Making kite skating lemonade in the middle of winter!
We've had a long spell of Indian Summer in the Mountain West and the snow has melted to the point where my regular snowkiting spots are now too thin
and patchy to use. Winter deals you lemons.... make lemonade!
In preparation for IBX in a couple of weeks on the Ivanpah playa I wanted to get some time in on my new all-terrain skates. Turns out the local Parks
and Rec team plowed the two artificial turf fields in town for folks to play on. I poached one today for a fun short-line session. Wind was pretty
shifty and easily doubling in strength from time to time. I pulled out my 10m NS3 on 7m lines because the spot was too small for longer lines.
I learned a couple of things on this second real day of kite skating. First, choose a big space and leave plenty of room for your downturns. You'll
get to see what I mean if you hang out on the video until the bonus footage at the back.
Second, flying a large FB kite like an NS3 in shifty janky winds on skates doesn't leave a lot of room for error. Doh! I look forward to more
sessions with my DP kites.
Third thing I learned is that if you get going too fast and are quickly running out of space it is easy to just sort of slide out and coast to a stop
on your seat meat. You're already leaned out against the kite so its just a matter of leaning more and more until you just sit down softly on your
hip. The kite is lifting you so you come down very softly!
This is going to be a heck of a lot of fun on the playa and on larger natural grass sports fields. Very easy cross over from kite skiing if you
already know how to hockey skate. If you're a figure skater I figure you've got other issues. :karate:
nice man, i think its "hit the brakes " not "hit the (snow)bank"
fun stuff man , playa will be fun and fast!
best advice ----->hillbilly pants to save your hips!
keep rocking it!
Good call on the pants - may want to invest in some gear like that before heading down to Ivanpah.
I was cracking up when I smacked into the snowbank! It wasn't painful at all. I really think I'm going to prefer DP for skates. Running short lines
with a huge 10m NS3 gave me know effective way of bleeding off power. The way the wind was blowing it got stronger and stronger as I reached that end
of the field. That coupled with a pretty sizable gust had me going way too fast all of a sudden. This was a far superior outcome to last summer when
I slammed my buggy into a soccer goal post and then got dragged down an embankment.
Super cool Steve. Looks like a blast. I've been slacking this week. I need to get out there.
You of all people would appreciate my experience using short lines with NSs. I know you use 5m lines a lot, I think exclusively hand held, isn't that
right? I had bought a 7m three line set from Steffen last year. I wanted to hook into my harness so I jury rigged a line (white line in the video)
between the spot in the center of the rigging when the lines come together above the bar down through the bar and clipping into my leash strap. This
way if I pulled the rip cord on the chicken loop I would flag out on the center line. I tied into the loop that went through that funny little
wave-shaped plastic slider Steffen puts there. One problem I had was that I had used a somewhat heavy clip at the other end of my safety line and it
would tug on the loop drawing line up through it over time. The way this little wave-shaped thingy is constructed it holds the line from going out
the other way so it would sort of synch up the middle line after a while. I think I'll do away with the little wave-shaped thing and get a lighter
clasp.
This was the first time I'd ever flown my Stars with a setup like this. As you would appreciate I found those short lines sort of funky. Much more
likely to experience backflying and backstalling if the wind wasn't blowing hard for the kite size. Also, the wind window is vastly diminished making
it much harder to maneuver the kite through the window in attempts to depower the pull. With 10m of FB love in the air with that diminished window I
was pretty much at the mercy of the wind when it picked up. Not shown was the other two times I crashed into that same snowbank! Moving forward I
want a bigger area to work in so I can use longer lines.
(seat harness) or hillbilly pants will literally be saving your azz. dude DO NOT leave home without them or a brutal mistake awaits fo sho!
I've got a seat harness (PL Divine) that I used for buggying. If I don't get myself lined up with hillbilly pants before IBX I'll use the Divine for
kite skating on the playa. I was using my snowkiting harness for this skate adventure (Ozone SB). I fully realize that I was skating on a turf field
and not the rock hard coarse sandpaper of the playa! Thanks for the heads up; my wife wants me to come home with all the seat meat I go down there
with!
Super cool Steve. Looks like a blast. I've been slacking this week. I need to get out there.
You of all people would appreciate my experience using short lines with NSs. I know you use 5m lines a lot, I think exclusively hand held, isn't that
right? I had bought a 7m three line set from Steffen last year. I wanted to hook into my harness so I jury rigged a line (white line in the video)
between the spot in the center of the rigging when the lines come together above the bar down through the bar and clipping into my leash strap. This
way if I pulled the rip cord on the chicken loop I would flag out on the center line. I tied into the loop that went through that funny little
wave-shaped plastic slider Steffen puts there. One problem I had was that I had used a somewhat heavy clip at the other end of my safety line and it
would tug on the loop drawing line up through it over time. The way this little wave-shaped thingy is constructed it holds the line from going out
the other way so it would sort of synch up the middle line after a while. I think I'll do away with the little wave-shaped thing and get a lighter
clasp.
This was the first time I'd ever flown my Stars with a setup like this. As you would appreciate I found those short lines sort of funky. Much more
likely to experience backflying and backstalling if the wind wasn't blowing hard for the kite size. Also, the wind window is vastly diminished making
it much harder to maneuver the kite through the window in attempts to depower the pull. With 10m of FB love in the air with that diminished window I
was pretty much at the mercy of the wind when it picked up. Not shown was the other two times I crashed into that same snowbank! Moving forward I
want a bigger area to work in so I can use longer lines.
you lost me a little on the set up, post a picture if you get a chance. Yes I fly on short line unhooked with the stars when I'm on asphalt. I've
been meaning to just switch lines with my normal bar so I can hook in with short lines and have the same d loop / third line capability when qr hit.
I give you credit for using the 10m on short line. I generally don't like using short line and stars in anything under 5.5m winds. winds below that
can make for frustrating stalls and unforgiving surges. (unless very clean)
you lost me a little on the set up, post a picture if you get a chance.
Here ya go:
[img][/img]
This is essentially the B-K street kite set up with some modifications. I used a heavier bar with a slot in the middle to pass the safety line and an
after-market trapeze loop (Ozone I think).
(seat harness) or hillbilly pants will literally be saving your azz. dude DO NOT leave home without them or a brutal mistake awaits fo sho!
Just bought some "hillbilly" pants online! Got these with some over-shorts that hockey players use when they need to change their colors. The idea
with the over-shorts is that the playa is a rough abrasive surface and if (read when) I go down in a high speed slide I want to trash the shorts not
the body armor. That's the theory anyway. The hillbilly pants are designed for folks that play competitive street hockey. I was originally heading
the direction of standard hockey pants but the customer service guy at Total Hockey steered me in this direction instead. Locked and loaded!
I don't think it matters but it looks like you have the assembly with the knot sleeves backwards. Usually the knot sleeves with loops is where you
attach the lines not the bar leaders.
In other words that whole central assembly looks flipped. Again, by looking at it I don't think effect anything.
Dear 55,
You're right (but then you knew that already)! Thanks buddy. I just switched it around and things do line up better. I doubt I'll run other lines
since I have my 20m lines on my adjustable width bar, but if I ever want to run straight off of the bridles this will work much better.
This is sort of akin to proof-reading your own work. Far easier to see simple mistakes in other's work than your own. I always give my important
written work to somebody else for final proofing for exactly this same reason.
I've played with various iPhone apps that could possibly do this. In my mind I know I'm going 60+! :karate:
Honestly, I not a huge speed demon in my buggy or likely on skates. I will get some pretty good speed going on skis since I am very confident in that
medium having been a former ski racer. Van Nguyen and I were talking last night and he was telling me about how much my BigFoot tires would slide on
the playa. I told him that was just fine by me. I won't have a big enough kite in the air to make that an issue. If I start to get pulled sideways
I'll pull out a smaller kite, not look for wheels to hold me in place so I can go faster. When I was buggying on the playa last November I didn't
feel any sideways give at all .... and I was going at least 60!
![[*]](images/perspective/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
