Happy Hour in La Ventana from 4-6 PM, at Playa Central

On October 1st Playa Central´s Bakery and Restaurant opened and started the season with a Happy Hour special where guests order a cocktail or wine and get free appetizers from 4-6 PM. After a day of kiteboarding it´s a releive to walk down to Playa Central, order a Margarita or a Mojito and enjoy the evening with pleasant appettizers being brought to your table while you sit at the beach bar and gaze at the bay and the Isla Cerralvo or enjoy with a group of friends. People often come a few times a week and bring other friends who have never been here for Happy Hour.

This picture is of the South end of the bay, you can see that La Ventana is an L Shaped Bay, ideal for beginner kiteboarding. In this picture we have owners of Diamante Real Estate in La Ventana and local homeowners enjoying Playa Central´s Happy Hour. Three people from this party just got off the water, and one of them will start taking lessons soon!

What is Happy Hour?

Free appetizers when you order any cocktail or wine. We have margaritas, mojitos, sex on the beach, screw drivers, sangria, red and white La Cetto wines from Northern Baja, Cuba Libres, and more.

When?

Every day from 4-6 PM.

What Free Appetizers do I get?

Garlic break, home made humus and flat bread, parmesan bean dip, ceviche tostadas, carrot soup espressos, mini pizzas, chicken wings, and more. Trust us, you want to check it out.

Pizzas and specials are served during and after Happy Hour, the view of the Cerralvo Island is beautiful! Look at the colors!

Some of our appetizers include garlic bread, flat bread and home made hummus, parmessan bean dip, carrot soup espressos, ceviche, and more. Our number one selling drink is our World Famous Margaritas, since we make each one with the best ingredients available. Our wine sellection is mostly La Cetto wines from Northern Baja, which Jessica picked out at the beginning of October to compliment the pizza and pasta recipes.

You can go to our website and visit out Wood Oven, where you can see our daily menu tweets as well as out daily pizza menu www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

Jessica loves the Petitte Sirah from L.A. Cetto, a spicy red wine that goes great with tomatos sauce and meat. Order a bottle of wine for a great price, come and see.

Playa Central´s Restaurant has a beach bar with a seating area and hammocks where you can enjoy the view of the bay, pink skies and the moon rise.

You should make it to Happy Hour, most of the people who have tried it have loved it and come throughout the week to wind down after a great day on the water. Welcome to Playa Central!

Thanks Sandy Parker, a pro's time goes a long way.

By Jessica Withington.

I met Sandy Parker in La Ventana in 2009 when she and the Live 2 Kite team headed down to Baja for the annual La Ventana Classic. After the 4 days of racing, big air and demos, she offered a free race clinic for women and I thought to myself, why not, it’s free and could be fun. Since that day at Sandy’s clinic I have competed in every race I happen to be at for the last 18 months, one of them being Thursday’s Race Night at Crissy Fields last week, where I placed 39 our of 51 on a strapless surfboard. My next move is to get my hands on a new fast race board and be a part of this technical and competitive side of kiteboarding and I owe all of this to Sandy’s willingness to share and promote her passion for women kiteboarding and racing.

La Ventana has a thermal wind from October through May and has become one of the greatest places to kite board, network, and be inspired to bring your kite boarding up a notch. That is where Sandy and I met.

Thursday Night Race at the St. Francis Yacht CLub at Crissy Field, June 16th, 2011. Jessica Withington, #50 Black places 39th out of 51 sailors. Inspired by Sandy Parker's free race clinic in La Ventana in January 2009.

As you might know, Vivien, Marcela and I are on a summer road trip on the West Coast of Mexico and the USA. Last month we raced in Puerto Vallarta during the same week Sandy hosted Kristin Boese’s KB4Girls clinic at her kite school, Kitopia, at the end of May. We were bummed we weren’t able to make it up to Sherman Island in time for it. Good news is we got to Sherman in June and were happy to see Sandy and told her that we saw all the great pictures of the clinic and wished we could have been a part of it. To our surprise, Sandy had a great proposal for us!

We got to Sherman on June 9th and were excited about all those windy days ahead of us. A special thanks to Maui Mike and his family for hooking the Playa Central Kiteboarding girls up with a terrific camper!

KB4G women's clinic at Kitopia on Sherman Island, May, 2011.

Unfortunately we couldn't make it for this day, but below you can see the picture from our evening clinic with Sandy Parker (We had the best photographer too! Keep reading).

The deal was that we would sign up to be members of KB4Girls and she would give us a free, private and casual KB4G clinic for the three of us, we said “Yes, please.”The first thing she did was talk to all of us about what new tricks or areas of improvement we wanted to work on. We all launched our 7m kites and began the clinic. We worked on back rolls, front rolls, down loops, toe side turns, pops, and jumps. Sandy would kite in front of us, do the trick, then watch us attempt it, correct our mistakes, and we would try it again and again. It is so nice to be pushed and encouraged by a great instructor and friend right by your side!

Marcela Ley, Sandy Parker, Vivien Withington and Jessica Withington after a great evening clinic with Sandy in spirit of KB4 Girls. Photo by Mike Zajicek, from Mikeslab Boards.

We asked Mike Zajicek if he could take a picture with the girls! He's the big name at Sherman these days, mainly because Adam Koch, Johny Heineken and Andrew Koch from Team Fluid will be racing Mikeslab boards at the Course Racing Worlds in Germany next week.

The only hazard that may come from women clinics is that sometimes the guys start jumping big, real close to shore, trying to impress us, and then we end up helping save their kite. There's Mike Zajicek.

After the clinic we thanked Sandy and talked about how it went for us. Marcela said the most important thing she understood from the clinic was how to do the “Load and Pop” and losing her fear of down looping her kite by having Sandy next to her. Vivien did lots of small jumps and load and pops, when we asked her what she got out of the clinic she said simply “I used to never try new things because I was afraid of falling, but today I fell so much that I don’t mind falling anymore”. So, even if it's just to learn that falling isn't so bad, these clinics will change the way you approach kite boarding on your next session. Trust us.

Jessica Withington in La Ventana, in front of Playa Central doing a back roll. In Sandy's clinic she got to work on her front roll.

What I have learned the most is that just a little time with a pro instructor goes a long way. That may mean that paying for a 2 hour lesson or a clinic can improve your lesson and is worth the money since you make your kite boarding more fun and technical. And it also means that when a pro rider takes their time to help new kite boarders learn more about the sport, it ultimately puts more people on the start line, indirectly creates social media about kite boarding and personal experiences, promotes the sport and helps the industry grow. Playa Central Kiteboarding and all three of us girls would like to thank Sandy Parker and Kristin Boese for all their efforts with KB4Girls and encourage any new kiteboarder or advanced kiteboarder to go to any clinics available near you.

1st Stop: Mexican National Tournament in Puerto Vallarta May 20-23rd

Preface: Playa Central had it’s first season in La Ventana as a Bakery Restaurant and Kiteschool. It was a fun year meeting new clients, greeting old friends, and working hard on and off the water. Jessica and Vivien Withington managed both businesses at Playa Central, and Marcela Ley was a yoga instructor and worked at the Bakery. All three of us girls felt that we didn´t get to kite enough and deserved about a dozen weeks of pure kiteboarding, so we decided to take summer road trip starting May 17^th! Our friend Pinky who also was a member of the Playa Central crew this season met us in Vallarta for the event. We wish he could have joined us for the whole road trip, maybe next year!

Jessica, Marcela, Vivien, Pinky and Baby Bobo at the Bakery. Photo taken March, 2011.

Vivien and Jessica left Playa Central and drove down the road to pick up Dalaney Overstreet, owner of the Flying High Resort in La Ventana, and headed to La Paz to drive onto a Baja Ferri to cross the Sea of Cortez over to Mazatlan. We arrived at 12 pm and drove South to Puerto Vallarta to compete in the Festival de Viento 2011, a Mexican National Kiteboarding tournament.

Jessica navigated while Vivien drove.

Dalaney slept for the most part.

Finally we got to Vallarta and met Marcela! We spent our first day at Sayulita,
a hot little surf town in the Bay.

Our brother Adam flew in for the event and we all headed to the event site where we were greeted by the Mexican Association of Kiteboarding and enrolled in the Freestyle and the Race categories. Upon enrollment we got a T-Shirt, licra, Havaiiana sandals and meal and drink tickets, they also gave us a bracelet which let all competitors have Open Bar privileges at the night parties at different hot spots in Vallarta. HBO was there to film and interview some of the competitors, including Adam!

Fernanda Ochoa, Adam, Jessica, Vivien and Paula Ochoa at the skippers meeting.

The inauguration of the tournament was held May 20^th at the Vallarta Marina where the racers would start and kiteboard to the finish line 8 miles downwind, at the event site. Over 150 competitors enrolled, for many it was their 3rd or 4th time in the race. Marcela won third place women’s, way to go!

The competitors walking to the skippers meeting just before the race.
There´s Vivien with the event T-Shirt on.

Congratulations Marcela for your 3rd place in the race!
1. Warenka Smutney, 2 Raquel Arroyo, 3. Marcela Ley

The event site was at a beach called Bucerias and gets an onshore thermal wind April, May and June that comes in around 1 pm and lasts until 5 or 6pm. There were more than 20 knots every day during the event, most competitors had their 7ms, 9ms and 10ms. There were 4 judges and a head judge, after the downwind race the freestyle began and we got through the first elimination.

Bucerias is in the Banderas Bay, by Puerto Vallarta. No wetsuit needed! Bikini kiteboarding.



Dalaney Overstreet, Paula Ochoa and Adam Withington.
The best part of the event was seeing all of our friends!
Vivien and Jessica with Paul Ramos, designer of Kush Clothesline, and dear friend Diana Valles Rojas. Girl Kiteboarding Power!

El Tate, Marcela and Adam with zinc! Thank you Red Bull for the shade.

The next morning we all had a big breakfast of spinach, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and scrambled eggs, with corn tortillas and avocado. We arrived at the event site and rigged upwind, we were all excited to compete in the freestyle. The heats were 6 minutes long, with four riders in each heat. The final results were:

Men’s Final: 1. Luis Miguel Avila, 2. Adam Withington from Playa Central, 3. Fernando de La Torre, 4. Diego Tron

For the 8 minute freestyle heat I went out on my Liquid Force board to do some jumps, rolls, and moves, and 4 minuted into it I switched to an ANDO strapless to show off my surf moves. I think the judges liked the variety since they placed me 3rd!

Women’s Final: 1. Warenka Smutney, 2.Raquel Arroyo, 3. Jessica Withington and
4. Marcela Ley.

To top it all off, they raffled a Go Pro camera amongst all the 150 kiters and Marcela won it! What a great addition to our road trip gear for this summer.

We stayed at our friend Augusto´s house, a good kiter who spends part of his winter in La Ventana. Thank you Augusto, AKA Chuba!

It was so nice to go from the salty bay to the fresh pool. We kited from our house!

It was a great way to start our trip and we are more excited than ever to head up to CA and OR in the next few weeks and rip it up. We will keep you guys posted. Make sure to share this link. We´ll be using the Go Pro for sure!

Playa Central´s Spanish School

Hola! Bienvenidos todos a la clase de español.

Hello, welcome to Spanish Class.

Would you like to improve your Spanish? Well, it has never been more fun, so sign up and change your Baja experience. Learn Spanish so you can communicate clearly with Mexicans who do not speak English, get those verbs down, learn some of the lyrics of some of the most famous Hispanic songs, explore Hispanic geography and cuisine en Español and meet people in La Ventana.

Maestra Jessica and Teacher Assitant Sallyanne. Photo taken on the first day of the spring course.

For the spring course of April 22nd - May 18th Jessica will be the maestra. For the first two weeks Sallynne Munro will her teacher assistant, and the following weeks you will have Vivien, Jessica´s sister, as a teacher assistant. Jessica and Vivien are fluent in English and Spanish, with a Mexican mom and an American dad, born and raised in Cozumel, they are very good at relating Spanish grammar and vocab to the English language, and can really help you learn some tricks to remembering and pronouncing your Español.

Jessica tutored Spanish Grammar, Literature and Hispanic Drama during her university at Oklahoma State and enjoys teaching interested students a hablar español. Vivien, who will study Business in Guadalajara next year, is a patient and fluent person who will assist you in pronounciation, local sayings, conjugaitons and get you coffe and cake during class! Vivien runs the bakery at Playa Central and is in charge of the wood oven, always making sure there are plenty of galletas y pastelitos for Spanish School students.

Classes includes Coffee or Tea and Cake. (Advances students do pizza & wine)

Sallyanne is a traveled kite instructor who teaches kiteboarding in English and Spanish. She is originally from Scottland and Canada, and is a great example of how with studies and effort anybody can pick up Spanish as a 2nd or 3rd language and become fluent. Sallyanne will assist students with their spelling, vocab and grammar, as well as join in or pair up with students for conversation class. She will also be serving students coffee and goodies, but remember there is NO ENGLISH ALLOWED!

Tuesday´s class was fun and productive. This is your chance to REALLY improve your Spanish. For the next four weeks, we will have classes for all levels, so check out the calendar, decide what level you are at, and enroll.

The Spanish Students! Los estudiantes de la clase :) This is a real fun way to practice your Spanish conversation,

enjoy your morning, meet new people and talk about relevant topics.

Spanish School Spring Schedule for 2011

Which level are you?

Beginners: Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 10:00- 11:30. Cost is 10 americanos a class, or 12 classes for 100 americanos.Includes: Coffee or tea & Cake
Dates: April 22, 25, 27 & 29th. May 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16 & 18th.
Description: We will start out with the basics. Introduction to verbs and grammar as well as basic vocabulary. Learn your when, where, what & why´s, numbers, the alphabet, body parts, sentence structure, sayings, fruit and veggies, etc.

Intermediate: Tuesday & Thursdays 9:00 - 10:30. Cost is 12 americanos a class, or 80 americanos for all 8 classes.
Includes: Coffee or tea & Cake
Dates: April 26 & 28th. May 3, 5, 10, 12, 17 & 19.Description: Lots of conversation and vocab. We will focus each class on a new topic, example: weather and topography, marine life and water sports, construction/building and tools, emotions and holidays, slang and local dialects, Hispanic culture and geography, etc.

Advanced: Tuesdays and Fridays @ 5:00 - 6:30. Cost is 35 americanos a class, or 240 americanos for all 8 classes.
Includes: Pizza & Wine
Dates: April 22, 26 & 29th. May 3, 6, 10, 13 & 17th.
Description: We will analyze songs, articles, poetry and excerpts to discuss in class. We will be conversing most of the class and I will correct all errors. Every day we will add 10 advanced words to our vocab, and do written exercises.

The advanced Spanish on Tuesdays and Fridays includes pizza and wine.

The wine is to help that Spanish flow a little better :) Bring a friend!

You are welcome to show up, but please Facebook or e-maili Jessica Claire Withington Sanchez at jessica@playacentralkiteboardig.com if you want to enroll in advance.

Farmer´s Market on Thursdays at Vivero El Moy in La Ventana

On Thursdays from 9 am - 12 pm there is a Farmer´s Market at Vivero El Moy, where homeowners and tourists buy their weekly groceries from local La Ventana businesses, people and farmers who set up to sell fresh produce, wood oven baked goods, smoked fish, Mexican and continental art, almond milk and other organic products, and of course, exotic and house plants for sale at Vivero El Moy. Playa Central sets up at the Farmer´s Market with our multi grain and white baguettes, and other goodies like chocolate chip cookies and pecan pies. To get fresh bread make sure to get there early.

Jessica and Vivien at the Farmer´s Market.

To order bread, cakes, pastries, or more information on our bakery and pizza restaurant

please visit http://www.playacentralkiteboarding.com/#!wood-oven

Our chocolate chip cookies and PB cookies are a favorite, we always try to have some at

the Market for our customers. Our white baguettes make great Subs!

Most vegetables are grown in La Ventana and Los Planes, others are

grown on the Pacific side of Baja Sur.

When you shop here you will try new things in your kitchen because you

will want to cook with all this beautiful food!

How refreshing it is to do your shopping at the Farmer´s Market, in the outdoors surrounded by

tropical plants, fresh local produce and friendly farmers and locals to help you.

Paula Sonnenberg, F-One Teamrider and pro kiteboarder stays healthy and supports the local farmers and businesses in La Ventana. Here is a quick link on the pro- kiter http://f-onekites.us/portal/team/paula-sonnenberg-national-rider/paula4/

Vivien from Playa Central with our favorite Spring Break 2011 customers!

Coming to the Farmer´s Market is also really pleasant and enjoyable for the merchants! What a nice place to greet and attend customers. We love this family! They were in town for Spring Break and came by the bakery for over 2 dozen pizzas, 6 brownie Sundays, fresh bread, and lots of lemonade and margaritas while they were in town. When they found us at the Farmer´s Market they had to say hi and stock up on goodies!

Steve, Carol & husband.

viveroelmoy@yahoo.com

Steve, manager of Vivero El Moy, reported that pear and cherry tomatoes are in season right now, and oranges and figs are will be ripe at the end of this month. Steve also offered a simple list of seasonal fruits and vegetables so that people see what veggies and fruits are in season. Some veggies and fruits from Vivero El Moy are yet to be documented since they have not matured.

	Dorment	Flowering	Fruit
Fig/Higo	Jan		April, June & Dec.
Oranges/Naranjas		April	Dec &Jan.
Apples/Manzana		Feb	May & June
Cherry Tomato			Feb & March
Peach/Durazno		Feb	May, June & July
Mango		Jan	May, June & July
Guava/Guayaba			Oct, May; June, Nov
Limes/Limones	Not	Jan	Year Round
Avocado/Aguacate
Dates/Datiles		Sep	Oct
Mandarines, Limes & Kiwis			Nov
Strawberries, Fesas (from Pescadero)			Feb & March
Pear Tomato			Feb & March

On Thursdays you can come and get ranch eggs, natural yogurt, greens and salad fixings. Make sure to see what surprises Alin Aguilar Hardy has, who was stocked with zucchini flowers last week!

Smoked tuna, sierra, and marlin. Hint: make a tuna salad with the smoked fish and serve it on one of Playa Central´s fresh baguettes, the perfect Baja meal!

This on going event has been a great commodity for La Ventana and the people who spend time here, and most importantly, it helps small businesses and farmers promote their business and products and network with customers and each other. The staff at Vivero El Moy reached out to the merchants and invited us to join in on this wonderful idea. A sincere thank you to Carol, Steve and Warren for their time and effort in helping make this happen, as well as they welcoming attitude with all clients, farmers and merchants. Add beautiful plants to your Baja garden from Vivero El Moy. Come by the Farmer´s Market on Thursday and bring your shopping bag!