DimiExter

The Amateur...

The Pro...

Ok, ok, ok, it's not fair !

I was shooting my usual suspect rider Fredstem at Waddell this past sunday. I have to say that I have seen Fred making dramatic progress in the waves this season... Late in the afternoon, Shawn Richman (Richman Brothers) showed up and went for a little play in the "Ducks' Pond", and gave me the opportunity to make a few shots...

... still a long way to go!

At least I am in the water with 12m2 and a board, not yet on the board , just _with_ the board.

To be continued... 

More will come, but I cannot resist publishing one picture while my Mac is still processing the others! I did a photo shoot of the usual  Fredstem, interrupted by a "saving a kite from the rocks" operation. God damn rocks at 3rd, my foot hurts.

To be continued...

... while the infamous  Fredstem is discovering is not in his 20s anymore (playing hard with his new toys), I finaly got time to go back on body-dragging today. Got cauch again on wind dropping, but could do a reasonably good session.

And I did not had to cut my lines this time . Below is a pic a the messy cut lines from last session a few weeks ago.

I am still struggling on how to relaunch my beautifull Genetrix Swell... damn, more work ahead!

To be continued...

I could not find some good wind (neither a good spot actually) in Lake Winnebago (Wisconsn) on friday... so my escape to Windonsin would have a been a kite free journey if I had not decided to drive back to Chicago along Lake Michigan; a few miles away from Sheboygan... my intuition tough me to take a left to the lake... and here it is, there were kites in the sky! I did not had time to go on a body drag session... but I had a good chat with the locals, and enjoyed staring at the kites for a moment. Btw - they have great kite groupies over there!

Cool local kite instructor - sorry bud, do not remember you name, but nice talking to you .

Yesterday, St Francis Yacht Club was hosting a competition in the Bay area. I was lucking enough to have a friend of mine driving me on his boat (Formula F280, fast twin engines boat!) to watch the competition from the sea. Also gave me the opportunity to check what kind of shooting can be done from a boat at this spot.

Wind was pretty soft, the guys had to work their kites quite hard at some point.

I would not be surpised to get a call from Fredstem, I do not think he has shots like these ones !

Trying to forgot last friday's body drag session (my attempt to practice self-rescue at the end went wrong: I did not worked my lines well and ended-up being strapped in the lines and dragged by the kite, hopefully it was only about 4m of lines, and I stayed calm enough to get my knife and cut 2 of the lines ! - by the way, great learning!)...

I took advantage of a business trip to Orlando to go to Tampa.

Much better seats, Floor, row 10. Do you know what they say about better seats ?

Less space to dance, but better pictures!

Sound was a bit crap, especially in the beginning (Robert could not hear himself, Simon had Bass problems all along), and lots of echoe... but I survive. Very similar programme compare to San Jose, a little shoter on the Encore (still 3, but the last one was shorter).

Again, feels like a hundred years, but so good!

Fred (Fredstem) and I left the kites away on this not-windy day to head up to the HP Pavillon for an evening with The Cure. Feels like a hundred years...

A stunning mix of old songs and popular success: well, more old songs I have to say, the audience got puzzled several times - "is that The Cure ?" - only a handfull of people including the two of us in the back room got exited when they played things like "Shake Dog Shake - from The Top, 1984" (see on the picture, with a classic black and white background that reminds the Vinyl Album "Concert" 1984 that started with that same song).

An evening full of emotions, 3+ hours of The Cure...

The newly upgraded Fred One (Fredstem) made it to Alameda today and has been kind enough to kick my butt as usual... so I can finaly dare to get my 9m2 Swell Genetrix for a body drag ride!

Was pretty good, I am now ready for more!

A very nice way to start a good week-end... will celebrate this with nice korean food tonight (yes, french people eat korean food was they have a successfull kite session...).

Not to mention that I crashed the kite on locals on the first attempt to launch (sorry again guys, I owe you lots of beer)... 

Thanks a lot Fred!