Might be too early to say but...... Sunday Feb 26

[Sonny]

A few shots from today that I had time to knock off. The wind was blowing hard and people came out to play.

Great meeting everyone! Send me an email at Lee@LeeAuerbach.com and I'll send you more pics.

[dbur]

nice shots! i guess you were the guy the L lens?

[Sonny]

And two more... (bed time)

[Northerner]

Great shots for sure. I really like the feeling of the Brokite pic, has a tough as nails look to it. Good work

We had a really nice day here with small kites being key. Jens and I rode north beach around 11:30 on our surf boards and 4.5 and 5 meter kites. Waves were big, but pretty blown out. This front came on so fast and strong it felt like the lake just went and threw up on itself. Right next to the pier we did find nicer waves but still not anything amazing besides being big. Still managed a couple of sweetturns and nice rides. By two the waves where getting big and I even turned away and ran from a set out on the off-shore reef. Around three we all went back to my place to warm up, grab some food and recharge. Waves looked great right in front of my house, with smooth water between them and length and size. Launched from south beach on 8's and 7s. Even though we where fully powered the current prevented us from going up wind and hitting a few breaks on the south side of town. I got nailed by a big set as I did a really sloppy low energy turn at the end of the day. Second wave pushed me and I dropped my kite in a lull. Got pounded pretty good in the float in.

Here are some pics taken by a teacher I work with.

Pic of me coming out a wave at north beach, 5 meter Rev, 5'8" Celeritas



Surfers went to the Cove behind north point here in town and scored big. I wish after our session we would have gone over and checked it out as I understand for the last hour of the day conditions were ideal.










I spoke with the person taking the photos and yes he made it out

[adseguy]

Sick last two photos there!!!! Never seen someone get barrelled on the lake!

That BROkite photo is awesome too. Almost looks photo-shopped because the background is so black and white. Looks like Chernobyl haha....BADASS

[grimace]

Here's a quick cut of the two rivers wind/ waves. Side on all day with 7m's. The waves were a lot better in front of the beach though, not the pier. Louie and I took a walk out to the pier to check it out though.

[Sonny]

I like where were taking this. We can be the Nuclear Crew, or some crap like that, haha.

I have some video footage also, but I hate how time intensive video editing is.

You can see some more pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_photos/

There's a few more windsurfing shots (juan) and kiters.

[IVO]

Very cool photos Sonny,thank you for sharing!!!

[FSP]

Northpoint...hard to get it right but a reef break on the lake that barrels, well how bout that! amazing spot and holds form on the biggest of days..thanks for those photos!!

nice to see the great kite photos too.

[Dutchkiteboarder]

I had my GoPro hanging in the kite the day. Too bad my hands were cold and I couldn't get too much riding going the action stayed limited. But after almost 3 hours of editing this is the result:

[JDL]

Windsurfers, Kiters, Bro boards, Surfers....So many cool pictures and perspectives

Lake Michigan...

[Bryce FLK]

What thickness wet suit are you gentlemen wearing? I am in the market for an early spring/fall wetsuit (5/4 w/ hood??)

What about boots and gloves?

Any websites or links or rules of thumb to follow?

I am itching to get out there but I think Ill stick to the 90 degree rule.

[jensmadwind]

I was wearing a npx 6/4 with attached hood, 3mm ocean rodeo cold fire gloves and 5 mm mystic high top booties. I was able to stay comfortable outside all day long. The most important factor imo is having your neck and ankles sealed tight to prevent flushing both into the suit and into the booties.

All the pictures are great, I love it when people contribute shots from all over so experiences and conditions can be compared. I was looking at the link that Sonny posted and am going to have to call bs on the wind speed caption. 30 mph with gusts to 50? the wind graph on ikitesurf for the day does not record a gust over 40. Chaos happens at 50.

[gbleck]

Went out sailing instead on Sunday. This race the wind peaked 30+ knots right as I tried to turn back to the start(4:30). Poped the ruder out... YARG. Fun times. Beat Mo on the down wind when his sholder dislocated.

[Dutchkiteboarder]

What thickness wet suit are you gentlemen wearing? I am in the market for an early spring/fall wetsuit (5/4 w/ hood??)

What about boots and gloves?

Any websites or links or rules of thumb to follow?

I am itching to get out there but I think Ill stick to the 90 degree rule.

Was wearing a 5/4 with a 2mm shorty over my suit and a full hoody. The only thing that was cold were my hands. Got myself nice pair of dive gloves at the local dive shop down my street.

Like Ryan said as long as everything is nice and sealed off you should be fine. But as always listen to your body and not what your mind says

[Sonny]

@jensmadwind... 50mph was made up. But at 9:30am, it's hard for me to believe there wasn't a few gusts that hit around there.

The signs were bouncing off their hinges and I couldn't even stand straight (let alone take pics/video)

@Maurice... You need to put that go pro lower down. It's too wide angle. Would be cool to see you riding closer up. Great video though!

[Kevin]

@Maurice - where in the world did you mount your camera? It almost looks like a line mount. When I put mine on my kite it's attached to the center strut and you can always see some of the kite. Is that somehow attached to the leading edge? And what video editing did you use where it rotates the frame to always see you upright?

Kevin

[Dutchkiteboarder]

@ Kevin - I attached it to my lines and it worked out pretty good. But what happened was during the launch my camera started to slide more up (towards the kite) so it got a little bit higher close the kite. It was a huge experimental. I used Sony Vegas to edit the camera position it was called Track Motion or something. It was a b*tch to do because I had to go through every single frame to see how it looked and it was my first real edit as well.

[gbleck]

Yea it looked like it was using your body as the tracking point. Cool technique.