Day 83 of the 2017 season: Last Session of 2017 and it was a fun ice skate kite session

TOB:   1:30-2:30

Gear:  3M Slingshot Foil and hockey skates

Surface conditions:   Glassy Ice with a dusting of snow 

Wind: southwest 8-20mph

Weather:  sunny with high clouds, a steady 14 degrees.

Highlights: The first time in a long time that the ice has frozen so glassy. Fun session logging nearly 12.5 miles. I was able to carve hard and head upwind, with my recently sharpened skates. 

Check out the ride

Day 82 of the 2017 season: Snowkite on Little Glen Lake

Rigged the 13M Z kite in gusty conditions.
Less snow on this side of the lake, with plenty of bare ice spots.

Rigged my 13 meter kite in gusty conditions.

Mainly 2-4 inches of snow covered ice with spots that were wind blown bare ice. Less
snow on this end of the lake.

Overall a marginal session, good for lite wind kite loop practice.

Gusty south winds estimated at 8-20 mph.

TOB:  12:30-1:30

Gear:  13M Z kite

Surface conditions:   Mainly wet sticky powder 2-4 inches worth

Wind: south 8-20mph

Weather:  overcast, foggy

Highlights: Starting out at 31 degrees and powderly. Whin 20 minutes it was 35, wet and sticky powder.

Day 81 of the 2017 season: First snowkite session of the season

It's been a 12 day transition period - from water kiting to snowkiting.
After a morning spent riding at Crystal Mt I decided to rig up the 13M at Little Glen Lake. Not quite a ripping day but the snow conditions were excellent and well worth the effort.

TOB: 2:00-3:00
Gear: 13M Z kite and snowboard
Surface conditions:  3-6 inches of 3 day old wind blown powder with a smooth ice base
Wind: SE 8-18 mph, one of those days where you don't want to drop the kite
Weather: 27 degrees and overcast
Highlights: A marginally session at best. Although it was good day to practiced kite loops during transitions.

Day 80 of the 2017 season: Near gale warnings for our local launch.

A good day to try out my latest kite, a 7 meter Naish Pivot.
I arrived at the launch with mainly WSW winds which tend to make it a fluky launch. Keith, Craig and Mark rigging 9M and doing well on them. I felt I could rig my new 7 Naish and test it in the 20-30 mph winds.
Once rigged it was a little light to launch, it slid it along the launch site ground before finally getting it in the air, thanks to Mark.  As I walked out to the water to get going a lull hit and the kite dropped to the water within inches of the rocks, thanks to Keith for assisting me in saving the kite from the a rocky end. I finally gave up on launching at this spot. Gathered all of my gear and headed to the beach where I had an easy successful launch of my 9M and then my 7M.

TOB: 12:45-3:00
Gear: 9M Z kite and new/used 2016 Naish 7 Pivot
Water conditions:  some disorganization of the swell and some nice 2-4 foot swells to play on
Wind: 20-40 mph from the WSW
Weather: some sun 45 down to 41 degrees
Highlights: typical gusty conditions with this wind direction and wind speed.
Tried out my latest 2016 Naish 7M pivot kite. With the gusty conditions, sometimes underpowered and rarely fully powered, it was a tough test.
I tested the kite with the wider bar and long lines.
Found it to have very lite bar pressure, it's a quick moving 7 meter kite, sometimes it's hard to feel where the kite is because of the lite bar pressure. Although if the kite isn't where you want it to be it can be moved in a millisecond with a slight pull on the bar, very forgiving for that reason. Jumping/ boosting felt different, not sure if it was the swell verses the wind direction or too squirrely of a kite. Something that I'll have to adjust to. It jumped good on my opposite side where the swell and wind direction were nearly perfect for olling.