Like Robert and Chris are saying, the winter has been up and down here as well going from cold to big melts then cold then rain, snow, melt, cold....
But i did get out a few times on the buggy with blades and it's been fun. This last saturday had a forecast of 45km wind with gusts to 65km. The small
lake near me had some grainy ice and then areas of shale ice, places where water flowed up through ice fishing holes and made little mounds and then
scattered snow patches. Being a smaller lake with high gusty winds there are more wind shadows from islands and turbulence but some good wind staying
closer to one shoreline doing short runs.
I went out with a newer 5m PL Lynx which I've been finding is a very stable and fast in the buggy. It was perfect for the gusts and i was hunting
them out to look for faster runs but had to zig zag looking for a faster track trying to stay on the I've patches and avoid the rougher ice. I put on
a helmet cam and mounted an older GoPro on an jointed extension arm low out front of the fork. I did one run and as the buggy shook the front camera
was slowly dropping forward and down and I thought I'd loose it so took it off. This little video is that first little run showing the view first from
the lower rattling camera, then from the helmet cam.
I had a good couple of hours of solid wind and filled up my other camera until it shut off. The wind dropped a bit and the surface got a little softer
and the newly sharpened blades were tracking laser sharp grooves so I started doing speed runs with down looping the kite and big power slides so I
could send big washes of shaved ice like doing it on a beach with sand. I rode the buggy hard for an hour in front of a restaurant carving and
slashing the ice - i didn't realize just how hard i had been pushing that buggy. Just before sunset the wind kicked up and I did a big power slide
downturning the kite slingshotting out to get in the gust to go for a rip across the lake. I got maybe 100 yes and crossed a tiny pressure crack and
the next thing I know my feet or on the ground, the front end has dropped down and I'm sliding and pretty good speed. What the heck? I came to a stop
and saw that i sheared the 5/8 bolt that goes down through the headstock and into the post/fork - oops!
If that was the last ice buggy ride of the season it was another good one.
Cheddarhead - 29-2-2016 at 09:43 PM
Very nice Mark!! Happy to see you got another ride in:D Glad it ended the way it did. Wouldn't want you to get hurt from a malfunction. Most
likely I won't see another ride on my ice buggy this year. Things are warming up here really fast. Our lake surfaces are getting too soft for blades
anymore. Still time left for skis though:Dvolock - 29-2-2016 at 10:33 PM
Glad to hear all ended well. I'd always wondered about the rigidity of ice blade attachment and sliding like that... Makes me think of hockey stops
more than beach drifting, but that may be my not having gotten to a beach with one yet.
Jealous of your ice conditions still being good enough. Silly spring weather trashed ours early.
