Cooking Lake, Alberta

Watch here for details (still last year's info but this year's dates):
Event Info

Perfect thanks for the update. I will be there hell or high water.....goes to pray for wind

sweet, I'll be there

Thanks for the info macboy. I'll be there Sunday or Monday. Doesn't look like the "pass the Charger" will make it to this one.

I just got a U2U from Doublespeed - I think we got bumped up the list and it may indeed be here!

Bring WIDE skis or a snowboard. The snow is REALLY weird. Knee deep but the bottom six inches is either solid or slush (depending on the ambient temperatures), top is crusted and in between is all powdery. I'm hurting today from the dead stop of submarining skis. Best hope is for cooler temps. There's a local shop here that rents ski packages super cheap - I'm gonna rent some wide twintips....my old school planks just won't do.

Anyone needs a couch or a piece of carpet to lie down on let me know.

Dieter - you wanna save on the postage and pick the Psycho up then? You can bring it out to the lake and get the Flysurfer guys to look it over and tune it a bit?

Lastly - I'm trying to get OS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-d to open up the clubhouse to the whole festival but if nothing else us PKFers can chill out in there if the wind gods aren't being nice. We won't have to stand around in the cold, we can have our own family reunion. That means bring the wife and kids - they might enjoy a day away too.

Charger confirmed. If USPS and Canada Post get along for us we should have it in time for the Festival!

i'll come out for a stroll/visit and see the club house. i am definitely doing some sailing with you this year. do you think all the snow will bring water up a wee bit?

We made arrangement to stay with friends in St.Albert will be there all weekend. I've got the go ahead from the wife to spend two days at the lake. Gotta get some numbers from you guys so that I can be there when you are. Really praying that the weather will co-operate for us

yep sounds good to me, lets hope the snow sorts itself out. Will get the kite form you then

That warm weather really screwed up that nice powder. Too bad never even got to enjoy it. Friday was a fight for sure, when I let the snowboard sink under the snow. Used the kites lift to pull me free on many occasions. Things became real loose when that 40lbs of wet snow fell off the board as I was going up:tumble:

Sounds like it is going to be a blast. :D

AccuWeather 15 day forecast has the temperature cycling for the next 2 weeks - warming up to +1 for the weekends and -13 mid week so it looks like that crust will stay - but then again this is Alberta and it will all change. I'll bring the fat boys and the snowblades (maybe stay submarined if there is enough wind to pull through it)

Canuck,
Bud (thekiteguys) emailed me about a "fellow from Calgary looking at a road trip to NABX" was that you?
Paul

Sorry, NABX is not in the vacation plan this year Paul. If I hear who it is I'll let you know.

See you at Cooking.

Bill

Its not turning out to be a good year for the upgrading facility I work at. Sometime last week there was a large fire in one of the plants causing them to slow production down by over 50%. At over $3,000,000 a day under normal conditions; one can see, how they would want to be back up to 100% soon. Because of the damage we were informed today, that starting next Monday we will more than likely be working a 24 day shift. Sadly if this happens I won't make the festival.

Murphy wins again:sniff:....unfortunately all I can do is suck it up and work. The upside to it is that there will be 2-4 of those shifts, which means a ton of extra $$ which I could really use atm. I'll keep you guys posted when I know for sure.

I officially got told at the end of the day, that starting tomorrow night I'll be on night shift doing a 24 on 4 off shift for the next 2-3 months. I guess I'm out of this one again But that's the way the cookie crumbles

Sucky. We'll have to find a field midway between us and have a beer before the snow goes.

Update: The Charger has arrived so hopefully we have a Calgarian here "rain or shine" so we can send it south.

I was talking to Jim this morning and he was telling me he sent one of his Jellyfish snowboards (that he makes) out for the event - you'll have to see if you can give it a try. Look for the flysurfer guy (sorry I'm forgetting his name at the moment - damn)

Mike the Flysurfer guy?

What's the skinny on the Jellyfish Board?

yes Mike - I know far too many people named Mike....

Some of the people here will know Jim Everding from attending NABX with me but he he hasn't been back since our last adventure a couple of years ago.
Jim makes his own buggies and builds boards and built a really nice press and started to make snowboards last year. Some similar thoughts used in other kite specific snowboards for shape and construction. You don't take as much leg pressure (wearing out your muscles as much) and nice edging and flex etc.
Mike comes to an Ontario event for kiteboarding so Jim sent him a board - I guess it's up to Mike if he'll let anyone try it out :-)
you can find some of Jim's work under jellyfishboards

he'll be doing the group Hatteras surf trip again which is close to NABX so he'll miss NABX again this year.

Quote:

macboy posted on 2-15-2011 at 09:05 PM Update: The Charger has arrived so hopefully we have a Calgarian here "rain or shine" so we can send it south.

It's going to shine I'll be there. As usual the forecasts change every time you look. Looks like a good Charger day Saturday but I'm still limited to Sunday or Monday.

shaggs - hope to meet you next time

bit late on the post. Work cancelled this event for me too. Was hoping to swing it, and almost did, but never did pan out in the end.

Macboy, Canuck will be there sometime this weekend if you haven't already seen him. He messaged me about going. So, that's the ticket down to Calgary for the charger.

I see it was a cold one today. Hope everyone kept warm.

Didn't miss much - except Canuck, Rico and Macboy ; )

A bit of wind too. Yesterday was WICKED cold and light wind (kind of a blessing really). I didn't fly but Rico demoed an 8m Outlaw and appeared to have a good time. So good he stayed out after flying to talk to the FS distrib about all things kite....until Mike said, "You might wanna go warm up, your nose is turning white!"

THAT cold. I watched it all from the wood-fired comfort of the sail club.

Today was about perfect for a leisurely kite. Canuck measured about 20-22 km/h steady, gusting to 24/25? Something like that I think. Not enough to get the Venom going (I think I'm an Arc curse.....reminded me of Bladerunner's woes at Sylvan) but enough to dig out the open cell snowkites and let it rip a bit. And yes, the temps were MUCH better today.

Tomorrow - SilverArrows only kinda day....but I cashed in all my kite-tokens and will be spending family day with my family. (Why does that sound like I'm not happy about it? I am EXCITED that I get to spend the day with my family!)

I think we should plan another Alberta meet-up before the season is out. Will miss Ken's smiling face but we can send him pics to make him good and jealous?

Good to see you again Canuck, hope you made it home safe and sound. And thanks again for the beer!

If this thing happens on Family day weekend every year I think I could swing a trip out there next year ?

Not sure how I would enjoy those temps coming from the coast? Sunny and 0'c with fresh tracks and light winds for us yesterday.

Glad the event went off and nobody foze their nose !

sorry i missed you guys. next time, next time
Paul

yup, Sat sounded COLD. Kinda glad I couldn't have made it Sat either way. Still wanted to get out there to see if I could have a go on the FS speed3 15. Did the FS guys bring one to demo by chance?

Another AB meet up? I'll try to be there for sure. My vote is for a Sat or Sun. I am guessing it will be in Sylvan again or Gull. If it looking like a light day, Lake Glennifer might be better? Not sure. Just south of Red Deer can get some stronger winds I've noticed. Not sure if Lake Glennifer is south enough though.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...

By the way, how is the snow up in Edmonton as far as depth? Our snow is in tatters in Calgary due to the Chinook winds the last few weeks.

Yup. Saw a Speed3 15DE, Speed3 19Std which apparently was a pig, Outlaw 6/8/10, Viron 4/6 and Psycho 4 (12 I think)?

I think that was it and I THINK they were all there for demoing - not owner rigs. Sometimes hard to tell up here in Flysurfer Country.

We have tons of snow but it's all got a good 2 inch crust to it. Break through and you're shin to knee deep. The crust is strong though. Gonna make for an interesting spring. I've now heard of 3 lakes up here with water sitting on top of the ice under the snow.

That flood water can be a scary thing from my understanding. Probably not too much problem for guys like us, but I wouldn't dare take a truck on the ice at this point. I really wish that I coulda make it. Looks like there's gonna be a chance that I'm doing this shift till as late as the middle of May. If that's the case, the next time I get to kite could be with a wetsuit on the water.:ticking:

Thanks again for a great day macboy. Some strong headwinds all the way back to cowtown - had to stop in Airdrie for 45L of diesel.

The winds (15-25kph Sat) and temperatures (-2 Sat, -9 Sun) are looking good for Sylvan this weekend if you want to meet up again.

There is a 100km speed skating race at sylvan this upcoming weekend. It's on a 5km loop, so it may change where you launch from and where might be accessible easlily...
http://slimarathon.webs.com/