Louis Self To Home Page
Arizona Lou kiteboarding in San Carlos, Mexico; 1.6 minute video with Christian Canese on the camera

Arizona Lou Kiteboarder

About Lou

Louis Self was born in western Kansas 9 days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, grew up in Newton, Kansas, graduated from Newton High School with the Class of 1960, from Bethel College in North Newton, KS and got his masters degree in guidance and counseling at Northern Arizona University where he met Rose Anne. Soon after, they got married and moved to Phoenix. After 25 years of marriage Rose Anne and Louis decided to amicably part company due to their widely divergent interests.

They are very proud of their children, Anne and Scott, now in their mid-thirties. Anne, the wife of an Air Force pilot and captain, is a mother of two fine daughters and has a degree in public relations. Scott teaches and coaches at Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky. The students there voted to dedicate their 2010 year book to him, Mr. Self.

Louis taught school for 30 years in three states before retiring from Paradise Valley School District in north Phoenix, teaching science and technology-type subjects. One of the highlights of his teaching career was being selected as one of the five finalists in Arizona for NASA's Teacher in Space Program.

Ever since his children were in elementary school, Louis has been interested in wind sports, including aviation, a Hobie Cat (Scott and Anne were his crew), windsurfing, kite flying and, of course, kiteboarding. In July, 2011 he was certified as a a
PASA
Professional Air Sports Association
Kiteboard Instructor. Click here for the documentation page..

As you can see on Trips, he travels about four months a year kiteboarding. One of his favorite LOUisms is, "Retired life’s tough, but someone’s got to do it." Look at Smart Stuff and Van Life to see how he manages

Arizona Lou: How did Louis become known as "Arizona Lou?" Student reviews at the end of an ABK clinic with which he was helping, said how great "Lou" was – but no one knew if they were referring to Lou Blum or Lou Self. So out of necessity the moniker Arizona Lou was created to avoid future confusion.


Boxer
Lou retired from the ring in Feb 2004 after two months of intensive training at Joe Diaz Top Level Boxing Gym, 20 S 9th Ave in Phoenix. The training included chopping wood (actually truck tires since there was no wood that needed to be chopped), shoveling sand, wrapping hands, special exercises, shadow boxing, heavy bag, dummy punching, speed bag and eventually sparring. Why boxing? For the experience - and it was both challenging and interesting. Lou still regularly uses a heavy bag to stay in condition.

SPEED RECORDS for Arizona Lou so far are:
    Twin tip: 24.0 mph (29.6 knots) on his 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth and 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 on on Pamlico Sound off the coast of North Carolina downwind from No Ache Island (low grass island on glassy smooth water, what we call a slick) Apr 26, 2010.
    Strapless surfboard: 27.5 mph (23.9 knots) on his Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” and 12m Cabrinha Switchblade 4 on on Pamlico Sound off the coast of North Carolina on the Real Kiteboarding Slick Jun 5, 2010.
    Cable Park: 30.6 mph (26.6 knots) on his on 130 cm Lite Wave Stealthon with a cable speed of 17.2 mph at the Mawi Cable Park, Guthrie, OK, on Jul 7,2010.

Lou has kiteboarded with people from every continent, and what a group! Hopefully you will be able to hook up with him on some of his travels. Just CONTACT him.

He's getting older.
Here's Proof
High School Class of 1960, 18
Newton High School Logo
Oct 2008 First website photo, age 66
AZ Lou
Jan 2012 Second website photo, 70
AZ Lou