I never thought I would use the word epic and Texas in the same sentence but I'm going to have to to describe this past weekend in Corpus Christi. I had big expections for my weekend of kiting and cycling and it didn't disappoint. I got out of town early friday morning and rolled into Corpus around 3:30. I was super psyched because I hadn't kited since I left Hawaii about two years ago. I had seen good things about Corpus in kiting magizines so I had been planning on going down for awhile. I rolled up on the beach and it looked like perfect conditions with several kiters out, sweet. I get my 10m out and start pumping only to realize one of the valves on the bladder had came loose due to sitting for the past two years. I was bummed but knew I could probably fly my 14m. I get it out and start pumping, sure enough two valves where bad on it. At this point I wasn't a very happy camper but knew it was my fault since I didn't check my equipment before I came down. I asked around about shops in town to see what time they opened, 9am, no problem I still had plenty of time to kite. The rest of the evening I completly relaxed, drank a few beers on the beach and ate some good seafood. I had planned on camping on the naval air station all weekend but I found out you can camp right on the beach, perfect!! I found a sweet spot and chilled. I woke up the next morning to make the group ride at 7:30. I missed the start but hooked up with the group later, I met tons of cool people and got a good 45 miles in. After the ride I headed over to the kite shop. As I was in the shop I started talking to a few people and then met a guy named Matt, his wife Lorainne and there 3 year old daughter Clarissa. Matt heard that I was camping all weekend and invited my to stay with them if I wanted, we exchanged numbers and went on our way. I roll to the kite spot and start fixing, 5 valves later the kites are fixed, good thing I bought extras. Then disaster struck, as I was blowing up my 10 a bladder exploded, end of story for my 10 for the rest of the trip. I was really bummed because I was afraid the wind was going to pick up and I wouldn't be able to use my 14. The wind ended up being perfect all day and I got in one of the sweetest kiting days I've ever had, I couldn't believe how quickly it came back. As I was packing up, I check my messages and Matt had called. I gave him a call back and soon I was off to his house for dinner, shower and air conditioned bed to sleep in! So after thinking my trip couldn't get any better it quickly did. We ended up going to see some awesome live music, I did the group ride again the next morning and rode from Matt's house, we kited about three hours that evening using his kites, watched the Giro and they cooked me an unreal shrimp dinner that night. It was ridiculous!!!!!! Thanks again you guys, I couldn't have had a better weekend. The plan is Corpus again over the 4th.

As if that wasn't enough there was chapter two of the weekend. My buddy Jesse from Alaska called me on Saturday and he just so happened to be in San Antonio. He had already been there for a little while for Combat Rescue training but this weekend he had a little free time, imagine that, I was heading through San Antonio on my way home it was perfect. I hadn't seen him since I left Hawaii so we where long over due, I rolled in at about 1pm and we hung out for a few hours. It's always awesome to hang out with Jesse because we're both freak shows when it comes to fitness so we always feed off each other. He's in the early stages of CRO training, it's basically the most intense training the AF has to offer. Every type of fitness and training you can imagine while getting kicked in the nuts for 9 weeks. Jesse's 32 years old and he said he's considered the old man of the class, it's funny how the old guy of the class is the biggest bad ass in the class. How does that work???? He said they started with 91 guys two weeks ago and they're already down to 61, if 20 guys are left at the end that will be alot. When he's done he'll be rescueing people off of Denali on a regular basis. Keep kicking ass down there, it'll be over in no time!!!!!

Up next, meeting Spring this weekend for some cycling in the mountains in Cloudcroft NM, bring on the trees!!!!