When seagulls are flying by while snowkiting on a frozen lake you know that the season is drawing to a close...

Winds 15 - 22km/hr - runs just over 60km/hr on slushy goodness with a 2.9 Libre Bora - great day.

Nice...

We lost our ice last week, so I'm back to the Dirtsurfer again.

You need to take a trip to Maine. We still have 24" of ice ! Went out monday 15-25 mph wind
1" of frozen granular,hit 37mph with a little 2.5m beamer in the 30mph gusts. I never thought the mini beamer would go that fast! Course my arms are 6" longer than when I started....
Should be the same this weekend but the snow is gone so it's out with the blades and the ice buggy...... can't last much longer but sure is fun right now.

Sounds sweet Ted - that ice buggy should rip!

The ice is still good and thick - about 2 feet - but the temperature is supposed to get to +15C today and tomorrow - still below freezing overnight. The surface is too granular for blades - but super fast on the skis. More seagulls expected today...

The season is just starting here in Yellowknife, come on up.

Ya'll sound like your having fun in the cold. It's in the low 70's and I'm freezing! Ok, so I only have swim shorts, no shirt, no shoes, no hat but dang it's cold! Oh, just got out of my pool which is 82 degrees. But it still sounds like your having fun in the cold!
We had a cold front come through this afternoon.

Scott

Quote:

Originally posted by PrairieWind When seagulls are flying by while snowkiting on a frozen lake you know that the season is drawing to a close... Winds 15 - 22km/hr - runs just over 60km/hr on slushy goodness with a 2.9 Libre Bora - great day.

Hey PW - can you enlighten me? a 2.9 Libre Bora - is that as in 2.9 square meter? And if so, 60km/h in 15-20k winds! Wow! I need one of those kites! Is it because you're on skates? Thanks for the info (and inspiration). I don't know anything about Libre kites.

I tried to log in at work and it didn't work - so I created a temporary pseudonym... PW1 (PrairieWind)

The speed has more to do with the ice conditions than it does the exact kite. Any small race kite would be ideal. It was soft ice - a bit rippley - it was +8 degrees. The ice surface was too soft for skates, but it gave a perfect amount of grip and glide on skis. On smooth, glassy hard ice there is just not enough pressure to bite and the ability of the ski to resist lateral pull can be little or non existent depending on smoothness and hardness. The situation is more favorable on rough, ripply ice when ski edges contact the ice pointwise, reducing the area of contact thus increasing pressure for a better lateral grip.

The 2.9 was just right that day, not being overpowered one can really work the apparent wind and build speed. There is very little drag on ice so little power is needed to go fast. Small, fast flying, efficient in terms of ratio of forward to lateral pull, kites will naturally work best.

Libre doesn't make the Bora model anymore - there is a new race model called the Spirit (I think). www.libre.de/english/f_index.htm
You can get Libre (as well as Jojo) race kites from Jon Ellis at www.kitebuggyspeedshop.com

When DaVinch spoke about going over the Magic 50mph he said it best "It's probably not so much the kite, but just being at the right place at the right winds/snow conditions."

We just got 40 cm of snow over the last few days - won't be using a little kite for a wee while...

I think you got a nice big dump of snow in Edmonton too!

Welcome to the forum PW1! ; )

A foot and a half of snow is what we're trudging through. I just wish the lakes were still frozen over! I really wanna get back out and see what I'm missing from my smaller kites. When you refer to "working the apparent wind" what "working" are you doing? I assume there is no "park & ride" going on here?

I'm sure your lakes are still frozen. There might be some shore rot but I'm sure that it is still good and solid especially with the cold temperatures. They are still snowkiting at Ghost Lake near Cochrane. Spray should be good until May. When was the last time you checked your local ice? I bet you've still got a couple of weeks before it is unsafe. Sometimes I'll use a plank to get over the rot at the shore to get onto the plate of ice. I do drill to check thickness and quality of the ice early in the year and late in the year. This cold snap will have fixed the shore rot problem for a little while.

Apparent Wind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_wind

You change your direction as your speed increases to take advantage of the increasing apparent wind.

I bet if you head out to Cooking or Big Lake you still have many days left.

I'm sure you've still got kiteable ice up there - you should check it out.

A friend of mine posted this morning on the Calgary kiteboarding site about conditions at Ghost Lake near Cochrane:

"It is great to have an unlimited supply of untracked snow to yourself but, since I can't possibly use it all, there is no sense keeping it a secret. Ghost has been terrific for a few weeks now with conditions improving daily until it almost reached a white velvet stage. This was interrupted by the latest snows but it is difficult to complain when cruising smoothly in the best conditions of the season."

A picture taken this weekend at Lake Kenogami in Quebec near by Chicoutimi

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&q=lac%20keno&um=1&a...

Last year they kited on the lake in May.

Some Flysurfer kiters around there.
But I dont kite there, 6 hours drive for me.

same folks
Lake st-jean posted 1 day ago

We've most likely got another week left of snow/ice kiting here in southern alberta. It is hard to believe that 10 days ago it was +28 degrees (Celcius for you Americans). This morning it was - 10. We had 35 cm of snow over the last few days. Wacky weather. Long range forecast says that it should be back to +20 by next Tuesday. Since the ice was over 2 feet thick the biggest obstacle was shore rot - but with the latest cold snap that isn't an issue.

Macboy,

My friend who has been on Ghost the last few days says that it'll be around for a couple of more weeks. He figures Spray should be good until the end of May. Being a little more north I think you've still got some ice up there.

Man alive....now I feel like I've been doing nothing but missing out! I'm gonna take a drive out there tomorrow and see what the story is.

I guess I'll know for next year huh?

Yep, I think you've been missing out.

When the ice is a couple of feet thick it'll be around for a while. I'm sure you'll be surprised at how good it is out there... a little while left for sure.

But safety first of course....