learning to kitesurf (sort of)

kite ~ sun ~ sky ~ moon ~ love
Copyright (c) 2011 Wendee Holtcamp
I had the most amazing Saturday. It was the quintessentially perfect day - sunshine, friends, beach, relaxation, love, laughter, food, fun. Me, D, my friend Stef and her hub Ro and their daughter went to Stewart Beach in Galveston and they brought along their two kites because a new hobby of their is kitesurfing. Kitesurfing is a sport where (as far as I'm gathering) you fly a kite to move you on a board in the water. But first you have to learn to steer the kite and the best way to do that is on land. This is not as easy as it sounds, but on the other hand it's not as hard either. I watched Stef and Ro, and the wind would pick them and drag them across the sand. This scared the bejesus out of me. I almost didn't try. I encouraged (forced) Doug to try (ha ha), and then I said ok, it didn't kill you, so now I'll try. And I LOVED it! Now R&S may not have loved how many times I crashed the kite into, er, the car, the sand dunes, etc etc, but... I had so much fun! Ro had a kite that is about 3 or 4 times as large and he takes it on the water with a board. At the end of the day, we went to eat at Yaga's on the Strand and then went to the candy store across the street. It didn't even clear up until about 12:30pm, so we went to the beach with a leap of faith it would clear up and both of us said a prayer and wha-la it cleared up!
This is Stef showing me how to steer the ropes to keep the kite in the air.
I am flying the kite here and S&R are telling me kind of what to do to keep it airborne.
This is D trying it out.
This pic cracks me up! It looks like Ro is being held up by the federales at the border! But really he is holding up the strings since I crashed the kite in the dunes. Oops.
This is the coolest Hipstamatic iphone camera app that Stef has on her phone. I love it! I want to see if they have something similar for the Android. I was reading The Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I love that book!
Peace out man!
We got a couple of her daughter's Barbies and I call this the bitch slap Barbie shot. OK just call me weird, but I was cracking myself up anyway!
Another shot of the cat-fighting Barbies.
I love this photo so much. Stef is just having so much fun. she was actually showing her daughter how to steer the kite, and I wish I'd caught her daughter's face and Stef's in the same shot together but alas I didnt!
D&I at the beach.
Another shot of the kite and moon in the late afternoon sun. OK there's not too much of a dune here, but there was a small one. what can I say? It's Galveston. It was actually not a bad looking beach, just flat.