DimiExter

It was a beautiful day on saturday. My friend Fredstem and I had planned my first session with a 9m2 - there is the real stuff. Having looked at wind forecast all day long, we were heading to Half Moon bay when the forecast was showing some nice wind in Waddell, so we changed course and rushed on HW 1 South to get there.
Wind was 12-14mph... waoh, that was a mind shot for me starting the kite. Hopefully, with Fred's help, I survived the power of the kite. Lesson learn: still a lot of time to spend on the beach!
Fred was not confortable enough to leave me alone and shoot pics or video of myself flying the kite... so, we ended-up with baech pics on a small movie just doing 'safe' stuff.
To be continued...

- The now Classic Kite Bag On The Beach picture, enhanced with a real kite! -

- That was the easy part -

Back from Tahoe to the Bay Area... I could find a little bit of wind. Well, most of you guys will recognize _the_ spot.

I was a bit lonely on that beach - quite dirty actually, the sand was very wet -  only the usual cats, I could not teach any of those how to shoot pics! So, I don't have pics of my kite flying there... but I could play a bit, it was 5:30pm and the wind went down quickly. On the other side of the beach, 2 guys were trying to play with a 12m2 kite, but that was when I came back, the wind was really down, they could not fly it.

Earlier in the afternoon, I saw a couple of kite surfers on the other side of the bay, in Alameda...

To be continued. 

... in my quest for wind in strange places.

Remember the small video of traction kite in Lake Tahoe ? Well, I am in Tahoe again, I just went to Nevada Beach... no luck this time, look at the meter, better then Osteende, but not enough.

So, you guys are going to have to do with another kites bag staring at - the lake this time - picture.

Enjoy!

Seen that ? A simple bag - from Ozone, I hope they'll send me a voucher now -, with two small traction kites in it: a 2m2 Samourai and a 4m2 Access, together with bars. I was on my way to go through security at CDG airport last thursday, flying to SFO. As I had quite some checked-in bags (I was going to Lake tahoe for the week-end, with my snowboard), I decided to carry on that small kite bag with me, ie as hand luggage, 'tres chic' to have kites as hand luggage.

Guess what, I could not go through security. The (dick) head of security at CDG Terminal 2E said "I consider that the metal in those bars can be harmfull". Metal... this guy does not seem to understand carbon fiber, easy to understand since his IQ is probably close to the one human had 2 miilenium ago. Anyway, you know the saying: what is the difference between a head of security and a terrorist ? Well, with a terrorist, you can negociate.  So, bottom line, I had to go back to chek-in and check-in my dangerous kite bars as luggage. Good to know guys: check in your kite bars.

Now, here is the fun part. the guy is a f****** as*****. Well, not really, in fact he is incompetent, dangerous... listen to that:

I was sitting on the plane later on, we took off nicely. And then, suddenly, the woman sitting on my right side gets her bag, open it ans starts pulling out a ball of wool.... why not... looked like my old grandma... and a complete set of nice, sharp, metallic, one feet long, needles that you use to tricoter. A great set, 3 pairs of those. Yeah, you've got it: you can get into a plane with a full set of one feet long needles - not harmfull at all, but not with a kite bar.

Mr security head at CDG Terminal 2E, go on eBay and please, please, for our own safety, buy a brain. 

I am now on scared like hell when I fly. 

And the best of it: you pay a security tax on your airfare to cover this. Nice. 

I went to Belgium today, en route to meet some friends, we decided to stop by Osteende and hope for some wind to launch the trainer kites. 

Not a chance, look at the wind speedmeter... a real joke.

So... the kite bag stared at the sea... :)

Bottom line, I stayed with Claire (my daughter), watching the (small) waves...

I guess I'll kite another day :).