just for the fun of it
Canon BJC-50 printer - small, excellent quality, battery-operated portable printer that I use on my trips for black-and-white jobs. Unfortunately it is no longer made and no one makes one as compact. Battery life and ink cartridge life are phenomenal.
demo - (as in demonstrate) A word used loosely to describe taking kites, boards and other equipment out for a trial run. You can demo equipment when a shop has demo days.
drift launch - taking the kite out into the water with the lines ready to fly, hooking in and then letting go of the kite. With a little finessing the kite will drift downwind and can be launched with normal water relaunch techniques.
expected wealth = one tenth of your age times your income (pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances)
Facts - A file of information about energy, batteries, deaths, health, disease, history, inventions, weather, astronomy, computers, education, business, power, ecology, governments, transportation, technology and anything else we have found interesting or amusing. If you want to know something, you might find it here; or just try browsing the file.
Force 5 - a one-person mono-hull similar to a Laser. It will accommodate two adults.HISS - Hatteras Island Sail Shop (OBX)
IKO - International Kiteboarding Organization - certifies instructors etc.
inflatable kite - a kite with air tubes in the leading edge and struts that are inflated to about 7 psi with a hand pump. This type of kite is easier to re-launch when it gets down in the water. Pete refers to it as a "bubble" kite.
lit - having so much wind for the size of your kite that you have difficulty controlling the power. In this situation it is usually necessary to have someone hold you down in order to land the kite safely.
LOUisms - Inspiring sayinngs and ideas we have collected and come up with over the years.
Naish Custom Fish - a short surf board used for kiteboarding, used with or without the foot straps.
OBX - abbreviation for The Outer Banks, which includes Nags Head, Pea Island, Hatteras Island, Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke Island. This area of long, narrow, barrier islands has a dogleg which, along with the shallow water depth, gives it the best kiteboarding conditions I have ever experienced. To add icing to the cake, the Atlantic Ocean is just across the island.
PASA - Professional Air Sports Association (national association for kiteboarders - certifies instructors etc.
PAW (Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth) - over double expected wealth, according to Thomas J. Stanley
slick - downwind from a low (usually grass) island where the wind is not effected, but the water is glassy smooth. A great place to practice jumps, turns and speed.
tethered launch - launching your kite (depowered) by clipping the chicken loop to an anchor, such as a sand bag and then carrying the kite to the edge of the wind window and setting it up in the C
position. The kite will stay there, bouncing on the wingtip, while you walk to the bar and transfer the chicken loop to your harness and away you go!
SPI - my abbreviation for South Padre Island, Texas
SPIWKA - South Padre Island Windsurf/Kiteboard Association
traction kite - Any kite that is designed to pull; from the same root as tractor
UAW (Under Accumulator of Wealth) - less than half expected wealth, according to Thomas J. Stanley
Washout - sometimes called the Isabelle Washout - an approximate half-mile stretch of Hatteras Island, north of Hatteras Village, where Hurricane Isabelle washed the island away (my GPS waypoint HAWASH
). Of course, man does not like change and put it all back and rebuilt the road and the parking lot at taxpayers' expense.
wealth (new worth) - what you have (assets) minus what you owe (liabilities)
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