My experience at the Crossing...letting go of expectations

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:50 pm

The Mille Lacs Crossing has never been the same. You can never rely on forecasts, or mother nature, though every year it has been an amazing experience.

Having said that, I think I had some expectations about the weekend. And as a result had very short moments of disappointment when those weren't being met, then having a wonderful surprise plop in my lap.

Friday I hadn't intended to ride. Thought there was work to be done and I had a few lessons. When I got up there the winds were too strong to help put up the tent, and the riding out on the ice (a mile or two out because of the offshore direction) seemed pretty intense. Pete Kunz, Manny, Denis, Mike B, and others helped build a sweet 5 foot kicker. We hymmed and hawd about what to do for a bit then decided to go check out Malmo. I didn't expect to ride...the winds looked very very intense. We arrived to a great scene of at least a dozen kites flying the sun shining and the snow blowing across the surface...nice. The sun was low in the sky and the blowing snow, gave a real arctic appearance. The surface was a mixture of windblown hardpack drifts and drifts of powder. You could find nice powder lines and slash a few downwind, before setting that rail and ripping back upwind. Lots of smiles and exhaustion as a few had been out since early that morning.

Friday night there was pretty good turnout for the Welcome party. Good to see people showing up from around the region. That night will be remembered for it's hot potatoes : )

Saturday the event blossomed as car load upon car load showed up. The sounds of pumps (woosh, woosh, woosh), rippling flags and and laughter filled the air. The sun was shining the breeze was coming up and energy was building. Soon kites were every where, in the sky, all over the surface and disappearing into the horizon. Stoke was on full tap. It was great to see nearly 100 people at the Riders Meeting. The course that was set was a loop 8 miles out...with a shorter 5 mile set for women and juniors. The line was out along the North side of the lake. The long course was to be 2 laps...for a total of 32 miles! The wind was pretty SE so it would be a pretty tight reach into the wind on the way out and then downwind on the return.

I believed the wind was going to build so I took an 11m. Thinking there was no way I could last 32 miles powered to over powered. At the start, there were kites of all sizes. Big 18m kites down to 9m kites. The start went off without a hitch, though I later heard that there was a bit of a jam up as a lull dropped a few kites and created a road block. With the timed start there is no rush and everyone eventually got through.

First couple of miles for me went well. My 11m was holding in well with Peter, Robby and Chris B who were in the lead, then about 3 miles out the wind shifted to the south, the temps warmed up and the wind pretty much died off. There was a time where there was only 1-3 mph of wind. Bit of disappointment...then I opened my eyes...what a frickin beautiful day. I hung out for a bit, the breeze came up a bit, since I was concerned about getting back I started heading back, then reconsidered and started working my way across the lake. It was slow go. The wind would come up for a bit, I'd get the kite up, go for a little bit then the kite would fall from the sky. John Z, Mike Bares and I were leap froggin across the lake. At one point a few thousand feet from the turn around mark I grabbed my kite and started skating. After about a 1000 feet I was dying and the breeze came back so I dropped the kite, launched and progressed another few hundred yards. We had a pretty large group of downed kites at the turn around mark. They were prepping to pull us back, and then Bryce comes cruisin by, with encouragement to give it one last go. So I wound out my lines and launched one more time. Well the breeze just kept building and building. I was fully powered on the 11m for most of the second 8 miles...the power of apparent wind. They had decided to call in the snowboarders when the wind died off and had told us at the turn around that it would only be the one lap. Even though the race hadn't been what I had expected, it was an experience to remember. Sharing the journey across the lake. Struggling through hard times together. Hanging out within talking distance with kites on the ground waiting for the breeze to return. And what a wonderful surprise to have the great ride back in.

The rest of the afternoon wizzed by. We got the grill going and refueled. Then Denis, Chris and I did our clinics. Chris had quite a crew show up for his Boosting clinic and Mike Bares demonstrated the technique well, coming in close and boosting almost right over their heads. Immediately following the clinic Chris joined in and was going off. Denis grabbed a couple of Revs and headed out for a on the snow Unhooked riding clinic. I'm not sure who all was in his group but I saw Bryce going off with some really nice 720's (unhooked?). Around 4:30 the wind picked up to mid to high teens and THE session of the weekend ignited. Everyone was going off. There was a thermal effect going on and the wind was significantly higher the farther up you threw you kite. Love that. Denis was showing amazing new school style, Hunter was boosting higher than anyone I've seen go on a snowboard. Mike K was dialing his first boosts after attending Chris' clinic. So many great riders going off. We all rode well past dark and packed up in the lights from the vehicles. What a wonderful surprise.

By the time we got back to the Garrison in it was past the Swap/Social hour. How'd that go?

The banquet was full of great energy and the food was pretty tasty after the long day. I was toast and headed in early, though it sounded like things ramped up at the Goose and a few were kicked out at closing.

Mike made a good call on Sunday to do the Awards early so that those from out of town could attend. There was an amazing amount of gear to give away and pretty much everyone got something.

After the ceremony, we saw the wind coming up. Some stayed in close near the event site, while some of us headed 2 miles out to find steadier wind (offshore NW). We joined up with the crew from Extreme and found a sweet spot out there. The surface was fast and untouched. Lots of little drifts to boost off of. There was a light misting that put a thin skin of ice on everything. What a wonderful surprise....another great session.

All in all a wonderful weekend. Never enough time to check in with everyone.

BIg thanks go out to:
Mike Fox:
Mike makes this event happen. He carries all the stress, it is the only thing allowed in his head 24/7 for weeks preceding the event, he has to have a very strange relationship with mother nature, and Murphy, and year after year he pulls it off. He made some great decisions this year, meetings and starts happened like clockwork. The flag at the turnaround was visible from 3 miles out. The early closing ceremony....all worked out well for everyone. Send the guy your personal gratitude fleet-8@juno.com

Fleet 8 Crew.
Some of the nicest guys you'll meet. Even keeled, positive and hard workers. Many don't notice all they do, because what they do prevents things from going wrong. Thanks guys

Fleet 8 volunteers.
All those riders and significant others who rallied to the call and helped out...thanks

Garrison Commercial Club. They plowed the venue area, they put money into the event, they support what we're doing up there.

Slingshot Kites
Full on Demo facility this weekend. Full quivers of 2008 Revs and T3s weren't on the ground much. They sponsor the event, hosted the midafternoon bbq and threw in some great jackets and gear for the raffle.

Cabrinha Kites-
Great supporter of the event, and brought in some great riders from around the Region. It was great to meet Brad and his kids from Michigan. Robby took the skiers division on his 2008 Cabrinhas, knocking Slingshot off the top podium positions for the first time.

Ozone kites-
Steve B and Eric T were demoing kites and teaching all day Saturday stoking people on the new produce. Their continued support of the event is appreciated.

Best Kites
Stoking people out on the new gear. Jake was answering questions, riding hard, and building the stoke. Thanks for supporting the event.

Midwest Mountaineering.
Peter, Nick and Mike were up all day Saturday, doing demos, getting people set up on the newest gear, and meeting the crew.

Extreme Action Sports
Full on retail booth, hooking people up with gear, talking about the latest new toys, and joining riders out on the snow.

Hoiggards...Thanks for supporting the event.

Results?

I'm hoping Mike will post with an official List. This is all I remember:

Snowboarders: Too much mix up with the low winds. Too Difficult to call.

Woodette got a first for Womens...She missed the short course mark and did the long one instead. Awesome job Margaret.

Skiers
1st Robby Evans
2nd Peter Hill
3rd Jeff Hotvet
4th Dave Zimmerman
5th Barry Peterson

Woodette · Post by **Woodette** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:12 pm

WOW! I'm still beaming from the weekend!
The only expectation I had on my very frist kiting event, was to make it out of the parking lot ...but then it was me who almost knocked out 50 kiters at the start! Sorry again Nancy, you are such a great sport and reacted so fast!
I was only on a 6m kite and signed that kite up and down for 3 hours. The last hour was the hardest trying to get back to the finish line, being so of course as I was. Sure was tempting at times to head back where the rest of Canadians were...enjoying cool beverages. But I guess my persistance (and German stuborness LOL) paid off!
I sure fell in love with kiting!! Awesome event!

Woodette

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:17 pm

Oops my bad totally forgot to mention one of the coolest elements of the venue. Nathan, Hunter and Mike built a ramp up and over Hunter's scamp. Another sweet contribution from NSK.

I'm sure I missed so many other great aspects of the weekend. I just wanted to share my experiences. Hopefully others will share their experiences and all the things I missed.

steveb · Post by **steveb** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:48 pm

Wow Tighe what a write up..little to say after that.
I went up to the crossing with different expectations, I knew I had some students coming for lessons and I would not be able to compete if the race went off saturday.
So I was looking at the scene through the eyes of newbies. Kites , kites , kites, foils, bows, hybrids, SLE's,C's you name it, my wide eyed newbies got to see every brand and style of kite made in 10 minutes. Mike B, Peter Hill ( though he didn't realise it) and Chris B all performed perfect demos on command for learners to see. The stoke and friendliness of kiters was apparent and commented on, the electricity in the air buzzed and was absorbed by a student who thought he'd discovered nirvana.
The wind though light for the race was perfect for learning without getting your butt kicked, I would love to have 100 kiters in the area any time I teach as you can always point out someone to show how to do something, and beginners learn much faster by seeing something done and have it expalined at the same time. So if you guys wouldn't mind all turning up every time I have a lesson in the future I'd be very grateful.
After the lessons the wind got up and I got to have a nice hour and a half session staying out of the way riding up and down the west shore, the wind was stronger high up so I got a nice session boosting nice floaty jumps, one of the most amusing sessions I've had for a while.
Off to the Y club and I got to catch up with old friends and meet and make some new ones,plenty of laughs ,nice food and Nancy and I decided avoiding the Goose and getting a good nights sleep was a better idea so we could have a fun day riding Sunday.
Got up and took Lela, our dog ,for a nice long walk on the lake, then went to the cafe to get some coffee and bumped into Jay having breakfast, before returning to his job as super volunteer. We had a nice chat and I realised one of the things I don't like about our events is there's not the amounts of time I'd like to just talk and really get to know one another . Still some time is better than none.
We later ended up at the prize giving, super stoked for Rob and Margaret ( the woodette ) for winning. I was amazed at the amount of swag provided by the companies Tighe mentioned, how cool is that.
Then unfortunately it was time to go home.
Superb weekend, thanks Mike and all the volunteers too many to mention, my thanks to all the really cool people in the kite community, how can so much humour, sense of fun and down right amusement be housed in so many people who all just happen to kite. Whenever I get to hang out with wind geeks it's always a good day.
So whos up for Worthington?

Woody · Post by **Woody** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:15 pm

Great stories!

My race concluded with the international signal for beer (a hand raised high in the air tilting back n' forth) from my wind bro Paul whom I had crossed tacks a few times on the lake going to the "windward" mark. Knowing I had some pints stashed away in my back pack (for strictly emergency purposes!), Paul flagged me down for a 'rest'. Watchin the kites cruise to the horizon was awesome, but our thirst overcame our competitiveness and Paul then convinced me

to head back to the start to see how our cooler full of beer was making out. After all, we had a beer clinic to host after the race! Back at the event site, we were enjoying the site of kites, mingling, testing out gear etc for a while, so I grabbed my binoculors to look for Woodette. Seeing her miles away struggle to keep her kite in the air, I was thinking I would need to get a snowmobile to bring her in. Some time passes by, then lo and behold I see Woodette's kite heading for the finish line! I got everybody's attention pointing to the sky and her kite, then said " let that be a lesson to us all!"

Now I know Woodette isn't the best female kiter around, nor the best female windsurfer around, BUT, back-to-back Summer & Winter Crossing victories AND being the ONLY woman to finish both Crossings gets her the must-go-on determination award in my eyes!

I'm stoked to be rigging for my Woodette!

Michael F · Post by **Michael F** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:29 pm

Thanks for the coverage, Tighe. I need to add that Matt K was also a major player in the building of the ramp over the Scamp. It gave us an idea of how we might be able to build more portable rails and ramps that would be easier to transport and set up for a three-day event. Gee Nathan, am I part of NSK now?

MICAB · Post by **MICAB** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:36 am

Thanks again Tighe. That was an amazing event. You guys ran such a professional event. You are blessed with a great crew to ride with over there.

We will see you next time!

Many thanks,
Brad, Jake & Nate Knoth

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:54 am

Great to meet you and your family Brad. Must be a wonderful experience riding with your boys. They looked great out there. Thanks for making the trek and sharing the ride.

I can't take any credit for the event. It's all Fleet8 and the sponsors. They do a great job, I agree

ride on

Hunter Welles · Post by **Hunter Welles** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:49 am

Great event all together, too bad the crossing didnt work out as we had hoped, but it was great to see everybody in the community riding together and pushing it.

Friday we found some great riding over at Malmo, Nathan showed me some really cool stuff down wind, it was like a terrain park made of all the plowed roads and drifted snow. Really fun stuff, Nathan Denis and I rode down there till dark.

Saturday was another great day, after filming the beggining of the crossing, then setting up the kicker as well as checking out the car racing next to the kiters, I got out on the 15 Rev and had a great session. Nathan was on his 17 Fuel doing lots of unhooked tricks, including some sick downloops off of the scamp rail. Lots of other people going off and enjoying those thermally winds

I think anybody who has talked to me recently has heard me rave about how much I love that 15 rev, but im gonna say it again. sick kite, cant say enough good things about it. the lightwind performance is great, it has a huge range(Denis and others were powered on 11 Revs while I was comfortably riding the 15), relaunches in next to nothing, turns really fast for a lightwind kite, kiteloops awesome and jumps huge! Yesterday im pretty sure I had one of the biggest if not the biggest jump of my life on this kite in some pretty light wind. If anybody wants to try it let me know, its always open for demos.

heres a screen shot of me on the scamp rail, im gonna get more up soon of everybody else hitting it.

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:07 am

Nice shot Hunter. You and the NSK crew just keep pushing it with new ideas. That kicker at the Rally, now the Scamp Rail. All the rails I see at other events are what you guys were doing last year. What's next for the NSK R&D Team? Still want to see that inversed rail or standing wave for riding upside down.

Dude you were skyin' on that Rev on Saturday night. Looked pretty cool cause in the darkness all you could see were the red accents.

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:29 am

some video from the Mille Lacs Messenger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEg6AQdC ... enger.com/

Professor Robae' · Post by **Professor Robae'** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:33 am

Yes, what a great event, what great stoke! It’s amazing how many cool people are involved in this sport. Having events like this where all these characters get together and have a great time really improves and builds the sport in so many ways. It really gets people fired up!

I’ve been good friends with Michael Fox for many years and he has said to me, “That was the last Crossing” many times. Thank goodness he has never made good on that claim yet. But for sure he needs all of our help and input to keep this good thing going; so do lend a hand any way you can. And don’t complain when Murphy makes his yearly appearance!

So thank you to all who help. What a hoot of a time!

Hunter Welles · Post by **Hunter Welles** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:57 pm

We got some plans for new rails. After building the scamp, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities working with metal for our projects and making some really professional stuff. We will have it all done and ready for the rally next winter, and hopefully we will make everything very portable so we can bring it to different events/lakes.

Eric P · Post by **Eric P** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:46 pm

Great shot Hunter. When we were putting that thing together I was thinking it was way to steep. Awesome that you got up onto it. I know your making a video and all but it would be cool to see some of the footy of you guys hitting that thing sometime soon. Totally sick. I wish I was healthy, I might have even tried it. I probably wouldn't have been healthy after trying, but it may have been worth it.

The Race was fun to watch from the sidelines. I was kind of feeling sorry for the guys (and gals) who had their kites on the ground within sight of the start.

Have fun out there with what is left of the winter season, and I'll see you on the water this spring.

JanMarie · Post by **JanMarie** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:58 pm

I had a rather frustrating weekend, as I missed the nice "surprise" on Saturday night. I came back to the hotel to be there for the beer and Gear swap at 5:30. It was really nice to be able to talk to people one-on-one, though, which is hard to do otherwise. Dave and I met new people and re-aquainted with others. Got first dibs on all the gear, of course. Someone picked up a couple kites for their quiver. I picked up my first GPS unit for a great price. There was a lovely snowboard and a 20M that didn't sell. I love checking out the gear, but maybe I should think about hosting a happy hour and swap on the ice next year so I don't miss the flying. Also, since the wind picked up at 5:00, not many people made it to the swap. Something to think on anyway.

Dave got to fly a Ranger thanks to the guys at Midwest and he is hooked!

MY BEST EXPERIENCE OF THE WEEKEND was when the owner of the Goose gave me a ride in his racecar on the ice!!! My face was stiff afterwards from smiling sooo hard. Thank you sir!

Tighe, I am sorry I dove your 4M. Long periods of boredome prompts poor judgement. Just ask Terry.

Janarie

Michael F · Post by **Michael F** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:12 pm

Jan Marie, I believe it was Bucky, the owner of the Y-Club who gave you a ride on the track. Be careful no to make that mistake up there since there is some small town competition present.

JanMarie · Post by **JanMarie** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 6:59 am

oooooops, you're right, Michael. I meant Bucky from the Y-club!