Wind Surfing (KITE) - Sauble Beach

It was a brutal cold day on the baren beaches of the Bruce Penninsula - strong biting winds making it all but impossible for the most brave or crazy to be standing exposed for any length of time. I was simply driving around the deserted villiage of Sauble Beach to see the contrast to the busling and vibrant activity filled streets that everyone witnesses in the prime of summer months.

Looking out over the waters, I suddenly notice someone surfing the waters - being driven along by a large kite in the sky. This was a new experience for me and I wanted to capture it with my camera - even though I knew the shots might not be that great as a result of the poor weather and the fact that he was a long distance from where I could park the van.

I pulled out my Olympus E-3 and 70-300mm lens (140 to 600mm equivalent) - set the ISO to 640 and the aperture to f5.6 (AE Mode) resulting in fast enough shutter speeds of around 1/1250'th to stop the action - - - and fired away for the short period of time that he was in my view:

After watching many trick flips - I was just fortunate enough to be capturing this one where he hit a wave to perform a flip and the strong wind sucked him up 10 to 20 feet into the air and carried him along for what seemed like forever. I really thought that he was in major danger and may be carried along for some time in the air and and maybe drift higher and higher - or be hurled into the rough choppy waters. I kept shooting until he was able to get control and managed to land with a fair force. He stopped for a minute or two and regrouped, got up on his board again and carried on.

It felt like the sequence below took forever - but it may have been 10 to 15 seconds in duration. I just followed him with my camera, shooting one frame off at a time:



I thought that he was done and so drove off. A little ways down the road, I noticed an area where there were a couple of people watching him farther down the beach. I stopped the van, ran as fast as I could (making camera adjustments along the way) and started firing - - - but only got a shot or two away before he left. A fellow rode by on his bike and I thought the composition was interested and so fired off 3 shots - with this one where he is looking over the water, being the most interesting (the other 2 he turned and looked at me):




The unqiue coloring is my interpretation and processing of the files.

Robert,

Can we see a crop away of the sand just keeping 1/4 inch below the bicycle?

Asher

Stunning pics! Very dramatic...I love the sequenced shot.