Santa Barbara Harbor Whale

What do you do in Santa Barbara when you can't go flying? Well, you could always go hang out with our local harbor gray whale! On Tuesday after work I went down to the harbor by myself and jumped in one of my Dad's kayaks to see if I could find the whale that has been making the front page of the newspaper. Sure enough, he was out and about doing laps in the entrance of the harbor and I hung out for about 45 minutes before he took off. I thought I got a really cool video of him coming up next to my kayak but it turned out that I hadn't recorded it on my camera like I thought. I was so bummed because I couldn't show Ashley how close he got. So, the next day Ashley and I planned to go out together while she had a break at work. She did get to see him and it was really fun, though he never came that close and after a while he left again. By the time we went back in so Ash could go back to work my dad had just showed up and he wanted to go out so I figured this was my last chance to get a lucky shot. Out of pure luck, I got a really cool video. It's better if you click on the high quality (HQ) button and the full screen as well.

My switch to hang gliding explained

Lots of people have been asking me why I made the switch from paragliding to hang gliding. So I decided to really think about the main reason why and write it down. Now I can just tell them to go read my blog. About a year ago I started taking hang gliding lessons and received my Hang 2 rating but didn't get the chance to really start thermaling until a few weeks ago because things kept getting in my way like: not having the right gear or the right weather and oh yeah, a broken back (not from flying). Hey, this sport is all about patience so at least I got a good dose of it right off the bat. Essentially, I've had my eye on HGs since I started flying paragliders, and now I know why...it truely feels as close as it gets to pure flight and I don't think there is anything out there that puts a human closer to soaring like a bird. I feel like I'm finally in my element and looking forward to a lifetime learning experience in this sport. I'm also really stoked to have some of the best pilots in the world (who have been flying HG's longer than I've been alive) at my finger tips but not so stoked because I'm the only new pilot in SB since who knows when. All in all, I wouldn't take my PG experience back, because hey... it's already paid many dividends like, I've found out that it is really nice to know all the PG pilots as it gives me a much better chance a catching a ride back to town if I land out, and I don't really need to relearn how to fly cross country. Also, I look forward to helping bridge the social gap between the two flying circles because we should all be looking out for each other. So, at least I know what I'll be flying for awhile. I kind of like the saying, "Try everything in your 20s, perfect one thing in your 30s, and master it in your 40s" or something like that.


P.S. Oh yeah, A hang glider is probably my only chance at beating Bo and Dean cross country... haha, one day suckers!