The Kit

Friday May 27th, 2011

Hey all!

I have been delayed on my road trip to the east coast, as my friend Mirjam has had some problems recently, and currently can’t be host to me as we had planned.  I may still be able to go out to visit her, but it will be later, so for now I have been enjoying the life here in Babbitt, staying with my parents, and occasionally working when I am not too busy enjoying spring.

Life in this small town is quite sweet for a bike rider, there are trails only a block away that lead into the woods, and follow a XC ski trail system!  It’s amazing to bike thru the woods, full of deer, and other animals, as the trail winds up and down hills, near ponds, lakes, and creeks!  I have been on it several times, and have yet to see another human.. Mt. bike paradise, just outside my door!

Then there is the trail system near my buddy Jerry’s place.. (30 min from Babbitt, at the edge of Aurora.)   This is all paved trail, and miles long in all directions, also just a block or two outside his door!  This is convenient for those times I am over at the TTS assembly facility doing work, and need a break for some spin time.  I am amazed at the quality of it, nice and smooth, and winds through some beautiful woods, so it is just a pleasure to cruise around on!  I often go from his place to Giants Ridge, and then back towards Biwabik, before returning to his driveway.  Again, been on it a few times now, and have never seen another user..  My own private trails!  Awesome on sunny spring days!

Of course the plan to be able to windsurf while here, along with the bikin’ has kept me busy with much searching, quoting, researching, measuring, and deep thought, but I have finally gathered together the required items for life stateside.  I have my transport, the Aztek, (aka: Da Tek) all maintained, accessorized, cleaned up, and able to be my mobile home.  I have outfitted her with a Saris hitch mount bike rack, and Thule roof rack, so Da Tek can haul all my toys!

And the toys… hummm… I have posted a group of pics that describe it all quite well in the photos link, but some details; the bike is a Specialized Crosstrail Pro Disc (http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCProduct.jsp?spid=52743&scid=1002&scname=Transport/Fitness) and has proven to be a very nice ride!  It has tires that are smooth on the center, with grip on the sides, so it rolls on pavement like a street bike, but as soon as it gets off road, the knobby sides grab like any Mt. bike tire I have used!  This makes it a dream to run to the store or around town, and it just loves the local off road trails for some forest bump and jump!  I have gotten a lot of use out of this already, very nice investment!

It took a bit longer to get kitted for windsurfing.  I almost pulled the cord on a full set of new gear, but thankfully Karl at Vela Windsurfing read my ‘Road Trip’ blog, and offered up some used 2011 kit from Baja at fantastic prices!  After getting his price list of available stuff, I jumped all in for a full set of gear!  I now have four 2011 JP boards on the roof of Da Tek:

122L Excite Ride (http://www.jp-australia.com/2011/index.php?id=187)

102, 93, and 85 L Freestyle Wave!  (http://www.jp-australia.com/2011/index.php?id=172)

I was a bit worried on the condition, as one should be with used kit, but after unpacking it all the other day; I am blown away at how fresh they all look!  Only 3 months of use really made them like new!  Very pleased with price and quality!

For sails, the Vela prices were so low; I expanded my desired four sails quickly to six, and ordered the following 2011 Neil Pryde sails from the Baja used gear:

7.7M, 7.2, 6.2, 5.7, 5.2 in Hellcats, (http://www.neilpryde.com/sails/freeride/2011-hellcat.html)

And a 4.7M Combat. (http://www.neilpryde.com/sails/wave/2011-combat.html)

These also arrived the other day, (Except the Combat..ETA Jun 1^st..) and I went thru them all with a fine toothed comb, and found all of them to be of top-notch quality.  A few were like brand spankin’ new!  There was some wear, and leftover sand here and there, but they all rigged like a dream, and look awesome!  I can’t wait to give them a try!  (See pics of same in the photos link..)  I also had two NP X3 booms from Baja in on the shipment, as they were just too cheap to pass up, and would do the trick, until I get a chance to replace them someday with carbon.

I used Isthmus Sailboards and my friend Jon there for the required new masts, bases, deck plates, unis, board bags, uphauls, and harness lines.  For masts I got a 460 cm GT 75% Carbon, then NP X6 masts in 430, 400, and 370 cm lengths.  Two Chinook carbon bases, four deck plates, two unis, two Dakine board bags, and two Epic board bags.  I rigged each sail up yesterday, replaced all lines on the booms, and checked thru all the kit for proper fit and function, and have to say, it is ready!  And so am I!!

I do have some tweaking yet to do for the roof-rack.  I need to do some customization to let me store some sails, masts and booms up there, as well as the four boards, to free up some interior space for passengers, and luggage.  It all fits right now, but I have to remove one rear seat to make it fit, and therefore about half of the area behind the front seats is used for masts, sails and booms.  This works, but I would like to return the rear seat, so I don’t have to store it, and can still take a full load of people.  I think the Dakine Rapid Transit bag in the center between the pairs of boards, would take enough of the stuff to the roof to let me put the rear seat back in.  I will have to go look at one to make sure it all fits, but hope to add that this weekend in the Cities.

So the mobile windsurf center is almost ready to go!  My first trip will be to the MSP area this weekend, and hope there might be some wind to try it all out, but the forecast is not promising, so I will just continue my work on the rack.  I then plan to return to Babbitt for the delivery of the final sail before going west to visit nearby South Dakota later in the week to check out the glacial lakes on the prairie, and meet up with a new friend that lives near there.

So that is the latest.. for now..

Luego!

Timo

ROAD TRIP!

Wednesday May 5th, 2011

Greetings, Tervist, Hola!

I have returned to the US, but the adventure continues!  My plan is to now do a little windsurfing US style!  OK, it’s just a plan right now, and wind has its own idea of when it wants to blow, but a plan is forming…..

Before I got back to Minnesota, it became apparent I would need a mode of transport to get around from Minneapolis, the four hours north to my hometown of Babbitt.  For this trip I had used Jerry, and it worked out quite well.

He had driven down from his home/work-lab in Aurora to pick me up, and to check out some cars he had a mind to look over for a possible replacement to his wife Daniel’s car.  He had found one, and after my airport pickup, we met the owner of one he wanted nearby for a look.

It was exactly what he was looking for, and a nice price, so after a test drive, and a visit to the bank, he had himself a new-used Pontiac Bonneville!  A mirror image to his current car, only nicer!   This was just perfect, as we now had drivers for both, and in a few short hours he had his new car in his garage!  Always nice when things work out right on the timing!

Jerry had been planning to put his wife Daniel’s Pontiac Aztek up for sale, and had offered me the chance to buy it at a nice price before he put it out with a ‘For Sale’ sign in the windshield.  This was like a sign for me to take the Aztek for my transport mode, and I drove the last few miles from his house back to Babbitt in the Aztek..

It took a few days more of driving it, and searching the web for other possible road-trip/windsurf/cycle/camp vehicles in a similar price range before I realized it was the easiest, and best choice.  It is a bit of a pig on fuel, but just big enough to carry the required gear for a road trip from the Midwest to the East coast!

Some clarification… I’m not sure I mentioned it in the blog before, and I’m too lazy to go read it, so a bit of history…

I traveled to Estonia back in 2008, for my euro-world safari, and met a unique woman named Mirjam on the windsurf trip to Greece.  She is the niece of Epp Hunt, the amazing windsurf group leader for the euro-trip, and we got to know each other a bit on the trip, and a whole bunch in a long layover in London.

We became good friends on that trip, and I felt yet another soul-connection with her, like I have with each new Hunt family member I meet!   Along my travels in Estonia that year, I got to visit Mirjam at the family horse ranch in rural Estonia, and was blown away at her aura there!

She is really amazing with horses, and very down to earth with her ability to work hard and get the job done, no matter what hardship gets in the way.  She is stunningly beautiful, but to be honest, I fell in love with her brain!   And of course the old farm-mansion-house she was living in!  I knew I just had to spend some time there!!

Well, I was lucky enough to move to Estonia later that year, and did get to live and work with Mirjam at the farm.  We connected in a very soul-full way over the very basic farm life, and the work with the horses, the construction, and other hard labor.  It was amazing for me, and we bonded as BFF’s after that fall together..

We each went our separate ways after that, she moved to the US to continue working with a great horseman in Virginia State (Somerfield Farm), and I back and forth between the US and Estonia.

So getting back to topic; Mirjam contacted me just before Margi, and asked if I would like to come for a visit/working-vacation this spring.  Of course I jumped at the chance!!  So the plan since just before Margi in Jan. was to go out to the east coast for a couple months of fence building on the ranch and options for some possible east coast windsurfing!

While in Margi the plan formed, and with the chance to get a reasonable price on a used car in the Aztek from Jerry when I got back, I have decided on a SAFARI-ROAD-TRIP!!  Whoo! Hoo!

I will outfit the Aztek with the requisite windsurf, bike, camp gear, and electronics, and be on my way east soon!!  I am writing this as I sit in the auto repair lounge while they prep my car with some routine maintenance and a hitch before continuing the shopping and hitting the open road by the 15^th or so!

I already have my iTouch, Navigation GPS, and parts on the way to convert the factory tunes to something to work with the player.  With the trailer hitch I am also getting today, I will be ready for a bike rack to go on the back, and hope to shop for the rack and bike later this week..  Always fun to get new toys!

For surf gear I am hoping the swap meet here in St. Paul this weekend will be the best place to get some boards and sails, but have a line on some new kit just in case I can’t find what I need this Saturday..  Getting Psyched!!

Stay tuned for updates…

Timo

Final Leg.

Wednesday April 20th, 2011

I got up early enough to make my flight, but ended up going the wrong way out of the hotel, and to the wrong side of the airport for my United flight.  I turned around and got back to the counter, but about 30 seconds too late to check in, dam!

United was more than willing to get me a new flight on the next plane out at 10 AM, so it was a simple check-in, and I was free of the suitcases to return to the hotel for some extra z’s.

The MIA hotel was kind enough to let me check back in to my same room, and I took my breakfast sandwiches I had picked up along the way to my room for a nice breakfast, followed by a nap.  Quite reasonable really, should have picked this flight in the first place.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful, and I was back in MSP by 5 PM for my friend Jerry to pick me up for some car shopping and the return north to Babbitt and my parent’s home for a visit.

A fine end to a great trip to Margarita!  I may continue to post here as my plans develop for the summer, as there may be some windsurfing involved!

Stay tuned..

Timo

Fly away home..

Tuesday April 19th, 2011

I woke up to the phone ringing, it was Tom checking to see if I was up and ready to go to the airport soon.  It was good he called, as I had set my alarm wrong the previous night, due to lack of sleep as I was busy reorganizing my return to Minneapolis.

I was ready to go, and brought my stuff to the street shortly after the call, and we had it loaded up and were off to the airport before 6AM.

We chatted the duration of the short drive, and discussed the fun I had this season.  It has been an amazing three months, and though there had been less wind than in the past 14 previous visits, I got to meet some amazing people, and made some good friends along the way!  The sailing was also stellar, I will treasure those hi-wind memories for years to come!

Tommy dropped me off at the airport, and it was simple and straightforward to get on the plane for my first 30 min leg from Porlamar to Barcelona, but As described earlier, the Avior flight which would have normally left BLA at 9:30 AM, had been rescheduled to 7:30 PM!  A long wait in the tiny Barcelona airport!!

I made the best of it, and as those on this flight got to check our bags in that morning, I at least did not have to haul around two suitcases!  I found a bench seat, and stretched out for a nap for part of the 10 hours, catching up on the previous nights lack of sleep, read a book Kathy gave me as I left; munched on the sandwiches I had made, and got a supper from the local airport café.

The time went by slow, but there were no further delays, and we were all in Miami by 11:30 PM.  I had booked a hotel room at the airport, and checked in for a long awaited bed to sleep on.  Very boring and stress filled day, but made it safely to Miami, and was happy to fall asleep.

Tomorrow I get to fly from MIA to Minneapolis, and the flight leaves early, so I went right to bed to get up in time for the 6AM flight.

Out..

Timo

Last day.

Monday April 18th, 2011

There was some sun to start the day, but lots of clouds threatening to sprinkle on us..

The SS crowd was very dense today, all full parking lots, and a very full beach, not much for sailing, and nobody was out, but reasonable again for people watching, if you are into that.

I spent the morning with loading the PC and screen into storage, and then some additional time paying my bar tab, and pawning off the last of my excess stuff to the Vela Boyz, along with some stuff for Elena too.

The weather turned, and got cloudy with sprits of rain, so this hampered my plan to do some sunbathing poolside to avoid the beach crowds, so instead spent it at the center socializing, and saying my goodbyes.

I got the offer to join Alex, Elena, and Joey for the beach party tonight, but after getting home, making supper out of the last of my eggs, and packing the suitcases, I was just too tired to get out to party, and stayed in.

I did the routine check of my flights again, and found my flight to Miami would be delayed 12 hours!!!  This of course sent me into a flurry of activity to rearrange my connections, and hotels, and after several hours of working it out, I finally was ready for bed about 2AM!  Not much sleep tonight..  gotta get up in three hours for the 6:55 flight, only to spend 12 hours in the Barcelona airport!

Hoping for happy travels…

Timo

Storage prep.

Sunday April 17th, 2011

It was a light wind day, but we at least had some sun to start with over breakfast.

The Santa Semana crowd was rather thick, all the parking lots were full, and by noon it was a very full beach!  It was quickly standing room only, but good for people watching.

I spent the day with prep for departure, organizing the storage containers from Tim, and passing off the various stuff from my kitchen to my friends at Vela, and going thru some computer issues with Alex, Wicho and Tom’s machines.  It is nice to have something to pass the windless day with an overcrowded beach.

I got an invite to supper at Tom and Kathy’s place for the evening, and was happy to get some social time with these good friends!  I was there at 6, and we had salad, pasta and meatballs in a nice spicy sauce, garlic bread, and ice-cream with fruit for dessert.  Very good food Kathy!  Thanks for the fine supper!

Tom and I did some more computer play, with the iPod and such, and soon found it was getting late with the fun conversations, so I left to let the two of them have some privacy before bed.  Thanks for the nice evening!  Love you guys!

Tim had finished up with the storage boxes, and had dropped them off during the evening, so I had plenty to do breaking down the dual screen system, and putting everything away in the boxes for delivery to the storage locker in the morning.

It’s always sad to have to pack it all up, but it has been an amazing season of fun!  I was done and in bed watching a show on the laptop by 11 and drifted off to sleep, thinking of the plan for my last day tomorrow.

Good night.

Timo

Relaxing day.

Saturday April 16th, 2011

Sun sneaking thru the window blinds finds its way to the floor and wall of my bedroom, and though I had only gone to bed some four hours earlier, I woke up and the brain started reeling with thoughts of the season so far, and the prep to return to the US, so I decided to just get up and start my day just past 8AM.  I pulled out the keyboard tray and started my typical AM computer session of blogging, emails, with a break for cooking some breakfast.

I enjoyed frying up some onions, peppers, turkey, and eggs with some cheese thrown in for good measure, and plopped this on my plate with some toast to make breakfast sandwiches, topped with hot sauce.  I really enjoy ‘Huevos El Yaque’ for the first meal of the day, and feasted as I computed the morning hours away.

The Guru had called for very light wind for the next three days, but the palms were moving outside, seeming to deny this prediction, so I packed it up for some beach time, and hopefully a ride.

At the center just past 11, I could see that Joey was out on the water already, and making it work with a 122 L and the 6.7M.  I was thinking of joining him with a 7.7M and the 144 L, but felt lazy and wanted to relax on the chair getting some more sun, and waiting to meet up with Tom and Kathy coming down for the lunch timeframe.

I joined Tom and Kathy soon after, and socialized with them over some computer play in the office, before we decided to swap some files I had on an external drive up at my place.  Joey had come in for a lunch break, and said it was a pretty decent morning session, especially as he was one of the very few out on the water.

The Vela list was about 10 persons long, the shortest I have ever seen in my 15 years coming here!  Of course I have never stayed this late, nor this near near Semana Santa in the past few years of insane crowds, so light on experience, but from the chat on the beach with my local Chamos, each center was similarly sparse of clients.

I made a visit to Henry’s store for some more bread, and a phone card to get some extra minutes on my local cell, before returning home to fetch the 500 Gig drive for Tom to play with for the next couple days.  I joined Tom at his place for a short visit, and we discussed my exit plan of computer packing and storage, along with the ride to the airport on Tuesday morning.  Tom was kind enough to offer me the pre-dawn ride from El Yaque to the aeropuerto for my final ride out of town for the season.  So nice to have such good friends here!  Thanks Bro!!

We chatted for quite some time between Tom, Kathy and I, but it was soon time to let them have their privacy, and go see about an afternoon of beach time.  I returned to the center to find it was very down on the wind for the afternoon, and though Joey was out on some big kit, it was not planning for him, and I opted for discussion with my fellow Estonian friends at the center.

Pritt, Jaan, Uli and I socialized the afternoon away, sharing a couple beers and enjoyable conversation.  I have traveled all over the world with these fine people, Greece, Egypt, Brazil, Estonia, and of course Margarita, so it’s always nice to spend time with them sharing stories.

At one point Pritt asked about the footbag, as he had seen me play at most every location we have visited, so I was glad to go get the sack from the center, and teach him about footbag.  He was a natural!  Of course it helps he plays football (Soccer for the US readers..) and has done the ball kick practice many times, so his foot-eye-coordination was already quite developed.  Wicho joined us, and soon we were all getting a good sweat going from the play!

I do enjoy kicking the sack around with friends, and had a nice session with Pritt and Wicho, before our play attracted Renny to join us, and later after Pritt and Uli went for a swim to cool down, Alexis joined us as well.  Fun session with these good guys!

In the middle of it all, Joey returned with his kit, and reported an ‘uneventful’ low wind session, as the wind had completely dropped at this point, and the water had become barren of riders.  The beach was still quite crowded with the many local tourists that are typically here on the weekends, but surprisingly light from the predictions of the full week of Semana Santa activities.

It was time for a cool down with a shower to wash off the sweat and typical sand one gets everywhere while playing, diggin the cool-down, and soon toweling off to enjoy the final sun of the afternoon.  It was a slow late afternoon, but enjoyable socializing with Wicho, and enjoying the people watching from the vantage point of the center stool as they walked on and off the beach.  I do enjoy the many cute bikinis!

It was closing time, and I gave the guys a hand closing up, and offered a couple beers to Wicho to start our happy hour.  He joined me at the beach bar table, and we enjoyed a couple cold ones together, while the football game played on all the TV’s at each bar on the beach, with huge crowds of spectators cheering along.  Quite the experience to see the excitement everyone gets from watching, though lost on me personally as I have never been much of a spectator.  Really amazing when the game ended, as suddenly all the bars were empty of patrons!

While Wicho and I shared our beers, Jim and Lois joined us, and I got them a round of Kappy’s for joining our table.  Wicho had to get home soon after, so we said our goodbyes and a wish for a good day off for him tomorrow.  The rest of us continued on for the duration of the drinks enjoying the discussion before it was time for supper and me to get out of my wet clothes, and into a hot shower.  After the “see-you-later’s” and thanks from Jim and Lois for the drinks, I asked about lasagna at the bar.  Yes, they had some, but it would take about 30 min to bake it up, so I placed my order, and ran home to my shower.

Soon clean and in dry clothes from the laundry I had done in the morning that had nicely dried by evening, I returned to the bar for my hot plate of delicious pasta!  As soon as I sat down, the food was in front of me, and with the fries on the side, it was a perfect meal!  Comfort food like this is amazing, and reminded me of my Mom’s cooking!  I thanked Yoris for the tasty feast, and full and content, returned home to chill for the evening.

Joey had asked earlier about another visit to the beach party tonight, followed by another round at Los Piratas for some more dancing, but I was just too tired and lazy to join in, (sorry Dude.) and did some reading, and TV shows on the PC before the food got me sleepy and I was out before 9.   Can’t complain, the forecast called for mostly cloudy, and it turned out it was nice and sunny all day, so much better than what many that have returned home have to experience.  I’m enjoying for you all!

Cheers!

Timo