Friday, September 30, 2016

A full day of rain in east winds but big waves pays off in Lexington

Drove up to Lexington on Wadhams road a new way up that save time and got me to the beach by 2 o'clock. Arrive to find dead winds and Craig, Tom and Keith sitting around talking about how the wind it just died. By 3 PM it's game on. When's now blowing out of the East 15 to 20 and I'm rigging the 12 m to follow Keith out. Waves galore clean faces and good spacing and 3 to 5 foot curling beauties. Lots to learn in the math of slacking the lines and carving tight turns to keep the kite powered up while rolling down the faces. Great three hours of practice I don't like Huron even though it was raining all day lots of smiles and beers to drink. Winds peak around 30+ at 5 PM so the last hour is real fun as the rain keeps coming down waves are building in the day is coming to an end. Another worthwhile Lex drive and truly interesting East wave session.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

HI delivers big west winds for the Duke and 9m

Bring on Fall sailing. Excellent fall winds west 18-30+ for the 9m which peaked 5:30-7 in the 30's. Jibing the hell out of Duke with moving up my feet and driving the heelside trench. Good wave and swell to play on and excellent session drifting the kite with some backward drifting that I can see controlling better with practice. So good was on water until 7:15 - 9 minutes from sundown - still blowing and looking epic with sun hitting water.

Holly so good in fall with no humidity, sun and 70 degrees

Fall Fat Bike perfection at Holly. Long fun ride with bike just riding so good. Big tires floating over roots, logpiles and sand like butter. Life at 13psi is right on. Will be back next weekend!

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Rubber legs after fast Downy from PSM

Perfect day at Lexington. Got started by 1 PM with north winds blowing 15 to 20 and partly sunny and 70 degrees. But where's the bigger winds? About 3 o'clock Craig, Tom (wavering on going but so happy we did!) and I decided to head up to Port Sanilac for the downy. Winds were blowing 18 to 22 still steady north as we launch the kites and went outside through inside PS marina break wall. Let's rock some down the line kite drifting and nice 2-4' breaking shore waves. Super fast 20 miles of jibes throughout the 10 mile run. Wind steady 20 and never changed with three of us staying pretty tight the whole way. So great going straight down win for over an hour and a half. Tons of speed and really only dropped in the water twice when I got yanked off the board going straight down wind. The Duke was perfection in carving down and up wave faces as well as letting it run. The best part was it wasn't too bumpy since the wind wasn't crazy was actually very smooth in between the waves and in certain sections were there were sandbars. A couple of areas they had to be careful because we saw big rocks popping out but all in all it was 12m perfection. Definitely the 2016 highlight of the year so far for sailing. 











Sunday, September 18, 2016

Sunday Stony is really good DH.

Epic 73 and sun with slightly moist dry singletrack. Really good 1:30 ride with 3 loops of the marker #20-29. Fast and perfect for fat wheels. Bluto doing all the work up front perfectly.  




Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Tuesday's Rooting Riding at Novi

An hour of lots of roots and bumming out on the Fat-Ti. Lots of people out with 84 degrees and the last of the humidity - I hope. 10 miles for a great tech evening ride. 





Thanks, Chris

Chris Lyons, President
Direct Email: jsealyons@gmail.com

Acme Tube Bending Co., Inc.
Tubular Assemblies 3/16" to 3/4" O.D.
3180 W. 11 Mile Rd.
Berkley, MI 48072
Phone: 248-545-8500
Fax: 248-545-8520

Monday, September 12, 2016

Great day at MB forecast well off a Big Blow.

Amazing 15-20 SSW on NOAA goes to 40mph by 11am and challenges just holding the 9 down for awhile. Classic Saturday partly cloudy 75 degrees at MB with 5-10 WS out and 20-30 kiters. A gift for sure on a Saturday. I got out by 9 on the 9m and never got off it. Only negative was weeds and one run on the Duke saying no way. Mako was great though especially repeated heelside downwinder slashing and drifting. What's amazing with kiting in high wind was with the wind blowing 40 fully depowered on the 9 and going upwind it was bucking gusty and hard to hold down but... Turnaround and go pretty much downwind heelside with kite over my left shoulder and it's perfection power and lip ripping spray! Had to take off some depower even-love it. Had great 3 hours in AM then got suckered out at 1 and had to race in. But by 2pm got a gift in another 2 hours solid 9. Luckily I was spent by 4pm and just got in before the 20 to zero collapse that left others swimming in. All in all a great day that was not expected. I could have even windsurfer had I guessed it would have been 4.7. Beer me x3!

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Mount McSauba delivers on South thermals

Woo. Drive to Charlevoix pays off big with Southern wind flow. 1pm started to tease light gusts as we did long walk out to beach from the McSauba parking lot. Soon after we're 10-20 and building sun and 82 degrees - lets rig. 12 and Duke right on but definitely gusty and holes. Sticking with it and seeing the huge boulders through the crystal clear its now solid 12 with swell. Cool water and shallow depths makes this spot great with some onshore flow. Got to sail Duke barefoot and what a difference even over the 5 toe booties. Some great heelside action right into crowds on shore. Fun stuff with impressive ease of feet switching barefoot. Next it's full 10" of depower and SSW 20-30 hanging on. 3:30 now and it's 9m but time to hit road but 12 too much now. Tough to leave but nice 2 hour sesh that wasn't planned at this great sandy point site. Now we got our South wind spot near LTB.

The Highlander Boynechileda

Great ride. Probably best I MI linking of all B Hi singletrack. Blue into Green into Blue into Black into Orange. Great flow, climbs and payoff with downhill. Felt like 20 miles but only 13.6 in 2 hours. Great dry sun and 80 degrees. Epic on the Fat-Ti. Let sand never slow you down - just float over it.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Thursday Lex Delivers swell and 9m North after the rain!

2:30pm First hour of 12m small waves sun and dropping north winds and here comes the only rain in the area. Totally dead 3:30 to 4:15. But 4:30 suns out -guns out. Rigged 9m and Duke and 3.5 hours of building waves and solid 9. Sun back and I spent the next 3 hours down the line craving up 2-5' waves in the "pit" 1/4 mile down from launch. Great riding and trading urns with the Silver Fox on first official day of retirement. Excellent day and I'm last one off water at 7:40 with sunset 20 minutes later. Totally worth drive today and home to pack for HS trip.