Strawberry 3/5

[bigwavedave]

So what does it feel like to have someone give you dead legs with a ball pin hammer for an hour straight?? I'm not really sure as I've never experienced it but I'm pretty sure it's similar to the way my legs felt last night after yesterdays epic session. I pulled into Chicken Creek at about Noon and Rob was just getting ready to go out. He quite kindly offered to let me borow a 10M Manta II (awesome kite by the way). For the next hour and a half I was having a blast getting used to the kite and playing on the nearby hils. At that point the legs started burning so I figured I'd get some lunch and take a breather. By this time there were probably at least a dozen kiters who had shown up and were either out or getting ready to go out. The wind was pretty consistant and most were out on anything fron 9's to 13's. After taking a breather I could no longer sit still on such a beautiful sunny and windy day. I knew I had to leave in time to attend parent teacher conferences with my wife and had to get as much of the goodness in as I could before leaving. After about an hour of further exploring near Chicken Creek, having a total blast, Rob kites by and says that he left a car downind and asks if I want to join some people on a down-winder. That sounded GREAT to me. I mean . . what . . . maybe an hour of fun no work all play downwind riding? . . who would pass that up? Not anyone in their right mind that's for sure! At least for myself, Marty, Rob, Billy, Salvador, and several others, whos names my failing short term memory doesn't allow me to remember, all agreed. So off it was . . super high-speed downwind rippers across the lake, what seemed like endless hills one after the next that had me trying bigger and bigger jumps (and even though I was getting better at landing them, I left my fair share of butt implants). It was great watching Rob and billy doing huge glides off the larger hillsides. At one point I swear Billy wasn't moving . . just what looked like ridge soaring over a huge half-pipe shaped cornice. I was having so much fun that I hardly noticed that you couldn't even see the highway any more. At some point Billy and Salvador and some others ended up taking off while we were still playing around on the hills. Keep in mind that my legs were burning after the first session. Now . . what was going to be another maybe 1 1/2 hour session had turned into a 4 hour session. That's when Rob comes back off the lake and tells us that the wind has become way too light on the last bit of the lake and that we'll have to head back upwind through the hills to make it back to the car and keep from having to hike a mile or two back to the road (which at this point sounds about as appealing as having an anvil repeatedly dropped on my testicles). So for the next hour I'm doing all I can in quickly fading wind to make my way back upwind through the hills. At this point I needed 5 meters more kite and 5 pounds less lacic acid in my legs. With such little power at one point I opted to get off the board and hike the last 100 yards to the cabin that Rob told me was supposed to be the "Home Free from there" spot. I don't know what Rob was smoking because once I was there . . there was still at least a mile to the highway amidst cabins, saplings, and fences. None of which would have been that threatening had the wind not dropped to gopher fart levels. Here I was having to work the kite big-time to even stand up . . all while trying to keep Robs '09 prototype from coming into contact with the cabins. I'm pretty sure I went through the entire slang dictionary of 4 letter words in that last mile. After clearing the cabins I looped the shit (yeah that was one of the many words used earlier) out of that kite just to milk out a few feet at a time in hopes to avoid post-holing through the snow to the freeway. I managed to make it all but maybe 1/4 mile before the wind was so dead that the kite wouldn't even stay in the air. Then I hiked. At this point it's getting dark, I'd been on the board for about 6 1/2 hours and every step hurt like that 4 letter profanity involving a female dog. I'm sure the participants of the eco-challenge would laugh at me but by this point I felt like I was ready for a nap and some pain killers. A few minutes later I popped out on the highway right where the gang was picking up Martys gear. At that point there were cheers and woo hoo's all around for having all made it back after such an epic day. but was the adventure over?? No. After a balmy warm ride back in the back bed of Robs truck (no . . I never use sarcasm) we get to the chicken creek parking lot in pretty much total dakness. That's when Marty asks my name . . all along I though he knew that it was me but nooooo . . . it was only then he realized that we had now shared epic days both on the water AND on the snow. That's when the other guy with us (again . . I can't remember his name . . probably something to do with dehydration and lactic acid that leaked into my brain) while unloading his skis from the back of Rob's truck does a pirouette with skis on shoulder and clocks Rob in the head with them. It was like a home-run hit sending Rob staggering an moaning right through his side-view mirror. Fortunately Rob was OK and though I'm sure he'll have a neanderthal looking brow today there was no blood. The side view mirror though was a different story I picked it up off the ground and handed it to him and amidst apologies and thanks Rob and Marty jumped into their vehicles and left. I changed out of my boots & snowboard pants, got in my car, stuck my key in the ignition and that's when everything went dark. Really dark. Here I am getting super cold thinking "no problem, the car will be warm in a minute and I'll be out of my wet clothes" . . but no . . nothing but chilling wind (which would have been nice earlier) and darkness. My first thought was that I was going to need to go to the highway and get a jump start. It was so dark though I couldn't even find my gloves and my hands were freezing at this point. Then I realized that just a minute ago my dome light was on so it must have just been a bad battery connection. I ran around to the back of the car and rummaged until I found the window scraper. I opened the hood and started whacking in the general area of the battery until . . sure enough . .the dome light came back on. Finally the car started and at about 7:45 I was on my way home after what was one of the most amazing days of kiting as well as the most work I've done kiting (we'll call it a harrowing tale of survival if my wife asks . . consideing I totally missed Parent Teacher conferences). In 3 or 4 days (or maybe weeks who knows) . . once my body has recovered from and forgotten the pain . . . the memory of this epic day will remain as one of pure bliss!! Thanks to Rob for the kite and the adventure, though I probaly cursed his name a few times yesterday, . . . I'm still on a high!!

[Marty Lowe]

It WAS a most spectacular day.

-Marty

[RickHeninger]

Nice!