truly awesome group of paddlers on the Verm on Saturday. Brian J, Caleb, Graeme, and I decided to head there after the cold temps and 2 degree windchills made the Kettle less appealing. It turned out to be a good decision, because the Verm treated us well. It seems like the features on that river are never the same twice, and Saturday was no exception. Railroad was loads of fun, with 4 feet of horizontal shoulder on the river right side and a sloping shoulder coming on from the left. Great spinning and even some low-angle wheels. S-curve was bouncy and fun, and Donut was really fast with a long, low foam pile that could get you back to the front from 4 feet back. It was pretty cool. The most interesting part, however, was probably going up to the falls and running the slide beneath it. Fast, splashy water sliding over the rocks in a giant banked corner, followed by a good sized wave-hole at the bottom and a a couple boulders to dodge. Brian J had his camera along so there's pictures and video. I'll post links to the videos when I get them (probably this week).

Good Water

Went down to the Verm yesterday expecting it to be a puny 150cfs. Once we got there, though, it didn't take long to see that the level was much closer to 300, and the river was actually at a really good level. The water was pretty cold, but the playspots wre rockin. Nick and I got there early and made a 2-hour morning run. I kept gettting flipped in Railroad, then having to roll back up in the hole and surf my way out with an ice cream headache. For whatever reason, I seemed to be the only person all day that didn't just wash out when they flipped. Nick was rockin' in there with some low-angle cartwheels and good spins, but he had some other commitments and had to leave just before the rest of the crew showed up around 11:30. Having had enough brain freezes for one day, I decided to take some pics, rather than make another run. It turned out to be a great day for it with warm sun and good water.

Have Slush, will kite

Yesterday I was out on White Bear Lake with Nate, Steve, and Ben. The winds were light, but I was able to get some good riding done on my 15, including a few fun 5' (or so) boosts. Nate was teaching Steve on his 11m and it looked like Steve was picking it up quickly. Ben seemed to have some problems keeping his kite in the air, but he was sticking it out and working with it. The best part of the day, though, was that it was in the upper 40's and we were kiting in sweatshirts.

I didn't get any kiting pics, but I did get a couple shots of Nate and Steve hitting a picnic table at the beach.

Spring is definitely coming in, stay tuned for boating season!

Colorado Trip!

Kim and I just got back from 4 days in CO. We stayed in Frisco (in the middle of Summit County on Lake Dillon) and made it out to Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, and Vail. We had pretty crazy weather out there - snow and really strong winds every day. The downside to that is that there aren't many good pictures. The upside is that we had a continuos supply of fresh snow to ski on, ultimately adding up to a powder day at Vail with 17" of fresh powder (according to the news report, anyway). It was just the right amount of snow to feel really cool without being difficult to control. Speaking of Vail, whoever designed their runs was out of their mind. It's the only resort I've ever seen where every run switches difficulty levels at least once. There are several greens that become blacks (or doubles), lots of blues that turn to blacks, etc. This was all good and fun, but if you were a beginner you could get yourself in a bad spot in a big hurry. Arapahoe was very cool. It has an emphasis on advanced terrain, it's not particularly crowded, and the lift ticket costs about 1/3 less than the other resorts. We had a great time there. Copper was still my favorite, though. Long (really long) tree-lined runs, lots of good gladed skiing, fast lifts, short lines, and a huge variety of terrain. I'd go back there any time.

If you want lodging/food advice, we stayed at a nice little hotel called the Alpine Inn. The decor was dated, but the place was immaculate, the service friendly, and the hot tub was awesome. It was also really cheap. Highly recommended. For food, we had great Mexican food at Carlos Miguel's (or something like that). The place had a really cool feel and the service was great. We also ate at the Boat Yard, which has huge portions, so-so service, and our Calzone had a gigantic paper clip baked into it! Not kidding. It was one of the 2.5" ones, too. See the picture. Unfortunately, we didn't discover the paper clip until we were eating the leftovers at home. If you go, you might want to avoid that place.

We also checked out the Kite Park on Lake Dillon, which was pretty much just a coned-off launch area and two small jumps on the South end of the lake. Wouldn't you know, the one morning we try to go kiting was the only morning with abolutely no wind. The picture was taken during the one "gust" we got, which was all of about 5mph.

Despite paper clips in the food and issues with both too much and too little wind, we had a great time. Kim got her first real powder day and I found out that I can still ski after not being out west for 5 years. Great trip.

Great Day on Calhoun

Yesterday Nora and I (later joined by Pete) went out to hit the wind at Calhoun. The conditions (aside from a couple of lulls) were perfect - 42 degrees, packed snow, and great wind speed (maybe 10-12?). I'm finally getting comfortable on the big kite and spent most of my time practicing boosts. Got a couple nice ones and lots of tiny ones, but more importantly I'm starting to get my confidence back after having a few mishaps earlier this season. Cruising around at pretty fast speeds, leaning against the kite hard enough to touch the snow with one hand, and feeling like I finally have some control over my boosts was awesome. I probably looked like an elephant on ice skates, but I felt like Ruben Lenten on skiis. It was great. Nora also did great and was zooming around like a pro, dispite being a little underpowered on her 10m. She's really getting good at working that kite! I can't wait to get out on Pepin and see her really rock! All in all, it was one of the most fun days I've had kiting yet. The only problem was that we were having such a good time that nobody wanted to stop to pick up a camera, so there's no pics from the lake. The final highlight of the day was that Nora made me an awesome weight bag with a "Z" patch on it just for me! Now I can leave the kite set up without it blowing around the lake, and make self-launching easier. Thanks again, Nora -- You Rock!

What Good Kiters Look Like

Saturday we had 20-30mph winds on White Bear Lake. If you're not real familiar with windspeed, that means REALLY FRIGGIN WINDY. The wind was peeling the hardpack right off the lake. Nate, Jer, and I were stuck using my trainer since the inflatables would have been way to powerful and my 5m won't get back from the shop until Monday. The trainer had plenty of pull in those conditions, but its tiny size made it unpredictable and kind of hard to control. It was great to see some of the experienced guys really going big. I got some pics of Mike, who was willing to put on a show for the camera. Sure looks like fun... Hopefully it will be me soon.

Snowkite Festival

This weekend was the Mille Lacs Snowkite fest, which draws kiters from all over the state, as well as some sponsored national riders. This year there was some doubt about both the snow cover at Mille Lacs and the wind forecast, though, so the crowd up there was smaller than usual. I wound up going by myself after a couple other kiters decided to stay down here, rather than risk getting there to find no snow. As it turned out, however, there was plenty of snow to ride on. When I got there in the morning, there was about 2 inches of packed, bonded snow that was great for edging. There was also more than enough wind. In fact, the winds were in the 20mph plus range and people were getting boosts on 3m trainers. I even caught a couple little boosts on my trainer before my arms got tired and Mike and Melissa were kind enough to let me borrow their 10M bow kite. It was a bit overpowered, but lots fun. As the day went on, the wind started peeling the snow off the lake, so that by 4pm there was enough exposed ice to make it hard for me to edge unless I was near shore. Still got lots of good ride time in, though, and got to see some really good kiters throwing some huge airs and sweet tricks. I only had my camera out for about 10 minutes, so there aren't many pics, but they'll have to do.

Huge Boost

Nate, Jeremy, and I headed back to Nokomis today to make use of the continuing 15-20mph winds. Day started off frustrating with lots of problems with kites and lines, which culminated in me cutting 4 of my bridle lines with my skate. I managed to tie them together as a band-aid fix and hit some boosts, though. That really helped the fustration. Then I got one boost that was unreal. I had a good gust of wind going and was moving pretty quick. I sent the kite high as hard as I could, then got yanked up. The first four or five feet were awesome. Then, another gust hit and I went up about another 5 feet. At this point, I was about 10 feet up and stopped paying attention to what I was doing with the kite. As a result, I pretty much got dropped on my @$#, rather than gently set down. Check the collage sequence for the pics. I now have a puffy elbow and lots of sore muscles, but it was awesome. Huge thanks to Jeremy for getting the pics.

Also, Congrats to Jeremy for getting a harness and some new skates. Kinda hate these addicting, expensive hobbies, but it's still fun to get new gear!

Awesome Kite Day

Today we had 20mph winds and decently smooth ice on Nokomis. My 5 meter foil was fully powered and absolutely awesome. Cruising at scary fast speeds across the ice, then sending the kite high to boost into the air. Consistently hitting 4' airs and had two that went really big. Not exactly sure how high, but they were definitely more than 4'. My face got sore from the perma grin and after almost three hours my arms did as well. For whatever reason I was even landing the jumps. Only one fall all day, and it was more like sitting down than falling. It was rediculously fun. There were a bunch of other kiters out there, including one who had a camera, so with any luck I'll be able to get copies of the pics.

Check out a video of one of the smaller jumps here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg7-y2iBLUs