Any veteran here ever tried kiting with water ski instead of a board ? i am asking, because i feel so much more comfortable with ski than an ATB - on land. i am wondering, if the same holds on water. i think a board is simply a step backward in freedom. your feets are chained together...
of course, a board can provide more surface area m but broad water ski could have quite some surface, too.. also, with ski you have two edges instead of a single edge for going upwind.
i already asked in the kiteforum, but no useful replies., just some youngster using inapropriate words for classifying kite skiing regarding coolness factor ;-) -- but honestly - i left the early twenties some years ago and simply dont care about coolness and "balls to the walls" anymore.

by the way, jaros digged out a pretty cool idea from good old peter lynn: waterfoils for each feet -- called "jesus feet" :

look here:
http://www.peterlynnkites.com/images/sailing/PLboats/
(last picture page) quite interesting i would say.



another idea: what about "knee ski" instead of a knee-board ?

I actually borrowed a set of jump skis from a friend to try out. I would need a helper since the skis have high wrap bindings. Also, I maybe couldn't get them back on if I wiped out bad enough to lose a ski in the water. Fundamentally though, it should work. I'm a 35 year waterski veteran that also wakeboards and barefoots. I have always felt more vulnerable with my feet in individual skis than locked together on one ski or board. I can take some nasty falls on my slalom ski and both feet stay in their binding which isn't going to hurt knees or ankles in most cases. The worst is a pinwheel crash where you have something on only one foot. I'm old enough to not care much about "coolness" either. Whatever lets ME have fun is good enough.

nice to hear that. hope you get it to try out soon! maybe make videos...
of course i also have worries about more danger to the feets. but i am thinking about skis as short as possible, but much wider. the trend in kiteboards goes in the same direction. nowadays, kiteboards are up to 48 cm wide, whereas some years ago they had around 35cm and were very long (some 170cm)

why not a "snowblade" kind of waterski, that is wide (20 - 25 cm?) and relatively short (100-130cm) ? the shorter the ski, the less the torques ... also, safety releases as with snow ski would be great.

also, i remeber i saw a video of some prototype water ski . must digg and will post it here if i find it again.

and - what about monoski ?

A monoski or slalom as it's called in the waterski industry would require quite a bit of torque and speed to plane you off maybe even with one of the "widebody" skis. 2 probably is mandatory for it to work.

Hey

I've thought about trying it but never have.
If you were powered up enough you definitely could do it.
You would miss a lot of days when you could be riding a board though.
Give a board a try, I won't say it's easy to start if you've never used one, but once your on to it it's a piece of cake.
If you find having your feet strapped together restricting go strapless on a surfboard. Start that in low wind though.

John

I bought some wakeskis to try out with my Venom II but we still have good ice on some of the lakes up here so it will be July before I can try them out. Still snowkiting until May

I figure I should be able to launch the kite and let it ride at the zenith while I get the skis on.

First pictures of kite-powered sports on the water I saw was the "Jacob's Ladder" of Flexifoil Super 10's or whatever they called - and the dude was on waterskis! Another with a double stack of delta kites too.

... I seem to remember a vid recently with guys on skis, maybe even snow skis in the water ...

My mind is a steel trap - nothing escapes!



Here is the thread I was thinking of ...

Got no sound but around 3:15 they start kiting on skis ...

So the logical question is why isn't anyone developing skis to do this? There must be a market.

Lets face it... Skis on water are "GHAY!" "Look at that KOOK!" That would be the impression you would have from others at just about every beach on the planet.

So are Alpine snow skis GHAY and KOOKY in Winnepeg?

Quote:

Originally posted by thanson2001ok So are Alpine snow skis GHAY and KOOKY in Winnepeg?

No just zero gee

its so strange, that everyone in kiting is so fixated to the board.
reminds me a little about that currently almost no one is "agressive skating" but just skateboarding. while you can do almost all the tricks with agressive skates (maybe even more), somehow skating got uncool. maybe because fitness skates got a mass-trend some years ago. the same with ski: ski are a mass trend, while snowboarding or other boarding is more complicated and so is more suited as a "cool" thing because not much people do it. the same with those "c-tube-kites" riders and kiteloopers. instead of simply taking a bigger kite with better depower, suddenly it is sooo coool to loop the kite to get higher and longer.
but thats it - one cannot forget that kiting is also an ego-boosting sports, and only a few of the kiters kite for relaxation, the feeling of an open, wide free space and stuff. most want to put their "balls against the wall". thats totally ok, but its not so ok to get bashed just because you want to have a relaxing ride with whatever "ghai" device you use...



@kami: thanks for digging that salomon ski stuff out - that was what i had also back in my mind.
@canuc: those wakeski look very interesting! looking forward hearing about a review!

-- edit
just thought about what a good friend of mine said, as i wanted to bring him to kiting and watersports:

"i am not really interested in, because - honestly - i am just interested in doing stuff, where i can get the feeling to be better than most others"

so i think thats the psychological reason some of those c-kite-loopers-with-soo-big-balls hate (and i mean hate! got my first hate pm in a german forum...) everything they classify as "ghai" .. its their way to feel good. "humiliate others, to feel better yourself". some of those - maybe mostly younger kiters - hopefully will rise up mentally a bit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcKXasO55p8

That's actually the stunt kite guy I was thinking of! Well done I must have seen that picture around 1993 or 4 ...

In one of the videos, Cory says something about "... one long edge" being more efficient - than 2 short ones I guess.

Still ... skis look like fun :D

http://www.stereoskis.com/skis/standard/



though those stereo ski are idiotically expensive.

@canuck: your wakeski look much shorter! can you give me a link to a website where to buy / infos?

About US$700 ... not too bad but no doubt too small for my lardy arse

well - not really small..
think of it:
length = 145 cm -- a bit longer than your regular twintip
width= 20 cm in the middle -- multiply by two --> 40 cm -- about the same width than normal twintip.

so: simply looking at surface its more or less identical !!!!

my idea is: buying the boots, making the wake ski myself from simply plywood. (or asking someone to make me wakeski with a little rocker - might still be cheaper than those stereoski)

maybe even normal wakeboard boots will work ? who knows how stiff they are? stiff enough for edging the ski lateraly ?

Dunno ... I don't seem to remember water ski boots being very rigid at all ...

I've ridden skis with no bindings at all and its the pressure from the inside or outside of your foot that turns, not the lateral pressure on the bindings. The stereo skis are not that out of line on price for what it is. 1 high end slalom ski can go for $1500+.

I don't board at all. (@zero gee - Yes, I know that's GHAY but I'm OK with that.) I think there may be a nice natural progression for those like me from wake board kind of skis to a board. (Then I wouldn't be KOOK but KEWL. ) And having fun every step of the way!

Sorry, that was not my opinion. I was just going by they way things seem to go in kiting when you are different. Hell, I fly ARC's which are GHAY and KOOKy for most out there. Also, I have been riding directionals since 2000. I knew they would be KEWL again. But now I'm not KEWL because I ride strapped. I also ride a groundboard that is likely not used by any other kiter out there (it's a directional too).

and Alpine skis are gaining in popularity for winter here as many are seeing the benefits of skis in our snow conditions.

I could care less what guys fly or ride. It all works (some better than others).

zero: yeah textual messages not always deliver ;-) i was already wondering and thought that it could only be ment ironically.

@thanson2001ok: did you already tried kiting with some kind of water-ski ? or do you kite on snow only ?
btw, my full-metal snowblades arrived, will test them soon on sand

@herc I picked up kite skiing this winter. Used Apline skis and Telemark skis. Got blades late in the season but the dang snow melted before I got to try them.

Now I am blading. Never tried a board, land or water. I'm just not sure I am up for eating that much grass or water quite yet. So, water skis completely intrigue me. I have not done it yet but am certainly ready to give it a shot. Any recommendations?

So, what are full-metal snowblades?

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150420...






the whole ski is made out of steel. they are heavy (4 kg per ski (!!!!) ) but they are practically indestructible!
you can maybe have 1000 sessions on sand and stuff and maybe loosing just 1 mm of the 5mm thick steel ...
i really hope that i will be able to glide through the sand of my beach. will try this very soon. maybe with wax on the bottom. who knows. if it does not work, well, then i have burned not too much money. at least they will work on snow. or on meadows with some snow. best thing is , i wont have to repair any ski bottom anymore.

@thanson2001ok: sorry, no recommendations, as i am searching for good waterski by myself.
but thos stereoski.com look good. but way too expensive for buying before trying..

Quote:

@canuck: your wakeski look much shorter! can you give me a link to a website where to buy / infos?

They are 40.5 inches. Just search Body Glove wakeski. Here are a couple of links
http://www.bodyglove.com/store/products_category.php?categor...

http://www.blackbearsportinggoods.com/ProductDetails.asp?Pro...

I think I am going to try the wakeskis. I am a little curious how they will edge without stabilizers/fins.

Anyone want to prognisticate success or failure?

those were called "trick skis" back in the day. It's still an event but these skis are cross marketing. No fin means they can slide sideways. You can edge with them but its not as straightforward as on skis with fins. Not the best choice iMHO.

So, wondering if similar size and shape skis are made with fins.