Chasing the wind and reaping the rewards.

I hate to use the term "addiction" but what else can I call it?  Snowkiting is present in almost every thought and every waking hour of every day in the winter.  What else can you call something that causes your heart to jump every time you see a dead leaf fluttering outside a window?  What else causes you to drive 40 minutes to sit out on a frozen lake for hours with your kite dead on the ice waiting for a puff of wind?  What else causes you to look at a couple meters of fabric with a price tag of $1300 dollars and say to youself "That's sick!, I need that!" 

I wake up in the morning and fall into the same routine. Turn on computer to start checking multiple weather sites, make a cup of tea, turn on the TV and start bouncing between the weather channel and the local weather, make and take calls from other kiters and try to figure out where to go or who to go with.

All in a futile effort to get a ROUGH idea of what the wind is going to do because the weather people never get it right anyway.  And then we always have Paul Morse "It's blowin' 240 at 14kts in Portland." and I always respond "Yeah, that's great Paul, WE'RE NOT IN PORTLAND!" as we're standing in Naples or Errol or somewhere hell and gone from Portland.

I can't think of anything that effects me like this.  We bought a new van based on our kite hauling needs for crying out loud.

This weekend Molly and I got to fly in both ends of the snowkiting spectrum.  One day was PERFECT.  It didn't start out that way but we did a little driving in search of "gold" and we sure as hell found it.  The next day was more searching  and we found some riding but it was about as far away, condition wise, from Saturday that we couldn't hardly take it.

We'll start with Saturday...

The day started with the routine described above and after a couple hours of researching wind conditions Molly (who happens to be sick with a cold) and I decide to stick close to home and ride Chocorua.  The winds are supposed to be light so we were planning to ride big kites if we were lucky enough to ride at all.  Nine times out of ten we get to ride regardless of how bad the reports for wind are.

Inspite of a full inventory of kites  we got down to Chocorua to find that this was the one out of ten when we get "skunked" (no wind).  This poses a dilemma.  Do you jump in the car and drive somewhere else and risk missing wind and wasting time driving?  OR....Do you stay put in hopes of wind developing and miss prime wind somewhere else?

It's a tough call. 

Fortunately Molly had a great suggestion.  Province pond.

Province

 A 35 minute drive from Chocorua and we were at Province.  It was beautiful.  The surface was pristine and untouched, untracked and perfect.  It looked awesome.  We pulled over and the moment of truth came when Molly rolled down the window.  Wind, not just wind but SMOOTH wind!  Something of a rarity where we live.  I couldn't believe it. Good call on Savard's part.

She got first tracks.

Molly ready to go

It was awesome.  The surface was lightly wind packed fluff about 4-6" stuck to edgable ice.  There isn't much snow so there was room to park right on the side of the road.  The beach is almost a mile long and the power lines run downwind of the road so if need be you can run the kite right down the pavement though I wouldn't suggest it.

Molly was going to ride the 12m Charger and I was going to ride the 15m.  We set our ice screws and started laying out our gear.  After we got set up I went to inflate quick and dirty with the blower but it wouldn't work.  I apparently packed it full of snow on Thursday and I had turned to ice in the van.  Usually a bummer because inflating the Peter Lynns where we live is a pain without the blower.  The winds are just too twitchy.

But not Saturday!  That wind was in a constant direction so we inflated the way they're designed to.  It was fast and easy just like the instruction video.

Back in business.

Molly first tracks

Molly was charging on the Charger.  That 12m is a sweet fit for her although I'm convinced with the depower abililty of these kites I think she could be on the 15m in the same winds.

But she's learning to jump them and she probably keeps out of trouble on the smaller kite for now.  I admit I haven't ridden the 12m enough to have a solid feel for it's jumping ability but I've jumped the 10m and the 15m and I'm sure it's substantial.

Molly didn't seem to be having any trouble.

Hard to tell from the pic but she's about 12' up.  Not bad for learning I think.

We rode for about an hour before snow machines started showing up.  They were fine though and seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing.  Friendly and considerate.  Not the drunken throttle twisting jackasses we see on Winnepesaukee or Ossipee.

Inspite of being sick as a dog Molly rode for a few hours and put about 40 miles in for the day.  She and I tore up and tracked the place out as well as we could and had a ball doing it.

I almost felt guilty tracking up that surface.  I mean my god look at it!

Molly got pretty tired out as the day went on (sick remember) and the wind was simmering down a bit so she shifted th the 15m and I took out the 19m. After flying in the light winds she bagged it and went to warm up the van. I continued on to practice jumping and get almost 70 miles in. 

 

Molly flying the sun

I flew until the sun went down.  The wind was still awesome but Molly was tired and sick and needed to get home so I bagged it.  Just as well so I'd have some legs left to ride on Sunday.

Sunday, I'll be brief.  No wind for starters.  The report on Saturday night was for no wind and when Sunday came around THERE WAS NO WIND.  We watched the weather reports until almost noon and finally decided to go in search of wind like we did Saturday. 

We hit Chocorua, nothing.

We went on to Province in hopes of a replay of Saturday.  Nope, not a chance.

So, road trip to find maybe some wind or a new location.  After a short trip over to Wolfboro we found an sweet spot on Lake Wentworth.  There was wind!  About 20mph and the surface looked almost as good as Province. 

We got set up and I took off first.  It immediately became obvious after a short sprint out to the center of the lake the the surface wasn't at all like Province.  It was super firm windslab waves that beat the hell out of you at 40mph.  The waves were punctuated by slabs of clean ice. 

This compounded by the gusty 20mph+ winds made for hard flying.  Good conditions for testing the Chargers and it further cements my belief that the Charger has the widest wind range of any kite I've ever seen. 

We both flew about 15miles in the course of 2 hrs. Most of it spent heading up wind and it was some of the hardest flying I've done this year. 

Sucked and was fun all at the same time.

Till next time!