Merry Christmas! And Brrrr!

     My brother Mark is three years younger than I am, but he's a very able guy.  He picks up new skills much quicker than I do, and has always pushed me to try new things.  

     We have been kiteboarding for about fifteen years, with some years off for various reasons.  Normal kiteboards look almost like wakeboards and can go in either direction, called "twin tips."

     However, there's always something new, and about five years ago hydrofoil, or "foil" boards were becoming very popular.  They look like short surboards, but with a "mast" attached to the bottom of the board and two wings, or "foils" on a horizontal bar (the "fuselage") below that.  

     When the foil board moves through the water, the large front foil produces lift like an airplane wing, and since water is about 800 times denser than water, that wing can be relatively small and doesn't have to move very fast.  It easily lifts the board and rider above the water's surface.

      You might well, and should, ask, "So what?"  Well, a couple of things.  First and foremost, the companies that make such equipment have found something new to $ell, and these things are not cheap.

     Second, when the board rises above the water, there is very little friction, with only the wings and mast underwater.  That means that foil boards go fast, even in very light wind.  Kite foil guys can use small kites for propulsion and be out sailing in light wind when the rest of us are whining on the beach.  

     Third, with only the wing and mast underwater, the ride is very smooth, good for old guys' knees.  The practitioners of the activity say it really feels like flying serenely a foot or two off the water.

     My brother Mark saw a new challenge and dove right in.  He quickly learned how to 'foil' behind a jet ski, and was soon doing it propelled by a kite.  

     OK, fine.  I tried several times behind his jet ski and got nuthin.'  Flat out nuthin,' and figured that maybe it was one sport too far.  

     Name something where there are ascending levels of coolness of the equipment.  OK, OK, that's dumb.  Name something where there AREN'T ascending levels of equipment coolness.  Cars?  Yep.

     Bicycles?  Ditto.

     Ironing boards?  Duh!

     OK, maybe that was a lame example.  However, as usual, there are better, newer foil boards, and Mark realized that he was being held back, and so for Christmas....

     YEE HAH!  I got the old one!!  Oh, yeah... the one that I could never get up on...

     Well, hope springs eternal!  These things are made for the water, right?  Remembering that our next-door neighbors are nice people, we ran next door to see if the board would at least float in their pool.

    Here in North Carolina, the winters are described as being like "running fast through a freezer without any clothes on," in other words, it gets cold, but not for long.  However, the nights have generally been right around freezing, so the water

was cold.  I mean really, really cold.  However, we had a purpose!

     So it floats!  Now we'll see if I can finally get the hang of foiling.  That's a rather large "if."

     We hope that you have had a great Christmas, and that if your neighbors aren't heating their pool you'll at least have sense enough to wear a wetsuit when you test your new foil board.  

     And Paula reminds me that people with even more sense don't jump in pools in North Carolina on Christmas.  Yeah, whatever.  

Dave

No good turn goes unpunished!

     A nice family up the street left a crib and a stroller on the curb a couple of months ago, both in good condition.  Paula collected them, and they ended up helping a young Afghan refugee couple.  

     The other day, we finally remembered to take a thank-you note to the neighbor.  On the way back, we passed four teenage guys playing street hockey, using a hard ball for a puck.

     Without warning,  WHACK!  the ball hit my right temple, a slap shot from the hockey game.  It knocked me down, and I needed a couple of seconds to get oriented again.  The player that made the shot came over and asked the usual, "You OK?" and when I stood up, he went back to the game.  

     I felt funny the rest of the evening, and there was kind of dent on the right side of my head.  When I went to the doctor in the morning, he said, "Yeah, that feels funny.  I don't think I want to push on it," and then he said, "You know, you're an old guy [WHAT?!] and you've sustained a hard blow.  It's CT-scan time for you."

     Believe it or not, that was accomplished within the next hour.

    Luckily, the reading of the scan was negative.

     The right side of my head is still kind of sore.  

     Like I said to Paula, that's the last time I thank a neighbor for a kindness without putting on a helmet first.  

     We hope that your neighborhood kids are more careful with their street hockey games.  Or their street archery practice.  Or their street skeet shooting.  That kind of stuff.

Dave