So…we pretty much got skunked this weekend due to a lack of wind. Looking on the bright side though, the stable high pressure systems that are sitting on us are providing cold temperatures and setting the lake ice good and deep, and snow flurries are forecast for the next few days to build on the couple of inches we already have.

I’ll give you a quick run down of how Saturday went. There were six student kiters booked for the course, with a range of experience and an even split, skiers vs. boarders. We met at 11 AM at Muller Wind Sports’ shop, at the top of Cochrane hill, which is about a 35 minute drive from downtown Calgary. We began with everyone signing off on waivers, which is SOP with any of the courses you’ll take through the U of C. The shop space provides the opportunity to lay out a kite and Keith started the day by showing the guys with no experience how the kites are rigged and how the safety systems work before we headed out to Cochrane Lake. The lake is on the west side of highway 22, 5.4 KMs north of highway 1A and is about a 15 minute drive from the Muller shop. While the newbies got their ski and boarding equipment gear together, Keith and several assistant instructors laid out three factory fresh Ozone Access XCs, a 6M, an 8M and a 10M, as well as two small fixed bridle Ozone IMP trainers. Everyone got a chance to handle the trainers in the very light wind while Keith explained where the power zone is, kite positions in the power window and how to use the brake strop to land the trainers. We patiently waited for several hours hoping that the wind would give us a chance to play with the Access kites, but it didn’t happen. There were a bunch of people from previous courses, instructors’ girlfriends, and a couple of guys like myself who are crossing over from paragliding, so there where probably 15 of us on the lake. All in all it was a great day, we didn’t get any real kiting done, but we socialized and spent a few hours in the fresh Alberta air. Everyone booked in the course is welcome back, and Keith will work out schedules to accommodate everyone as time and weather permit.
I’ll keep updating this post through the season and adding photos to the GlideGuy photo bucket for anyone who’s interested.

Cheers, Dean
http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff208/GlideGuy/

Wow, that looks cold. I mean really cold. What were the temps that day? We don't get any ice on water here and it was a rare thing up in Tennessee. That would be strange to live where it is commonplace every year.

You get used to it after a while but it's certainly all about dressing for it. We were out Sunday for four hours in -27 windchill (that's -16 F) and didn't feel the cold at all except when we stopped to switch kites or rest.

15 more cm of snow today!

It was 10-15*F. that day, but the sun made it feel a lot nicer. I envy all those guys in the Southern areas. Beer tastes better after you've been playing in the sun, not that it tastes bad after playing in the snow.
Cheers, Dean

There is no such thing as bad weather- only poor clothing choices.

I shipped a Beamer TSR to McMurdo Station in Antarctica the other day. The guy said "Yeah, we have a pretty good snow field down here". I said "Yeah, ya think?"

December 7' 07 Dear Diary...my ribs hurt & my drinking arm doesn't bend right, lol.
A group of us headed out to Ghost Lake this morning and it turned out to be a really fun day. As usual we met at the Muller Wind Sports Shop at 11:00 and sorted out a plan. Don, one of the "left overs" from last weeks course showed up, and Eric, Dev & me were there to free load. Marty Q and Keith were there to teach.
There is 3"-4" of good dry snow on the lake, with no crust or crud. The wind started out at about 5-10 MPH, a bit gusty, but great to learn on. There was a guy with an ice boat just coming in when we arrived and he warned us about a few rocks on the ice. We laid out a 4M and 6M AccessXC and a 3M IMP to start and all of us got a couple of good slow rides across the lake and back on the various kites.
I decided that I'd had enough of "the slow tows" so I got my 8M out of the bag and set it up. Keith is pretty laid back and I've known him for 15 years, so when he asked me "Are you sure you want to do that?" I kinda didn't get the hint he was giving me. The wind had picked up and was more like 18-20 MPH at that point, and what he was really saying was "You should keep flying the 4M and 6M, ya dip$4!T".
So anyway, I pull my kite up, walk back and put my skis on, and proceed to make three passes going mostly down wind at speeds that seemed "a little" excessive. I killed the kite and took a little rest while I tried to suck up enough courage to re-launch. One of the more experience guys from our paragliding group, Mark came gliding up on his snowboard and offered to give me some help and his smaller kite but I declined (silly me). After an unceremonious side/belly flop that knocked the wind out of me and bruised my ribs, I decided that the walk back would probably be better for my health. So I packed up and with my kite under one arm and my skis over my shoulder I began walking back. I had a nice view of 4 or 5 kites gliding back and forth across the lake as I hiked the 1/2 mile back to our staging area.
When I finally got back, there were a couple of other friends there strapping on skis; Young James, Martin P. and a guy some of you might have heard of; Will Gadd. Will holds the official world open distance record flight on a paraglider (259 Miles!), and has a series of adventure films which air on Discovery Channel on Sunday nights. The series is called Fearless Planet; check it out if you like adventure sports.
So when I finally got back to the group, the wind had mellowed, but I was too tired to give it another try so I watched.
Everyone had a great day and those of us that are new to the sport learned a lot, thanks to Marty and Keith.

Things I learned...
1) Pick the appropriate kite for the conditions; if you don't know what that is, ask!
2) Everyone knows that the force on a kite is proportional to the square of the wind velocity. What I learned was, the time spent walking up wind is equal to the square of the time kiting down wind...ie 5 min kiting down wind=25 min walking back.
3) It's easier to learn on skis than a snowboard...you can't skate on a snowboard so learning to tack, and maneuver looks like a challenge.
4) NiCad batteries don’t work worth crap in the cold (so no new pics)
5) Martin P's dog likes to chase and chew kites, (but she's really loveable) so keep them flying and go fast!

I'm looking forward to meeting some of the out of town guys that are coming here in the next few weeks. If there some Calgary area kite skiers and boarders out there that want to join us, drop me a U2U and we'll see if we can get together. :singing:

Dean

Apologies to the moderators and thanks for moving me to the correct forum.

I'm trying to get a few of the people I referred to in my update to post here; they're a nice group. Maybe we can get a little buzz going out here in Alberta and bring more people into the sport.
You can't throw a rock with out hitting a kiter in the Montreal and Vancouver areas, but we don't have enough folks flying and having fun here.

Dean

Dec 15 '07

As Kelly (AKA MacBoy) posted elsewhere, we had another unsuccessful teaching session this weekend. We set up at Cochrane Lake with a couple of 2M Samuri trainers and did a little static flying in the strong chinook winds. The mostly bare lake ice made it a bit too risky to get our skis on, and after an hour we called it quits. As always, we had a few laughs in spite of the poor conditions and hope to see everyone back next weekend.

Dean