Three Great days

Happyinsurf.com
Lets all grin when we are in the water!! No need for a grumpy face.

Soft tissue shoulder injuries take time to heal. Been just getting back into the gym and doing light rehab weights. Talked my logical side into taking a break and to allow myself to get back to kiting just a little bit when there in surf and wind.
It was a four hour road bicycle ride in the hills of the beautiful mountains, daydreaming and running into a few paragliding buds at the top of the second long climb up in Little Sycamore. Apparently they had shot up in a real good bit of thermal lift earlyer and were just starting to come down from the adrenaline high. This is a very challenging site to launch, nail the thermals and land at a serpentine road site down on the highway far below with crazy raod racing mortorcyles bulleting by. Helped Vic untagle his bridles after a little off launch bush crash and remembered why DeerMaster, Rod, Vic and crew were such a hoot to hang with. These guys are driven to paraglide. Vic is just recovering from a very bad ankle sprain on landing but was out ther flying anyway.

Road the rewarding gravity induced downhill to PCH via Starbucks for a couple of fruit juices and back down to the house, to find the trees were starting to really do a wind induced limba... Leo Carrillo was averaging 18mph on ikitesurf, so raced up to County Line to be the first one out. It is always heaps more fun when you don't expect the wind to blow. It's like a gift under a Christmas tree that unexplicably showed up in your living room in April. Had the surf and wind for an hour to myself before the gang noticed the beach cameras and one smiling guy out under a kite. It was great hangin with Alidad, Bayless, Alex Kamiskas, Dave and a heck of a lot of new to the area kiters. Wow, what an influx of new faces. The wind swell was showing at the point and long smooth rides were the norm.

After about three hours, it was time to let my shoulder rest and get home to work till two am. What a great day. They were calling for no wind on Sunday so it was working all morning, a soft sand run at Zuma/say hi to old lifeguard buds and then...what the...? am I really seeing stuff move in the trees under this overcast. Johny Regan called from his lifeguard unit near Deer Creek and comented on how great the new south sell looked and said "bummer there is not enough wind for you to kite into it Trumbo as your shoulder won't let you paddle in"..That got me fired up to drive up there and throw up a 12 m GK trix though it looked like a pointless exercise with not a single white cap under the grey skies.

I was really questioning my logic here (is this just a poor as it was cold and not very windy but the waves were epic. Johny had pulled up in the unit with old lifeguard bud Rex walking up. John said, "I've seen you zipping around in this much wind on those arc sort of kites of your Trumbo.You could go in this" He was profetic; amazingly I was well powered and pulled into about twenty perfect butter smooth bowls with nice vertical lips to smack repeatedly as they peeled perfectly off of our lifelong Heavens surfing haunt. Mertin saw how much fun I was having at this sunset sesion from way up on PCH and ran down the trail to join me. With only a couple of surfers way up wind, there was no competition for the waves. The wind would go great for twenty minutes and then lull to sub kiteable for 8. I left after two great hours with Mertin out there on his little 132 chasing the dark water with no caps each time a long gust would come through. Finished off the evening at the gym working my shoulder and wondering how so many of those gym types get by on the mudane repetitivness of jogging on machines and living a no adrenaline and non outdoor sport life...

Today was predicted to be ricktor scale winds and though Disco (Mike) called early and told me to get out there and not miss it, my work first priority had me chugging away till 1:30 and the wind was starting to do the 15 to 35 mph bit. Mike was just driving away from County with a huge wind and wave generated smile on his mug and waved that contented, "told you, the early sesion was the one to get look" He pulled alongside with the window down and just had to say how freaking much fun he just had and was heading back to work stoked.

Got a couple of hours strapless on the nine m GK trix and the 6'4" underground thruster surfboard till it just got crazy with the gusts..You can bump and jump wakeboard stle in this sort of stuff of course but that's not my focus these days. If I'm not working, it would be nice to be having the most fun possible. Time to drive..

Can't wait for that smaller six meter Eclipse Kima to show up. It would have made that session and the later one. Dimitri and Gabe from Eclipse both popped me emails today to say the kites are on the way. Drove down to Topanga in hopes the gustyness for strapless riding would be substantially reduced but it was not to be so. Our bud Allan Sarlo was being filmed by waterman Dave Ogel of Ogelvision at County and there they were again at Topanga. We laughed and I threw up the nine meter GK and underground strapless again.

Fun little waves reeling through the inside but darn if I wasn't WAY overpowered and unable to surf the waves properly.. It can be very frustrating and you are supposed to be out their having fun so.oh well, time to come in with a smile. Just too big of a kite. Everyone else was struggling and unable to throw their rigs till Jamie showed with his strapped in small surfboard and a tiny little kite that he could just huck around...till he also succumed to some gusts on the inside and closed down his session. I went in south of the headquarters and uncerimoniously dunked my kite into the inside drink to keep from dealing with the forty mile per hour gusts from hell screaming through. Klaus was rippin it up and down from his house just north of Topanga and down to the north beach. He was having an absolute blast ripping it up and throwing huge air. On days like this, the extra height and concomitant weight was no issue. He was airborne every other second. Vicarious enjoyment of a session is a great thing in sports.

Dave Ogle was next to his van south of Topanga headquarters as I walked up the beach with the kite floating on the wind under my arm. He gave me a laugh, big cheer and smile as if to say, I know you had fun even though your setup was totaly wrong.

Dave had seen me as a patient in the morning and he had the admirable will power to give his injured muscles a bit of a rest and shoot pictures for the day and stay out of the conditions he and the rest of us crave so darn much. Wow, a patient that actually shows patient compliance on a high wind day with surf.. Will the miracles never end?? While dumping a warm detergent bottle full of Topanga ecoli lousing fresh water over my head, I reflected on just how good life was for us (not the ecoli).

It is easy to focus on everything from relationship, hopes, worries to student loans and coporate taxes and become obsessive on goals while missing the beauty of our lives playing out right there in front of us. Walked across the street shamelessly in a pair of kneeless, oblitereated old levis that a bag person would scoff at with a tattered old shirt that I would never embarass my girlfriend with and walked into my favorite Thai food restaurant Cholada amongst a hoard of tragically hip turned out couples and parties, to sit down alone with a mind full of wonderful images of the day for a fantastic Vegan meal. Thai Spicy actualy was delivered... What a great three days. They are calling for sceaming winds again tomorrow but have a casting way out in the boonies in the middle of the day and working office stuff in the morning. It is worth working to the wee hours to experience life outside of neon fenced human corrals. We all have to copromise but there always are options. It was a weekday and the number of kiters was staggering. Either their investment firms did the Bush belly up or they have figured out, family, work and fun into a really productive model....Good on them!!
Economy Ecshmonomy.. Life is still good. Live it!

How do you like the Fish Lips logo

Here's the simplistic Happy Surfer logo for the Fish Liips/Monkey Lips, MonkeyAir all natural skin care line. This is a shot of Huel Howser...spelling.. interviewing MA this winter at Leo Carrillo State beach. This is our local MonkeyAir haunt and where I spent most of my life lifeguarding, surfing,windsurfing..etc...great times and great people to hang with in the State Parks. We are doing a kitesurfing Monkey
Air booth at the Leo Carrillo Wale festival April 19 for the State Parks.

Have Fun and we will see you at North Beach Leo Carrillo on the 19th of April!!

Been a while but it has been fun.

Wow, it has been ages since I last posted a blog here. A wonderful lady distracted my mind and heart away from many of my regular sports addicions and allowed me to focus on looking into the ways we could help our friends the most through MonkeyAir.com and of course think of ways to possible spend a lot more time with her. Lots of great memories and a good friend for life iregardless of what the future holds. I am one exctremely lucky guy.

It is a very exciting time for kitesurfing now with the imenent release of the new PL kitesurfing kite, the Charger, a lot of great inflatable kites hitting the market and empty beaches in Baja for the summer again with the US toursitos thinking that something really bad might happen if they head down...HINT... we did about ten trips last year with empty beaches, waves and great wind. Our US buds who have homes down there have had no problems. We just zip through the sleeping border towns and enjoy the wonderful Baja hospitality we always have. Keeping a cautious eye is always prudent and we will certainly do so but also listen to what is realy happening and ignore over generated hype.

The kitesurfing, paragliding and surfing in Baja this last year has been fantastic. The fantastic woman in my life did a trip down to San Felipe with us and had heaps of natural talent but as her job literaly does depend on her looks, a fall and a scrape could cost her a booking. A shame as she is a real outdoor beauty lover and has incredible athletic abilities. Vic and Strat booked about eight hours a day of perfect conditions on that particular San Felipe trip and it is odd how you don't even miss the water when you are with the person you want to be with.. Hmmm.it sure was nice... She has found a new love in mountainbiking now. The problem with people who learn quickly is of course the fact that they won't know when they are over their heads. Just got to keep her off of the knarly single track..

Lots of great days through the winter with surf and wind during Santa Anna switch arounds up at C Street and even some winter time thermals here. Was able to test a bunch of different kites with Dimitri Maramenides showing up to hang for a few days this week so we could test out his new line of Eclipse kites. The Kima is the wave kite I have been fiding to be a worldwide absolute wavesailing hit on pretty much every forum and through my grapevine of lifelong wavesailors. This tube kite has a more D shape or delta like but unlike the other deltas we have tested does not show the propensity to stall a turn while still haveing lots of power, huge range and phenomenal turning speed the others we tried just have not had. The gang here tested the nine meter kite in bugger all 12 mph winds and I was able to do some down winders with the amazing ability of this kite to be truly thrown all over the sky and deliver some good grunt. Definately will be selling this kite to my wave customers. The power of the nine is significantly more than say my other sle wave sailing tube favortite, the GK trix. In hopes a 6 and nine meter Eclipse Kima will power my season along side of course the new PL kites, Gk's, O.R's and Cautions. Like to try as many as possible.

Dimitri pulled out the eclipse thruster for us to try and I have to say, though high aspect, the thing turns very, very well though not a snap around it's center like the kima but rather a fast, fast pivot around it's wingtip and then huge acceleration through the window. This is a really great kite and getting a lot of phone calls on this one as well presently. For an all around kite, people will love the thruster. The Nano is a great grunty, beginners and all around ride with big grunt and a bit slower turning than the others with a more bucket shape.

The new Eclipse bar is fantasic in it's abilty to with one hand do a quick release and reset of the mechanism. It is a pioritory metal quick release system that is fantastic. I am not big for the below bar cleat for adjusting the depower but the truth is you never really have to!!! You set the kite up on it's knots and only really ever need to adjust the below cleat for arm length discrepancies. The big metal pivot below the bar actually worked and the kite goes to leash very well when droped. 265 pound Klaus and feather weight girlfriend Michel both tride the Kima and were amazed at is smooth gust absorption, ease of flght and stability. It is an arc in just sitting over your head but it is damn good for an inflatable kite. On twenty meter lines it is an absolute rocket and hard core Peter Lynn Synergy pilot Vic said it is probably the one lei kite that could bring him over to the lei "dark side" snicker....

Dimitri and I had a hoot cruising around and showed him the local sights, and even got him to chase us in my truck during a paragliding thermal run. Great guy with no real ego though one of the best in the world and owner of eclipse kiteboarding.

New to Monkey air will be a page written by docs and health care specialists including myself, that practice solutions to Anti Aging and longevity through natural products and services. Been doing this my whole life and been working with the absolutely best all natural facial and body topical and internal products as extreme sports lifestyles require the ultimate skin and body care. Been doing this my whole life and been working with the absolutely best all natural facial and body topical and internal products as extreme sports lifestyles require the ultimate skin and body care. Look for Fish Lips Naturals that are a long time coming after a life of lifeguarding and sponsorships with petroleum based garabage to put on my skin and wondering "why in the heck women and men pay so much money for such absolutely horrible products to put on their sensitive skin?" If you could not eat it, why are you putting it on your skin. The products we are releasing have more effective natural ingredients in them than anything you will find on the market plus a lack of the toxic ("can you say radiator fluid?...yeah really, they use that in over counter skin cream as a preservative" ) type of ingredients and instead only using natural anti bacterial and antifungals. We even have a no bug body lotion from all naturals we have been also using on pets for a long time with great results. The last few years have brought raving testimonials of these products from around the world and as my sister and brother in- law have been in this with me from the start, I know exactly how great this stuff is. The chemists just told us "the product has way too many great ingredients for any large firm to make and not loose their shirts and don't know how you guys plan to do it." We did and our friends are getting great results. Yeeehaa... Lots of exciting things here for us at MonkeyAir and looking forward to a fantastic summer season of trips and helping our friends stay forever young and happy on the water, in the air, on the mountain bikes ) and in every other outdoor sporting venue.

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Another great San Quintin trip

Eight days of great surfing, daily kitesurfing and paragliding. The beaches were empty and the visuals spectacular with pelicans off of my wingtips and below my feet in the air while watching porpoise play in the waves below. You would follow this up with hours of downwinders in the surf. The Fourth of July was the only day of no wind but fantastic surfing for three hours in the am with just two buds with homes at the point down there. Surfing is a blast without the usual crowds we grew up surfing with around here. Thanks to all our buds that showed, including Pam the Pelican and Peter the Poirpoise. Here's a few shots of John, myself, Tom and his son Jarid who was doing great with his kite lessons and was hard to keep from jumping between sand dunes under the PL kites.

Salad Bowl went OFF!!

Got back from my casting and had planed on a bike ride this morning but the wind was averaging 15knots by 11 am.. Had to race up to see what Mother Nature was giving us. The towers were flying the no kite flags but the north end of County was showing a bit of left over south swell with a new wind swell push from the west and nobody surfing it!!! Mo snuck up behind me on the County overlook and after telling how good Avalons (Salad Bowl) below Deer Creek looked, we raced down to his place below El Matador and droped of his truck so we could have a return vehicle and scored an epic three hour down winder with some great waves at Salad B,County for an hour, Staircase, Harry's house, Honaroos,etc. Drove back up to Salad B to see far more wind and solid nine meter conditions but it was to be the first day of our local Malibu pool to be open for lap swim, so avoided the temptation only to find the pool not open yet do to chemical imablance problems...Doooohhh..... The three hours were cool and I got to do dinner with a funny friend from New York.

Yesterday was perfect 12 m synergy conditions alone at the Slot and worked West to Staircase. Ali, Mo, Billy Wilson on his pole board showed when I was leaving after three hours and proceeded to kite till dark. It is wierd breaking the old habbit of staying out till the wind quits, but have actually been acomplishing a lot when not hanging with my girlfriend, the Pacific Ocean quite as much. snicker....Happy Aniversary to Katherine and Kramer. The get together at the Malibu Cantina was a blast and their kiteing bud from Hi Holly was a lot of fun and hopefully will be along on our next Baja trip with Mike and Sue Flanagan plus the usual motley crew of wave and wind afficionados.

Vic got some good paragliding with Bill in the desert at a well known launch and claims it is to work almost every day of the summer with great launch and landing zones. Early day is a bit too large and can stuff pargagliders over the back so is hang gliding time however later afternoon settles down and is 15K foot thermal wonders. Hard to break away from the good local wind and surf conditions to paraglide inland but might have to do the two hour drive out to hit the spot. The Eagle crew has been heading out there a bunch and scoring it is the rumor.

Have fun everyone.
Traig

6 Days of Baja

Wind every day for kitesurfing and good paragliding each morning, a bit of surfing with evenings spent in the sand dunes with the gang under a full moon. Beautiful conditions for John B, Paul,a few San Diego kite buds, Mara and myself. A last minute phone call to Paul got him driving M down for her lessons. Thanks Paul.

Mara's kite skills improved dramatically after a session on the land board with the 12m synergy. We took turns landboarding with the combo over the trip and had a ball. Her aptitude for the sport is clearly evident and having spent time in Cozumel with some kite instruction in smooth trades a year ago didn't hurt. The next thing we knew, she was making her transitions with just a few minutes of coaching and getting a few waves while participating on our long down winders. She is our refer to surf instructor, so, figure she has a lot of water skills under her kite harness, scuba tanks,etc. Mara is fluent in Spanish and became our MonkeyAir postergirl for the trip with her fun bubbly attitude and hitting it off with the locals. The beach was basically empty except for our vehicles and 6 mile downwinders with inumerable lip smacks the norm.

What a great trip. Here are some shots we got of Mara and the gang showing a bit of landboarding,the showers at SQ with Fidel and crew, Old Mill restaurant and a shot from the air of the point I was surfing. I got home last night to find some great surf and word of some wind and ten people getting stuck on the outside yesterday with their kites at the slot when the wind died down. Watch for the wind suddenly backing off if out at the slot. Best bet is to stay close to shore at the north end of Nicholas if you are not wave skilled. Have fun. Hope to get you along on our next wave clinic trip down to Baja. Summer is for fun!!

Bike, run paraglide kite. Fun

Four hours on the road bike pushing canyon hills in the heat Saturday and then just a blip of wind showing. Got a bit of kiting on Thursday and Friday by waiting till the late evening for wind and putting on the running shoes or sand tire feet for the running workouts. Wish the local pool was open for lap swim.

Four paraglide flights yesterday with fantastic thermals booming over Neal's house below the 1350 and cross countries into the mountains south with returns back to the coast to ridgelift to County Line. Neal got so worked up with us hollering at him and flying over his house, that he grabed a bud and raced up to launch to join us in the air. Spiraled into County on one instance to kill all the alititude and found a nice open spot to landin on a Sunday. Anoush was coming out of the water on a surf and we got to trade some great kitesurf stories of the last week with the south swell. The guard in the tower was an old junior guard student of mine and cool with the landing on the beach. Vic and I landed there a second time later in the day and my old bud/LG sup Bo said to not do that one on weekends. He also turned me on to a lap pool in TO while our Bu pool is being repaired. Cool, and will go there today after an oil change and TJ green machine fridge refill.

Good solo session up at Deer Creek after the paraglide with the 12 trix on 20 m lines and the rear adjustment of the bridle making a big difference with added grunt and even more stability for a tube kite. Gary from Ventura showed a bit late and offered to give me a ride back from County to do a downwinder. I took him up on it and realilzed that I could have spent a couple of hours down there as it was just starting to fade there as well. Oh well, the three hours at Deer were great and no complaints. The waves at County were still excessively flooded from high tide then anyway. Need to sell the lightwave board and Surftech McCoy lazer zap with straps and pads to a lighter guy so I can test some other fish. My Xanadu fish is ready to find a new home at a good deal. Might just replace that with the same, however, there is a very cool balsa laminate fish that caught my eye. hmmmm? Only strapless these days and want to experiment with other boards as usual. Been like that experimentning with boards since nine years old and surfboards from garage sales.

Klaus got his new trix 12 here and wants the bridle modded and Bayless and Mo are doing the simple bridle adjustment to test the efficacy of the strings in that configuration. Always surprising to see what a small adjustment will make. Hope everyone out there is having a fun summer. I have a few new syergy kites in here from the shipment last week if anyone needs one as well. 10, 12 and 15.

Back to work....

On return from a great Baja trip, it was time to go to work for three days and miss the smoking local winds at Leo. At least the swell was not up to add to the torture. Was able to go to the gym, run soft sand six miles and do the push up sit up bit of my lifeguard days at each tower prior to the first day of work and then it was two days of long hours but laughing my ass off. The gal who was paired up to play the maid in the bit was incredibly talented and had a fake Russian accent that had the entire crew howling with laughter.. She grew up in a small R town with a couple of chickens and a pig...and on from there with the joke lines... Lots of people thought she was really Russian. I was playing the scumbag rich hubby who was chasing the maid around. Crack up and totally out of character for my persona but got great laughs going through the motions. Now I know what those gold chain,caviar, club type "tragically hip" no morals type of guys feel like. Ha, ha..Guess some gals are actually atracted to those scumbags. Hopefully they did not take my character to be my real persona.. That would be horrible but playing the character took my thoughts off the usual sports and more towards how that gal got to be such a darn good actress in the few years she has been here from Florida. It's simple, focus, focus, hard work and stay focused on what she liked to do the most. No leaving the city and keeping her sports to the gym and jogging at the local park. As in kitesurfing, distance running, swimming, surfing, biking,paragliding or any other endeavor, what makes you better is time spent immersed in it. If you enjoy doing something enough and if you have the additional cognitive stimulous as she did in her work, so much the better and rewarding. Years away from doing stand up and a bit of a recluse has me rusty in that area. Hitting town again and classes as before to hone the skills. She was a great motivation. After seeing a patient in the morning it is workout, teach kitesurf and study.. Motivation is a great thing.

We have had fun wind every day this week and I have been popping out at Deer Creek after the morning run or bike/errands/work to go on down winders to the slot. It is summer rules on weekends and John R. (head lifeguard at Leo) told me he was considering a total ban of kiteing anywhere in the County to Leo area before five on weekends or weekdays when the no launch flags are up on the towers. Launching elsewhere and just staying off the shore was always ok in years past. Hope he does not go with that. I was the only guy out on Sunday as I started at a different spot and worked my way down. He pulled up with the light bar going and we chatted a bit. He said, you look like you are having fun as usual Traig but will magnet people in by being out. He smiled and said "go have fun and finish your sesh. So it was a run down to the Slot and hopefully he will be cool with alternate launches and a shlog down to the wind line at North Beach as long as we stay off of the beach when the people are there. Will see. His big worry is the influx of kiters in the surf lineup at Secos during a large south swell. These conditions at Leo are of course what we live for year round here in Bu. The number of kiters and bonehead rulebreakers in our ranks and those of the windsurfers and one very vocal and complaigning poleboard rule breaker with no wave ediquite and a knack for whinning to the guards about wanting right of way on all waves over kiters, etc. has changed our playing field and threatened both sports. Follow surf ediqute rules and be safe.

The sky and water have been magnificent colors and the porpoise were jumping two feet from my kitesurfing student today in the Leo area do to the huge school of bait fish that have been at our coast section the last few days. Sharon did great in his lesson and was up on his board. Hopefully get him up again tomorrow. Even a job loving fertilization specialist Phd Md. can find the time to sneak out to learn. It has been a month since flying his venom last but he is going to increase water time now after fun of this lesson. The stoke on the dude's face today was priceless. Teaching lessons can certainly be rewarding that way.

After the lesson Frym and a lot of other kite buds rolled up for a kite session in nine meter conditions. The no strap 6'4" Miranda was under my happy feet. Once again trying to not use straps.... ever. The week down at SQ resulted in no knee pain, do to lack of jumping and just doing the old waveriding strapless as has been my favorite for years but hijacked by the frequent Jhonesin for jumps and of course the necesary lofts over set waves... No more straps for me. Might have to get a reel leash..gag....to save the old styro surfboard when in the rock zone of inside Leo Slot or County.

See ya on the road, trails, sky, water or sand. Be cool to put space in there... Maybe when those space shots get affordable for us normal schmoes. Live life, forgive, forget, formulate fun and move on. Can't wait for the next SQ trips surf downwinder. You can hit more lips in one day than Mohamid Ali did in his career.. Fun, fun, fun with no straps and a board friendly sand beach...

Oh, here is a quick shot from work and that very talented actress who actualy managed to smile after being stuck with me..Told you she was good at her craft.