In keeping with our kitesurfing POTD, here is a great
San Francisco Chronicle story
about the sport and its growing popularity in the Bay Area. For those who don’t know, the writer describes kitesurfing
(also called kiteboarding) as a sport in which “kiters must pilot a giant kite while steering a board”. It draws upon
elements of many other sports and is very challenging, but quite a rush as well.
Photo of the Day: (3/18/05)
Kiteboarding is so fricken cool. I was wondering the other day what the folks on the Mayflower would have thought if, while they were sailing across the Atlantic, they suddenly spied a kitesurfer off the port bow. What a world we now live in, eh?
Anyhow, check out this sweet POTD from the Dominican Republic.
Looking for a Killer Surf Hotel?
So was Bill Lee. He had very exacting requirements, too. He wanted the perfect surf spot with ample opportunities for hard-core adventure junkies, but also the perfect mix of laid-backedness and good food and friendly people. So when he had trouble finding this hotel, he said fu%$ it, I’ll start my own. Which is what he did.
So after cruising the surf beaches of the Caribbean and the northern Pacific for a year or so he decided to found eXtreme Hotels. EXtreme Cabarete, Lee’s property on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, matches his ideal. It caters to adrenalin sport enthusiasts, from kite boarders, to paragliders and rock climbers.
Kitesurfing in Venezuela
Having very briefly dabbled in kite surfing way back when, I was a bit skeptical about how easily the sport seemed
to come to the author of
this
piece on kitesurfing in Venezuela.
Kitesurfing is, without a doubt, one of those sports that I’d love to learn, but it seems to me that it would take a
long time to pick up. Just the difficulty I had trying to control the kite (sans board) suggested that this was no
simple new activity; not like say, sea kayaking, which can be picked up rather quiickly by the average Joe or
Josephine.
No matter, give it a read, and if anything it might inspire you to give kite surfing a try.
Surf Channel
Hey folks, check this out. The Surf Channel offers online videos on surfing
with some really cool stuff. From snow boarding to surfing the videos are well-produced and a great way to pass the
time during lunch.