Wow Ricki!! Congrats, let me tell you i thought you were around 40!!!

Andres:

How the "old" guys look is proportional to the number of young girls in bikinis around the beach!!!! In Maui I look about 40!!!!!

Thanks Andres! I hope things are going well in Mexico.

Girls in bikinis, hmm. Well the last time I saw you in Miami for the downwinder to Stiltsville, there was only one girl present and I think she was in shorts. Still, Clarissa turns out well in most attire.

I think she's in Hawaii right now, so keep a weather eye out.

May the health and the wind give you another 50 safe kiteing years !

Supposed to be 37, but I feel like 20. I get reminded about my age when I go and pick up my kids at school.

Working on handle passes and F16s ATM....

38, really started @ 36.

I think age is not a number. It's the
weight of responcibilities you start
getting on your shoulders. As you
progress through life. So the simpler
your life, less weigh'd down you
are -- the younger you
feel and look and think.

My kiting progress has been
much slower then my progress
10 years ago while picking up
windsurfing.

Age might be a factor. But
a decade ago there were no responsibilities,
no wife, no kid, no mortgage .....nothing.
Just top of the line windsurfing gear always in
the car. Always ready to be rigged up.

Now with all the above,
difficult to consistently get out. Biggest single
factor is having little kids. They just tire you and
make you feel 58 instead of 38. Specially
the one's which don't sleep well at all
at night.

37

53 .. Didn't get much kitesurfing in this year yet because I was
preparing to climb Mount Shasta up until last weekend so I had
to do some real training.

It was an awesome climb.

Friday: A 3-hour hike-in to base-camp from 6800 ft to 9200 ft
with 50lb packs.

Saturday. 2am start for an 11-hour ice, snow and rock climb from
base camp to the summit at 14162ft (by way of the West Face: the
longest snowfield on the left side of the live snowcam image) followed
by a 3-hour (mostly glissade) descent back to base camp.

Sunday : hike out with the heavy packs again.

The climb team was six people and 2 guides. Three dropped out
before the summit - two of them under 40

Why didn't you take a kite?

There wasn't really enough snow to kite (the ascent snowfields are
too steep to kite) and there wasn't any wind at all