Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Bristol NASCAR weekend









Some of you who are reading this may be asking yourselves (and me), "what does NASCAR have to do with windsurfing or outdoor adventure?". Well...a lot actually. If you've ever been to a race at Bristol, you know...it's an adventure unto itself. There's camping, it involves a road trip, you're outdoors, and of course there is speed. Sounds a lot like some other types of outdoor adventures, including windsurfing. If you're not a NASCAR fan, just go to one of the NASCAR tracks and get in one of those cars for a spin around the track (such as the Richard Petty Experience program, check out www.1800bepetty.com) and you'll very quickly gain a whole new appreciation for the sport.

I went with 3 of my neighbors, one of whom got us some serious infield connections with an all weekend pass to the garage/pit/infield area. Bristol is a small 1/2 mile track so it's hard to be in the infield area and not run into every famous driver and team owner. We saw everyone up close...Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Richard Petty, and Darrell Waltrip just to name a few. Another neighbor of ours actually drives the 18 wheel car hauler for Dale Jr. We found him in the infield and he invited us up on top of the famous Budweiser hauler to watch the Nextel Cup drivers practice on the track....that was a real treat. We watched both the Busch and Nextel Cup race from the infield mostly between turns 1 and 2 and also in the pit area...getting up close to the team's pit stops. This was one of those "once in a lifetime" sports experiences I'll never forget. Here are a few pictures to wet your appetite. I'll post the others in the photo album soon. I got some great video footage over the weekend. I'll be working on putting a new video collage together over the next couple of weeks to post here soon...be on the look out.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

A Pirate Adventure



Last weekend's nice weather got us outdoors. The boys went out for a real pirate adventure. We kayaked out to an island on Lake Norman and went exploring. We met the boys' cousin and their granddad (my dad) on the island, as they sailed there. Check out the real "Sons of a Son of a Sailor" in this video.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Longest wave on earth

Bet you didn't know about this - the longest wave on earth is on the Amazon River...see it to believe it:
http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/03/pororoca-surfing-amazon.html

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_2g6uTDb0&eurl=

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Missed A Great Day

Well...I missed a great day on the water. Due to my wife and daughter not feeling well, I had the boys for the day and couldn't make it out. I guess if I had to miss windsurfing on a great wind day, the next best thing is to take some pictures of what I missed. Lake Norman was firing as the wind was southwest 20-30mph in the afternoon. I drove down to Ramsey Creek Park in Cornelius to meet up with my buddy Rob. I got there a little too late as he had just come off the water after sailing for over 4 hours and was too tired to go back out so I could get some pics of him. So here are some pics of some unidentified sailors. One of these pics is of my boys posing if front of the lake and someone windsurfing. There were 6-8 other sailors out there...which was good to see. Go to my photo album link to see more pictures. If you see yourself in these pictures and want me to email you a copy, drop a comment here.