Survival kiting at its finest!

Todd bought a new board today... a nice carbon-fibre AirRush 126... and of course he wanted to try it out! So we showed up at Kahana Beach this morning right at 11am (no windsports are allowed earlier than this, so that fishermen and swimmers can enjoy the area safely) and he was pretty much the first one on the water.

The first couple of hours were great; but the wind picked up and by about two o'clock, only the seriously hard-core local riders on their 5 to 7 metre kites were left... Needless to say, watching Todd on his NINE METER was a display in survival kiting if I've ever seen it!! The tradewinds were a blowin' - 30 knots gusting to almost 50 at times. Whew! His second session of the day lasted about 15 minutes and the landing was the gnarliest yet! Oh well. According to the forecast there will be no shortage of wind while we're here.

After we packed up the gear, we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out South Maui - there is a super cool lava field down past Makena and the resorts around Wailea look to be some of the fanciest anywhere! It is a beautiful area. Then we came back to condo and are now having a beverage and are getting ready to head to the beach to enjoy the sunset.

Tomorrow the winds should be a bit more mellow, so Todd is looking forward to riding without being so lit it is frightening, and I'm just looking forward to a day where I don't get totally sandblasted while hanging out on the beach... then perhaps I can get out into the water with my camera and get some REAL kiting photos!! Yeah!

Aloha!