It's getting to the last days of our winter season but with the recent melt and freeze the lake we usually kite ski on was still good to get out and squeeze in an ice buggy session.
On Peter's set up he has skis mounted on the back and a cut down snowboard on the front and then a couple of skate blades mounted under each for steering. I have small blades on my ice buggy. The surface wasn't great but we found an area that was good enough. There were patches of frozen snow mounds a few inches deep and then areas where there had been puddles on top the ice that skimmed over with ice and the puddles drained away leaving the spots were that skim of shale ice would shatter from the blades throwing up small ice shards ....then of course the odd pressure crack. The wind was blowing a good 40km (25mph) and gusting to 55km (34 mph). Peter was using his 2.5 Concept Air Smart kite (depowerable) - he's getting close to 80yrs old and impresses the hell out of me every time we are out kiting that he just keep going and he's still excited to test new ideas. I pulled out a 2015 Peter Lynn Lynx 5m to give a try to compare the bridle to previous models - the kite worked aces - plenty of power and good stability and speed. Most of the time I was riding one hand on the bar for steering so I was really impressed with kites performance. I took my GPS but like 90% of the time thought I'd check conditions for a few runs and come back for it ..... but i never did. Here are just a few clips from some of the runs where I scouted around and found a path between crap that wasn't too bouncy, often running more downwind but it was fast enough for the surface conditions. I had to slow down and point high upwind to check for any cracks or sketchy surface areas every time I went a little further in a new direction - great day to end the season.
Mark

That's faster than I wanna go. Very nice!

Fantastic Mark!! That would have been a "religious experience" if that were me:o I've scoured the web for ice buggy videos before, but very few are going the rate of speed you showed there. Very impressive power management

Awesome! For an Australian, it's a really weird concept to be buggying on a lake of frozen water. Thanks for the ride!

Mark!! :o:o:o
That was crazy fast!!!!
I have got to get a passport for the north next winter!
That was incredible on the big monitor.

It was nice to get out, I hadn't kited too much over the winter with this vertigo/neck compression issue so sitting in a buggy for the first time since last fall was nice (mind you i paid for it with a headache the next day from so much neck movement). it's rare that we get nice ice to run blades, far more days when going with a ski or snowboard set up on the buggy will work better but having a crusty packed snow base is the best for that too if you want any speed. I love the blades because you can really head a high angle upwind, tracks like on rails yet I can still throw out the back end to skid off speed if I need to. Running on sunday it was always in the back of my mind that the front blade would drop down into a crack or a pocket covered by snow and i'd go flying out like Ozzy did in Holland a couple of years back.
The blades I have are smaller but work fine - my buddy Jim made them from leaf spring steel and they sit in a little box/channel that allows some play so they can find their own alignment

It was high winds but it didn't look like it on the lake with nothing to blow around but the sun had the ice making a lot of nice popping and cracking noises as it expanded in the sun.

Jason, If the great lakes completely freeze over again next year you may be able to take a short cut up here.

Quote: Originally posted by markite

Jason, If the great lakes completely freeze over again next year you may be able to take a short cut up here.

Hmmmm.. I need a good easterly wind to depart Niagara Falls. But yeah, I could do that. LOL

WOW that looks like an absolute blast! That looks a little easier on the knees than skiing. Another toy to add to my wish list.