saturday morning had a quick surprise snowfall of a few inches of fresh powder in a very short time followed by a drop in temperature and high gusty winds kicking in. In southern Ontario a group of us had planned to hit our favorite lake named Luther marsh - no wind that last few weekends so we were hoping for a great day.
The drive was mostly in ice glazed roads with strong winds whipping the snow off the fields and created moments of total white outs and the whole hour or so drive felt like you were skating the whole way.
Okay we get to the lake and it's nasty extremely gusty and shifting winds with swirling snow squalls. First guy out launched an 8m Venom and took off with the kite bucking and pulsing but usually once you get out into the open it settles down - not today. He came back within a short time and warned us about a large section of the first big bay had deep slush that stopped him in his tracks leading to a face plant. From that point on it was just frustration for everyone, kites wouldn't behave with the gusts going from a few km to 0ver 60kmh in a few seconds and all over the place. A local weather report the next day recorded the highest gust at 105kmh but I don't think we caught that one.
Another buddy went out for a few minutes with his Access getting a clean launch during a lull only to return soaked from head to toe and now covered in ice as he found the slush. One guy that tried a 12m Synergy soon came back saying it was going from lull to lofting him even with the kite fully depowered parked at the zenith.
Finally after helping for the longest time with everyone's launches (many blown a tangled launches) I thought what the heck, good day to try a 6m Charger on skis - snowboards were not working with the extreme gusts today.
Launched, took off whipping the kite around and got a few hundred yards and then the skis dropped down into a foot of slush right as the kite was doing a power stroke and it drove the skis down and under the slush even deeper and right away stuck like concrete and fell sideways and was now laying in a good 14 inches of slush and water - stuck like glue. Couldn't move my feet at all and water now soaking through everything. Still flying the kite tried to put a hand down to stand up but no go at the twisted angle - only solution was to get the kite a little behind and start looping - was sure I'd loose the skis. A few mad loops and managed to break the slush grip and pull myself up and out but still had a good 75 feet to go before getting out of the slush zone of death. More looping and dragging until I got to a point where I was on solid snow/ice and now of course the kite inverts and bow ties. Lots of thrashing and crazy ground handling and eventually a proper oriented kite launch - lots of line twists but enough to get back to base. By the time I got back everything was becoming nicely iced up and what a b_tch trying to get a frozen harness off - chipping ice and trying to bend the webbing to go through sliders.
Then to top off the day, the buddy that took off on the 8m Venom was way out and disappeared into a white out then we didn't see his kite for close to an hour and were mounting a search mission when he appeared walking back kite tucked under arm with a rats nest of line on his bar - the hook on his spinning spreader bar sheared off and sent the kite into a spin and emergency bail out.
I put together a very short video just to show some other friends the fun they missed, all filmed before my fun in the slush bathtub - not much kiting in it and was holding the GoPro in a glove and muffled most of the sound:
http://vimeo.com/19882661

Yikes!
It's a funny ol' world we live in when the sight of a man with a camera perched on top of his helmet doesn't surprise anyone

When you have a great day out, this will serve as the "remember when" story you can share with your buds.

Compared to this outing, they all may classify as a great day out!

Looks like you guys took a beating. Inland kiters are eternal optimists - when there isn't enough wind to fly, we're thinking ' I felt something maybe it's picking up.' Or else your getting your a$$ handed to you in gusts and thinking, maybe a smaller kite will work - and it still doesn't. You invent the kite that can level out what you were in and I'll buy it!

krumly

It was just far too extreme in the gusts from near lull to getting slammed - one buddy described his attempt as driving with one hand on the stick shift with the trim going depower to full power to depower constantly.
One of those days that you just need to realize there are far better days but after an hour or more drive everyone made a small go of it just to say it wasn't a total waste of a drive. Next day same gusty winds in a different location and were treated to a couple of guys first trying a 3m FB foil on handles only to see it spin about 50 or more loops before it was hopelessly wound up and crashed as the guy got dragged. Then, the real excitement seeing them next trying to launch a 14m LEI from leading edge down and one guy just grabbing a wingtip to twist it upward - straight up into a hot launch - the only thing that saved them was the flier had one line snagged that caused it to go directly off to the edge on land before we could get over and give them a little talk.

I second Krumly's comments. I can relate all too well with that experience. Some days are just hard to make the best of. A bad day kiting is still better than a good day at work, even if it means going home with the tail between your legs.

WOW, I thought I had a lousy weekend of kiting but it all of a sudden looks like a success ! :dunno:

Kiting alone on an unexplored lake with all larger lakes in the valley all water. Winds from 0 to 20 . Lofted twice trying to get by with the 10.8 Reactort the day ending one being about 15 to 20 ft. a sloppy and VERY WET landing. SO frustrating. The 10.8 was too much within seconds. Scary getting that kind of air when you didn't exactly set up for it.

After the last lofting I decided I didn't want to end up smashed up and alone on that lake. Or fall through and have all the locals talk about me, ruining somebody elses spot. Drove home happy but feeling stressed all day instead of stoked ?
My hat goes off to those who kite alone all the time !

Wow. Thanks for sharing. Seems we're all having pretty craptastic inland winters up here.

Snowkite Soldier next year?

mmm, and I thought we have been getting gusty conditions lately. ha This takes the cake.

Those conditions in the video looked BRUTAL, at least judging from that crazy series of launches. And, that's with an 8m arc, the gust munching machines.... :o

one guy was trying to launch a 14 m lei? in those conditions....??? I can't even comment on that....no words are coming to mind, I am dumbfounded