Lake Isabella, May 23, 2004
Debi meets me at work 3:30 Friday so we can leave straight from there, cutting :30 off our travel time, cool. We jam up to Issy and arrive around 6:30, due to a Jack in the Box stop, a pee-pee stop, and a grocery stop. Pull the trailer down to the beach, and dang, it's quite full, WTF?! I think people are setting up for the week to get an extra day on Monday, and it's also been quite warm, so the water's not bad, so the Jet Skiers are starting early this year, joy. Oh well.
The GOOD news is we snagged our own little cove at the far end of the beach, like a little jibing bay, except the wind was all f***ed up due to the many motorhomes upwind. Once in a while you could pull one off, but mostly we jibed outside. Linda & Kevin join us, filling up the cove and preventing any incursions by muggles(non-windsurfers). The Drunken Asses are singing 100yds. upwind, but pass out early, so we get to sleep. Mark & Lori arrive in the morning, and Terry & Sandy come to sail, but are hoteling it.
The wind hasn't stopped for 12 days or so, only dropping down to around 10 at night, then ramping back up in the morning, so by 9:30 it's blowing around 19, and we start going out. First the slalom gear, then the bump & jump, WooHoo, Spennie on a 5.6, heaven! Made several clean, planing duck jibes, stoked! Gets super flakey later, gusts & lulls from hell, so we quit early, have a nice birthday party for Larry, eat a bunch of weird stuff while drinking some EXCELLENT champagne Larry brought, then some really s***ty RED champagne he also brought, finally go to sleep.
We wake up to wind again, and do a repeat of the day before, except that I head down to the Ghetto on the 5.6 and 88 liter sinker just in time for it to get flakey, and almost have to walk back upwind. Spennie, however, does not walk, so I wait for a gust and just manage to make it back to camp.
We start wrapping it up, breaking down sails & such, everyone else is done & gone when this kite dude pulls up & starts rigging a big-a** kite, and has a hydrofoil board(!!!) laying on the beach. Being a friendly, tolerant guy, I shout out “Hey, need help launching that?”. “Sure”, he says, “ever launched a kite before?” “No, but I’m not an idiot” I lie. He tells me to walk upwind so the kite goes up to the side, not straight up, so it won’t power up too quickly. Good advice. I’m then supposed to run back and grab the handle on the back of his harness, so if the kite tries to lift him my added weight will help hold him down.
So I launch the kite and run back and grab the handle on the back of his harness, using both hands. We start walking towards the hydrofoil board when a gust hits and – think about this – lifts us both off the ground and jerks him away from me. We’re talking about a combined weight of around 400 lbs. jerked off the ground like a kitty toy!
I land face down in the sand, then realizing this guy’s on his way to the big pile of boulders downwind, jump up and chase him down, grabbing the handle just as he’s landing the kite after sliding about 40 ft. or so. I have a couple of small cuts and a faceful of sand, but no serious damage, so he decides to try it again. We get lifted off the ground again, but I’m more ready for it, and hang on, and we land on our feet. At this point he announces that the 12 meter kite is too big (DUH!), he really needs a 7 or 8, and he’s going to wait for the video crew to arrive with the rest of the gear. Video crew?Yes, video crew. You can see some photos of “Mango Manny” foilboarding Jaws (yes, Jaws) at www.hydrofoilsurfing.com/mangomanny.htm Debi got a couple shots of us airborne.
Spennie will NOT be taking up kiteboarding anytime soon.
--Spennie
