Can we please face facts? Does anyone actually like brazil nuts? These are the giant, tasteless, oily nuts that they sneak into “mixed nuts” as filler… The ones that make your teeth sort of squeaky. Gross, right? Viva La Revolución! No More Brazil Nuts! Really, please.

Recent trips to New Mexico and New York have thrown a bit of a hole in my kitesurfing progression, but now I’m back in town and had just been waiting for the right combination of wind and waves to get back down to Waddell and get in the water again. Last week there was a fairly good-sized swell - too big for me - and another storm coming in this week, so Sunday was the day. I checked iWindsurf and saw a hopeful blip upwards at 1:30 or so, and jumped on 280 south. Avoiding the potential pumpkin-picking nightmare traffic on 92, I took the long way around on 17 through Santa Cruz, and heading north through Davenport I could see whitecaps out to the left. Pulling into Waddell there were 15+ kites and a couple of windsurfers out on a perfect early-fall day: tons of sun, fog bank a little ways offshore, light swell and not too much surface chop.

I had called ahead and Brendan from H-Wood Kitesurfing met me at the beach and hooked me up with a new 9-meter Caution Answer kite and a 145cm board. I still had some cash from unloading the F250, so this was a perfect use for the found money. Brendan helped me rig the brand-new kite and bar and get it perfectly set up, and then I headed out into the water. I was a little apprehensive thinking about the cold, the kelp, the waves, the wind, the kite — not to mention who else might be cruising around out there — but I just went for it, and got out through the break without a hitch. The wind wasn’t howling and I was low- to a little under-powered on the 9m kite, but that was perfect for a first run out as it’s much less intimidating that way. Those kites are very powerful, and at this point I’d rather be a little under-powered rather than the other way around.

I got set up and started working back and forth.. after a few tries I got up and going both ways and really started to dial it in. Since I’m regular-footed, going left is way easier, and I can already get upwind a bit going that way, but going right is like riding switch backside and still feels scary and awkward, so it’s harder to get powered up - but I’m starting to get it. Also going right you’re headed out to sea, and those big patches of bull kelp that sit offshore a ways always look a little ominous. Anyhow I got some great runs in, and then headed in as I started to feel the wind drop and see other riders head for the beach. My last left-hand run in was killer, and I couldn’t resist catching a breaking wave near the beach and surfing a bit. I managed to hit it pretty well, and then kicked out of my footstraps as it finally caught up with me… I must have sort of yanked on the bar at that point, because my kite yanked me about 12 feet into the sky and pulled me a ways downwind while airborne. It was fairly gentle though, and I had to time to think, OK, how am I going to land this? and sheet out and land pretty smoothly - luckily it wasn’t too shallow, that could have been ugly. I spotted my board nearby in the whitewater and flew the kite back up the beach to land it.

Overall it was a perfect first run on the new rig. It was a beautiful day on the coast and I was happy to have heeded my own “quit while you’re ahead” extreme-sports advice and ended the day on a high note instead of trying for that ‘one more run’ that often ends badly. I want to send a huge thanks and props to Brendan at H-Wood Productions for his excellent teaching and fantastic positive attitude - he’s a super cool guy and I couldn’t imagine a better intro to kitesurfing. Learning at Waddell is undoubtedly more challenging than in flat, protected water, but I feel like I learned a lot more and have already been riding where I want to be able to ride. If you want to learn to kitesurf and you’re not afraid to get in the ocean, Brendan at H-Wood is your guy.

Stoked!