All Charged Up about Chargers Pt.1

Okay I know I've been slacking off on this blog nonsense.  What can I say? All this Holiday Cheer business sucks up a lot of time and on top of that we've been trying to get out and ride every chance we get.  The last thing I want to do some nights after riding is come home and do this blog stuff.

Okay maybe that's not entirely true.  I have to admit on the rare occasion I see something or think of something I want to put in the blog and can't wait to get home and write about it.  But by the time I get home one of two things usually occurs. One, I'm too tired to start writing or two, I completely forget what I wanted to write about.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Okay enough of that, this is a blog about kiting and kites so let's get to it.  

In this blog entry I'll try to describe my first impressions of the new Peter Lynn Chargers that I just recieved.  I'm not going to go into too much technical detail because I'm going to be covering a pretty broad size range, and on the surface I've found that all the Chargers regardless of size share the same flying characteristics.

Before we go further let me first say that I am NOT a water rider. I've never kited on water and what I look for in a kite may be totally different that what a water rider looks for.  I'm on snow and ice therefore I have a lot less drag.  I ride in cold winter winds which are a lot denser than warm winds. 

As you can see form Seth Merriam's pics the surface conditions were PRIMO for speed runs.  Just the kind of surface I dream of for going fast.

Unfortunately my edges weren't up to the to my regular standards (see the "How to screw yourself" blog entry) so I couldn't get the best grip.  But it was enough. And with the other rides I've gotten on the Charger it was enough to get a good "all around" feel for the kites.

First a brief look at the Navigator bar system. 

This is a new bar design for Peter Lynn and the current replacement for the old '07 bar system. They did away with the trim strap and replaced it with a clam cleat. It has a Centrix Chicken loop release (similar to what you'd find on Oz***s) and a safety line set up that seems to work really well. Flags off the front line on the kite when you cut the chicken loop loose.  Speaking of the chicken loop the Navigator spins so you don't have crossed lines anymore.

And the best part.  It has a stopper ball for setting the bar postition.  The bar has a lot more throw that the '07 bar and the stopper is awesome for adjusting the throw or for loading the bar up and putting it on "cruisecontrol".  The stopper can be set up to fully stop the bar or to have some "push through" so you can depower the kite like an LEI. 

This thing s light years ahead of the '07 bar.  It has some things I haven't figured out, like how to deal with inverts but it's an awesome bar.

So here's the skinny.  The first thing I noticed with the Chargers is the low end (Light wind) performance is miles away from the previous series of twin skins.  Peter Lynns have had a reputation for having a less than stellar low end performance.  The Venom 2 series was probably the best in the low end area.  Then Synergy in my opinion was a small step backward low end wise but you could compensate with the Syn's turn rate.

No need on the Charger.  I'm not sure exactly what Pepijn did to make the Charger so much better in low wind but it works AWESOME.  I had the 15m out with the long bar in what I would estimate to be about 10mph on smooth surface and it pulled like a 19m V2.  I couldn't believe it.  Mike was on his 12m Syn cruising around and I was on the verge of being over powered but the 15m Charger.  I even trimmed it (depowered) a little once in a while which is something I rarely do. It was great! And the whole time I kept looking at the trees and couldn't believe that they weren't moving at all. That Charger generates some stout apparent wind when you work  and edge hard against it.

The turn rate is awesome.  On the long bar the 15m turned almost as fast a 10m V2.  You had to muscle it to turn like that, especially in the low winds but the fact remains that it's capable of very fast turns for it's size.  A handy feature when trying to build power in low winds.

It also pays off in the jumping department.  As I've said before I'm not a jumper but this kite gives me strong incentive to learn.  The Charger has a ton of lift compared to the other twinskins.  Mike and I were just cruising slow and low and I decided to snap the wing overhead (made easy with the fast turning) and pull the bar in a bit. Bam!  20' in the air and wondring what to do next!  3-4" of soft snow on boiler plate doesn't make for crash worthy surface so I really focused on getting down softly.

I redirected and came down suprisingly smooth.  Mike was flying by behind me just shaking his head. Either he was impressed by my bad ass jumping abilty or  I just barely made it without some crippling injury.  It's a different thing when the kite turns so fast that even in light winds you can jump high because it doesn't loose speed in the turn when you snap it overhead.

I didn't jump much the rest of the day.

Stay tuned for part 2 when I'll go over the 10m and as promised, tell you about Randy and the Purple Cobra.

Screwing Yourself is Easy as 1-2-3.

You know what blows?  Having perfect conditions, solid wind and a pile of new kites to ride only to haved it screwed by the fact that you're lazy.  Or forgetful.  OR BOTH as the case was with me.

I got out of work at noon today and drove over to Naples to ride Long Lake off Seth Merriam's parents place.  The ice was unbelievable.  It was so clear I was looking down at the sandy lake bottom 3 feet below me.  It gives the illusion of hovering or in the Christmas spirit, you are literally walking on water. (check longlakecam.com for live footage)

The wind was blowing maybe 8-10mph which I thought would be a great opportunity to try out the 19m Peter Lynn Charger.  I set my launch anchor screw, set up the kite, launched and "NEEEEOOOOW!" off I went.

Try saying "NEEEEOOOW!" fast and you know what I mean.

First I have to say to both pro and anti Peter Lynn/twinskins/ARC that a lot of complaints about low end will be done away with.  This 19m ARC has more grunt than any 19m ARC I've ever had.  More than the Syn, V2 or V1 y a long shot.  It's turn rate was just slightly faster than the 19 Syn but this could have to do with the lack of wind.  If it were blowing 10+ it would have turned faster for sure.

I would have been powerless to control it.  The thing was a beast. 

But let me give a brief summary of how I screwed myself and became powerless to control the 19m Charger. 

I put a lot of miles in on a ski.  And average late season session can be 50-60 easily.  Depending on snow conditions that's a lot of wear.  Which means a lot of hand tuning.  I tune the hell out of my speed skis.  And eventually you start cutting into the cap or the sidewalls and you can't get a good filing on the side edge.  Not without cutting the cap or sidewall back.

Something I was going to do last spring.  Something I put off and forgot about in the fall and didn't remember until today when I went out on the clean, hard ice and had no edges.  None.  I drove the front of my boot as hard as I could and got no bite at all. 

After a few shots back and forth past the causeway I dicided that I needed to thrown an edge on before I kill myself.  Or at least to make me look less like a tool kiting around, standing bolt upright, dragged by a kite that's way too burly for the current state of my edges.   I landed and shot up to the car with my skis.

My mobile tuning kit Consists of a few flavors of wax, an assortment of files, stones, scrapers,brushes and and iron.  It all fits in my Ozone Kites shave kit.  Don't ask me why the have shaving bags but I won one and they make a nice tuning bag.

I tried to use the 2Deg. side edge guide to freshen up the edge so I could ride today.  But I can't get the file to hardly bite.  Why?- Oh that's right, the damn cap.  I'm filing nothing but plastic with each run down the edge.  So no sharp skis for me on this perfect day. Spent the day cruising around struggling to go where I wanted.

Like I said the 19m is a beast.  I had the thing almost fully trimmed the whole time and it was still having it's way with me.  I hardly ever trim if I can help it.  If I had edges I would have a fighting chance but I screwed myself remember?

There's more to this story but I'm calling it quits for the moment.  Too sleepy.

Next time I'll write a little about Randy's adventures with the "Purple Cobra".

Stay tuned....

Testing, Testing, 1...2...3...

Lake Chocorua

I've held off on writing my observations of the Peter Lynn Chargers until I could get a few hours flying time in. Today I put them to work and really got more of a feel for how they handle in a variety of conditions.

We've had the new Chargers for a couple of weeks now and we've had the opportunity to fly them in some pretty mundane conditions with winds blowing 10-15mph and 4" soft snow.  Sure it was some nice flying and good for getting a basic feel for the Chargers but not really conditions that would really bring the Charger's abilities to light.

Until today.

I got to Lake Chocorua about 3:30.  The wind was blowing out of the NW at approximately 15-20mph gusting to 30ish.  The Lake surface was orange peel textured "boiler plate"  and about 6" thick.  This was the first day I'd been out on Chocorua for the season and I was pretty psyched about the surface conditions.  Good and fast but textured so the fact that I hadn't touched my edges since last season shouldn't be too much of an issue.

The wind conditions were prime for testing out the 10m Charger.  So far the 10m has been my favorite.  This kite turns so fast and has such a huge power range that I can fly it when Mike's 12m Syn is pulling him at a moderate pace at best.  It out turns any Arc (Peter Lynn design) that I've ever flown even the Scorpion and the Synergy.  Pepijn (the kite designer at Peter Lynn) said that it was a considerable jump in performance from the Syns to the Chargers.

He was right.

Lets take a step back to a few days back when I took the 15m out for my first ride on the Charger.  Umbagog, light winds, 4" soft snow.  My initial impression is this....The Charger has MUCH better low end than previous Arcs.  Low end has always been an issue with the Arcs but Pepijn seems to have worked that out at some level.  The 15m pulls better than  the 19 V2 in light winds. I always thought the V2 had the best low end of all the Arcs except maybe the 16m Scorpion. Turning rate is equivalent (on the long bar) to a size down in the Syn and 2 sizes at least in the Venoms.  In other words the 15m Charger turns like a 12m Syn or a 10m V2.    To add a little more excitement the Charger has an un-godly amount of lift.  I'm working on perfecting my jumping skills because these kites will send you if you're not careful.

The Charger is a fast kite.  I mean fast turning and across the window.  She sits just  a little forward of the center and justs likes to accelerate there.  I'm not sure which, either the 10m or 12m, but one is going to help me beat my PB and maybe even bag 80mph. 

Back to today. 

I launched the 10m in about 15mph and shot out to the center of the lake. Just past the sandbar the wind kicked up to about 25-30 and the 10m really let it's true self show.  Let me say at this point I usually like a long bar regardless of the size kite.  The 10m definately warrants using the smaller bar.  It's so damn fast it can get you out of some amzing situations but it gets you into trouble just as fast.  The short bar would limit that a bit.

First run out I hit 58.2mph before I ran out of room. After that the wind was pretty stable for about 20 minutes and I never broke 55mph.  Lots of low 50's but that was it then the winds crapped out.  I limped the 10m back by sining and switched to the 15m.  The wind was starting to pick up and I was wishing I had the 12m but the 15 or 19m were my only options at the time so I went with the 15m.

I went back out and about 10 minutes into it the wind went nuts. It would die then spool up to 25+.  One second you're working to keep the kite in the air and next second you're trying to keep from getting dragged onto the highway.

Perfect testing conditions.  I'd bring the wing around and trim it out.  The new trim is unbelievable.  So much depower I couldn't believe it.  I tried the depower before at Umbagog but there wasn't enough wind to really reap the benefits.  I had that kite trimmed and heading upwind about 15deg. of dead straight.  I've never seen anything like it.  My ice shavings were flying almost directly behind me as I headed up the lake.  The trimming barely affected the steering and if you felt it start to get unstable you could just pull the bar in a little bit and it felt awesome.

I'm confident that I can ride the Charger in about the broadest wind range of any kite I've ever been on.  I'm not worried at all about being over powered on it in changing wind conditions. She has the power range to get me back in one piece as long as I commit. You just have to keep in mind that there is A LOT of trim on this wing.

She handles gusts just as you'd expect from a Peter Lynn.  Maybe not as well as the Syn or V2 but it's hard to tell when you're on Chocorua.  That lake has some of the meanest, punchy, dirty winds you'll ever want to ride in.  Ask anyone who was out there on New Year's Day last season and expirienced the carnage.  If you can get good at flying Choco you can fly in anything.

So far the kite has been incredible.  Rumor was that the Charger turned like an LEI and from what I've seen it's damn close if it isn't there already.  I'm leary of the lift and the extra power they have after just getting used to the Syns. I haven't even had the 19m out yet.  I'm so impressed with the low end of the otheres I'm a little nervous especially on clean ice with spent edges.  I'm sure it will all come together.

I'll write more later when I have more to report.  I know this one is a little spotty but I'm still working it out in my head a little bit here.  I want to cover the new Navigator control bar next and  my new spreader bar which after the first ride I'm convinced it's the best spreader for skiers ever.  Kicks the hell out of the Dakines.  More on it later.

I gotta give you a reason to come back!

If you want to check the specs on the Charger line click on the Charger at the right of the screen.

First Day Out at Erropolis. Great City of the North.

The ice is in!

After what seems like a ridiculously long period of warm weather this sudden cold snap is making serious progress in the ice making department.  Winter is  definately here and Mike and I went north on Friday to ride Lake Umbagog, one of our favorite riding areas.  It's a pretty long ride from here, appoximately 75 miles but it's a beautiful place to ride.  Often blessed with steady winds,  great ice and zero cell phone coverage it's a great place to get away from it all.

The town of Errol is by my standards pretty damn awesome.  It's small and in the winter almost a ghost town apart from the snowmobilers and ice fisherman that come through during the winter months.  There's LL Cote if you're looking for a sled rental, cold weather gear or an AK47 and the Errol General Store for kickass sandwiches, coffee or just about anything else you need.  Oh, and if you speak french it will help you fit in.

There's a small motel in town if you venture all the way up here and want to stay the night and a place that rents cabins right at the launch area.  If you have to drive from farther away than we do then it's not a day trip.  It's only 74 miles from North Conway but it's a LOOOONG 74 miles.  No highways just a twisty 2 lane road all pot hole speckled and frost heaved.

 Sometimes I think that maybe this could be a great snowkite destination and possibly bring a little more income to the area during the lean months.  Lake Umbagog is just down the road and there are several other big lakes nearby but the distance from any large population areas, lack of cell phone and zero night life probably makes it unlikely.

All qualities that I love about Errol.

Mike and I drove up and made it to Umbagog in about an hour and half.  The parking lot has been shoveled and the ice looked really good.  I brought my trusty Mille Lacs Ice Chopper to chop some test holes but since there were several snowmobile tracks on the ice so we threw caution to the wind and just started to set up.

The breeze was light and variable with an occasional gust of maybe 12-15 mph but not too often.  The trees weren't hardly twitching.  4" of soft snow on the surface.  I was going to try my new 19m Charger for the light winds but I left it in the van and was too lazy to go get it so I rigged the 15m.  Mike was flying his new 12m Peter Lynn Synergy.

I want to fly the Chargers again and give a more detailed report but for now I'm going to hold off until I can give more detail.  I will say the Charger is unlike anything I've flown up till now and I think it's going to be a perfect fit for how I like to ride.

We flew for 4 hours and my top speed was 48.6mph.  Not earth shattering but really good given the amount of wind and surface conditions. 

After flying Mike and I hit the general store on the way out and grabbed some sandwiches.  It was a pretty mellow ride home with no moose or any near misses with wildlife.  The Odyssey handled 13 Mile Woods (a brutal stretch of road along the way) like a champ.

Molly and I are heading up there tomorrow. The wind reports are mixed some say 10-15mph others say 20-30mph.  We've got Chargers to handle any of it so we'll fly those and I'll give a detailed report of the day and my thoughts on the Chargers.

Until then, if you're in Errol keep out of trouble.  They have ways of handling evildoers up there.  It helps to have a guide with local knowledge.  We rely on Mat Morrissette in these parts.

And The Winner is...JIM CLINE!!!!

Let me start by saying Jim Cline (I like to call him J.C.) has what in my opinion one of the best jobs in the world.  He's a precision tree cutter meaning he removes trees from areas that are sensitive and could be damaged if the tree comes down wrong.  It's a great job because it's outside, he's self employed and makes enough money in the summer that he can ride all winter.

AND, you can't cut trees when the wind is blowing.  I mean c'mon is there anything better?!

J.C. showed up at the house the other day to check in, see where the riding was and find out our plans for the day. He's a character to say the least. He's a gun toting, bird watching, republican, amature astronomer and pilot. A bit of a tinkerer, and about as "hard core" as anyone you'll ever meet. He does double centuries (200 mile) bike rides in regular shorts for God's sake.

He's not the youngest kid to come out and play but he's definately one of the most dedicated.

Mat Morrisett  (above) came up from down south to get some first runs of the season in and Mike Elliott met us at Kennett.  The winds were pretty punchy and Mike went out first with his 12m Synergy.  He launched, shot across the field and promtly had his ass handed to him by some heavy gusts.  He had to pull his safety release to keep from getting dragged into the trees.  Fun Stuff.

The winds were not the best and it was pretty tight flying.  Mat was on his trusty 12m Sabre (a poor choice as he finds out) I was on the 15m Synergy and J.C. was on his new 10m Apex.  Mat eventually got over powered by his 12m and crash landed it in a stream.  J.C. and I didn't have any issues and got a bunch of good riding in.

Jim had his Apex 10m in the air and his Fatty Puss' on his feet (140mm under foot!) so he was definately getting the most out of the day.  He got more miles in than I did and just seemed to be in the right place at the right time wind wise. It was still that crazy WSW with ocassional NW so it could be dead one spot and raging 40' away.

Long story short Jim got the most flying time in for the day.  Eventually the wind died and we packed up. Molly got skunked because she was taking all the pictures and didn't get a chance to fly Hopefully we'll be on ice after this week now that we've had a good stretch of cold weather finally.  My reports should be a little more interesting then!

Sometimes You Have to Show Some Skin(s).

Local Field

Last Friday Molly and I decided to ride some fields we haven't ridden in a couple of years.  They're close to town but hard to get to if there's snow.  Fortunately we have a good amount of Alpine Touring (AT) gear so we can easily get to these fields without too much trouble.

We dug our climbing skins out (strips of sticky backed mohair) and with the free heel action of our AT bindings we were able to "skin" out across the deep snow to where we wanted to ride. 

Handy stuff that AT gear.

What a crazy stretch of wind we've been having.  It's been all WSW and gusty as hell.  It's the kind of wind that blows 17mph and gusts to 34mph.  And it can be nukin' 20 feet to your left and not even a puff where you're standing.  It's the kind of wind that I really appreciate being on the Peter Lynns.  I prefer to rig for the lighter end of the wind range in those conditions because I can always depwer the wing if the wind gets too strong.  But you can't make a wing pull harder if you're underpowered. But WSW really isn't good here and I prefer more West or North West.  Much more stable and predictable even when it's gusty.

Molly in the helmet cozy

Molly was having a couple of good runs on her trusty Apex.  The temps were pretty cold so Molly broke out her helmet "cozy" and cruised around for a couple of hours.  The Apex would be the next best choice for sucking up the gusts we were dealing with that day.  Smooth power, no lift and good depower.

                            

                          

Mo and the Apex

Molly did have a minor misshap. Doesn't it always seem like there isn't enough wind until you mess up on a launch or have some sort of line issue or snag and then the wind blows like crazy?  That was the case in the pic below.

Believe it or not she actually saved it.

I didn't have that kind of excitement on the 12m Synergy.  I got a couple good pulls and stayed on the ground because I have a cracked spreader bar.  I have a new one comming from Peter Lynn and it looks like just what I need.

Myself turning

I have to say I really like flying in the gusty wind sometimes.  It really teaches you a lot about what a kite does in certain situations.  Flying a kite in gusty winds, or even not so gusty, is a very anticipatory act.  You have to recognize when something is going to cause a problem and react before it has a chance to happen.  This skill really pays off even if it's not gusty. 

If you can learn to fly that way, then everything becomes much, much easier.

Ice is forming as I type this. Hopefully we'll be on the lakes soon and I'll have some exciting stories to tell!

17 degrees, winds blowing 20mph, a foot of snow. Heaven!

It's be an interesting couple of days around here lately. We got hit by the storm that rolled through the midwest and got almost s foot of snow at home and more in other places. There's no ice to be had yet so were riding in the fields which is okay but getting to them is a bit of a project. Thursday Molly and I went to meet up with our new friend and future kiting addict Ron Wold up at his home in Wonalancet. We met Ron and Vickie out on Choco last season just after a session. They live on a farm with one of the best fields around for riding west winds and offered us private access in exchange for a quick intro kiting lesson. 

 After almost a full year of trying to get together we met up with Ron last Thursday.   We got to the farm about 1:00 in the afternoon and the winds were really REALLY gusty.  The surface conditons looked great and I headed out on our Peter Lynn 8m Venom 2 to cruise around the fields and get an feel for the surface and how the winds were going to treat us.

Once out I found myself to be a little underpowered on the 8m and would have been better off on the 10m Synergy but I didn't have it with me. In about an hour the winds were getting dirtier and even more punchy so after a while I decided to bag it for the day.  Ron showed up and Molly got him up to speed on flying.  I was the "kite bitch" meaning I helped roll the thing over, untangled bow ties etc. while  Molly did the important stuff. Ron took to flying like he'd been it doing it most of his life.

The winds were blowing around 18mph gusting to mid 30's.

 Not the kind of conditions you want to learn to ride in but good conditions if you want a crash course in kite handling.  A few times Ron put the kite in a the wrong spot at the wrong time but there were no issues and he got the kite to drag him.

I can't wait until Ron gets up on skis.  He and Vickie are blessed with living in such a sweet location not to mention how close they are to kiting lakes.

 

After a mechanical issue popped up with the Frenzy we decided to call it for the day and head over to the farm for a cup of hot tea.

The adventure continues....

Snowkiting? What's all this green stuff?

I didn't think it would be as good as it was. I woke up around 5:00 and went out to get some early morning moonlight photos of all the white. The whole time I was out all I could think of was how good it looked and how the weather reports we saying it would be blowing up to 20mph for the day. But how much riding can you get in on 3 1/2 inches of snow? Actually quite a bit especially if it stays cold and the winds drift it around. We were out for almost 4 hours today and for the most part it was really good. The snow was thin but the grass was slick so it turned out to be decent riding.

At first the snow was sticking to our skis but Molly went back to the van and got the tuning kit. After a quick buff wax the skis were a lot better and we could actually carry some speed. Molly was on her Apex 7.5 at first then moved up to the Peter Lynn 15m Synergy. Mike was flying his new 10m Synergy. I took the 15m and got some good pulls when the wind picked up a little more. I even got a couple of small jumps in.
It's a little uncomfortable jumping over what is essentially grass while on skis but with the wind what it was and the little snow that we had I couldn't resist.

I'm not much of a jumper I admit but I'm working on it. Molly's shots are the first pics I've seen of myself jumping. I don't look as goofy as I feel so I guess that's a good sign!

I'm psyched on the 15m Synergy. It turns fast and has way more lift than I can possibly use at my level of jumping ability. Everytime I ride it I'm amazed and the amount of power and de-power that kite has. The winds got really punchy and gusty and I could hardly feel it on the Syn. Just smooth solid power.
According to Pepijn at Peter Lynn the new Chargers are even better. They'll have even lighter bar pressure which will be great for me with my new left wrist,turn faster and have more depower. I can't wait to try 'em out.

So to sum it up it was a pretty good couple of hours of riding. Molly got first tracks,Mike got to fly his new 10m Synergy and we got to try out the Ody as a fully loaded kite rig. We have a little snow and the cold temps are supposed to hold for the week so we might get some more riding soon. The ground hasn't frozen yet but we might still keep this snow for a base and another weather system is due in on Tues/Wed. We've got some new locations to check out and hopefully I'll have more to report in the next couple days.

Stay Tuned.

Record Warmth, Not a Snowkiter's Friend.

Molly, Mike and I went North the other day to see is we could get another session up by Santa's Village. We drove up and were pleasantly suprised to see the surface conditions were still prime but but dissapointed by the lack of wind. The wasn't a puff to be felt. We opted to drive around and scope out some locations in hopes of maybe finding good surface with some wind. Everywhere we went it was the same story, great surface but ZERO wind. That's the name of the game with kiting I guess, sometimes you score without trying and sometimes you get skunked no matter how hard you try.

While we were out I got some pics of the areas we checked out.(see below)
Unfortunately after a few short days of scratching sessions out on the small oasis of snow we had up north we got hit by torential rain and 68deg F. temps. It just killed the surface and our hopes of getting out to ride anytime soon. It rained like hell Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and then the sun came out late morning as the final nail in the coffin for local riding. While all the non-kiters were running around exclaiming how nice it was I was crying a little bit inside. This almost 70 degree weather in December is just wrong.

Thursday was pretty nice so I used the time that I'd rather spend kiting and took on the job of gearing up the new Odyssey for kite season. It's a project to get the van set up to accommadate the multiple kites,pairs of skis,protective gear,clothing,dog and dog related gear etc. I had to change some of the procedures that worked so well in the Windstar but I think I got it pretty well dialed in. We'll refine it as we go along. The new rig is awesome. It holds everything that we need, has the power we need and handles like a dream. All it really needs is to get off the Michelins and get something a little more substantial on it for tires.
After test loading the Ody to make sure I had room for the "kitevan security system" (also known as Sirius)Molly and I deep fried a chicken and some wings for lunch.

Gotta love deep fried anything. Sirius was a slobbering grease mesmerized beast as he supervised Molly's draining the fryer.

We're getting a little snow as I write this. Maybe we'll get a few inches and some wind tomorrow. Maybe we'll get out and trash some skis.

Far enough North to see Santa and get a session in.

I'm always amazed by what you find here in the mountains. Molly and I decided to head up to Crawford today to get some riding in if we were fortunate enough to have some wind. Then later submit our GPS speeds to the Stormboarding Speed Ranking not because we were fast today but just to show our support and see how our conditions are compared to other places.


When we got to the parking lot and didn't find any wind but we did find a fox. The ranger says the idiots at the "Smog Railroad" feed a whole family of foxes and they're pretty tame. He's a beautiful animal but it's sad that I could get so close to get this pic. I thought it was illegal to feed wildlife in wilderness areas.

I can't ride my bike on it but they can run the train on Mt. Washington. Yeah that makes sense.

Okay, gotta simmer down. Since there wasn't any wind We decided we'd head back home by way of Rt. 2 to Gorham and see if there was anywhere else to ride. We went North and started toward Gorham and found a hillside field about 5 acres with some of the nicest surface conditions you'll ever see. Soft but firm,creamy and not too deep, no punching through. We couldn't believe how good it was and right on the road! Enough room for 2 fliers to get around and have a pretty decent session.



We just kept saying "Who knew?!!"

Molly started out on her 7.5m Apex but shifted to the 15m Peter Lynn Synergy that I was riding as the wind died a little. I grabbed the camera and got a few shots of her riding before the sun set.

It turned out to be a pretty sweet couple of hours up there and even though we didn't have a lot of room to run we still had a good time and the satisfaction of finding somewhere new to ride and quite possibly being the first ones to ride there.

That's 2 rides for Molly and I so far this season. Molly's got the most miles I think. We did see Santa driving home from Santa's Village.

The season's shaping up kiddies!!!!