Otimo

We are now back in Cumbuco. We came back for the Best Kiteboarding party/auction and the end of the KPWT championship. The Best party was unbelieveable fun. Tons of people, a great band, and cheap kites. I ended up winning, at auction, a 9m Nemisis HP and a prototype board for really cheap. The next day, unfortunately, me and Brianna spent much of the day recovering (it was that good) so we missed the last day of the contest. Oh well.

The day after the contest we spent in Taiba to avoid the competitor/spectator crowd at the Cumbuco lagoon. As usual, Taiba was great. After spending nearly two weeks there we have met quite a few people and kiting with people you know (and also the same people) every day is much better than random crowds. That day was special as everyone seemed to show up for a full day session (see the pics below including Alex Shogren's huge kiteloops). That night, myself and Bri went to dinner/poker game/birthday party with a bunch of the Best Kiteboarding guys and friends in Pecem, a town just south of Taiba. Dinner was expensive, poker was fun, and lots of fun was had.

Kiting back in Cumbuco has been frustrating. After spending so much time in the butter flat lagoons, the chop is very unforgiving. Brianna almost refuses to kite in it. Yesterday, though, we headed south into Icari (next town over) to kite at a lagoon there. Unfortunately I tore a footstrap the day before and hurt my hip pretty bad so I wasnt kiting but Brianna had a blast in the lagoon. This spot, for some reason, never (ever) gets crowded. We know a couple who has been going there very often for the last month or so who say it is not uncommon to have the whole lagoon to themselves for the day. I think this will be our new Cumbuco kiting spot. crowds and chop sucks.

In a few hours I'll be picking my Dad up from the Fortaleza airport for his 10 day visit. We will be spending our first two nights here in Cumbuco then heading up north for the remainder of his time here. We haven't been farther than Paracuru yet so this should be fun. More to come.

In other news, I picked up a used surfboard in Icari a couple weeks ago. Coming to Brazil I knew I wanted to do some wave kiting and figured I could pick up a cheap board here. I ended up buying a used board (Thanks for your help Kyle) in pretty good condition with a bag, stomp pads, wax, and two keychains for around $200CDN. The keychains sealed the deal.

The board is a surfboard so it would be pretty hard to properly attach footstraps. I thought this would be a bit of a problem in the beginning but so far it hasn't been an issue. I can jibe in the ocean when I have time to think about it and find a good spot to do it but as soon as I get close to the breaking waves it's all heel-side to toe-side. Kiting in the waves has opened a whole new chapter for me with my kitesurfing. I love it. A lot. I used to think I could get away with almost the same feeling on a twin-tip. No way, not at all. I'm not very good and spend a lot of time looking like im trying to balance on a tight rope but it's only getting better and better. For anyone who hasn't tried wave kiting, do it, without a twin tip.

Tchau,

Dan and the B-monster