The Windy Devil crew is going to be hanging at Camp Marky Mark from January 16th to the 25th.  For those of you that don’t know Mark is a legend down there so this is the place to be for this kiting event.
We have people flying into La Paz and Cabo so let us know and we can hook up and share rides to La Ventana.

Also this will be a great chance to see why the Rise is the kite to have for all styles of kitesurfing because you can fly it back to back with other brands.

Below are details I took off the Kiteboaders site.

See the final expo layout and more details here 2009lv_publicinfo.pdf

Final Exhibitors (16 total): Advance, Best, Caution, Eclipse, F-One, Freak Dog, Isle Surboards (SUPs), Liquid Force, Mystic, Naish (Sol Kiteboarding), North, Ocean Rodeo, RRD, Slingshot, Underground and Wainman HI (Kite Naked)

Treasure Hunt! All entrants in the Island Crossing will have the option to participate in a treasure hunt. Grand prize is a 2009 Naish kite and size of your choice, courtesy of Sol Kiteboarding! www.solkiteboarding.com

Rider Clinics: Details are being worked out by so far we have a freestyle clinic with F-One’s Etienne Lhote and a wave clinic with Caution’s Brendan Richards.

Top Raffle Prizes: Stuff is still coming up but you could win a 2009 BEST 12m Waroo, 2009 WAINMAN HI 12m Boss courtesy of www.KiteNaked.com, MYSTIC Kiteboarding gift certificates, board bags/luggage from NORTH and F-ONE and tons of other cool swag! Raffle tickets are $1 each and are good for day of raffle only. ALL tickets will go back into drawing for grand prizes on last day. Also just in, thanks to Transcend for donating a bunch of their new kiteboarding clothing designs to the cause! Raffle held under registration tent around 5p daily. Must be present to win.

Rescue Boats: Thanks to Ventana Windsports for sponsoring the ponga boats to get participants to and from the island safely! As we do every year, boat captains get a refresher  on how to rescue and pick up downed kiters.

Supporting Sponsors: Special thanks to Kitemasters, paddlesurf.net, Captain Kirk’s, Downwinder Inn, El Cardon Restaurant, La Ventana Builders, Dakine, iKitesurf.com and Transcend Apparel for their various support levels for the event!

Check out the YouTube video and the New York Times article.

Afterwards please sign the online petition!

First I looked at all the options out there between using a waterproof player or a case for a player. I decide to go with a case for my iPod because of the simplicity. I was already using iTunes to manage my music and it just made sense to keep going that way. I know I played right into what Apple wanted but after talking with a friend using a waterproof player and the problems he had adding and managing music for that player I am glade I did.



When I bought my 1st case the only H2Audio case available was one for my 3rd generation iPod. I am not even going to say how much I paid but it was way too much.

What I learned with this one was that I really didn’t need all the iPod features and that most of the time I would just select a playlist and hit the water. The other thing I learned is that waterproof headphones are not that great. Here are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation H2Audio earphones I have used.

Each generation gets better. Also you do need to be careful with the earphone wires. I have had 2 for the 4 pairs I own break on the inside after getting yanked. A thing that is hard to believe is that they do stay on your head. I would say that 3 of 5 major crashes they stayed in place or just came off of 1 ear.

After a year of kiting with the original case. I saw the shuffle version online and order it along with the second generation earphones. This has turned out to be the best set-up for kiting. It is the perfect size and it is easy to use while kiting.

Over all I have found that the H2Audio cases have worked well for me and most importantly have not leaked.

H2Audio released a new version of their headphone a month or so a go that claims to have better sound. I most likely will pick up a pair and maybe a 2nd generation shuffle and case for it for the 2009 season.

On a related note. Don’t buy the swimman waterproof shuffle. I bought one at the start of this season. After 3 sessions it stopped outputting sound. All other functions worked so it basically became a very expensive thumb drive. I sent it back and they could not fix it so they sent me another one. After 3 sessions the same thing happen to the new one. If you do get one and it last more than 3 sessions let me know

Inspection of the 2009 Mako 140

Ocean Rodeo hit a homerun with the Mako 140 kiteboard, I am loving it!

I am just figuring out this board.  It was my second day on it.
It is a true freeride board.
It carves like a surfboard but it is also light and snappy like a skateboard.
If the 150 is a hybird carving surfboard,  the 140 is a hybird carving twintip.

Loading up for a jump is the only thing I need to modify.
Because the tips are round and it only has a center fin on each side you need keep the fin in the water and not use the rail to load up for jumps.

I will post more tips about jumping this board as I learn them.