The wind was an extremely gusty NNW, and the snow was OK. In many spots, the wind had blown most of the snow away, leaving patches of ice.

On account of the rare snow, there were photographers everywhere, and as soon as they saw my kite, they came by the dozens. During my first hour of riding, I was photographed by probably 40 people. It will be fun to search google in the coming weeks, and see what I can find. A few photographers took pictures for over an hour, and I got a business card from one of them. Needless to say, I was very excited about having a picture of me kiting on the mall.

I wanted to hot-dog for the camera, but the wind wouldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t even try a simple rotation. But speed-runs were a blast, I’ve ridden faster before, but only on ice.

A couple times, I jumped the wall by the Monument, it’s fun to play with terrain, but it would have been way more fun in more predictable conditions.

At some point, Phatty came onto the field, snowboard in hand. When he arrived the wind was becoming especially gusty, and I realized that I had no business flying a 10 M in these conditions. Phatty, I would have loved to give you the oppertunity to fly on the mall, but I just couldn’t risk loaning my kite. Instead, I had phatty catch it for me.

The two of us decided to find a spot with more consistent winds, and eventually we arrived at annacostia park. The wind was blowing less here. Matt took the first turn on my ten, but he was underpowered, so I pumped up his 14. Then I took my 10, and let him have the big kite. The wind improved a bit, And I was very comfortable, underpowered sometimes, but very much in control. Landed a few f-16s, ( 4 out of 5 ) and had a couple nice wipeouts while attempting simple backrolls. The speed was nothing like what I had on the mall, but it was still fun.