Hello troopers! So I'm looking to get my 2nd kite, a small one for use with nordic skates on ice. Right now my only kite is a Beamer TSR 3.6, which is a great kite but too much even in light winds for the zero-friction of nordic skates. (heck, I've been out there with no kite, just the surface area of my body, and on smooth ice a good wind gets you up to scary speeds in no time!) I'd like to have a smaller bird as well, and am wondering what I should be looking for. I'm obviously a novice and only have experience with a control bar, but would be up for learning handles. I've got a ways to go on the learning curve in general... need to figure out de-power too for larger kites. It's hard when you live in an area with no other kiters to show you the ropes!

you can get a flexifoil sting kite in size 1.2m, or 1.7 m. I like mine, but they are more for learning kite control than real traction... Some things like wether or not you want any lit in the kite would help in figuring one out for you. The sting has almost no lift. you may consider getting a two-line symphony from HQ kites, they come in pretty small sizes... also no real lift.

profoils come in small sizes, also, but I dont know much about them. There is a kite maker here on the forum that makes NASA Wings (single-skin four-line kites) in any size. There are lots of options out there... Can you tell us more about what kinds of winds, your weight, budget, etc...?

I'm not so sure about ice but I bought a 1.5 profoil for NABX and the Coyote rollerblades. I'm not at all fond of small kites and hated the way the 1.5 zipped around with little yanks of power. I moved to a 2.5 Profoil and it made all the difference ! I bought a 2.5 and Gave the 1.5 away ! At 2.5 the kite produces power and flies much better IMHO ! More like a kite should fly instead of all buzzy and snatchy.

Hey Scissorfighter

Are you flying with inland wind which can be unsteady and gusty? I have flown kites for over 7 years and the first half I flew foils and have now switched over to nasa wings. Most of my flying is inland in gusty winds. I have found that nasa wings preform better than foils in gusty inland winds. Please give more info so we can help you.

Susan (npw goddess)

You might also consider one of the Kitewing hand held sails. Ice is supposedly where they shine. I had a 5.5m one and was less than satisfied with it on snow and grass (surface winds had to really be nuking to get my 220lbs rolling/skiing), but found it worked well on pavement. I imagine ice would be a blast. No lines, 100% depower, and you don't need a harness. They are...different, though. Definitely not a "kite" experience.

Also, I can vouch for Susan's claim too, that NPW's work really well in gusty, shifty wind - which is about all we have in central Indiana. The 15m NPW9 I had even handled ground turbulence/rotors well.

Ashe

I think the kitewing is hard to beat on the ice with skates. It is easy to "feather" the power - jibing and tacking are very easy. The Finnish guys on some of the kitewing vids use both hockey and nordic skates. I've been over 50mph with my kitewing on nordic skates and it didn't feel out of control at all - just raise the wing and it floats above you - sheet in and away you go. Even in very little wind - on ice the kitewing builds the apparent wind easily. Turning into the wind if things get too fast is something that you can do with a kitewing that would not be possible with a small kite.
Check out some of the videos at www.kitewing.com there are some ice specific ones if you search kitewing and ice on you tube.

Prairiewind just sent me a very cool unit
It's called a skatewing www.skatewing.com

I understand that once he got the Kitewing this thing just sat around waiting for someone to take her out! I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with it and try to avoid grabbing hold of a Kitewing until I have the extra cash :wink2:
That thing seems awfull addictive to me

Whatever you get make sure it is a 4 line kite, a small 2 line kite is usually a stunt kite, and is not designed to take any real pull, and 2 line are a pain in the ass to use!!

A revolution power blast 2-4 ... single skin , controllable power on power off with a flick of the wrist

Having a great deal of experience with an HQ symphony, I think it might be a good alternative. Yes, it is a 2 line kite but it won't lift or pull if you take it high. It doesn't generate a tremendous amount of pull but you just want a little anyway. It won't fall out of the sky unless the wind just stops. Apparent wind would keep it back in the window enough where it would keep pulling you. If things got too fast, you could take it high or all the way to the edge and cut up wind with no disaster. If you wanted a little extra pull, you could sine it up and down to kick things up a notch. I've also heard of a 4 line conversion but have no experience with that. My 2.2 actually scudded me several times. That's why I had to upgrade it to 300# lines I guess.

The Profoils would be a good kite to use. I have also just lowered the price again. They are almost gone.

Small Nasa wing on the bridles maybe ...

Brooza 2m or Little Devil 2.1m are generally thought of as good "storm" kites over here ...

Liking the kitewing idea ...

Oh, right, details! Of course! Well, for starters, yes I'm flying on inland gusty winds. Quite variable, but I'd say 10-15 mph average with 20-25 gusts on a good day. About 175 lbs weight without gear. I've seen vids of kitewings, and they look damn cool. To be honest, I'd forgotten that option and was just thinking kite. I figured a kite would also be useful for other traction stuff on higher wind days / different seasions. But the kitewings really look nice on ice. It also looks like a kitewing would give you a slight stability advantage, in that you could hold onto the wing itself for more support than you might get while hooked into a kite.

Obviously I'd need less surface area to get moving on my nordic skates on ice than I would if I were on skis on snow... do kitewings have a good "range" of power that would allow me to use just one wing for both terrain options?

I'll put my vote in for the Profoils. Pretty stable in lumpy wind too.

npw on the bridles.

keep it simple you will use it more

I'd try an NPW9 right on the bridles. A couple of friends of mine with minimal 4 line skills had a blast with a 5m on skis and snowboards last year in pretty high winds. I tried it with skis and it was fun and totally controllable. Bet it would work well with a small NPW and skates.

Otherwise, I'd try a small gust tolerant 4-line kite on handles and shorter lines -I think PKD Brooza'a are the bomb in that department.

krumly

Being a Texan, I don't know squat about ice skating, but I use my Prism Snapshot 1.9 all the time for pulling me around on rollerblades and it's just fine. needs a pretty decent wind to pull my fat ass around, but in 15-20mph wind if I do figure8s in the power zone I can move along fast enough to be scary :karate:

One advantage of a nasa wing over foils is that you can fly the kite with the bridle lines attached to the handles. If you do want to add a line set it can be any lenght. We have in the past held nasa races with 10 foot lines. It was a hoot.

Susan (npw goddess)

What about a paraski flex? Don't those have a WICKED range? Like 30-10mph and like 50-20mph?

Retouching on the Kitewing subject - I just noticed you are in Maine. The only real cluster of kitewingers in the 'States is in your neck of the woods and they mostly kitewing on ice. In fact, several of them are Nordic skaters. You might want to try to hook up with them through the NasaSkimbat Yahoo! group if you are considering that option.

Ashe

I see lots of comments about NPWs. Sounds like it could be worthy of investigation. Size recommendations?

Ashe, thanks for the comments re: local nordic skating kitewingers. I've got a few leads on a pretty large group of ice+wind enthusiasts that I hope to hook up with this winter. Mostly ice boaters, but some kitewingers too.

I know that a 3.1 nasa wing on 10 foot lines will keep me going on the beach sand in 20 mph winds so something smaller than a 3 meter. I have never been on ice so I am guessing a 2 meter or smaller. If the winds are blowing then you can put it on a short line set or handles and if the winds are lighter then a 100 ft. line set.

I do know that on the dry lake bed with winds up to 50 mph flying a npw5 0.8 meter on handles was too much for me. I could fly it in 40 mph winds.

Susan (npw goddess)

I'm still thinking a small paraski flex, and that way if you ever decide to do some other form of traction, you have a kite that you can use. You can't go buggy with a 1m in anything short of a huricane, and we all know how that ends :P