Nice one Hunter, you little hacker.
SCOTT RIDOUT wrote:I got my elbow and knee pads for this year, I think I will be alittle more adventurist and get out with my old dusty hockey skates and a small kite and see what happens, where do most of you do the ice thing anyway?
Hey Scott, you can go anywhere there is ice, doesn't matter where. I went alot on skates the year before last. Here are some tips from my experience. It is so easy to nick a kite line with a skate that I ended up setting up with boots on and then switching to my skates at the last minute. Make sure to have an ice screw or two. I used one for setup and one in my pocket. When you are on black ice and you are on your but (not on the blades) nothing will stop you from sliding down wind. So on a larger body of water where you might have open water way off in the distance, you have to consider that you can drag that distance pretty fast on a kite after a wipeout that knocks you off your feet. I guess the point is don't kite on skates with open water down wind. Common sense.
One thing that us ice boaters do is put self tapping sheet metal screws into the bottom of our boots (about 8 screws per boot). Use 1/4 or 3/16 with the nut driver head, they will grip like hell. If you have some hiking boots with thick tread they won't harm the sole, and take them out at the end of season. That's what I wear for set up on black ice.
Foils, set up/launched straight down wind, attched to a screw, are probably easier for black ice.
Some tube users might suggest an easy launch method for setting up tubes. I think Alex has done quite a bit.
Snow is really a better expereince, but gliding around out there on virgin black ice has it's own charm.