Cloud Surfing at Kahana

I felt very lucky to find some unusually nice cloud surfing conditions today at Kahana, on my first day back in town. I was out there with Doug, Jorge, Scot and Jim. Cloudbase was around 1800 feet, but at one point I was up there at the cloud tops, close to 3000 feet. What a privilege to fly over a view like that - I was shouting out loud from happiness!

Shortly after that high point, I smelled a burnt wet odor which I found truly disconcerting, because I knew it was coming from the valley - the wind had shifted offshore. I was high enough to just bail out immediately, heading over the back and between the clouds to the Punaluu ridge, then to Hauula, and finally landing across from the 7-11.

A very nice but totally unhinged homeless guy there patiently explained his take on the gospel of Urantia, something about albino aliens populating the planet billions of years before the dinosaurs, with some kind of sperm dripping down upon the moist mountains to create life as we know it. Also, he's met Jesus about 15 times.

So the guy follows me to the bus stop and explains in detail about how the Bible is folded, not literally but figuratively, because of some inconsistency about the 14th generation of Abraham. Finally I gave up on the bus and begged Scot to come get me, and I hid behind the beach park wall to sip my beer until he arrived to rescue me.

When I got back to Kahana they told me that Jorge had encountered strong sink on his landing approach, and had descended in a parachutal stall 150 feet, aiming for the water instead of the beach out of concern for his tandem passenger. They splashed into waist-deep water and spent the next couple of hours rinsing out the wing and harness.

Despite all of that craziness, it's good to be home! I can't wait to see everyone - hopefully out flying this weekend, and in more consistent air than we saw out there today.