Ice, wind, snow....super fun

Really now, no sarcasm. The frozen backwaters, covered in snow and wind blowing. Sweet conditions.
Let's back up a little. In the past months I've done some research into a new sport. Because I don't have enough hobbies already right? Everyone's heard of sailing. There's our start. Nearly everyone has flown a kite before. Mix that aspect in to the mix. Now make the kite steerable and multiply the surface area of the kite quite a bit.
Kite skiing (on snow) is what I'm starting with. Kite boarding (on water) will surely come in the summer months.
I started by getting a sweet deal on a HQ crossfire kite through e-bay. The kite is just a "small" one by 'power' kite standards. 3.2 square meters. I learned to control the kite and appreciate the power of the wind.
So I know I like the sport, now to expand. I upped the ante quite a bit and got another sweet deal via e-bay. The new kite I got has a different style of steering system that actually attaches to the user by a harness and a safety system to de-power the kite in a sketchy situation. Oh did I mention, this kite is capable of use on the water. Also being 3 times as big as the first kite, it has more pull than you bargain for at times. It's a Lattitude Sof-X Glider (10 square meter).
As you can see from this picture, when I got the kite I had to inflate the struts and see it unfloded. Our apartment is a bit too small to have a big kite in it, but I was way too excited to wait. You can only see less than half the kite in this picture. It streached from the loveseat throught the living room, through the dining room and to the kitchen counter. Also, Kate would have you know, the kite was tall too and blocked her view of the TV.
This afternoon the wind was up and I headed for the Gustavus ball fields. The snow was thinning, but my skis still glided nicely. Once I got the kite hooked up I took my first attempt at kite skiing. The first launch proved successful in that I launched into the air and got drug across the tundra for about 30 yards. It was not what I had hoped for but a great lesson. I kept the kite grounded to see if maybe it was just a gust. Not so much. I decided that the wind was too much for this novice.
Not to be deterred though, I headed down in the valley where there is a protected area with a swampy backwater lake. The wind was much less aggressive there and the lake was actually better covered in snow since the wind had not stripped it into drifts and bare icy spots.
I actually got to ski and kite pretty well. I learned how to manipulate my kite from upside down to right side up by just pulling on the right strings.
The lake was so smooth that I would get cruising along on my skis and lose track of where I was on the lake. I'd be staring up at my kite in all it's airborn glory and suddenly realize that I had traversed the whole lake. I worked my way up-wind back to the place where I started and back down-wind to where the wind was stronger.
A few times the kite pulled hard and when I steered it up, the lift was so great that I actually was pulled from the ground and hovered over about 30 feet or so. My height off the ground never exceeded more than a foot or two. The kite is so big that when it pulls you off the ground it actually acts like a parachute of sorts. It carries you and then sets you back down like a feather.

In this little clip the kite catches some air and I do a little shimmy and ski backwards for a moment.


The body drag incident happened a little after Kate stopped shooting.
I do give her props for going out in the cold and doing some documentation.
Kate had other things to attend to while I actually had success down on the lake, but I'm sure there will be footage of good kite skiing soon enough.
I shot the footage below when I was at Willow Hill. Tony had a good time. This is just the little 3.2 Meter kite. Check out the lift and pull he gets from it near the end of the clip!