Ye, I am jealous of local kiters at Lake Champlain. Snow was barely enough to cover the ice. You still see ice spots here and there but didn't have trouble snowkiting. I hope it gets better by the time of KiteStorm. - Brian

Really great pictures. Is the Red white and Blue kite the Manta? that thing looks huge! I can't wait to get out again if it ever get above 0 degrees.

That's Frenzy 10. Wind started high and died down at the end of the day. I could have used Manta 12 for the last one hour that day but didn't want to lose precious time on packing and setting up kites. - Brian

Awesome pics Brian! I am hoping to get a chance in a couple of weeks. A friend of mine and I are going to Tahoe to ski for the weekend but I am bringing my kite gear in hopes of scoring a session. Thanks for the bindings, Wade

After seeing your pictures leebrianh, I had to get on a lake soon.

So I drove out today to one about 15 mins from my house.

The local fishermen told me the ice was 12 - 14" thick so I figured it was safe.

The winds were only 6 - 7 mph, but the Silverarrow allowed me to cruise the lake

The lightwind ability of the kite is impressive.

I'm borrowing some skis for tomorrow

Got on skis today! Here are some pictures. The winds were around 6 - 10 mph. My best speed run was 28.9 mph with the 17m Speed. It is an incredible light wind engine - it just kept picking up speed as I went across the lake.

Well...so far skis are more fun (and faster) behind a kite.

I think the snowboard will be better when the snow gets deeper.

Skis all the way - you can hold down more power, carve harder and skate with them if needed to get up wind a bit.

Nice pictures, DaVinch. I was going to just snowboard during KiteStorm but now you guys mentioned skis, I am bringing my skis too. - Brian

Yeah - definitely bring your skis also!

The old downhill skis I'm using are a bit long (200) but they felt great at speed. The winds should be good this weekend, so I'm going to bring the GPS again.

What is the best length & type of skis for snowkiting?

DaVinch you could use a corkscrew like for a dog leash. It could go through the snow and into the frozen ground. They are very cheep!

Thanks wood - I may have to give it a try. Right now I'm attaching my safety line (fifth line) to the ski or snowboard then I walk to the kite to pack up.

Davinch, the best skis would be a pair of twin tips so you could ride toeside or land reverses if you so desired.

As far as length and sidecut, that's personal preference and terrain dependant. Personally, I don't like super sidecuts for kiteskiing but I ski on lakes and not mountains. I think the skis with less sidecut hold better on the ice.

I ski on 180s, 185s and 190s. I had a pair of 170s but I can't find them anymore??

180s come out first in most conditions. 185s are beater skis for fields and questionable terrain. 190s are my mogul skis so they only come out with the kite in primo conditions. I'm 5'7" and 145#s.

Longer skis for faster, icy conditions. Shorter skis for crud when you need to be sure you can whip the skis around as you are truning.

Thanks for the scoop B-Roc.

I've been having a great time on the frozen lake lately - best speed so far is 33mph with a 13m Flysurfer Pulse. I'm hoping to break 40 before the ice melts...

Joe, your runs may get faster if the weather conditions allow the ice and snow to fuse together at the end of the season from the daytime melting and night time refreezing cycles.

When we have a winter that dumps enough snow that doesn't get melted or blown off the lakes, the late season runs are on a fast, firm yet edgeable surface that can allow you to run the skis flat and build up some decent speed.

Added benefit is you can slide the skis all over the place on powered turns at the end of your run without catching or dragging edges.

I hope it gets a little better - the snow was really slushy today since it was about 40 F out. I'm having fun either way.

The jumps with the Silverarrow are so nice...great hang time :D

I was with a rider on Saturday who was jumping with his Venom. Depowerables definately have an advantage for jumping. He'd be cruising along and simply squat down a bit and pull the bar in then pop... away he went. Got me really thinking that I may have to go the depowerable route.

B-Roc,

I'm really enjoying the depowers now.

Can you try out that Venom? If so, give it a go.

I could try the Venom if he'd ever stop flying it

Problem is most of the people I ride with in the winter are kite surfers so they have no idea what to do with handles and don't really want to swap with me for a while

Just got back from Montana snowkite Rodeo. It was a BLAST ! Bigger in every way. Including the winds. The wind was WAY up and down. Trying to deal with those conditions and not flying depower was frustrating. I would be perfectly powered , underpowered , then WAY overpowered, unable to even make it upwind again. I now FULLY understand the need for depower flying inland / mountian winds.
I return home, humbled and looking for another kite . Waroos and Ozone ( including the instinct ) seemed to handle themselves best from what I observed.

As far as skis go. I have chosen to run with short twintips but bring my old 200's should I want speed runs or extra edge. I was on the twin tips when unable to get upwind but doubt even the 200's would have been enough.

I broke 45mph yesterday. Woohoo :singing:

Me and a buddy had the whole lake to ourselves. I was on my 180s and my 2.5m JOJO he on his snowboard and a 3m trainer. The winds were averaging 18mph with gusts close to 30 and 3 snowmobilers were really interested in what we were doing and they started shadowing us to monitor our speeds.

My top monitored speed as measured by the pace snowmobile was just over 45mph and sustained for half the length of the lake.

I'm pretty sure I had a couple runs that were over 50mph but couldn't prove it. I know they didn't shadow what felt to be my fastest run.

Huge power and super acceleration. Speed was the word for the day and the ice/snow surface was perfect for full lake length bomber runs

Way to go B-Roc! That's fast... Best for me this year is only 33 mph (on skis w/GPS).

My toque goes off to you. Those are some respectable speeds. You aught to pick up a GPS. I got my Garmin Fortrex 101 cheap and enjoy it so far ( my best is 39.8 ).
You can win monthly / yearly prizes running in the 40's and 50's. Another good reason to add one to the toy bag !

I've seen and considered the GPS thing but never felt like spending the money on it. It was the first thing I thought of though after the snowmobiler came over to tell me my speed. I wished I could have submitted it to the Stormboarding folks but I'm sure they had some great runs this past weekend too.

Man, that sounds so fast. We finally got snow here so I'm thinking of heading out to one of the lakes this coming weekend. So far I've only been on the soccer fileds a few times. Not enough room there for any real fun. No way do I want to go that fast (yet) so my question is, if I'm flying a 7m Montana in say 15MPH winds on skis how fast would/could I be going? I know the snow makes difference too but any guesses?

Probably 25 - 30 mph. From the little experience I have. I was going about 30 kph in 8 - 10 kt wind on my 7 Bullet.

Just read this on Stormboarding:

Jeff Blais riding in Sun Valley, ID is now on top of the Stormboarding snowkite speed ranking list with a run of 61.7mph.

Now that is fast

Way to go Jeff!