If any of you are into speed runs with your kites I'm sure that you've checked out www.stormboarding.com and checked out the weekly postings of speeds on ice and snow. A guy in Idaho went 61.7mph with an Alien race kite - he bought it off of buggyman Glenn from this site.

Most of the top speeds were on lei or depowerables - it was interesting to see the fixed bridle up there...

Here is the text of the guys description of his run...

Some questions and answers from Jeff Blais on his speedy run on tele
and a fixed-bridle kite...


1) What's it like to fly a nervous race foil on handles at that kind
of speed in turbulence?
Well it definitely keeps your attention. You are constantly pressuring
the brakes and trying to really keep the kite hot and not allow it
accelerate on the gusts out the wind window. The skiing was the easy part of
this run because the wind quality was very challenging

2) Did you get a high speed kite luff/collapse?.....Yea there was one.
The Bego 4 got away from me in some bad turbulence. Trying to recover and
reinflate I caught an edge and went down probably close to 50mph. Then the
kite reinflated and spanked me abit. I still had my shells on because I was
still checking the surface conditions for animal burrows and any soft spots.
If I had been without the shells and just the racing suit...well that could
of been some nasty road rash.

3) Don't you think doing a speed runs with that type of setup
Tele/racefoil is doing it the hard way?..... Well there are certainly
easier ways to do a speed run. I have had some fast runs with depowerables.
I had some speedy runs last year with FS Speed 7m and 10m, Montana 7m. For
me the depowerables just aren't as exciting to fly fast. To just lock in and
throttle a depowerable for me is more like controlling a powersource. Flying
a fast fixed bridle takes more concentration and kite flying. I far as Tele
goes it is just my snow toy of choice. And I have taught Tele and competed
in Tele events for many years. Plus downwinder's linking Tele turns in pow
or corn is great.

4) What kind of snowkiting area did you use for this? Well we have
about 2300 square miles of snowkiting locally but I like 6 different venues
for speed. There are ones that are as flat as a lake and others that are
rolling terrain. This run was done on rolling terrain.

5)Tell us about the run......Well I was caught a little off guard
since we were snowkiting in waist deep powder 35 miles away the weekend
before. But on the end of the prairie that I did this run the snow had been
freeze/thaw cycling for about a week with very little wind and then the
weather front hit Thursday night with big wind that ran through the day
Friday. I got to the spot just before dawn and the wind was crazy big and
nasty turbulent. I started to get setup and my wife said "I'll just watch
and ground crew for now" Well the sun came up and boy was the surface shiny.
It was reflecting the purples and pinks of the dawn. I got out a 4m Bego and
figured I'd do some fast cruising checking out the venue for animal burrows
and soft spots. The surface was perfect white porcelain very fast and hard.
After surveying the venue I figured I'd wind the Bego up and get speedy. The
Bego was really lit especially in the gusts but it was getting beat up abit
in the turbulence. Well as I mentioned earlier I luffed the Bego as I was
heading back I crashed and had basically a pretty decent spank and drag.
After recovering and getting back to the truck. I got over the crash and
brought out my old Blade 4.9. Blades are slow to windward but very fast off
the wind I did a several passes that got me way down wind and dumped the
kite into a stand of willows packed up checked the GPS it read 55.2. Got to
the road and flagged the first car and they gave me a ride 3.7 miles back to
the truck. The Blade wasn't really flying great it was getting bounced
around once and a while really severely. So I figured why not go to full
race foil and see if I can move through the turbulence and accelerate off
it. So out comes the Alien 5.5. I reset the GPS and as I launch and
accelerate I'm thinking that this is either going to work better or I'm
going to be in for one hellish ride. I first major turbulence I hit the kite
shuddered a bit and accelerated I pressured the brakes and the kite grunted
up and I accelerated, this seems good. I take two fast passes and get into
position to wind 'er up. After a very fast down turn jibe I start building
apparent wind and keep the kite sining and hot. I crest a large knoll and as
I accelerate on the downhill I lock the kite in and just keep her lit on
brake control. The kite is screaming in the sky you could probably hear it a
mile away. Just flying along so cool, so intense just staying on this hyper
kite, that could literally luff at any moment, with so much concentration
its hard to think about skiing. I started to get way away from the road and
decided it was time to shut down a bit and jibe. Got the jibe completed and
started to accelerate but I was having difficulty really settling into this
side of the wind window. I messed around for awhile and things just really
didn't come together. I was coming to the road and I jibed back on the hot
side again but the speed and the edge of the window was difficult to find. I
wrestled with that for several miles and jibed again back toward the road.
The wind seemed to clean up and speed and the edge of the window was real
solid so I started to build speed and apparent wind back up. Kite screaming,
just flying across the landscape I say to myself this is the best pass right
here right now.

6) Do you have any special equipment or safety....You bet I do.
Because I'm flying on handles I quasi splice and sew 120lbs test breakaways
at the ends of the link line. Also there is a QR at the end of the link line
as well. For a spreader bar I use a Reactor with a custom roller that
creates a captive system.

7) What do I think of snowkiting at high speed as an overall
experience?.....Well its a lot of fun. I'm not going to complain about all
the soft(slow) and wonderful snow conditions we usually have here. But when
it does firm up here we have great venues for speed runs. So when its fast
and hard its great to do for some wild rippin runs. But still with all the
skills it takes to do the speed runs there is still alot of luck. Wind
snow/ice condition have to lineup with time off from work. Last year there
were some speedy days but nothing as fast as the morning of March 9th 2007
or alot of the 2003/2004 season. So with luck in mind it is great to come to
this competition website and see who got lucky. Folks like Gary Kejelleren,
Andreas Dahie, Mike Winter, Paul Morse, Marty Roy and the rest of the speed
demons. I have never met any of these guys but through this website we all
get to see how the week went for everyone involved in our quest for speed.