Play Time: Let's Go Fly a (giant) Kite!

I've talked before about Scott's obsession with kiteboarding.  We both come from athletic backgrounds; he is a two-time Ironman, we both have run our fair share of marathons, are accomplished downhill skiers and prior to our lives afloat we were triathletes.  While physical activity for me was more about fitness, for Scott it's simply a way of life.  Sitting idle is not something he is used to so it was only a matter of time before he'd find a water sport to fill the athletic void in his life.  He found it in kiteboarding.  The man is obsessed.

The sport is not easy, by any means.  It's condition specific, gear intensive (we have several kites and two boards for various conditions, along with helmets, harnesses and pumps) and usually requires someone in a chase boat to help out....but despite all this effort - effort which looks incredibly tiresome to me (I'll stick with simple SUPing, thankyouverymuch) - Scott assures me that the rush of getting up on that board makes it totally worth it.  Just seeing how happy it makes him to have a few hours out on the water zooming around makes me happy, and when everyone on a relatively small boat is happy, well, life is good.

Yesterday's conditions were about as perfect as they can get; a cross shore wind of about 20-25 knots, flat seas and lots of space to play.  Scott immediately took all his gear to the beach and our buddy Luuck happily followed him in our dinghy to make sure he didn't get himself into trouble.  I must admit, as dangerous as this sport can be (and as nervous as that makes me), it's incredibly beautiful to watch and seeing how happy it makes my honey makes it all worth it, even if we do have a crap load of gear jamming up our aft head shower stall.  We never use it, anyway.  Much nicer to shower outside on the aft deck so storage space it is!