SPI and the South Padre Island Kiter Round UP

After the Worlds, Georgie packed up and headed to South Padre Island for the, Air Padre Round UP! With about 15 company's being represented and anyone that came and signed up could go and demo any kite!

What a deal you sign up and you could travel down the line and test and demo the best brands in the industry! Who wouldn't want to fly every type of kite brand and model!!??

Not only that the Round Up had some great events like a rail jam, big air contest, max spin, max speed, all for the average joe amature rider! Even though there were pros at the contest they still supported the dude kiter!! Making all the people that participated in the event to be included!

With some days not having any wind, the Round up was set up with a Grinch winch for wake boarding and also stand up paddle boards. Light wind activities also inlcuded alot of buggying on the flats and beer drinking!!

During the event select people did clinics for kiting. For example I did a Skim boarding clinic, and a buggy clinic. I really like to see people get into different dynamics of the sport. Not just water based kiting but also land and learning to slide on different boards!

Ozone and me had a great time at the Round Up with strong winds and great people! I got to meet a bunch of new folks and hook up with the old friends. With great kiting and parties with crazy fire dancers. Meeting and networking with the industry is what it is all about! Also getting new people in the sport so that we get the next generation's into our wonderful sport of Kiteboarding!

Well Tell next time...

Peace

Patrick Nedele

To all my Minnesota PEEPS!!

Whew, What a fun drive from Chicago. I rambled all the way to Superior, Michigan to the Wal-Mart, once again. I have to thank the Wally world for all there continued support of Georgie Fuso! And letting her sleep in Wallys parking lot with me safely cuddled inside!

I also have no Idea why people stare and Gawk at Georgie so much!! I think it is her fancy curves and bright lights!! I have seen so many people take pictures of her!!

Anyway I had a interesting morning with Georgie at the Superior Walmart!! I woke up and went to warm the engine up. With it being below zero that night, I was worried for Georgie's big 4 cyl. turbo diesel engine to start. My worries caught up with me. I jumped into the heart of Georgie Fuso and turned the key and she just coughed!

It turned out the 3 year old battery's just didn't like the -10 degree Fahrenheit weather! So I had a little adventure before I could go kite that morning. I instantly went into the Wallys and looked for the proper battery. They didn't have it and I was lucky to have a NAPA right next door. I love how things work out like that!! Oh and thank you Wally world for letting me borrow your shopping cart.

So after lightening the wallet $200 big ones! I replaced the two gigantic battery's and she started right up!! I am happy to give Georgie new juice and pep into her step!

All right, time to hit the road again!! Feeling better about new battery's I head further north to a spot the Lakawa riders choose, Wild Rice Lake. I meet up with Mike for a soul session on Saturdays light winds. He was flying his older 12m Manta 1 and I was on my older 15m Manta 2. And we compared both for the light wind performance. I think the 15 won! But then we pulled out the 12m Manta 3 and it kicked both the kites ass.

It generated more pull and moved faster than both the kites. With the 12 flying faster we could produce more apparent wind.

The next day we weren't expecting to much for wind either. But it all turned out to be a great day. With 8 inches of fresh snow! And wind blowing 10-15knots it turned out to be a great demo day!

I was so excited to have such a big following come out to Wild Rice Lake. Kiters showed up just because of the post's that were on LAKAWA's site! We had at one point 16 kiters out on the lake tearing it up! With all the new 2010 Ozones out.

My Minnesota Peeps had all smiles! Flying the C4's and the Zephyr, people all ready new that they want to sell there old kites and upgrade to the 2010's!!!! There were also a hand full of people that just loved the new feel of the New Manta 3's.

A bunch of the guys had older Frenzy's that had only a 1 pulley system. They got on the newer Frenzy's and Manta's. All the feed back came back as positive. Everybody agreed that the newer double pulley system was way better and also that the new top hat release is very innovated!

Well thank you all Minnesota peeps for coming out for the Ozone Demos. Also thank you so much Bryce for the hospitality at your house!! Help Bryce out get his own business off the ground. He makes these bad ass planks of lakes so check it out at:


Peace

Patrick Nedele

More Tugg Hill

So so much more came out of this event. I actually got on the Local news!!! Check it out here!!! On the links below. I also got interviewed by NPR (National Public radio!!!)

Thank You News Caster Lady for coming out!! Man was I nervous when I did the interview!!!!

Also Thank you so much for Bob Hecht for taking such good pictures of the interview and kiting!!

News in New York!!!! Good repersentation of our sport of Snow kiting

Here is another clip of news!!!

TUGG, TUGG, TUGG Hill, NY

WHew, I made it across this great country again!! From Portland to New York! Am I crazy maybe?, or maybe I just like driving!! Hard to do sometimes but totally worth the out come!!

I get to go kite and meet the best people that are involved in the sport of SnowKiting!! Also go to the most premier spots that the sport has to Offer!!

Which brings me to Tugg Hill! I would call this the Skyline of the East. With tons of terrain and tons of snow. With huge hills to climb, wind drifts to slash, roads and fences to jump! And all under permission of all the local land owners!! People have thankfully enough put forward the effort and made all of this to happen!

Thank you Jan for the orginized Choas!!! If you want to go kite in the area he is the man to contact at : T.I. Adventures !!! He also teaches snowkiting!!!

Jan also thankyou for taking such nice shots!!! Most of the shots below come from
Jan!!!!


Also thanks to the MASSKITING.com crew for rallying there troops and coming out. Once again had a good time kiting and parting with you guys, thanks for the support!!!!

Peace

Patrick Nedele

Spring Break Capitol

After a long drive from Durango I stopped and visited a new kite shop in New Mexico. Stuart is a great guy that is changing his life style by starting a kite shop and teaching snow kiting to the masses of New Mexico!! Check him out at www.snowkitenewmexico.com. After a quick session of flying foils in Santa Fe with Stuart. I headed out on the journey down south to Corpus Christi.

I made it to Pro Kite Surf and hung out with one of my protege's, PJ Lewis!! He is working and teaching for Jeff Howard. check out www.kiteboarding.com. They are selling some of the best boards on the planet!! Crazy Fly!! They also make some of the best repair jobs on the most damaged kites!!

Anyway after a some really powered sessions at Wild Cat park, I got to go kite skating at the best place I have ever kite skated before!! P.J. showed me this sick spot, near Wild Cat park. Were there is a long bike path/road that squares up to the wind perfectly!! You can ride a skate board for about 3 mi one way with out having to turn around!! Absolutely amazing!!! You just got to keep your trainer high to pass over the bushes but there is clean wind coming off the bay!! I think we skated for ever that night. I never got to experience such a nice Kite skate session!!

After spending time in C town I made it to the beach in Padre. Adult kite camp starts NOW!!! I am looking forward to seeing friends and meeting new ones here I can't wait tell everybody shows up to kite.

The pictures are all at night with a full moon. I was by myself and set up my tripod. A little drunk, I was going crazy running back and forth from the dunes to get the pictures but I think they turned out pretty cool!


Well Peace,

Patrick

Going South stoping at SKA

So I am now traveling to one of the best places to kite, South Padre Island!! But before I get there I have to do a stop at Ska Brewing's new facility!! How cool is it being sponsored by a Brewery and stopping at the factory and getting 10 cases of beer just for stopping to say HI!! The Ska plant is also really cool to go tour. It is located in Durango, Colorado.


Thank You Matt from Ska. Much appreciated, from me and kiters alike. If you haven't tried the beer yet go out and find it!! The cost is a little steeper but it is worth it for the taste of good snow kiter beer!!!

When you see me in Padre ask me for a Ska Beer!! I will have plenty of Cold Beverages for the Kiter Folk!!!


SKaBrewing.com

Peace

Patrick Nedele

Fall back, spring forward!

So it is time to start turning the clocks back for winter already. I have had a great fall with hiking, biking, skating, and kiting. All around Utah this fall. Skyline Drive is beautiful in the fall. But watch out for those crazy hunters! Or at least wear orange when you hike!!

I also had a really fun session at Utah Lake with Billy Bordy and Salvador. Sal and Billy were bustin sweet moves over the tall green islands of reeds. I only had my surf board so the chop at Utah Lake was amazing with big smooth rollers to slash and spray. Thanks to Mark Johnson for bearing the fridged cold air and water to take pictures of us!

It was a great session after working in the office for a couple of weeks. I am so glad this is the start of my trip to South Padre Island, Texas. From cold water to warm water for the next month. As the season changes in the Mountains, I hope there will be 2 feet of snow by the time I get back!!

Peace

Patrick Nedele
WWW.KITEUTAH.COM

www.FLYOZONEUSA.com

Kite Skate Sess.

So I read on kite forum earlier this week if kiteboarding will be as popular as skateboarding. Or if kiteboarding would be as cool as skateboarding one day!

I say, "Hell yeah, kiteboarding one day will be Too legit to quit!" If the sport of skateboarding took as long as it did to become main stream. I think kiting has all ready become a legit sport and also gone more mainstream in a shorter time span.

All I really want to see is everybody that has a skate board to try Kite skating. Or even snow kiting. Maybe a little lame for most. But I seem to have a lot of fun doing it. I don't know if it is the constant pull of a kite. Or just that I can cruise a parking lot doing turns, jumping curbs, and grinding parking blocks with out having to kick as much.

But that is the benefit of snow kiting too. I don't have to hike to do my turns! Or get pulled by a snowmobile to have fun. I use my kite to pull into quarter pipes, half pipes, and fly off hills.

All I am trying to get at is, if you have a trainer kite. Pull it out and try to skate with it. It is more fun than you think. Not only that it helps your strapless riding too. It also trains you to use your kite in moving it more and generating more power with speed in the kite. I have found that people go out on the water and don't work there kites as much. They have gotten into a rut of just park and ride kiting. Then everyone says it isn't windy enough to ride!

Well I guess these are just thoughts, go out and try it for yourself!!

peace

Patrick Nedele

Zephyr Gets LOST

After some amazing reaches in really light wind. I was so amped for someone else to try the light wind abilities of the new Zephyr. So our good friend Eli had to try to show me up. Even thought he weighs about 80 pounds more he still had to go out and give a go at the light wind.

Even with as light as the wind was, a guy that weighs 240 pounds and riding a 132cm long and kind of a wide board. Eli managed to get up and plane across the little bay we were in. With the winds being as light as they were. As Eli sailed to the other side. The wind luffed and Eli dropped the kite! Oh Eli! So he decided to try to walk up wind in the shallow water, even though the water was about chest deep! Up wind of him was a nice little island to regroup and relaunch the kite in the none existing wind.

As Eli was half swimming and half walking in the deep water. He was wearing a new Mystic harness that he got at the AWSI. What is the most important thing that hangs from your harness? A LEASH!!! So since Eli got a new harness he didn't have a leash. As he strolled and swam in the water he took the leash attachment point and larks headed it around his spreader bar. Well all is good until the leash line slips off the bar and the only Zephyr in the US, floats away into the Delta of the Colombia River. BALLS!!

As we stood on the beach we watch the only kite, we all want to ride in the light wind float away slowly. Mean time Eli is swimming like a Olympic swimmer to get back to shore. He yells at us, "Go get a boat," to get the kite. So we start scrambling to find a fisherman to bring us out to the kite.

In the mean time the beach goers were worried that Eli is drowning and they call 911. Poor Eli, loses a kite, has to swim back to shore, and the cops get called. Everybody shows up to the beach to meet and greet Eli. Ambulance, cops, fire trucks everyone waiting for a disaster. When they got there the personal was bummed to see that there victim was a walking, talking and not drowning!! So Eli managed to sort out the confusion. Sign some papers and got them to leave.

We managed to flag down a boat, that went to go check out the kite. The Zephyr managed to float down wind into the delta of the Colombia. But luckily the lines got wrapped around a lobster buoy and the kite didn't go as far as we would have imagined. The nice people from Washington on vacation with there boat came to our rescue to help us save the Zephyr. Amazingly absolutely nothing happened to the kite and the folks were just glad to help.

So what is the lesson learned from the story?

Always wear a leash! Even if you get a new harness because you are a bad ass rider!


Peace

Patrick Nedele

Mak Attak

Being all the way in the east on Lake Huron in Tawas Point we motored Clark (The Rv)west through Michigan through very lush green trees, and beautiful bushes and tall Breeze grasses. Straight to a even more beautiful spot to kite at Muskegon, Michigan

Kara and I went to one of the nicest beaches on the hole trip. It was pure white silty sand. The sand didn't stick to the kites. With fresh water in the Great Lake Michigan. It made for great kiting. I wish we were there for the waves! Locals say that the waves can easily get to 10-15 ft!

Setting up kites on clean sands with no shells is just nice and feels good. It reminds me of our home spot at Lake McConaughy, Nebraska. It almost felt like home but it was lake Michigan, waaay bigger!

I flew Kites with some of the local fare. Chilled with there Peanut Gallery on the bench. Down near the old Mack Shack. The water was surprisingly warm, some of the guys sad it was really cold about a week before we got there. Darn, I bought a new dry suit and every where we go the water is warm. Haven't got to try it yet!

After our great session on Muskegon Beach. Mark I wonderful guy that is a photographer in the area invited us to his home. To stay behind his house next to another fellow camper. Mark was so nice after he invited us to stay at his house he invited us to go on a sail. Kara and I got to go out on a 27 ft. sail boat, we kept telling ourselves that we wanted to go out on a boat the whole trip. Finally the end of the trip we got to try out our sea legs.

Thank you so much Mark and Kristy. We had a great dinner with you guys and great conversation. I hope the cats didn't destroy much more in the house!! Thank you

peace
Patrick and Kara

(sorry forgot camera for the sailing trip!)