Now I am even less inclined to jump on this bandwagon as the people driving it are the very ones that have demonstrated time and time again that they do NOT have our best interest at heart.

I haven’t quite decided what I think about Angelina Jolie’s role in this.  It seems out of character for her to be in cahoots with big pharma.  It also seems rather unlike her to be duped by them either.

I wonder what unintended consequences women may be creating for themselves by running out and getting these tests.  While I’m not sure whether or not Angelina is in cahoots with big phrama, I’m damn sure health insurance companies are.  Data can be skewed in all kinds of ways.  The way they report the results on these tests tends to skew the data to high likelihood of cancer.  What evils do insurance companies have in store for women with high risk test results?

The presence of a gene does not mean certain cancer or anything else.  There is mounting evidence that even if a gene is present it is not guaranteed that it will be activated.  Please, before you run out and buy that test, read Bruce Lipton’s Biology of Belief.  If after reading it you still decide you want the test what will it have cost you?  A few days delay. We have far, far more control over our health than most people realize. And our genes don’t determine everything.  The human genome project revealed that we have 1/10 of the number of genes they predicted.  We have less than a fruit fly.  That got Lipton thinking, the genes can’t possibly be running the whole show, so what is?

Don’t think that I’m taking breast cancer lightly.  Years ago my mother’s doctor was really pushing for me to get the test when my mother had a small malignancy. Based on our family history I could have the gene. This was before I had read anything by  Lipton, it was probably when the ideas were formulating in his head. It was before insurance companies had begun to reveal their predatory nature. It was before pharmaceutical companies held patents on human genes.  That’s right big pharma holds patents on your DNA – the stuff your mom & dad gave you. The company putting out these tests holds the patent on that gene. Makes Monsanto look like a cuddly kitten.

Anyway, I decided at the time that knowing for sure I had the gene was probably more dangerous than the gene.  The mind is a powerful thing. It has a way of creating what we worry about.  I knew I’d worry if I came up with a high likelihood on that test. I decided instead to live my life as if breast cancer could be a possibility for me and then stop thinking about it.  I turned my attention to living as healthy of a lifestyle as I could.  Over the years I’ve made it a priority to learn more and more about how to stay in optimum health and integrate more and more into my life. That test  represents a tiny sliver of the contributing factors to my health.

I am not my genes.

We have far, far more control over our health than most people know. At least until we surrender it.

Before you get this test. Stop . Do your homework. Once you’ve done it you may still decide to opt for the test.  Just make sure it is a well informed decision and not driven by the stampede of  fear.

One of the things I like about Kred is the dual scoring of influence and outreach.  It doesn’t just measure how much you pump out and how much you drive engagement with others. It also tracks “outreach”, how much you support others by sharing their message as well.  Since I’m I believe collaboration based capitalism is not only possible, but a key to thrival I like that they track this element.  What gets measured gets done!

How did I earn a Kred Top 1% Influencer Badge?

I don’t actually know, but here’s how I manage my social media.

Go for Quality over Quantity – I don’t have legions of followers. If you look at my follower and fan numbers you might think how on earth did she ever get top 1% Kred influencer?

People are always looking for ways to game the system.  Tricks to get thousands and thousands of Twitter followers by scooping up anyone who will follow back.  On LinkedIn there are groups you can join where everyone connects with everyone.  I know someone who did this and now regrets it. He has thousands of LinkedIn connections, but very few of any substance or relevance to him or his business.  Another has tens of thousands of Twitter followers, but they aren’t really engaged or connected.

I don’t have thousand and thousands of  connections on social media, but my connections are more engaged. It’s a slower build, but it is so much more fun and interesting!  My favorite part of it is those moments when I make a difference in someone’s day or life.  Yes, you can have that level of impact with a tweet or Facebook post.

Just the other day a Facebook friend commented on one of my posts with generalizations and name calling.  I appreciated his passion on the topic and asked him to help me keep my Facebook feed as an example of the change I’d like to see in the world and to reminded him that name calling  just puts people on the defensive, whereas sharing information tends to arouse curiosity.  His response?  A thank you for the reminder for both on and offline communications.

In that moment I truly did influence someone, not merely driving comments and responses, but making a real contribution to the world.

Remember Every Follower is a Person -  with real hopes, dreams and worries and who likes to laugh, be inspired and motivated.  Speak to them.  If you want to raise above the noise on social media be a real person talking to real people.

Be Authentic- I don’t believe every person needs to be on every social media platform.  Use the ones you enjoy and will actually utilize consistently.  And be you! Let your sense of humor shine through make a stand for what you believe in. Again, I think social media is about finding the fellow members of your tribe, wherever they may be on the globe.  If you are speaking to everyone you are speaking to no one.  Don’t try to please everybody all the time.  Speak in your true voice, loud and clear so the people who need to connect with you can find you.

Engage Regularly – Just like in a real life conversation or relationship people don’t like it when you pop in, dump a whole lotta vacuous chatter and then disappear for ages.  When you engage regularly with quality contributions to the online conversation people not only stay engaged with you, but also say to their friends, Hey you gotta come here what Joe Shmoe has to say.

I treat social media as just another platform for the conversations I have in real life.  Everyday I set the intention to influence and inspire people to play their bigger game both on and offline. It drives my real life conversations and it drives my online engagement.

Try this exercise for just one week.  Replace the word should with could.  See what happens in your own mind when you find yourself thinking “I could do that” instead of “I should do that”.  You will probably find yourself suddenly thinking of 3-4 other possible solutions.

Should shuts down possibilities.  Could shifts the mind into problem solving mode.

Notice what happens when you use could instead of should with others.  Ever notice what happens in your own mind when someone says “You should”? If you’re like most people your mind automatically starts coming up with arguments for your way.  What’s your experience with, “Well you could try….”? Notice how your curiosity and consideration of the point rise to the top rather than resistance?

So you could try replacing the word should with could for one week and see what happens.

Original published by Global Coworking Unconference Conference

The minute a group of people share a space there is going to be the challenge of getting every one to follow the community norms that are necessary to keep that space clean and make sharing it pleasant.  That’s just a politically correct way of saying, “There’s always going to be some jerk who leaves dirty dishes in the community kitchen.”  It is an ongoing theme on Cheezburger.com’s Monday Thru Friday Fails. It has been an issue ever since our ancestors first shifted from hunting and gathering to permanent settlements and it will be an issue on the first space station on Mars.

Ya can’t leave the dishes there, nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.  It seems like one dirty dish is quickly joined by 6 or 7 very good friends. And they invite 2 friends and they invite 2 friends and so on and so on…

And cleaning up after members like some martyr mother isn’t healthy for staff members’ sanity or for the community culture. So what’s a coworking community manager to do?

In our community we’ve found a way to turn the dirty dishes left in the sink issue around.  It’s not perfect.  A perfect kitchen would probably mean you had no members so we’re not shooting for perfection.  Our goal is consistent, cheerful following of community kitchen norms by most members most of the time.

Here’s a few tricks that  we’ve found effective and that can be adapted for whatever your community issue may be.

Rotate Signage – The familiar becomes invisible.  If it seems like people aren’t seeing your sign that is so obviously there, it may be that they’ve seen it so much that they don’t see it anymore.  Our brains developed to notice novel things.  This is how we found food and spotted danger.  That same old sign is known to be neither edible nor dangerous and so safely ignored.  Something new catches the attention again.  We have a variety of signs that we rotate randomly and continue to make new ones.  Keep it fresh.

Be Clear – In our space we are super lucky to have a dishwasher. Yet people still left dirty cups in the sink – even when there were acres of space in the dishwasher!  Or people would put their dirty cup half filled coffee cup in with the once clean dishes.  Arrrgghhhhhh!  Now when the dishwasher is available for dirty dishes there is a big, impossible-to-miss sign orange sign that says, “Hey! I’m available for dirty dishes!”  When it is washing it has a rotating silly pictures of dishes being washed that says, “I’m busy, please wash & put away your dish.”  Members have commented how much they appreciate the clarity.  Confused people don’t follow directions.  Make it crystal clear.

Tell ‘em what To Do  – The human brain doesn’t process the words, “No” or “Don’t”.  When given concrete directions, the brain tends to conjure up the image.  The abstract concept of “Don’t” falls away.  For example, when a child is told “Don’t hit your sister,” the image of hitting his sister forms in the mind.  Then it’s harder to identify what TO do.  In the case of “Don’t leave dishes here”, people can now only see the image of leaving their dishes there.  Instead try, “Wash your cup and put it in the drying rack.”  Wordier? Yes. And more effective with human brain wiring as well as creating a more positive community experience.  When we changed our signs from “Don’t do this, Don’t do that” to “This is what to do” several members commented that it felt more positive and friendly.

Have Fun!  You know those moments when your brain is mush and ya just need a little down time?  Try googling dirty dishes images.  There is some fun silly stuff that will make you laugh out loud and if it is making you laugh it’ll make your members laugh too as they wash their dirty dishes.  Or just make up your won silly stuff.  Like the Community Karma Points Game.  Empty the dishwasher or drying rack score infinity Community Karma Points.  Wash and put your cup in the rack  and the one some one else left +1,000,000 Community points.  Wash and put away your dishes +100 points.  Leave your dish in the sink for some one else  minus 100,0000,0000,000,000 Community Karma Points.

Put a Face On It-When dishes are left in the sink I change the sign to one of me with a spoon hanging from my nose and a silly psychotic expression that says Stop the Insanity! Keep Lydia from losing it! Please put your stuff away instead of throwing it in the sink! The comedy balances the scold and stillgets the point across, it ain’t cool do leave your mess for someone else to clean up.  It puts a face on that someone, makes them a real person.People tend to behave better when they feel like they’re being watched –even when it is just a photograph. Stores use this fact as an anti theft tactic.  They place signage of a face in high theft areas. The face may be smiling and hawking some product, but the brain’s experience is I’m being watched.  Try creating fun, silly signs that include someone looking over the scene.  We have a picture of a 1950’s mom reminding members, “I don’t work here, wash & put away your dishes.”

Reward the Behavior You Want to See – when we’re on a roll with the community following the kitchen norms I throw a little thank you on our community list or put up a sign that says thank you.  When I catch members going beyond I thank them.  This year at our annual awards we awarded two members with “The Kitchen Community Norm Role Model”.  What is awesome is they were both 20 something guys.

Wherever a group of people share a kitchen there will be the issue of dirty dishes in the sink, however as a coworking community manager you have a great deal of influence on how it folds into your community’s culture.  Is it a source of friction and contention or moments of amusement and maybe even a contender for the LOL of the day?  Laughter is not only the best medicine, it is the mortar for community.

This evening in my Facebook feed people are mocking the acknowledgements of !%, 5% and 10% most viewed profiles as BS equivalent to the Who’s Who books that get people to pay money to see their name in print. In this case the commodity is that most precious of resources – social media buzz.

True with 200 million members on LinkedIn, even the top 1% viewed profiles are in very good company with 2 million other people. The 5%ers with 10 million  and the 10%ers with 20 million.  Using the stats of percentages LinkedIn can send out congratulatory notes to many more people.  And with percentiles that means there are outliers on the other end as well.  Profiles that never get viewed.  Yes, percentiles are rather mushy math, but that doesn’t make them bogus.

But does that really mean those statistics are completely meaningless? Another way of looking at it is, if your profile was in one of those percentiles viewed out of the 200 Million possible profiles to view, that means MANY, MANY people viewed your profile.  And that’s good for your business.

One of the other reasons I didn’t post the pre loaded tweet was I saw an opportunity. If I did make the top 5% of viewed profiles that must mean I’m doing something right.  Maybe not as right as the 1%, but something different from 95% of the other users on LinkedIn.  Why just tweet LinkedIn’s pre-loaded “Yay Me!” tweet?  Why not also consider what I might be doing, write the blog post and share my strategies?  Not just building LinkedIn’s brand, but also building my growing reputation as knowing about social media.

Then I started thinking about it.  It could be.  I live my life very differently from a good 95% of the world.  I’m doing some things very differently than the vast majority of LinkedIn users.

Here’s my best guess on some of the ways I engage with LinkedIn that may have gotten my profile in the top 5% viewed.

1) Follow Up Within 24 Hours - when I go to networking events or meet someone new with whom I would like to stay  in touch for business purposes I follow up within 24 hours with an email and/or a LinkedIn connection request. And I personalize the message referencing our conversation.  The reply and acceptance rate is much higher within that 24 hours.

2)Engage in Groups – I engage in conversations in groups that I’m genuinely interested in and I don’t just post my link and leave. When I answer people’s questions or engage in the conversation I notice the people with whom I’m engaging tend to look at my profile and often send a connection invitation.  I’ve even had “conversations” that began in LinkedIn groups turn into live meetings – via  Skype due to geographical differences.

3) Maximize My Profile – Have you noticed how much real estate LinkedIn gives you?  Thousands and thousands of characters!  I’ll bet a good 90% of people on LinkedIn aren’t utilizing this resource! Add the summary section – this is a great opportunity to articulate who you are and what you are about.  Don’t just cut and paste your resume into the job descriptions.  Use real sentences to describe what you do and use all the space they provide you. And use Keywords!  Recruiters, event planners seeking speakers, etc search LinkedIn via keywords.  Use those words in your profile and it will pop up in more searches – maybe the search of just the person with whom you need to connect.

Also you get to tag your profile with up to 50 keywords in the “Skills & Expertise” section.  Use all 50!

4) Lead a Public Life – This isn’t going to be for everyone and isn’t appropriate for every one. It is in my case, probably a contributing factor to the number of times my profile is viewed.  I speak regularly and lately have begun to give presentations hosted by organizations such as the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the San Francisco Bar Association.  Those audiences tend to do their homework and research who they are going to be listening to and most use LinkedIn.  I do notice spikes in my views around speaking presentations.

Even when I’m not promoting or following up on connections made at a presentation, I have many fishing nets out there in the raging river of online communication.  People may be finding my LinkedIn profile via my MeetUp profile, or the button on my website or my Wall Street Journal or Forbes profiles.

It doesn’t diminish the value for your personal brand and your business if lots of other people are also having their profiles viewed.  The point is lots of people are viewing yours and every set of eyeballs is a potential connection, client, or joint venture.  So before you dismiss it all as a gimmick and scam what about a moment of appreciation for this powerful tool for 200 million people to connect and generate business.  Gratitude for this tool that is making it possible for people world-wide to engage in capitalism through collaboration & cooperation.  If you were lucky enough to get one of those 1%, 5% or 10% congratulations you are a leader.  People are tuning into find out what you have to say. What ‘cha gonna do with it?

Everybody Does Not Need To Be On Every Social Media Platform
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Oh My!  I can barely keep up with my email inbox and now you want me to deal with all those as well?  If you’ve been to any of those business presentations on social media you’ve probably come away with one of two worries.  The presentations that cram covering multiple social media platforms into just one hour probably left you feeling overwhelmed at the thought of learning & managing all those profiles.  If you attended an in depth presentation by a specialist in a particular platform you probably felt a panic that the train to wild success has left the station and you’re left behind & will never catch up.

Social media is important.  It is the cocktail party of the 21st century.  It is where people go to discuss the events of the day, chat and engage with one another.  If you are not online, you are not at the party.  And you do not need to be on every social media site.  Different people tend to use different social media tools in different ways.  The key is to discover where your peers and customers hang out online.

Social media can be a great way to keep up with the trends in your field.  Find out where the other experts in your field tend to engage online.  Follow and contribute to the conversation.  And where do your customers engage online?  For example, I was working with a company in the kiteboarding industry.  Kiteboarding consumers (i.e. potential customers) tended to be very engaged on Facebook.  Twitter tended to be better resource for industry news. There tended to be very little interaction on Google+.

I still highly recommend checking out those presentations on social media to gather information to make an informed decision on if and how include a platform in your social media strategy.

What’s In Your Feed?
Repeat after me: “I am responsible for the quality of my social media feed.”  An objection to social media I often here is “It’s a complete waste of time, there’s nothing but garbage.”  To which I ask, “Who are you following?”  Yes, there many, many people talking about a whole lotta nuthing.  There are also many people sharing interesting & important information, profound insights and very clever wit.  I use Twitter to keep up innovation, entrepreneurship, analysis of trends & news stories and I follow a few people that just crack me up. What’s in your feed?  That depends on who you follow.

What’s the real ROI of Social Media?
Some people think social media is a complete waste of time because there is rarely a direct correlation to a business’ bottom line.  (With the exception now of Pinterest for businesses with online shopping carts).  There are 3 basic ways investment in social media adds value to your business.

1. Brand Recognition In service industries it takes 8-10 “touches” to turn a looky lou into a customer.  That can be anything from meeting in person, to connecting on different online venues.  For example, when I spoke at the September 2012 Surf Expo I was cruising the convention floor prior to my presentation inviting people to attend.  As I was chatting with one person he said, “I know you!”  He didn’t look at all familiar to me, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where I’d met him.  Then he followed up, “I saw your article in Action Outdoor & Bike Retailer, and I’ve seen your posts in the Kiteboarding Business Group on LinkedIn.”  Not only did he come to my presentation, but he brought others as well.

2. Be the Expert Remember, social media is the big online cocktail party.  It’s one big ongoing conversation.  Engage.  Just like in real life, your passion and expertise will naturally shine through.  Just like in real life, people will start to know that you’re the person who knows about nutrition or building websites or non profits or (insert your expertise here).  Soon people will be coming to you.  Just this morning someone messaged me on Facebook wanting my insights on a kiteboarding business venture.  Do be careful to treat online conversations just like real life conversations.  You don’t want to be that person shoving your business card in everyone’s face.  Just engage in the conversation.  Be aware it does take time, just like in real life.

3. Creates Pathways Back to Your Website
Brand recognition and reputation as an expert are pretty ethereal and hard to track. One measurable return on social media investments is traffic back to your website.  If you do not have analytics on your site get them installed yesterday.  If you don’t know how people are finding your website you don’t know which of your marketing tools and posts are working.  With Google Analytics you can see how visitors move through your site and which pages tend to draw them in and which cause them to leave.

Think of social media as creating lots of yellow brick roads leading people who need your expertise, services or product back to you, The Great Oz.  One of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field is to share all that expertise locked in your head. What seems obvious to you is amazingly brilliant to someone who hasn’t invested the thousands of hours in your field that you have.  Share it!  Always, always, always post first to your website then share out that link on your carefully selected social media platforms. Now you are contributing to the conversation and building your brand recognition as an expert.

When you share out a post be sure to check in on your website analytics to see which social media platforms generated the most visitors.  Also, note what kinds of posts tend to generate the most visits.

Originally written for NextSpace Coworking +Innovation

Pinterest 101: What it is and How To Use It For Your Business

With 45 million users growing fast, there is no question that Pinterest is the next big thing in social media. Pinterest is proving to be a very effective social media site for retailers because the creators of Pinterest are not only OK with users selling their wares, they have actually built in a system to refer users directly to your shopping cart.  Even if you don’t have an online shopping cart yet, Pinterest can be very effective for helping new customers find your store and old customers think of you first.

Currently Pinterest drives about 40% of social media purchase referrals. Experts predict this number will skyrocket.  Pinterest referrals are 10% more likely to buy and tend to spend 10% more than other social media referrals.  Now is the time to get your business on board.

With millions of online eyes turning to Pinterest, now is the time to make an informed decision on including Pinterest in your social media strategy.

• What Pinterest is.
• Why it is so effective for retailers.
• How to get started.
• How to effectively represent your business on Pinterest.
• How to turn Pinterest users into your customers.

Surf Expo in Orlando, Florida   September 6 3:00PM  Main Stage

Start With the End In Mind: Building Your Brand & Business as a Pro-Rider or Instructor

Being a pro-rider isn’t just about the moves and shots in the magazines and those glorious moments on the winners podium. That’s all fleeting – the human body can only take so much of the abuse you put yours through. There’s always someone faster, stronger with better moves gunning for your spot. Then what?  Worn out, pushed aside and nothing left but some aging photos, fading memories of epic trips and a very thin financial cushion. Lydia Snider will share how to build your personal brand, make more money during their career and develop a transition plan for later stages of their career.  Instructors: much of this can apply to your business as well.

Join Lydia Friday Sept 7, 3:00pm in Room 310 of the South Hall Entrance E:

• Build your personal brand
• Become indispensable to sponsors
• Potentially expand your sponsorship to mainstream sponsors
• Increase your income during your career
• Develop a transition plan for “retirement”

Sponsored by Association of Wind & Water Sports Industries (AWSI)

Some of you may be groaning, not another social media site! Aren’t they all just a waste of time? Pinterest has some unique characteristics that, for certain types of businesses, provide a more direct ROI than other social media sites. Pinterest drives at least 40% of social media referred online purchases.  Pinterest users are 10% more likely to buy and tend to spend 10% more.

If you are ready to jump in, remember all social media can either be a fruitless time suck or a powerful tool. It depends on how you use it.  Come learn how to develop an effective strategy for utilizing Pinterest for your business.

With millions of online eyes turning to Pinterest, now is the time to make an informed decision on whether or not to include Pinterest in your social media strategy.  If so, how to utilize it most effectively.

Learn:

• What Pinterest is
• How to get started
• What kinds of businesses are ideal for Pinterest
• How to build your brand effectively.
• How to turn Pinterest users into your customers
• How to make your time on the site productive

August 29  7:00 – 9:00pm
NextSpace 101 Cooper Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Cost $20  Click here to pre-register

Photo by Erin Loscocco

If I were to label my relationship with kiteboarding Crissy Fields and the Golden Gate Bridge it would be, “It’s complicated”.  I made a brief attempt to live in San Francisco.  One of the big reasons for my move back to Santa Cruz was kiting at Crissy Fields.  My first time out ended in a rescue, as did my second.  After that I made a few attempts at kiting there, but never had fun.  I spent the whole time fretting that I’d make it back to shore. I made a brief attempt to try the kite races which was like trying to run before I knew how to even crawl.  I ran with my tail between my legs back to the familiar pounding of the waves at Waddell.

In the whole time I was in San Francisco I never made it “Through the Gate”, or kiting under through the Golden Gate Bridge.  It feels like a failure to me.  Also, all the Crissy kiters talk about it the way we talk about Magic Hour at the coast.  It is, well, magical. It’s definitely a kiteboarding bucket list item to kite the Golden Gate Bridge.

One of my friends, John von Tesmsar, is a kite instructor and teaches off a power boat in the bay.  I had just thought of him as an instructor for newbie kiters.  Then he and Erin Loscocco started posting GPS tracking and pictures of crazy expeditions they did kiting all around The Bay.  Despite my fears of getting back to shore at Crissy Fields, my first thought was “I wanna go too!” After posting whiny comments about wanting to go to I found out John does more than teach introductory kite lessons.  He also takes intermediate and advanced kiters on expeditions around The Bay.

Look at that! I’m actually smiling before kiteboarding at the Golden Gate Bridge! Photo by Erin Loscocco

I decided that for once I was going to enjoy a session on The Bay.  What is more enjoyable than knowing you have your own boat for support?  Rescue is not only guaranteed, but also immediate.  That settled down the scaredy cat part of my brain. I was still a little nervous.  One of the best parts about John’s Bay kiting expeditions is the radio helmet.  As I kited around he guided me around funky current spots and gave me information about where to go and what to avoid.  That was one of my biggest fears of kiting Crissy, I know there are all kinds of current and wind shadow hazards.  I just had no idea of where they are.  And I find it hard to learn talking with someone on the beach.  It means so much more to me to kite it with a guide.

Even with the boat support I was still a little nervous kiting by the Golden Gate Bridge.  I’d spent a year making it much bigger in my mind than it really was, so to get out at all was huge for me.  John gave such a good balance of information, encouragement and silence that after a bit I actually relaxed into it and even had fun!

Photo by Erin Loscocco

After playing around at the Golden Gate Bridge for a bit we headed downwind towards the city.  Suddenly I hit a patch of powered wind and did an unscheduled kiteloop jump.  That’s the thing that is so nuts about kiting The Bay, the wind varies so much from spot to spot.  You’re cruising along then you cross some invisible line and the wind suddenly ramps up or backs off.  I sorted things out and we continued on, as we approached the Crissy  launch I noticed myself sizing up the Anita Rock buoy and thinking, “I’ve got the right angle, there still seems to be good wind, I could probably make it to shore today.”  Then the next thought, bouncing up like a buoyant balloon, “But I don’t have too! I have a boat!”  We cruised on past.

John radioed me to go for the Bay Bridge. Really?  OK,why not?  It was such a beautiful evening.  For some reason there was almost no traffic on the bay.  One tanker was coming as we were launching.  John positioned me where I could play under the bridge and be well out of it’s way while it passed.  Another was heading out as we cruised past the St. Francis Yacht Club, but well away.    There was one moment where both a ferry and a big-ass yacht crossed my path making conflicting chop – That ain’t easy to kite.  Other than that there was no other boat around except for mine.  It was magic hour criss-crossing between Alcatraz and the city front as the sun dropped in the sky setting the city aglow.

Photo by Erin Loscocco

Just as we turned the corner to The Financial District the wind began to drop.  Finally my kite went down just shy of the Bay Bridge. Whoosh, there was the boat and the throw line to climb aboard.  It’s amazing to watch John manage the kite and boat.  He has it so dialed and efficient. Before I knew it I went from kite down to on board having my first sip of beer.

That day opened up a new idea of kiting for me.  Usually with kiting it’s about staying in the spot, riding the waves or throwing the tricks.  Maybe it’s a downwinder from point A to point B to get to ride waves without going back up wind, or just to do it.  But this was different.  This was exploring – going on an expedition, an adventure. Experiencing the bay and the city and all the islands in a whole new way.  It’s hard to describe, you really just have to experience it for yourself, being a tiny little craft out there seeing places so rich with history in a way you just can’t from a tour boat or from land.  You get a sense of the power and magnitude of the bay and a whole new appreciation for the phrase, “City by the Bay”.

If you bring your GoPro camera John will attach it to the kite and you can film your whole kiteboarding expedition. Photo Courtesy: Kite The Bay

The Bridge to Bridge trip was a fun first trip, but I want to do more.  I want to cruise around other parts of The Bay.  It’s one thing to ride one of the tour boats around Alcatraz – and quite another to do it on a kiteboard.  I thought taking the trip through the gate was crossing something off my kiteboarding bucket list. Instead it sparked even bigger ones.

If you are an intermediate or advanced kiter I highly recommend contacting John about going on a Kite The Bay Expedition.  This is not for everyone.  A certain level of proficiency is absolutely required. This isn’t just a put your money down and go kind of thing. John talks with everyone prior to booking to make sure it is really a good match.  John prefers to use his own kites and has boards and wetsuits so if you are planning a family or business trip to San Francisco and it isn’t practical to bring your own gear this is a great option for getting in a session without the hassle of traveling with your gear.

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