MIA With Good Reason

Ok, not really a good reason, because buying kite gear doesn't take every moment of a full week, but it's been consuming my thoughts a lot. Here's a link to my Kiteboarding album that has pictures of my gear:

From Kite Surfing

So the board is a Liquid Force twin tip. It's basically a skinny wake board. 151 is the length in cm. The bigger the board, the easier it is to stay on top of the water in lighter wind, and more edge for carving upwind. Once I get going and know what I'm doing, a 140cm board is more inline with my weight. It came with "luxury" foot pads/straps. They feel pretty luxurious.

The kite - is huge. The pictures don't really do it justice because there's nowhere in my apartment I could be and get it all in the shot. But it's 10 square meters. Roughly 1.5m deep, making the breadth of the kite to be about 6m (aka 20 ish feet). The kite is a 2008 Ocean Rodeo Rise that I bought used for $750 (I won't tell you what it would have been new, but suffice to say I saved A TON OF GREENBACKS). It's kind of a cool kite because unlike most kites, it's vented, so in theory, the wind is a little less turbulent, meaning it shouldn't back fly into the wind window like the kite I took my lesson on.

Then when I picked up my board I also got a harness. But this one is built into some board shorts, so it's a seat harness, but doesn't look like a giant diaper. Plus a bar, bar pad, leash, and helmet. I also ordered an O'Neil life jacket and a travel bag from the interwebs (should be here later this week).

Damage: $400 board + $260 misc + $750 kite (steal of a deal!) + $250 vest & bag + $300 wetsuit + $500 land & water lessons + $100 trainer kite = thank goodness I'm employed.