Lano's new board

Well I took the plunge this week and bought my first ever new board. Big thanks to Pete at Onbord for his help and service (and not a bad deal either me thinks)

I decided to go up in size to maximise Adelaides fickle winter conditions and to be up and cruising all summer. My previous board, a 1996 Bic Vivace is getting a little tired, collapsed foot straps, big dents, a dodgey repair from when we left it in the sun in 2000. I have been eyeing off new boards for years so thought it was about time. I went for the 2007 Starboard Carve 122 ltr, was looking at 111 ltrs but thought it would be too similar in size to what I ride now. Heres a pic of my new board and Phoebe on her 5th birthday!

I so excited!

Happy birthday gorgeous!

Also thought I would also post up a new sail I purchased for Kyms and my aniversary last month, this sail looks indestructable, which is a good thing as I, especially, have a reputation for putting limbs through sails!

The sail I got was a 5.0mtr, will be great for wave sailing and real windy days for me, dont ya love the black?

Footnote: Conrats to Giampaolo Cammarotta on his Windsurfing magazine feature, keep up the good work brah! You can see GP's blog here....http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/

Mad May!

God I wish I was doing this again! Here's me about to have my first sail at Kanaha last year! Fuck that was a good holiday!

What a crazy month May has been! First Kym was away for half of it, with work in Whyalla, then she was a complete zombie for the two weeks after she got back (I guess 16 hours days working in a pellet plant surrounded by Engineers / tradies and armpits will do that to you!) Work for me has been busy, I keep telling myself I need a holiday, but I'm not listening.....although cheap holidays to Maui advertised in todays paper.

I have started football training again, thats soccer to all Americans and uncultured Australians, gotta get back to fitness. I have seen a few photos of myself recently and I'm not impressed. So back out with the boys, great to be out with a team again. Not too keen on the running, but the shooting and passing is good. I still feel I have good touch and stamina, but then realise I have trained for only 10 minutes and there is an hour to go. Stay tuned, a match report will follow...or check out www.uniwhites.com.au I am Divaldo or 'big daddy' - Dont ask!

Also, please do not mention the European Champions League or the FA Cup Final, I am still licking my wounds form Uniteds defeats! At least we won the league.

Sailing has been a bit ho hum lately, two frustrating weeks for me personally, but Kym had a great sail at a break last weekend, place called Snapper Rocks. This shot was taken last weekend, 20-25 knots. Her sailing has really come on, going from strength to strength. She is now starting to nail gybes a lot more regularly and is bloody fit at the moment, helps when you swim 12 kms a week I guess?

Time to upgrade a bit of equipment as my board is getting very tired (1996) I think I have held out long enough, so will be looking around the shops soon. We purchased Kym a second hand wave board last year, a Starboard EVO, only cost $400 second hand, had been thrashed a bit, but she loves it. We were really happy buying a board second hand, especially for wave sailing which we dont do that much of and couldn't justify a huge expense for something that might get used only once a month. I have been reading with interest GP's blog talking about cheap equipment and reusing peoples older gear instead of new kit. Which brings me to my dilemma.....I have been searching worldwide for a good second hand 115-120 ltr Starboard or JP for a good six months now, as I didn't really want to spend $2000 buying a board, but do you think I could find any? No! I even shot an email off to Kevin Pritchard, via his Blog, to his credit I got an email back. He had a quiver of boards up for sale which included a few used S-Type Freeride boards, 115 ltrs too! But mentioned with freight I was probably better off buying from my local shop :(

So if anyones got something, two years old or newer, JP Freeride (xcite ride 120ltr?) or Starboard Carve 115 ltr hanging around and wants to offer it for sale to me, please contact me.

'Hey! Dont you dare blow out my candle!' - this is my niece, isnt she cute?

Till next time.

Whyalla Steel City!

Spent a bit of time in Whyalla recently, as Kym has been up there with work. For those of you that dont know Whyalla, its a steel producing town, formally a BHP stronghold, not sure if they are still there, but Onesteel are definately there producing metal for railway tracks and other uses.

I used to live in this town 30 years ago, 1978 to be exact, and I can tell you not a lot has changed in this town since. Everything is still dirty, there is still salt bush in the main street, the tide still goes out about two kilometres every day (definate potential for windsurfing!), the runway at the airport is still dirt (or maybe its just stained from the pellet plant)

Whyalla is about 4 hours drive north of Adelaide on the top of the Eyre peninsular. There are approx 30,000 people there (I think) and its South Australias fastest growing city, again. Its been through its fair share of booms, the late seventies was definately one. There are about 4 football clubs, 5 soccer clubs, one ten pin bowling venue, no decent cafes, some true aussie pubs (about 8 of those), one shopping mall, thank god!

Overall its a top place. You have to go looking for things to do. But if you like the outdoors, sports etc you will be well catered for.

Here are a few pics of the first week we went up, yes we flew up twice for one day each time. The things you do for love!

This is the Pellet Plant at Onesteel, looks clean eh? Not!

Took a wrong turn! Sack the captain! HMAS Whyalla tourist attraction

REX Airlines, does it get any more Aussie? Hows the baggage truck?

Some interesting rock formations at Point Lowly. It looked like paving in a backyard.

Family goodness at Point Lowly

Phoebe and I caught the local youth concert weekend! Whyalla's 'Little Day Out' These guys were called forgiveness or deliverance or something scarey. Think Blink182 as 14 years olds and you get the drift. Their first gig! There was also an excellent aboriginal hip hop group on before hand, no pics but they rocked out! I love live music! Cute eh?

First ever show, I wasnt even sure this young lads voice had broken!

Our great brown land!

I love the way the desert meets the sea up on the Eyre peninsula,

Luck we were sitting by the exits! Arggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Until next time,

:)

Our new aussie tradition!

For years Kym and I have envyed our friends from ethnic or 'more cultured' backgrounds with their traditions and celebrations. Some of our friends have large European families that they catch up with regularly, sharing religious festivals, feasts, passing of relatives, weddings....there is always something to celebrate or a reason to throw a party.

I have Italian friends, who every summer have a huge cook up of the tomato harvest from all of their relatives backyards, they make sauce, have a lamb or pig on a spit, get drunk and dance to Elvis...sounds great to me.

Now us 'culchared' aussies, what do we have? Gee...BBQ's, cricket, the footy, the pub, not too much there for the family. I guess there is christmas on the beach, but with global warning winter falls close to December, January these days, so that could be out of the question. We have horse racing, not really a family day out though surely?

So Kym and I decided to start making our own family traditions, but we are not going to tell them what we are doing. We kicked off our first new yearly tradition with our newly invented Easter game, Easter Pinada. Not sure what the mexicans had this activity for anyways, so we are now claiming it to be an Australian tradition OK




So heres Phobes first effort, she made the pinada by the way, used so much glue on it, it was like a ball of concrete shaped as a rabbit (papa in the background waiting his turn)

Then it was Kazzas turn, snapped it in two, wasnt so strong after all! Love the look of determination on her face for this! haha!

Well at least there was chocolates in it! Two hit Pinada, must work on that for next year if this Tradition is going to take off :)

So there you have it the beginnings of a 'LANO' family tradition, See what else we can come up with for the rest of the year.

Now GP was interested in the work mates in my office, more the ladies I would imagine, so below are a few pics of them all in various positions and stages of alcholism. I love my job (sometimes)

Hannahs and Babs at Clipsal 500 car race, before it got ugly

Two of my clients, I look after them well.......oh dear

Parks and Tonks, two of the biggest legends you will ever find....my partners in crime - (eeew, they have had better days!:O)


Till next time,

OK Sharon OK!

Well after a few failed efforts, looks like its time to take a day off work and create 'another' blog... so pick a font, new topic - ok, now what to write about? Well to start off, this is me, 37 married, living in mostly sunny Adelaide. I am a keen windsurfer, of intermediate abilities, I am a very keen footballer (the round kind) also am a mad Adelaide United fan.

Gotta thank Sharon and Giampaolo for giving me the inspiration for this blog as I have very much enjoyed their handy work over the last year or so. I don't feel that my blogs are going to be as interesting as theirs, so much colour and so much more going on in Maui than little old Adelaide....anyhoo

This is the Lanomobile, loaded up as usual with 4 complete kits! You can never be too prepared!


Spent the weekend away with Kym (wifey) and Phoebe (legend daughter) and the in laws and the brother in law and his wife and their child, was a pleasant Easter long weekend, no wind so no sailing, but plenty of R and R which was much appreciated. We were staying at Beachport about 4 hours south of Adelaide in a nice little cottage just back from the beach, was cosy but comfortable with all the peeps in the house.




So with no wind, surfing was the go, but waves are required for this as well, damn! 1-2 foot dumpers at the long beach near Robe were the only option that was sort of family friendly. Still was fun to get in the water, get wet....I even surfed in my boardies and rashie, no wetsuit, which is not common in these parts, water temp is chilly at best.



So Beachport happened again for another year, another year of frustration with no wind, but I still rate it as one of the most relaxing places I have been too. If only we could cut the 4 hour drive out it would be perfect :(

So back in Adelaide now, back to the grind.....if you can call my life that, I cruise along really.

So there you have it folks, my first blog post,