Alright people, geeze I'll write here. FYI, I just haven't been in the mood to write very much. Not my story and not here. BUT my mom is spazzing so here it goes.
A few weeks back I found a place in Tariffa, Spain that teaches Kiteboarding and has an English speaking instructor. So after a hectic day of trying to get directions and rent a car I finally set out to Kite for my first time ever. The drive was pretty standard until I got close to the town of Tariffa; then it turned amazing. Rolling mountains (bigger than hills) with jutting cliffs and rock faces, but still covered in green green grass. The trees are somewhat similar to the mesquite trees in AZ, but fuller. The road wound up and around for several miles and it made me a bit car-sick even with the windows down. It was a hazy day but I could still see the ocean and it was beautiful. Not like Hawaii, but still amazing. Finally I arrived at my destination on the beach. For those of you that are not familiar with kiteboarding, Tariffa is the kiting and windsurfing capital of Europe...so this was a pretty big deal for me. My instructor was probably in his early thirties with long brown, sun-tipped hair. Everything about him told me that he lived the surfers life. We started off with basic kite control, the wind-window, stalling, relaunching, water-launching, and body dragging. After only an hour and a half I was in the water and he said most people usually spend all day on the beach and have to come back before they are ready for the water. The Mediteranean(?) was very cold at first, but after a while it became as comfortable as swimming in a pool. Unlike a pool, however, the water tasted a lot saltier. Oh, I forgot, the beach was very nice and mostly rock free. Anyway, so now I'm in the water with a 12m kite in the air and I start getting pulled. What a rush! At one point I was lifted 10' high and 20' out into the air and crashed back down. So cool and it didn't hurt at all other than the water rushing in my nose. After a few more of those I was ready to strap the board on my feet and become a real kiteboarder. Let me tell you, it may look simple, but the process is actually kind of complicated. You have to keep the kite in the air above you with one hand while trying to strap the board to your feet without being dragged away or pulled out of the water. Once you do that you have to orient your body the way you want to go, again without getting pulled out of the water. Then you push your back foot down as you drop the kite into the power window (stronger air current) and pull it back up to generate power; much like doing a figure 8 with a kite. Then you have to keep your kite in the desired position (sometimes straight out ahead, other times a figure 8), avoid hitting other kiters that also have 25m lines, keep your board up, watch the water, and don't get too close to the beach. So I got up for about 5 to 10 seconds a bunch of times, but never quite got the power behind the kite to pull me for a long period of time. I watched my instructor do it later and he did it just fine. Maybe I'm too fat. Anyway, it was awesome and now that I have my own stuff I am ready to go again on my own time and have fun.
Paintballing:
So the squadron had this paintballing trip out in the middle of a frickin flower/hay field that killed everyones alergies. One guy got hives. I just sneezed every ten seconds and my eyes itched. Well we split up into 4 teams: Green, Yellow, Blue, and Red/Black. I was on Yellow and we stood out because our team was based on our jersey color. Green guys basically blended right in with the background. Now it wasn't just some dirty abandoned field, there were broke down cars and tires and barrells set up to make it a really fun course. So we start out and I get shot like the first five seconds into the first game. Freakin lame! Whatever. The next round was much different. My team's majority was on the left flank and they were bunkered down pretty good and keeping up the pressure. I decided to go the path less traveled and came up to the right flank. The green team had three guys (one was a girl) on that side and they kept me behind a large wheel for a good minute. I popped out and shot one of the people in the facemask and jumped back behind cover. I came out again and shot the another person in the arm and got them out. Well the third person by then had forgot about me cuz of all the pressure my team was putting on the left flank. So I jump across a small concrete river bed instead of using the bridge like they all think I will. Once across I was right aside of the person and shot them. Still the left side kept up the pressure and no one from the other team knew that I was taking them down. In the next 30 seconds I got another three people out, all of which had really good cover...if you were the rest of my team. I, on the otherhand, just stalked up right behind without anyone noticing. I got greedy at the end and bumrushed a guy and I'm over 200lbs so I'm not exactly quiet when I run. He turned and shot me. But he was the only one left and we still had pretty much our entire team. A few games later I rocked it up again by having a teammate create a distraction as I ran up on the enemy again. Anyone noticing a pattern here? I think in war-games or actual war I would behave the same way I do in Halo/COD; run up and kill a ton of people, but get killed in the process. Anywho, so I run up on this barrell where a guy is shooting at me. Instead of coming behind him though, I come up over the side cuz I'm so tall, point my gun in at what I realize is 4 people, and made them all surrender without firing a shot. Not gonna lie, I was totally the MVP of paintball. Anyone that was lucky enough to get a shot on me said "Man, I'm glad that I at least got to shoot you!" It's the hate that you love to get.
Scaling buildings:
Simple enough to explain. The houses here have doors without doorknobs, they just use a key to turn the latch and open the door. I accidentally locked my key inside while unloading groceries. Long story short (cuz I'm sure you're thinking "shut up already") I saw that my only option was to climb up to the roof and go through the back. My back "yard" (just a patio really cuz no one other than farmers has a yard) has an upper balcony that was somewhat accessible if you are tall and daring. So I climbed up using the bars on my windows to the second story in about 4 seconds. Hopped the railing and climbed a column-ish part of the house to get to the top of the roof, again like 5 seconds. Then I ran across the roof, flat with a bunch of rocks coverind the whole thing, and dropped down to a tall and narrow ledge seperating my yard from my neighboors. And the rest is just me walking in my back door. Seriously Braden, I totally felt like I was living Assassins Creed. If I was a thief, which I'm not...anymore, this place would be easy pickings.
Well I've written quite a bit today so don't expect anything for a few days. Later.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
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