Steve's paragliding crash and Gary's first day on synergy

On the eve of my leaving for Sayulita, near Puerto Vallarta for Hedi and Anoush's wedding, Steve had called in the morning asking if I wanted to go paragliding at the 850 foot launch at Deer Creek. I was up at Eva Hollman's boat yard and the amazing board repair doc had just put my trusty 5'10" xanadu old school fish board back together in time for the trip. Having to run errands all over town, turning down Steve's invitation to go play was the only choice. Steve and I had been talking after a previous very good flight a few days prior and he had commented on how many paragliding friends had broken their backs. I made the usual observations about people going out in unsafe conditions and trying to make their often only or at least favorite sport "work". Gusty and strong winds, etc. are easily overlooked when previous flights in those sort of conditions just luckily worked out. Unfortunately Mr Fate has a way of catching up with you. It was with great sadness that I heard of Steve's plumit from the air to the hard asphalt below after a perfect launch. The initial cause guess by a reporting pilot bud who was there was the timing of changing wind direction that afternoon with the associated rotors created. The paramedics came and an ambulance took him away. It was only later that we learned he had brocken his back. The degree of injury was not clear and intial phone calls could of course not be answered as he was heavily sedated. Thank goodness he is now abulatory and his condition improving. Steve is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and lived to paraglide. We had planed on getting him down to Baja this summer to teach him to kitesurf. Be sure to send some good vibes his way and drop him a phone call to wish him a quick recovery. Think safety and mixing your sports so there is always another fun and healthy activity to participate in when another should be avoided do to non favorable conditions. We are all guilty of taking controled risks and a good friend being injured should raise a question as to our motivation in taking those risks beyond a logical level so often. Lets have fun but stay alive and in one piece so we can keep the most important thing in this life close to us; our friends.

Gary from Ventura came down to my BU cave this afternoon to pick up a bar to use with his new synergy as he sold Heidis old 13 VII and 10m VII with his bar to a fellow in the bay area to pay for his new 12 m synergy. It is to be his one kite quiver for a while. Though there were heaps of things to do business wise afer seven days away, his energy to get into the water was contagious and out the door we went to Leo with a 15 mph average ikitesurf reported a few hours prior. The wind had backed off by the time we arrived around 4 but slowly built a few miles per hour towards dark. We started in around 10 mph average and got some 14 mph average stuff with gusts to 17 or so. I used the 15 syn with the good old becker 5'10" no strap surfboard with about a million miles on it and Gary tried my xanadu with his new 12 m syn. He was intitially chocking the kite unbeknownst to him and not getting the potetntial speed/power generation out of it though he was raving about it's great performance. A bit of tweaking with him tightening depower strap an inch each run had him ripping up some fun little waves and zipping up wind in very light condtions to his delight. He couldn't stop talking about how great a combination the synergy and the fast and floaty surtech Xanadu wave rocket was. He is now saving to add one of the boards to complement his now one and only kite for his local wave at C Street.

You can really control the power of the kite with the substantial fins of the fish boards and the efficacy of the flat rockered and wide tailed, energy conserving design makes all condtions a joy. A little mutant and one of these or a small directional and a fish make a great quiver for most of our local lighter kiters with heavier guys like myself running a couple of different dimentioned fish and a good real shortboard thruster surfboard with good rocker and volume we could surf on normally but with the ability to add straps if needed on the choppy days of kitesurfing.

Tomorrow morning is knee rehab again on the road or mountain bike preferably with a swim in the evening if this colds symptoms decrease by o swim thirty manyana arvo.

So long as space remains
So long as sentient beings remain,
I will remain,
In order to help, in order to serve,
In order to make my own contribution.

A nice little prayer from the Dalai Lama. His lessons on taking the focus away from ones self, the development of compassion and people putting too much effort on material development neglecting their inner values can add a lot to a guys airflight home from Mex... His book, "An open heart" really gets you thinking about our daily motivations, actions and focus. Good stuff... Nice spirituality without the nasty religous aftertaste. Available at a bookstore near you..snicker...