Tag Archives: sport

Skydiving

Part of the entertainment at the Sonoma Skypark Family Fun Day was some skydiving. Some lines were marked out on the grass and Joey jumped from the Cessna flown by Trevor and targeted the landing zone. People could guess which line he would hit with a prize for the closest guess each time. Skydiving looks so cool to me so getting some shots of Joey seemed like a good plan.

He was great fun to hang out with as were the rest of the guys. His first jump came in a bit hot and he landed a little long compared to the marked area. That was not a competition jump, though, so no-one lost out. After that, he was on target for the remaining jumps. I started out staying well back but, as I built confidence in him and he knew I wasn’t going to do anything stupid, I was able to get in a better position to show him coming in. It is a quick transition from a long lens for the aerial shots to a wide one for the touchdown. He is coming in pretty fast. With a few jumps, you can try a different approach each time.

Once on the ground, Joey certainly knew how to keep the crowd happy. He stopped off to chat with people on his way back to repacking the chute and the kids seemed to love talking to him. I need to get more shots of these guys. They were fun and they look cool too. A couple of the group are also in to paragliding so now I have something else I want to check out. I also created a few animations of Joey’s departure from the Cessna so they are included below.

Chicago Criterium

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My friend Ben Kristy is a keen cyclist and his son has been competing well in various cycling events. As a result, Ben has been to a number of races and has shared a bunch of pictures of racers competing. This all triggered in my mind some cycling shots that I got quite a while back. Chicago held a criterium race series once a year for a number of years. I have no idea whether it is still taking place but I did go and watch it one year.

The races were held in Grant Park and made use of the roads around the park including Michigan Avenue. There were different classes or race and various age groups. Plenty of people came out to watch things but it wasn’t too crowded so it was possible to move around to see things from different locations. I had only shot cycling a couple of times before and never had I previously thought about what shots I wanted. Then I had just taken pictures of whatever was going on from where I was standing.

This time I tried various locations to get different perspectives on the riders. I tried getting low down and being both inside and outside the turns. Getting something that conveyed the speed at which they were going was what I was interested in. This is now quite a few years ago. If I were to do it again, I suspect I would have tried a bunch of other things but these shots I what I came out with on that day.

Kites at St Annes

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In putting together a recent post about the kite festival in San Ramon I was taken back to my kite flying exploits when I lived in Lancashire. I had always been a kite fan as a kid and had a Peter Powell stunt kite at some point. In the early 90s, the designs of kites really got inventive. I bought my first flexifoil kite when I lived in Lytham and had a lot of fun flying it on the green by the sea. A few of my friends also got into the flying and they bought the same kite. The design meant it was easy to stack them on the same lines which meant you could have quite a lot of pull if the wind was good.

We weren’t the only ones flying though. Some other people were flying on the sands at St Annes so we headed down there one time to join in making quite a stack. My flexi was 6’ in span. We had about ten of them on the line with two 8’ span kites and one 10’ on top. The wind was not strong but this was quite a combination.

We all had a go at flying this. I found that I could turn it one way a lot better than the other as a result of lacking arm strength on one side. We all got dragged along by the combination. Retreating along the beach needed a couple of guys to drag you back. My mate, Rich, got caught by a big gust and went rolling down the beach. We realized later that his watch had been ripped off and we never found it. I guess kite flying is more dangerous than we realized!

Getting Some Air

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There seem to be quite a few posts on the blog of kite surfing. Whenever I come across someone out in the waves, I can’t help myself but spend some time watching them. Driving down the coast from Coronado, we stopped on the beach to eat our breakfast. As we sat on the wall looking across the sand at the waves, the kite surfer headed out a short distance away.

Of course, he never came up as far us us but he was still close enough to get a good view. He managed to get some good air at times, usually when I wasn’t trying to photograph him. The wind off the ocean was strong and steady so he was having a lot of fun with some reasonably sized waves to launch off periodically. I figured an animated GIF might be a good way to show him in motion. See what you think.

Sailing with a Wing

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As we were driving along the harbor in San Diego, I saw something odd in the marina area. We doubled back and found somewhere to park so I could investigate further. It was a sailing boat which had an airfoil style of mast as opposed to a normal mast with rigging for sails. The wing section appeared to be in multiple parts which, I imagine, would provide a greater degree of control. Since the boat was moored, we didn’t see it in action so I have no idea how well it performs but it certainly looked pretty interesting.

Late Night Paddle Boarding

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One evening on Coronado I wanted to get some shots of the San Diego skyline when it was illuminated. As I was walking along the water, a group of people came paddle boarding by in the dark. With the water calm and nothing much moving in the bay, it seemed like a pretty cool thing to be doing just gliding through at your own pace watching the city drift by. Hope that they had a good time!

Wind and Kite Surfing

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It was a pretty windy day when I was at Coyote Point. This had brought out anybody in the Bay Area with either a windsurfing board or kite-boarding gear. They had to work pretty hard because the wind was certainly not making the conditions good for novices. A couple of time, I saw people create a slightly larger cloud of spray than normal as they plowed in. However, on the whole, they seemed to know what they were up to.

From my vantage point on the headland, I could see them well and the long lens allowed things to get a bit compressed. Even so, on some occasions it did appear that they were trying hard to all get in my shot at once. Thanks for the effort guys!

Pacific Grove

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I have posted plenty of pictures of Monterey and the surrounding area in the past. As you head along the shore, you actually move from Monterey in to Pacific Grove. It is quite strange how you go from the tourist center of Monterey onto some beautiful shoreline in a very short space of time and the number of people plummets. That is not to say Pacific Grove is deserted but it is a far more tranquil spot to be. The path along the top of the cliffs is great for wandering along and seeing what the sea is doing and what wildlife is out.

The birds are a constant presence as you walk but looking down to the water you get to see whatever the abundant sea life of Monterey Bay has to offer. On this trip a few seals were resting on the rocks and some Sea Otters were going about their business close in to the ricks despite the waves crashing around them. Must be good food near there.

The other “marine life” we saw was a group of people swimming out into the bay. I assume it was a club of some sort since it seemed very organized. A lot of people of varying age and ability were swimming out to a marker buoy and back. They seemed to have a lot of fun although some seemed noticeably tired once they were out of the water. Since I would have had a very hard time doing what they were doing, I can certainly sympathize!

Santa Cruz

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The winter in our part of California is not exactly harsh compared to many parts of the country. However, we do get a lot of cloud and rain at this time of year. Having a lovely clear day is a good time to just get out and go to somewhere pretty. Santa Cruz certainly fits the bill. The coast there is both picturesque and full of interesting things going on. A variety of stuff was happening while we were there and some of those things will get a post of their own so keep an eye out for them.

The rocky shoreline is very cool. It has a beach below it which makes it look even better. Add in to that people surfing, walking their dogs or just being a little different, you have a fun place to be. Not often you see a bunch of guys on unicycles come by on their afternoon ride! I wasn’t the only one out with a camera either. I was actually testing a lens while we were out and I met another guy with the same lens so we were obviously doing similar things. Meanwhile, someone had a Phantom getting some aerials over the shore so cameras were busy that day.

Surfing

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Santa Cruz is a popular spot for surfing and I have previously posted some shots from there here. With a great sunny winter day and the weekend combining in our favor, we decided to take a trip to Santa Cruz and enjoy a walk along the coast. Plenty of people were doing likewise and there were lots of surfers in the water. I don’t think the conditions were ideal since there seemed to be long periods with little wave activity but they were a patient bunch.

The majority were further out into the water where the wave action was pretty variable. I few hardy souls were close in to the rocks where the waves could be a lot more active. I imagine this is a spot for those that are more confident in their ability to avoid getting pulped on the shore!