A while ago, I was kiting with Marc and some others and the winds were not good enough for the 8sqm. That was when I had to get the 12sqm again and I hate that kite. It’s slow, it’s got pulleys and it’s got all kinds of other stuff I don’t like (airlock valves and more things that can break). That day I lend my 8sqm Gaastra Jekyll to a little kid (well, I guess he was 14 or so. that’s less than half my age, so that qualifies as little…) who wanted to try it out and he was very much (and positively) surprised by the kite. Earlier that weekend I spoke to a guy that had the 14sqm Jekyll and he told me that that kite was obviously less speedy than the 8sqm, but that he positively surprised by its turning speed; he’d never had a speedier 14sqm before.

That made me decide to buy the 14sqm as well and to get rid the 12sqm, or at least, use the 14sqm Jekyll instead. I haven’t been able to test it yet and had the flue for four days last week, I also couldn’t go this weekend (well, there wasn’t enough wind even for a 14sqm this weekend anyway). So now hopefully, my spending spree related to kite boarding is finished for a while… This sport has cost me way too much money in the last year. But I think I’ve nailed it, although I’m still not quite sure if an 8sqm and a 14sqm will cut it. There is quite a big gap between the two kites. So if it’s blowing 18 knots for example, I should still be able to take the 14sqm, but then again, 18 knots is the minimum for the 8sqm and that kite is way faster and much easier to use. So a bigger overlap would have been good. Sure, I stil have the 12sqm, but like I said, I’d rather not use that kite anymore to be honest ;-).

So I’ve played a few games of poker yesterday, seen a few movies and listened to some music instead. The movies were Into the Wild (okay movie), No Country for Old Men (great movie, the best of the five I’ve seen in the past few days), Juno (nice, but overrated if you ask me), In the Valley of Elah (great movie, great performance by Tommy Lee Jones) and We Own the Night (good movie, if the last 10 minutes would’ve been better, it would have been comparable to The Departed if you ask me).

Music-wise, I’ve bought 23 Seconds from Cobblestone Jazz, a Jazz compilation album called The Jazz Influence (vol. 3), compiled by Kevin Yost, Booka Shade’s DJ KiCKS release and the soundtrack for Into the Wild, by Eddie Vedder (nice, Bruce Springsteen-style music, by Eddie Vedder, great stuff).

Oh, and the pictures… those are pictures from earlier kite sessions (click for larger versions). They’re all courtesy of Marc van Vliet.