So in came June, just waltzed right in while we were looking the other way and settled in over Texas. She reminded us that we had reached a three-month milestone, that summer was fast approaching, and that we had to move on soon if we had any intention of coloring in the rest of the states. But it was still windy, and I had just had a breakthrough at Air Base...I had kited a good 2.5 mile stretch down to Swantner Park and no rescue vehicles of any kind had showed up!!!
Aryn with kite, sans rescue unit.
Now, by this time I was comfortable up on the board, able to hang with the lulls and gusts for the most part, and confident that I could come back to some semblance of beach, even if it was considerably downwind of where I put in. This was a breakthrough for me, and I had a good taste of the potential of the sport, and therefore was hooked. Brant, on his accelerated learning course, was working on perfecting back loops and prepping to start trying doubles, but I was stoked to be cruising along kite-powered after about 10 hours on the water.
That day I cruised in to Swantner, landed the kite gently up on the bluff and waded to the concrete-stepped wall. With a smile splitting my face, I handed the board up to Brant and loudly declared, "I see no reason to leave Corpus!"
A stoked kiteboarder.
But back up here. Major part of the breakthrough equation was the board I handed over, reverently. Zero Gravity equals unbelievable progress. Brant had borrowed a ØG board at Bird Island a few days before, and hadn't stopped talking about the difference it made. So we called up Pete Nordby at ØG to see if we could try one out. And so I did, and so I progressed leaps and bounds and a few more leaps in just one session. Each board is hand-shaped by Pete, who does his own R&D right out of his backyard on the Oso Bay. And hence, each board is epic.
Meanwhile, kiters were turning up all over the place. Each evening up at Air Base the click of kiters grew, and the side of the highway which lay barren and sandy all day became a hub of activity once 5:00pm came and went. The bright dots of color that sailed through the sky numbered more than a half-dozen now, and the sunsets over the CC cityscape were punctuated by the flying kites like blooms in the desert.
We spent days at Bird Island in the shallow flat water, and evenings along Ocean Drive with our buddies. Brant fell in love with the new Wipika Free Air 11.0 kite he picked up at the U.S. Open, and used the beast to jam on a wakeboard even in lighter winds. An incredible expanse of material, the 11.0 is like the purple people eater, with a leading edge nearly 25-feet across.
Dan and the Man.
We spent some time, too, with Dan Arndt, a Naval Aviator originally from New Hampshire that had seen the kites flying near the Naval Air Station and decided he was going to become a kiteboarder. Already into hanggliding and wakeboarding, kiting would be an unusual combination of both loves. Brant gave him his first lessons and now he's hooked. We spent a night in his driveway...or at least half in his driveway, since it is a short one, and we are not a short rig. Out on Padre Island, his backyard sits on a waterway that leads out to Laguna Madre, and him and his roommates take right out of there and go wakeboarding in the undeveloped channels.
We "almost" fit.
Backyard wakeboard paradise.
So basically we got sucked into the community of Corpus for a bit longer. We're the semi-locals, and it feels a lot like home after our stay here, so it's hard to bid adieu. Especially since we can make so much progress here with the kites. See, wind is a commodity that can only be found in certain places. And Corpus seems to have a wind factory set up that just keeps producing. So it'll just be a few more days....
