So I hope that everyone else has had a great winter of snowkiting. As for me it was non existent. The weather has either been -30c or completely melting. The few times that conditions seemed good for snowkiting, there was either nuking winds (30km gusting to 60km+ seems typical when it warms up here) or the wind was non existent. Since I got into kiting in 2009, this is the longest I've gone without kiting. The snow either wasn't enough to go out without dragging through dirt, or rock hard. I went out a couple times thinking I would tough out the hard packed, only to find I absolutely couldn't hold an edge more than 20 feet. This weekends time change, may help me get in a session, but the way its going, there might not be any snow. Hopefully the wind isn't too strong this weekend, so I can get in a session; the forecast looks like it will be out of comfort zone, and I don't feel like hurting myself. This has been the longest winter in my kiting history.

Cold:bird:

Warm and without much snow. Local lake that freezes over was open under a month before closing again due to unsafe ice (the worst part being the 30+" of snow they got the day after closing again).

This Winter has been really remarkable in the Northeast(Boston area)...or the worst winter ever- if you hate record cold and snow because you're not a snow kiter or outdoor person.

As roofs were building damaging ice dams or outright collapsing from record February snow..I kept adding another day to my own record winter kiting year, since starting power kiting 10 years ago-which started with winter kite skating on ice.

The beginning of calendar winter started a bit slow but then the cold came in to freeze, first northern regions, and finally Boston. Usually the ice is a variety of changing conditions from mirror smooth, to rough ripples. But this year was mostly all mirror like. That made a great winter right there alone. I had to first travel 2 hours north for first couple ice sessions but then it was only 6 blocks to my town lake which had finally thickened enough to be safe. I had about 18 days in January on ice skates before the dryness ended and February brought in seemingly endless snow. Again, the month had more days I kited(about another ~18 days) than ones where there was not enough wind, as there was always decent snow(powder, wind pack 'talc', or anything but dreaded breakable crust!).

Now It's March and the snow has stopped and temps are still cold but broke freezing just recently and is forecast to warm to more above freezing days. Only this past week has some kind of partial and occasional crust formed on the lake but it may still be likely a reasonable good kite ski surface. (no real wind last several days to check how skis will ride over the surface).

As an unknown melting and refreeze cycle happens I wonder if the Hockey skates I put away long ago may get a reprieve from the closet and next winters waiting- if bare ice will surface again. As things warm I will need to check the ice thickness again for safety as it thins, which I stopped checking many weeks ago.

My Winter is still not over, nor the kite skiing. I will eek out what I can for march and then it's back in the buggy at the beach.

Kiting on a lake means never having to ask ,"Is the wind the right direction?"...unlike the beach. I'll take it any way it's served...ice, snow or mixed.

I'm also located in Saskatchewan and happened to choose this year to finally get into kiting. We've had good snow twice this year: almost a foot in early November, but it melted the next day, and over a foot of powder a few weeks ago that stuck around for about 6 hours before the wind picked up and blew it all into Manitoba. This past Sunday was the first I managed to get out with a snowboard and kite together. I didn't think the snow would be the best, but I figured I better try as the forecast looks like it will all be gone by next weekend. Parts of the snow were ok and once I managed to get on top I could hold a straight line fairly well, even got a little bit of upwind towards the end of the session. The main problem were the rock hard drifts sticking out from under the softer snow, every time it came to one of them, I slid straight downwind till I either caught softer snow and dug in (and tried to do a face plant), or else I lost all power from the kite because I was sliding with no resistance at all. But even with the crappy snow, it was awesome and I am now totally addicted. Today everything looks like it's melting enough that I could probably hold a good edge but I have no idea what the wind forecast is. Doesn't really matter though as kiting is out of the picture for a little while. (Blew a hole in my kite at the end of my last session. Oh, and just got the wife home from the hospital with our first baby) That reminds me, anyone have a good close up picture of a professional tear repair? Seems straightforward enough, just wondering if they do the stitches past the edge of the tape they put on or not?

Brant,

You may want to open another thread with your repair question. Include a photo if possible. I repaired some good sized tears with just sticky sail tape on both side and had no issues. I am no sail maker and am sure folks with a strong background in repair will help you out.

I had my worst snowkite year ever in a place where 4 good days is a good year. The closest lake , about 2 hours drive never opened. The closest lakes that did freeze are 4 hours away. I wasted over an hour when something I still can't explain was screwing with my 18m Phantom. I spent the rest of the day underpowered but moving on the 15.

I think I have discovered that if I am not having an intense snowkite session I notice all my a aches and pains much more? On a good session I feel no pain. Until I stop . :o

Spring is full on here and we move to daylight savings soon. We may have had a bad winter but we are getting an early start on land. We just need wind now !

Thanks for sharing the videos skim. What qr do you use? If memory serves me correct, don't you use a panic snap like one for dog sled? Could be wrong.

Quote:

What qr do you use?

There is a panic snap being used in 1st and last video by Don(not me) in first and last video of previous post.

Today was a sugar corn snow, sunny and above freezing. Lots of fun all afternoon.

Okay..this is me end of day as wind was dying out:



Mark:




Don:

Same boat as you shaggs, my longest stretch without kiting - not enough snow to snowkite, but too much to landboard. When we did get 4-6 inches, 30mph winds the following day would just blow it into the next state! This winter was pretty much a non-event

Yeah, I'm having some cheese with my wine, thank you.

Pongnut, We haven't had much snow, but when there's too much on the fields for buggy or landboard and not enough for skis (I don't ski) then that's when you can take to the asphalt areas with the landboard and your fb kites on either short or long lines or whatever the location allows. I've been able to buggy most of the winter until now due to snow and snow melt. Yesterday the wind was decent and had a great time on my 4 meter in a parking lot. I haven't tried a longboard, but that makes me nervous (I don't want to hit a small rock and go flying). Longboard might be even more fun.

It just boils down to how determined you are to squeak in a session. I feel like I've spent a fair amount of money on kites and I can't stand seeing them sit idle.

Shaggs, if you need a fix it is time for a road trip. Maybe we can get macboy and kiteboyza out too somewhere near Edmonton!

It has been a long season for me so far. Started with a blast of early winter September 10th and looks like it will go to the end of April or longer. I was at Gull Lake yesterday for the Alberta Kiting Association races and the snow cover was still in great shape (wind did not show up as forecast though). Planning for an April 11th AKA get together at Spray Lakes.

I suppose some good news is that Garry Point was drained early this year. Got my 1st buggy runs in with blue sky and low wind yesterday.

YES SHAG'S You really should take a road trip and hit Spray Lakes with Canuck! That lucky SOB gets the longest and best season in of anybody I know out west.

Incredible !
Over 300 m long flights and over 100 ft high in NH of flying (gliding ) many times,
Over 145 sessions in New England and New York
The busiest Snowkite Lessons I have ever had with incredible winds all winter

And the best part? It's not over

I had an amazing snow kite season, it has come to an abrupt end this week with temps in the 50's. This season was warm with little snow making fast and fun lake conditions.

First time competing in the Mille Lacs kite crossing it was awesome, I was happy to finish 14 miles in 69 minutes, it was a slow pace but I wanted to make sure I would finish. I took 4th in the womens ski and 42nd overall, lots of room for improvement next year! I got to meet some of our fellow Power Kite Forum members in person! Hi to Cheddarhead, Kris Krug and Chris from HQ.

Things are only just beginning!
For my spring break I am able to spend a week with friends who have a cabin in Maine right on a frozen lake. For the first time ever I actually have an appropriate amount of space to use my kites and it's amazing. Got the Apex II up in the air and have been learning how to fly depower. Tomorrow the goal is to get my Scorpion up and maybe even get a little lift.

I'm really beat up from all of the snowboarding + snowkiting that's been going on since Sunday, but having all of this space is a dream come true and I'm going to be out on this lake until I am physically unable to get out there.

This is the best part of the season here in New England. Even all the pow we had this season is turning to corn. Today was a killer day and tomorrow looks to be the same. Warmer temps, best winds and long daylight. Sad it's so fleeting.

Feyd, do you have all of the weeks of the speed ranking on your site? I only saw weeks 7 and 8. I didn't recognize the type of kites of the riders on the top of the lists so I guess that means they are LEI's:D

Do most people on the lakes use LEI's or is it split pretty evenly between the different types of kites?

I'm putting together the updated ranking now. Overall ranking is on the site as well. We were racing last weekend thus the delay. It's been a very busy season for us this year and I feel terrible about my less that diligent upkeep of the ranking this season. I'm thankful for the continued support of the participants in spite of this and I promise next season we will be better prepared to be on top of things.

You are correct, the top dogs are all on LEIs. Many of the regular entrants are dealing with above average snowfall this season and it's affect both participation and speeds which is as much a factor in the kite type as anything. Lots of people seem to think that LEIs are faster for some reason though in my experience (and historically in the ranking) this has not been the case.

Locally we are all foil riders. Most of us are skiers primarily and not water riders getting their winter kite fix. We just got back from Garrison and in Minnesota it's still mostly LEIs as far as I can tell. Although this year we saw more foils than last time I was there.

Kite type seems to be as much about what people are used to or have readily available. For example most dedicated water riders are likely to ride LEI's because it's what they have and with the limited amount of winter riding they do it doesn't make much sense to buy another quiver of kites, learn to fly a whole different kite type, when their LEI will do just fine.