Kagel

Chris "Chopper" Smith models the latest hang gliding fashion on launch at Kagel.

Random Snapshots

Shadows on the beach

Petit warming up her madd hand stand skilz

Me and my buddy Dana bloggin' at his pad in Santa Barbara

Rincon

Being in Santa Barbara the last couple of days has been great - warm weather, good friends and a decent swell rolling in. I'm beginning to wonder why I ever left in the first place. This morning we decided to try surfing Rincon again. My friend Petit and I headed out around 10am and when we got there we found we weren't the only ones to have that idea. I had forgotten how crowded the good surf spots can be in California. We suited up and paddled out into the line up with about 40 other surfers. I managed to catch a couple of decent waves but it was a bit of a mad house with that many people in the water. I ended up mostly just sitting on my board watching Kelly Slater and a couple of other world class surfers rip it up on the head high sets that were rolling in. Later as we packed up in the parking lot Petit saw Jack Johnson on his way out to the break...quite a day for celebrity sitings at the local surf break, eh?

Santa Barbara Bound

After 3 great days of hang gliding at Kagel with Chis Smith and the gang, I'm headed off to Santa Barbara to do some surfing and visit some old friends. The weather continues to be perfect and as we head up hwy 1 there is a good swell coming in and we call ahead to our friend Heidi to get the surfboards loaded up so we can all head to Rincon for a sunset surf session. I haven't been surfing since I lived here but I find that all those old neural surfing pathways are still there and we have a great session in the golden light of a Santa Barbara sunset.

The Valley

Another great day at Kagel Mountain

Valley Crossfit

There are a lot of Crossfit affiliates around the country now and I found that there is one just down the street from Chris's place where I'm staying. Micheal Latch of Valley Crossfit was kind enough to let me drop in for a work out. He had just turned 39 the day before (and I had turned 39 a couple of weeks ago) so we did a special birthday work out. It's a bit of a tradition when you have a birthday at Crossfit for your age to be the number of reps you do for the work out. So Micheal created the following workout for us:

400m run between each of the following exercises
39 pullups
39 bumper plate burpees
39 wall ball
39 ball slams
39 box jumps
39 kettle bell swings
39 bumper plate overhead walking lunges

It was great to get a work out in and meet Micheal, Becca and the great group of crossfiters at Valley Crossfit. Thanks all!

Northwest Pilots at Kagel Mtn

Marty, Larry, Russ & Darren

Flying Kagel Mtn

I hooked up with Chris on Friday and we headed out to Kagel Mtn even though the forecast wasn't too good with some east wind predicted. It was in the low 70s and clear with very little smog in the valley. By the time we got to the LZ it was already starting to blow in and it seemed that the Santa Anna wind was not going to be a factor. We launch around 1pm and had a great two hour orientation flight. It's amazing how much GA and commercial air traffic we are flying with here. During my two hour flight I had about 5 aircraft come within a mile or two of me and 2 come within 1000'. I kept pulling out of the thermals around 5000' to try to stay below the majority of the aircraft coming and going from the two major airports nearby. We had a great flights though and will be out there the next two days getting more air time.
Thanks to Kraig Coomber, Jo Greblo, and all the pilots at Kagel Mtn for getting us set up and being so welcoming.

SoCal

Came down to Los Angeles for a few days to see some friends and do some flying. The weather is warm and sunny (74 degrees today) and the first thing I did after landing was to head to the beach and put my feet in the ocean, then got a little work out on the rings and rope near the Santa Monica pier.
It's great to be out of the cold, rainy northwest for a while. I'll be hooking up with Chris Smith later for some hang gliding at his home site, Kagel Mtn. Woohoo!