I'm still kind of in shock about this !
PrairieWind has been kind enough to :wow: GIVE :wow: me his Skatewing Seems he is sold on the kitewing now and this thing needs some air :evil:
Check out the action here : http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QgtW732JP6s
http://skatewing.com/

What an awsome week !!!!
I'm on T.V., I have the Yeti, The C-quad arrived today and now a call from the Dog that my Skatewing has arrived. :singing:

YUP you guessed it .......... no wind predicted for a while on the weather network :smug:

I don't care. I feel like I'm flying without a kite right now !!!

Thanks PrairieWind for putting me over the moon !!!!

If anyone here is gonna make superb use out of that rig it's you BR! What a great bunch of people here at PKF....never ceases to amaze me.....

I put this thing together last night and I'm impressed ! It somehow looks bigger than 3.9m ?
It is going to open up a bunch of new spots to me !

It is a toy I'm going to enjoy ! That's for sure !!!

don't worry, your two weeks of no wind will be done by SOBB!

and that will be the place to explore the incredible variety in your quiver...

I knew that Bladerunner would get some great use from the Skatewing. It was my first wind toy. Many moons ago some friends and I were skating on a perfectly frozen prairie lake one - someone pulled out a sheet and we sailed a bunch of downwinders. I figured there had to be something a little more "tech" to do this on skates. I saw a little vid online and found a place in Florida that was selling these things - a week after ordering it arrived - it changed my winters for sure. Some of the ice fishermen in my area were not sure what to make of me zipping by (too much schnapps perhaps). After a year of the skatewing and craving more speed I went to the kitewing - I went to "real" kites for when the wind was light and especially when there there was a lot of snow on the ice... now I've got a whole bunch of wind toys. The skatewing was lonely. I was glad to give it a new home! Keeping it in the PKF family of course!

That is very cool PrairieWind!

I got this rig out yesterday in the 2.8 form. At 2.8 it is a very good size for figuring it out. In the 3.9 size it was right scarey lookin'! It is easy to put together. About 5 min.

As with all new things it seems, I was smokin' going one way. Crazy fast on regular Blades and tarmac. Turns were great ! Then I would set sail to go the other way and had trouble with catching power and my stance :puzzled: What I hate is I can't tell how much of this was me and how much was me setting up the sail wrong ? I'm going to stick some "tell tails" on it .

This rig gets my . Seems it and Coyotes were both great ideas that never found a market. Trust me to be ahead of my time using out of date stuff :smug:

That is O.K. ! Me and my drummer are having the time of our lives marching along to our own beat :singing:

It'll take a little time to get it dialed in. Make sure the outhaul isn't too tight making the sail too flat - more shape in the sail will make it easy,... but not too loose of course. When I used it I had the freedom of a big prairie lake - so no worries on picking a line that was best with the wind. The more you use it the more you'll find the sweet spot for each size of sail... . The 3.9 is not as scary as it seems... .

Even after one day on the 2.8 I could see how the 3.9 won't be as bad :moon: as it looks ! Just like with kites ! That 2.8 is a nice size for learning to swing the thing around though .

YES a wide open space would help a lot. The spot I was using was about the size of an ice rink. Just enough to get going and turn.

I'm really going to enjoy this thing ! Thanks again PrairieWind !!!

Quote:

Originally posted by PrairieWind . The 3.9 is not as scary as it seems... .

I'm trying to find a place to get a skatewing in the US. Anyone know of a place?

If you've got a kitewing, like it looks from your avatar - then you don't need a skatewing. There used to be a guy in Florida that sold them, that is where I got mine from - I'd located him from the www.skatewing.com website.

The kitewing is much easier to control especially in higher winds than the skatewing.

In very light wind the big 3.9 sail was fun... here is a vid from a few years ago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCxvaAllBM

The kitewing is a much better product.

Yeah, I've got kitewings for dirtsurfing and snowboarding, but I was looking for something smaller for skateboarding.

i am so tempted by these things.

kitewings look to need considerable air 15mph +

the videos are great. i am from inline speed back ground an would totally gas it on the asphault. like some downhill pace line about 40-50mph. THEN FLY back up

i think i may mod a wind surfer rig and play from there, any suggestions?

re: kitewings look to need considerable air 15mph +

True on sand or grass or dirt. If you have a clean steady 10 on asphalt or ice it's good though.

re: i think i may mod a wind surfer rig and play from there, any suggestions?

This has come up before. You can search the wingsurfer.co.uk forum for some talk. I haven't seen anyone actually successfully do it. It's not likely you'd easily be able to come up with anything nearly as efficient unless you have a manufacturing shop and good aerodynamic skills, or at least the shop and an existing wing to copy. Too bad they're so expensive. But I guess they're not so far off the cost of a windsurf sail+mast+boom, which is basically what you've got there. I have repaired 90% of a kitewing frame with copper plumbing tubing, though. It's a bit heavier, but you can probably find aluminum or carbon fiber tubing somewhere for about the same cost I would think. You'd still need the joints and the one bent piece, and the wing extensions. I think you could use half of a windsurfing boom for the boom portion. I think one could take a couple of windsurf sails and cut them up and re-sew them. A worthy project if you have some old sails and boom around and the skills and tools.

The amount of wind needed is dependent on the surface you are on. Hardpacked (low tide) sand would be great.

Ice is my favourite for the kitewing for sure. I've been able to get over 70km/hr in about 20km of wind. Soft, fresh or wet snow needs bigger wind - that is what got me into kites in the first place. It is a very efficient wing and easy to maneuver. When the wind is howling it is my go to rig - easy and safe.

In very light wind just taking a couple of strides with the skates to build a little apparent wind and then you can build some milk some surprising speed with very little wind with the kitewing. The low friction of ice make this very easy - hard sand and the coyotes would be good too.

The 2.9 skatewing sail sounds small - but it would be really awkward to maneuver on a skateboard.

Another skatewing style device is the Wind Skate.
www.windskate.com
It is American made... a little old school in look...

Kitewing does have the Mach 3.8m sail too...

It is too bad that it needs a smaller frame. The same frame can be used for th 4.8m and 5.5m sails - with longer wingtip extensions for the 5.5.

I am pretty sure that the 3,8 has been discontinued.

There is some brief info here about windsurfer rigs on dirtsurfers.

http://www.wingsurfer.co.uk/generic/template.asp?ACT=nav&...

This stealth board sale from the same people looks the job for Dirtsurfing and ATB ? At least for riding and racing.

http://www.windskate.com/products.htm