County Line

After getting back to SoCal, I was itching to go kite some of the spots that my skill level precluded me from in the past.  Many of the great spots have narrow, short beaches, and that means you have to be able to stay upwind comfortably to make it back to the beach — something I wasn’t good at yet before La Ventana.  When a storm was forecasted to come through, I decided to check out Leo Carillo beach — a popular spot with kiteboarders.  The forecast on Wednesday was for 20-30 mph building to over 30.  I ended up going a little further down to County Line (Ventura/Los Angeles county line of Surfin’ USA fame) because, surprisingly giving the windy conditions, not that many people were out.

The session that followed was the most intense one so far in my short kiting career.  Chest high to over-head wind chop (i.e. steep on both sides) and gusty conditions made for a wild ocean rodeo.  It was exhilarating, it was scary, it was fun!  The first wave I jumped I got about 10 ft of air without trying to jump.

I ended up only staying out for an hour and a half, as the watertemperature of around 55° F and the dumping of my kite into the surf were convincing arguments to call it a day.  I hung around a little longer to take a few photos, and keep an eye out for a kiter that had some equipment issues (he ended up self rescuing with no incident), and then headed on across PCH to Neptune’s net for a brew and a hot bowl of clam chowder.

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