"Do not pick up tarballs!"

Well the oil has finally arrived, or at least the tarballs have arrived.

Although they were nasty, unsightly, and annoying they were not nearly as bad as I had imagined. The whole ordeal of the oil spill and ongoing leak is horrible and depressing. But, we have to take one day at a time and not let the media over-hype the reality of the situation. For now, the beach is still beautiful and the water is still clear. Lots of seaweed out there, but Travis only saw one tarball in the water on Sunday. Saturday we arrived just in time for the wind to die and a storm to blow in from the North. Of course, we did have time to pump up our three biggest kites for the downpour and following tropical storm force winds. As kiteboarder after kiteboarder gave it up for the day, Travis was positive it would clear up. Aaron, Mitch, and Ashlee took shelter under a kite while the first storm went by and then packed it up for the day. Jeff Henderson waited it out with us for awhile and was still there when the wrath of the North wind and rain turned our backs red as we held the kites down for some 60mph wind. Travis and I stayed until about 7pm watching several storms pass through and the wind switch from North to South and back again. We were skunked. BUT, we totally made up for it Sunday. Too bad there aren’t any photos to prove it, because I was on the water ALL DAY! What a great day with 15-20 mph, sunshine, and fun waves. We all had a blast after several weeks of doldrums. The wind was still blowing when we left the beach. You gotta love days like that!

-Meagan-