We finally have some ice to ride. I'm trying to make up for lost time.

http://youtu.be/maVKGNc3AQk

WMG - Blocked - :-/

Grrrrr. Gonna try something.....

Still blocked What a sad thing.

Try it now.

http://youtu.be/maVKGNc3AQk

works fine ......

..... I bet this lake is on you backyard ...lol.....
.....how long its been frozen ????

Chris, remind me, for those conditions what angle degree are you tuning your edge to, 88, 87??

Wow. That was awesome. I've been ice skating all my life and I've been skiing all my life but I never even thought of trying to ski on ice of frozen lake.

This is the first year I was going to try my kite with ice skates (I'm a kite newbie) as soon as lake freezes but maybe it would be easier with skis than skates? Don't the skis slide sideways on ice? My only experience with skis and ice is while skiing down a mountain and it's NOT FUN!!

I figured it would be a lot easier on skates than skis to grab an edge/dig in to go up wind but your video may prove otherwise. I'd RATHER be on skis than skates!! Also - it looked like there were a lot of cracks & bumps in the ice which might make it tough on skates (wipeouts) but not so bad on skis??

Thanks in advance for the responses!!

Paul

nice vid................love that low friction/immediate acceleration................thats gotta be a super stoke!

I'm unsure from the video.

Did you stop quickly because the kite went down?

or

Did you put the kite down so you could stop quickly? How?

Crazy fast man. I want to learn how to sharpen my skis like that.

Sweet job Chris!

Cool! frosty lake!!!

Thanks everyone. It feels so damn good to be out on the ice again and that is a hell of a start to the season for me.

Maybe losing 30lbs over the summer is gonna pay off in the speed arena this year?

@ B-Roc, I will run an 87-88 depending on the ice type and how many miles I want to get out of the tune. The sharpest edge on a good speed day will really only hold for about 20-30minutes before it's spend and need a refresh. I carry a tuning kit on the van for those days.

@ Labrat, I ran out of space and had to stop quickly because I passed what I consider sort of a "safe zone". At those speeds on that surface if I catch an edge or lose a ski and go down I won't be able to stop before I hit the shore. Anyway sometimes in a pinch I will use the kite to slow down briefly and then completely depower it through a mix of redirection of the wing and trajectory change of my skis.

The result as you saw is almost a complete depow of the wing which results in it pretty much falling out of the sky.

But once I stop moving and it's on the ground the wind powers it up again. You see when it happens in the vid when I get a bit of a "Jolt". It's takes a lot to get a punch like that on an Arc. ;-)

Nice speed run!

I got my 1st taste of these conditions this year ! Thanks to your videos and advice it felt very natural. You helped make " hard water kiting " part of my list of things to enjoy!:cool2:

You lucky dog. Feyd you should try Oneida this winter , no start stop start stop on that lake its hoooj.

Your heart must be at full throttle with runs like that. It still really blows my mind that you do that with skis. So tempted at trying the skate/kite combo one day this winter.

Looked great for blades! Did you measure speed?

We need a snow/ice event ...now that Kitestorm is Kaput...

Shaggs my heart doesn't really get pumping until the I start closing on shore and deciding how long to hold onto the run. And even then it doesn't pump that much since this is the kind of kiting my friends and I like to do. Jumping really gets my heart going because I suck at it. :embarrased: I love jumping but with surfaces like this and gusty wind like Thursday jumping is just too risky for me.

djinnzfree , do you guys have any snow or ice up there yet? As far as I can tell your winter has been as bad as ours. I hope you have something to ride by now.

skimtwashington, the surface was boiler plate with an orange peel texture puncuated with frozen slush piles (the white stuff that looks like snow in the vid) and small axe head bits of broken ice that froze in when it set up. It would be bumby for skates. Further south over in Maine there are some places that have black glass ice right now. Around Sebego lake area.

Spider, I'd like to check out Onieda some time. Long drive from here tho.

Quote:

Originally posted by skimtwashington Looked great for blades! Did you measure speed? We need a snow/ice event ...now that Kitestorm is Kaput...

I understand why you see it this way but have you ever tried it the " hardwaterkiter " way ?

I took the advice and got my long straight skis sharpened fresh. It works far better than I had imagined. Edging was similar to that of semi dull skates. The ride was far more smooth and safe than riding even long skate blades. You glide over ax head ice , cracks etc without issue.

I guess I am finding. Straight skis for ice. Twin tip for snow. Skates for the ice rink ???

There has been no Snow in Tahoe either.

Not much snow in spokane either. I started doing downhill snowboarding to keep from loosing my mind.

Fortunately I didn't get that desperate. I refuse to ride a chairlift these days.