Long Time No See and Thinking About Going Green.

I want to ride this.

The obvious thing about writting a blog about snow kiting is that when you lack the key ingredient of snow there isn't much to write about.  For a while I was happy that I could take a break and decompress from the rapid fire flurry of activity that constitutes our snowkite season.  Even with the recent wrist fusion and uncooperative weather this season we still got a ton of riding in and as a result I had a lot to write about.   When the season "ended" for us I felt a little relieved.  No more kite pre-checks, no more ski tuning, no more driving all over, no more pressure (self imposed or otherwise) to stay on top of the regular blog entries.

Well, now I'm starting to itch.  Bike season is upon us. Molly just had her wrist repaired by Dr. Kasparyan (same surgeon that did my fusion. The guy's a rock star). I've been buying new bikes that have allowed me to ride at some level though not the level I'm accustomed to. But I still want to be on the kite. 

Water isn't easy access and there's no place to buggy.  So I've been looking at mountain boards. What's a mountain board? Imagine a skate board with monster truck wheels for riding off road.  

At first glance it seems a little silly. Most of the time it seems really awkward and unmanagable from afar. Of course you can pretty much say the exact same thing about kiting too. I have a couple boards from the '90s when a few of the local ski areas we're renting them.  I tried it a few times but as a mountain biker and in line skater I never had the time to really give it a chance and get good at it.  As a result I simply lost interest.

However, you add a kite to the equation and suddenly the mountainboard becomes much more attractive to me.  And you don't need a lot of room for it.  Might be the cure for my itch and a good way to round out my kiting skills a little bit.  I believe it's called Kite Ground Boarding when you ad the kite or KGB for short and it looks like a hell of a good way to make use of summer winds. 

So this is my recent loose laid plan.  Score a board and see if I can get some kind handle on it and maybe have some fun riding the green stuff.  Simple plan, brilliant plan? Probably not but I think it's worth a shot.  I still want to get out on the water this year but I'll wait until the water warms up a bit before I go that route. For now the grass will do just fine.

I'll post my progress in this venture as well as some gear reviews and a photo entry like I stated in the last entry about a month ago.  I'm getting back into the mood to write more about this kite thing! Yee Ha!

Stay Tuned..... 

Comments

  1. hercMay 25, 2010 at 4:42 AM

    as a long time ski rider, i can tell you that mountainboards are awkward ! your feets are chained together ! you cant do the things you can do with ski - one example just beeing able to walk with the skate stem.

    i would suggest to you looking into kite - blading with those coyote style offroad skates. just have a look at powerkiteforum - there is lots of discussions about that. but i am sure you know that allready. or what about Grass skiing ? a little expensive those things are, but told to be wonderfully working.

    ReplyDelete
  2. May 25, 2010 at 7:43 AM

    Hey Herc!

    I hear what you're saying. I imagine it will be pretty awkward but I think (hope) I'll get used to it. I have a pair of Coyotes that I've had since long before I ever even heard of kiting and you're right, they are very much like skis and easy for me to use.

    I like the idea of the KGB as a transitional tool for water riding. Also to make me a more well rounded kiter. =)

    Thanks for you post and keep an eye on the blog as I just had my last snowkite session of the season on top of Mount Washington. (latest session ever!!!)

    ReplyDelete

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