Superior Heads Up

[Chip]

Sky Harbor seems to be quite strong compaired to visual here in Canal Park. With a North flavor to the wind, there is not much fetch - waves are very small. WI point would probably be favored over the Tot Lot.

[Tighe]

Well sorry to tell you guys but it was pretty sweet. The wind was probably 15-25 most of the day, peaking at about noon. The waves just kept getting bigger and bigger. Riding waves like that is a whole new game. I felt clumbsy out there, getting swallowed by breaking waves, tossed by breaking waves on take off, loosing my board in the white wash. Boy is that tiring....and I want more. What a great new challenge. I had a couple jumps launching off a face and following it below, gliding overhead, then coming down softly on that same face! Very nice. Or ripping a huge heelside in the super wide glossy troughs. The few dialed moves make me itch for more.

Randy and Kurt were looking great and I was surprised to hear that this is the first year for both of them. Mike was looking dailed as ever. The clouds took away our sun on the way up, but otherwise it was damn sweet. Love that lake.

Good to meet up with Randy Carlson, who runs the instructional program at UMD. Super stoked guy who seems to feed his passion from many directions...after kiting he was heading up to Lester to surf.

Once again the conditions shut down JP's hopes to get some good shots. Good to have the company though. Thanks for the launches.

gotta get up there more....

[Stroh]

it's a whole difrent world in those waves... you have to pay attention at all times otherwise you will be crushed.
I can't wait to get some more wave rides on the mother

Jon

[Coach]

Looks like the forecast came up for tomorrow, as well. NE 20-25 knots/

[Michael]

Coach...if you're heading up give me a ring: 952.285.2913. thx. m.

[Coach]

Geez - can't head up today, but the forecast is for 15-20 again tomorrow! It's been good weather for Superior wind - I may head up on Thursday.

-Mark

[Randy]

Got to the Tot around 10 and saw Mike Winter's motorcycle with his shoes and clothes underneath. Definitely gets the hard core award. He and Kurt were out ripping it up and by the time I got my kite to launch set up the sand was blowing, indicating 20-25mph...perfect 12M. It was great to watch Tighe's style in the waves...definitely my most fun time ever, and Kurt, I think you'd concur...seems like we're getting more and more comfortable in the terrain with each visit. By 1pm the swell on the outside was perfect...massive size, but not moving too fast...a perfect day to play without the punishment of a couple weeks ago.
Great to see you Chip, but very bummed that you're on the injury list. I agree, Tighe, Randy Carlson carries a very high energy vibe... I totally enjoyed listening to him work his riding schedule out with his wife...let's see...soccer...oh...and you need to be where by when...brings back the days of really riding the wave of peace...hopefully he got his surfing session in at Lester.
Anyway, this makes three weeks in a row that Mother Superior has given us classic conditions...with warm water. Seems it's taking it's time to build today...
Definitely takes the edge off needing a destination trip this time of year.

[drknap]

An awesome day indeed but ended on a sour note for me. My 12m TD inverted and I got into trouble. I was pulled through the surf but managed to get it to shore with quasi-control of the kite. I was bringing it down on the beach at the edge of the wind window with the intention of grabbing a front line and pulling in flat when it suddenly took off and catapulted me into the shoreline (what do you think Tighe a good 20 -30 foot or so ride for me). I'm not sure what happened. The kite ended up in a tree and got tore up pretty good. Thankfully it happened down the shore away from people and obstacles and no one was hurt-less my pride. In thinking of ways to prevent a reaccurrence I plan on attaching my leash to a front line and simply bailing out of the chicken loop if this happens again (I had been riding with my leash on the chicken loop). Thanks to Tighe for helping me out of a tree-again.
Randy gets the multidiscipline award by ripping it up with both a kite and of course his poleboard.
Kurt

[Randy]

I totally missed your episode. I thought you'd gone in. By the time I got my rig in I looked around and everyone was gone. Sorry I wasn't keeping a better eye out, Kurt. Glad you're ok and that Tighe was able to assist. It makes me want to further study Dean Rizor's thread of August 25.
Sure wish I could have been up there today. Anybody make it? Sunny, steady NE 22mph all afternoon. Simply doesn't get better.

[Tighe]

I have discovered that bows invert a lot more when crashed in the waves. A couple of times I went down and immediately the wave tossed me toward the kite and the kite rolled in the surf. Not too hard to remedy but a bit of a pain. If you keep the kite in the air you're fine.

Kurt, in thinking about what happened to your kite..I thought of a few possible scenarios why your kite did what it did. My understanding is that you were coming in with the kite at the side of the window. Kite was closer to Tot Lot you were farther down the beach. All of a sudden I saw the kite curl up and into the powerzone. Here's a couple of possibilities. 1) your bar may have been upside down, you were turning it down and the bar said up. 2)a wave caught one of the lines and pull the kite to the left. 3) There may have been a side draft coming off the trees at Tot Lot. You were right a the edge of the main cluster. I know there is a pillow of wind just in front of those trees. Maybe the wind shoots up and over and out both sides, which in this case hit your kite and tossed it to the left. Might be worth looking into more, since it could do nasty things on launches and landings.

Glad you weren't hurt.