Good old California

It was a two hour road bicycle ride in the local mountains with an escape home as the wind on top of the hills had me thinking along with the wind flow vector forcast that Leo would be coming on soon. The wind, ended up not coming up early so it was a fun paraglide flight off of the 800 with some tight little thermals followed by a surfing session at Heavens with the Xanadu 5'10" fish strapless. There were some great peaks and texture on the water so left my synergy 15m rolled up on the beach with the harness and bar. After about forty minutes of surfing, the wind had come up enough to make me consider, as there were now white caps on the outside. Tossed up the 15 syn with the strapless Xanadu and had a great time of consistent shoulder high waves down the beach with one tack returns with the synergy's great upwind performance. That Xanadu strapless is the perfect atribute to the syergy's flying performance needs. It took an hour for the gang to show up and storm the beach, pumping up kites like mad men. Kited another hour with them but the tide got a bit too high and killed the surf so in I came with another great Ca. day under my harness.

A gal was sitting in the back of her truck with her dog "April" when I landed at the 500 from paragliding and offered to give me a ride back up the hill. She asked me how I managed to have so much fun after hearing about my bike ride that morning and the paraglide flight. I just told her you are as young as you want to be and work just enough to pay the bills and still enjoy life. Sure would be nice to have some really flashy toys, but it is not worth it if you have to give up the lifestyle and not play till you are 80 yo. Been fortunate enough to have worked every morning this week and still have gotten back to BU for a kitesurf session each day with yesterdays late evening 45 minute go out do to a callback the least play day. I think Niki and her dog understood the lifestyle and offered to give us a ride back up the hill the next time she sees us flying up above her. Some people get it and some never have enough wealth and will chase the mighty green back to the grave. Whatever does it for you as long as you keep that exercise/stress management and stoke time available. The best is of course if you can have both sides of the coin and many of my friends do. You are my heroes.

Tom went back out on his 13 VII for a last wave or two yesterday evening and here is one of the shots.