Well, things can get quite slow and a bit unusual at the kite shop in the slow months of August.  It was one of those days with no wind, barely any people, the blistering heat of the summer sun, some bored friends and a cooler full of beer.  Now, normally we would be working but it was a Sunday…. And we did have friends in town sooo… what are we to do while sitting on the beach all day hoping for an ounce of wind??? Have a suck and blow-a-thon with the wind meter, of course.  What started off as a slow day became quit the competitive contest between our group of participants. 

The contest started off with the one and only Jamie Cost claiming he had sucked a shocking 197km/hour.  The group didn’t believe him and asked for a repetition of this feat.  The heat might have been the oppressive factor but when put up to the challenge Jamie was only able to suck a mere 30km/hour.  This was quite the embarrassing performance for Jamie and he took it upon himself to repeat his earlier impressive suck.  This started the competition with Jamie getting prepped and repeatedly sucking harder and harder to get the numbers up in the 90’s.  The rest of the group now had to get involved and the suck-o-meter was passed around to the rest of the group.  Steve did a good first round adding his own style to sucking.  Then, Paul was up at bat and faltered a bit.  He had a few beers and practiced his technique to pull off an improved second round.  Marco took the games to a new level with some serious style and competitiveness.  So, the boys took it upon themselves to keep breaking records while the girls sat and observed.  Then began a showdown between Marco and Jamie and the numbers began to rise.  Some other competitors were enjoying beers while others were practicing training.  After a tough heat of sucking, the competitors started experimenting and thus the blow-a-thon was introduced.  The speeds became competitive and the boys put the girls up to the challenge of blowing hardest.  The girls couldn’t sit by and watch anymore, Heather and Judi rose to the challenge and blew some competitive blows with Judi blowing an impressive XXXX.  The numbers seemed to plateau until Jamie introduced the freestyle event which was a mix of sucking and blowing.  All hell broke loose as the suck/blow meter didn’t know what to make of the new freestyle and the numbers started growing to inconceivable speeds.  The final record was made by Steve with an amazing 239km/hour.  Kudos to Steve for sticking in there through all the beers and blowing us all away.  Unfortunately, the following competition will have to be delayed as a couple of days later the wind meter had a visit to the ocean and never returned.  We will have to wait for a new and improved judging apparatus.  Until next time keep on sucking.