Met up with an old friend of mine on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's been a long time, but it was worth the wait, and certainly worth every minute we were together. We had two days of fun under clear blue skies, warm sun, and a stiff breeze. I had a date with a sandy beach.

Down by the sea, the sand is hard-packed and very smooth. With a good breeze and the right kite, one could take the buggy on a slow crawl by the water's edge, or a fast run across the middle of the spit. In the steady breeze, tacking upwind is so easy. The crosswind reach is very fast once you get the kite in the pocket and the sail trimmed. I probably topped out somewhere around 25 miles per hour between both days. After that, I couldn't tack anymore because I would drift off course leeward because the wind was so strong, losing a lot of speed to sliding. But right before that I got in some really good crosswind and downwind runs.

Tuesday was the more interesting of the two days. My favourite all-purpose kite is my 4.5 m² Libre Bora II. Popular in European circles, the Bora is also starting to gain a following in the U.S. It's a very stable kite, very tunable. I have it set up for upwind performance, which it excels at, even in low wind conditions. Anyway, when I got to the beach on Tuesday, the wind was light, 5 to 7 miles per hour out of the NNW. The guys who had been there all day were flying with 12 and 14 m² kites, and were moving along at a decent clip. Being from an area where summer winds are generally light to non-existent, I get a lot of low-wind practice in the buggy, so I know how to work my kites to get optimal performace out of them.

So I get my gear together, get all set up, and declare, "That's my cue!" which got a response of, "Yeah, good luck!" to which I responded in turn with a straight shot downwind onto the playing field. Fast I was not, but moving I certainly was. I could almost keep up with the 12's and 14's, and was routinely overtaking the guys with 7's and 8's. I luffed maybe twice, but for the most part I was running with the big boys, as it were. Basically there were 4 or 5 people out, most with 12's and 14's, and one (me) with a 4.5. I think I dropped a few jaws as I tore up the beach with smaller kites than what everyone else was flying.

Today was the obligatory and traditional stuffing of the face with tryptophan-laden poultry and many forms of complex starches. Mmmm....

So that's my vacation so far. Tomorrow is watching college football and swigging orange soda, a tradition for the last few years. I should be back home on Saturday. I have to go home to take care of the cat, and rest on Sunday so that I can go back to work at 5am on Monday.

¶ 11:03 PM