Cloud Base addict

A Coatimuhndi came thru here!  It moved like a cat and didn’t like all the attention it was getting so bolted.  There seem to be a fair amount of skinny house cats running around.  Minus the house.  Very friendly tho.

The bottom right picture has a big Iguana right in the center.  That sucker was making his neck fin go up and down when I took the picture.  All the other ones I’ve seen were mostly greenish brown.  This one was black and white.  Looked like “Stripe”, the lead Gremlin.  BIG!

I got some pictures this morning while a bunch of vultures were doing their thing down extra low.  Early, they scratch maybe 50-100ft over our house before the heat of the day kicked in.  Today, they took a break in the trees behind the pool as they fell out of the thermals.  They gave it the typical Hang Glider try.  Several flapped back up a couple times before giving up and landing for 30 minutes.  When the day gets stronger, they all work together to center in a “house” thermal that’s directly upwind of here.  Their teamwork and the way they are all trying slightly different circles and merging into the best working cores dynamically reminds me of flying at lookout with all the PG’s.  These birds do it all day every day and will drift over our place all the way to the ocean and then drive back upwind to the hill/house thermal.  They only get about 2k max altitude.  Super entertaining.  I’m guessing these things are 5ft across.

Yesterday, things were coming together in the surf world.  And the sunset surf session is amazing again.  Smaller waves yesterday and hopefully today which makes for great practice on just transitioning to our feet.  Got to ride some waves all the way in on my feet which was the goal.  It’s hard, and the feeling of paddling to catch a wave and getting up high on the crest as you try and dive the board forward and jump to your feet at the same time is a riot.  Mostly b/c the downside at that point is a substantial pummeling if it’s not done right.  Hilarious really.  A load of jellyfish piled into the beach last night in a short span and a couple of us surfers got stung.  Those things freak me out.

Did you know you can’t put toilet paper in the toilets here?  That’s a culture shocker.  Also, there’s a racoon here that’s been super cute, but he’s got a thing for taking morning poops right on the pool trap covers each morning.  Not on my good side.  Last night when we were taking the discovery channel close ups of the armadillo (below), the coon kept approaching in the dark and weirding me out.  Felt like I was about to get flanked by a rabid animal!  Anyway, survived it to see him tonight again probably.  He’s going to have to stop pooping on the pool deck or we can’t be friends anymore.

The kids are having a great time at our pool and the deck.  And watching the wierd bugs/animals.  Also, ordering food here is challenging b/c my Spanish is horrendous.  If they don’t understand what you’re asking you’ll get what they guess… Like yesterday, I ordered an Orange Juice and got three smoothies.  LOL!  Got to roll with it.  It’s great fun and they have good humor’s luckily.  Also, if you don’t ask for the check, it will never come b/c they don’t want to rush you.  Cool, different.

Pura Vida

So these little monkey’s cruise across the trees in our back yard.  I think maybe 20 of them came by in a troop yesterday.  One had the smallest litte baby clinging on for dear life.  Their the most entertaining animal to watch ever.  Thoughtful, and acrobatic.  They make a highway out of some branches here that look like they’re on the verge of breaking off.  And they use their long tails like a back-up “belay” device.  That little sucker is always holding onto something sturdy.

Weird bugs.. A geko had a face-off with an enormous leaf bug on the banister above our porch.  Geko went under the leaf bug’s legs and continued on as the leaf bug decided to chase the geko for a while.  The big beetle was about the size of a golf ball.  If that sucker landed on me, I’d scream like a little girl.  An armadillo came by our porch yesterday too.  I’ll try to get a picture of a big Iguana soon and some other wierd racoon like thing… which by the way took a huge duece on our pool deck.

Oh yeah, surfing is a blast.  Had my first 2 days and the sunset surf session last night made it clear why people get addicted to surfing.  It’s like Hang Gliding in many ways.  Seems impossible to master, you’re at the mercy of conditions to some extent, and the rewards of getting it right are pretty dang special.  Paddling out thru the big waves and getting just beat down…  and performing a thing called “pearling” where you try to get on a wave, but miss and fall over the curl into the wave adds enough punishment to create a special respect for the strength of these things.  And adds to the enjoyment ridiculously.

Pura Vida

We smelled the Coors brewery while we set up and Andy, the Irish Maverick, and Sam soared around before toplanding and waiting for it to get better.  Last nights’ cold front snow layer was still there on most non-South facing earth and I think it held back the potential some.

Forgot to turn on the video cam after I mounted it on the keel and some of the best footage yet will have to be entrusted to my memory.  Which has limited shelf life.

Andy and I climbed to about 7800 over launch and headed N. towards Boulder.  That’s low for an XC, but it seemed like the lower levels were just boiling.  Andy and I were flying close and trying to make the most of every little puff so we’d converge a bunch.  I remember diving to go under him once.  The last time I was gliding from Lookout on this route, I was following Loopy and Andy with the 225 Falcon.  This time, it was awesome to see the Sport 2’s glide as I went next to Andy once and cruised ahead.  Then I had to watch his shadow to see if he started to turn in anything.  We both found lift that just wasn’t organized much.  We’d swap and try each others lift and repeat but couldn’t gain much.  Then, lower over a ridge with Andy, Kiernan(way above) and 2 eagles, I was lower and decided to start heading back to Lookout.  Big altitude was necessary to press on to the N. and I was getting too low over a ritzy gated community I landed in last year and I ain’t doing that again.  Andy got up to 8k(?) there and made an attempt to cross over Ralston and we thought he had landed.  Turns out he did land after a while, but hiked up a hill to relaunch.  Awesome.

It was Kiernan’s 1st or 2nd flight on his new Maverick PG and it seems like he’s already put a deposit on the high ground.  He came in super low under Andy and I by the Highway department and climbed thru me when I was sure he was destined to deck it.  Then we all kinda shared the ridge where I pointed to on the below picture for a while, all trying to find a ticket back up.  Driving towards a thermal that Andy was sharing with 2 Golden Eagles was the coolest thing.  They were probably 30-50ft below him and I headed straight at them.  One flipped over and tucked in his wings to a massive speed and then rejoined us on his climb back up.  He was on my wingtip for half a circle.  It really was spectacular.

It was great starting an XC together.  I was watching the best glide indicator a lot on my 6030 trying to keep on speed and using 3/4 VG a lot.  It will take practice and bigger thermals to be proficient at that for a while.  It’s pretty different to digest the subtle air messages when the glider responds so differently with the tight sail.  Also, I’ve noticed for 3 flights now that I’m flying 27mph at my “trim” vs the old 24mph when I had the stock sprog setting.  I tried to slow down in some thermals but was only a little bit successful.  I kinda like the extra speed to push out (tighten up the turn) with when I get in the crappy side of the thermal anyway.

Almost forgot, I had my first crappy landing on the Sport 2 and broke a dntube.. Another reason I wish I’da had the video.  That would have been priceless.  Reason being is that from the opposite end of the field, you could see I was going downhill big time with a lot of speed at the beginning.  You could see my problem way ahead of me as it played out.  There was no coming down as I drug my feet on the ground, was hitting cat tails and finally, as I approached the other fence (barbed wire model), with power lines above it, and a highway on the other side, I still wasn’t at a comfortable flare time.  I knew I had to flare anyway so I started one and climbed 10-15 before I aborted that.  I let her turn a little left as I kinda tried to mush down and turn a smidge too.  So I did a ground loop kinda thing and my body just bent the left dntube like a twizzler.  Oh well.  Didn’t hurt a bit.

Next time I won’t fly over a perfect LZ to gain another 100 yards.  Although I was hoping a thermal was back there and it kinda was too btw.  Oh well.  I’m off to Costa Rica on Monday for 2 weeks of sun and learning to Surf, and whatever else we can come up with.

Sorry about the lack of video, it hurts me to have missed so many highlights!  Next time.  Nice flying with you guys!

Airtime:  41 minutes

Miles:  7