Out at my favorite lake again, only it was 50 degrees and sunny. Cold for summer, but this is February in Wisconsin mind you. Abundant surface melt. Ski edges wanted to wander from the slush. What a weird winter were having.

https://youtu.be/CivSADxBlgw

Very nice! It was in the 50's up here on Saturday, but not much wind. Felt great but I'm not ready for things to be melting yet! I figure we have another month left before the lakes get questionable.

nice ride !

Looked fun. Couple questions. Once you put the kite on its side, does it just stay there quietly while you walk back and hook up? That's what it looked like. Seems hard to imagine being so well behaved. is the chicken loop around the ice screw? So the order of operation would be walk back, click into skis, attach leash, hook into cl, launch? just curious, I won't have a chance to try any of this without a trip up north.

I know this would probably be rare, but if something goes wrong and you have to hit safety, can you reset and relaunch away from the ice screw or are you pretty much sol?

ssayre: You have it pretty much correct. I had a strap hooked to the ice screw then a carabiner on the other end of strap, then clip chicken loop to carabiner. I carry a second ice screw with me in the event something goes poo poo miles away from base camp. Feyd (Chris Krug) sells some nice screw holders that attach to your harness. That way you don't have to carry it in a pocket and risk getting hurt if you fall on it.

I've seen video's of people self launching LEI's this way. It's the first time I've tried it and it worked really good. With a steady wind it will sit on a wing tip on the edge of the window. Sort of a balancing act. Kite sits at it's equalibrium. Don't know if I would trust doing that on a really strong gusty day, but I had smooth wind. The ridged frame work on an LEI helps this I would imagine. I certainly wouldn't try it with a foil, although Feyd says the peaks can sort of do this. I have yet to try it.

Quote: Originally posted by Memopad

Very nice! It was in the 50's up here on Saturday, but not much wind. Felt great but I'm not ready for things to be melting yet! I figure we have another month left before the lakes get questionable.

Guys in the Madison area are starting to kite on open water already. Just insane how early some places are opening up. I'm with you, not ready for it to end just yet. Last year April 6th was my last day on the ice. Don't think it will be that late again. Time will tell what it does.

nice ride, the surface is getting slick
a screwy winter here as well with a couple of weeks ago really cold, then a day later the temperature goes up and rain, two days of warmer then four days of just below freezing then today a big melt and out on the ice getting a suntan.

Air temp was around 10 degrees here this morning, with winds over 50mph on the Lake Superior shore... yikes.