Can you see the waves through the smoke??

The Malibu fire had us scrambling out of the unfiltered burning Malibu plastic castle smell and up to switch around NW winds at C Street. We scored some fun waves and wind for a few days inbetween carcinogen rich breaths of Moorpark, and other city fires.... The sky was so dark with soot on the way home, four of us ended up reversing course and spending the night up in Santa Barbara. Great wind and waves for regular surfing and the kite powered stuff. One of our instructors went down to San Felipe on a students jet and met some other students who drove down. The conditions were strong and fun to say the least. 40-50 mph the first day... Tom is still farting dust is the rumor from those that dare drive in the Tom mobile.. That has got to be some bad hang time methane.. I'll drive myself thanks....

Locally it has been fantastic wind and surf every evening this week with a great south swell hitting the last three days and well overhead conditions with nine meter and 12 meter kites each day. I have been testing the new Light Wave Dave 5'8" four fin directional board alongside our undergrounds and other surf style rides. The board is very loose without the usual tracking feel of a four fin. The fins are quite large and the board has a wide point moved back ala the Cheyne Horan surfboards of yore and our no nose windsurfing boards from back in the day. The board goes top to bottom with aplomb and can be broken loose at will though it does hold very well when powered in a hard bottom turn. The pointy nose in conjuction with the foot straps moved to the second from the rearmost (tons of adjustment range) hole front and rear, blasts the board through the lip with a bit less knee slamming "SHMACK" and lands reentries well. You HAVE to add a nose guard if you want to prevent frequent body piercings from this baby. The pads are very nice and cover all of the deck needed. This is a thin board and not a super floater so a bit of wind is needed to get me up and going on it but it is better than we expected in the marginally windy stuff and will probably be just fine for someone of the lighter weight set.. Build quality is what you would expect of a board with such a great price but it is holding up well so far amongst all our testers.

The new Peter Lynn water kite is about to come into our hands and all preliminary reports are raving about the Synergy quick turning and grunt per size relative to any PL in the past. The kite looks great in the new colors and hopefully we will have some in a month or so to let our buds try. Heaps more power per size has us all excited for the ultimate ease of use, stablity and user friendlyness line of kites.

The new GK kites are out with our favorite Trix in some new colors with even more duro added and with a new bar. The Sonic has added center canopy area and ease of use increase with a point in the leading edge and an extended area behind.. Each year the GK designer comes up with something the other brands are hussling to copy ASAP..