It was so excellent! Jerry and I got there about 9-10am. I was a little nervous because the wind up north in zimmerman 40 miles away was non existant. I started seeing the flags fly some in Elk River. When I got out to the island there was just a light breeze.
It was sunny and the snow was so white. We rigged our biggest kites (Jerry 9+ Mosquito and me 16M North Toro). Hey what do you know! we were able to curise back and forth. It was so great. There was no one on the lake it seemed.
As the sun rose higher in the sky the snow began to soften up and the wind picked up to about 10. It was REAL steady wind. The kind I've been dreaming about. There were some nice smooth gusts you could feel but it was more like the wind kind of modulated rather than gusted. When you got some power you could do some nice little jumps.
Tim, Alex, Levi and is gal showed up. So did Nick. I didn't see them tow but they were flying kites. Levi was getting some nice jumps on a Frenzy 9.5 I decided to try my Frenzy 7.3 to see how the overlap was with my Toro 16M. I was just powered on the 16M and underpowered on the 7.3 but able to get around and do some playing. I switched back to the 16M for the rest of the day. Tighe stopped by soon after and rigged his new slingshots. Man those look like nice kites! I think Tighe was on his 17M Fuel most of the day. That kite just looked like it pulled and pulled. It was also getting some nice jumps for such a monster!
The Toro is such a great kite for learning how to jump. It is almost impossible to luff it. I dropped it 2 times in 5 hrs of riding. Both times trying to learn a new trick air jibe. I pulled the kite out of the sky because I pulled the wrong way and landed on my butt.
Vojta and Peter H. showed up at the end of my day were still ripping as I was leaving throwing nice airs and jibes. There was someone else on a green kite that I didn't recognize, HELLO to you! Sometimes it's hard to see who it is with all the winter gear on and NEW kites. In the winter I mostly rely on identification by the kite they ride, then skis or snowboard.
The snow was incredible an so was the company. It was one of those days when everything lined up perfectly; Kite, wind, snow and attitude for the whole day. And to make it even sweeter, early it looked like it was going to be a BUST !
Did anyone measure the windspeed? History from Hutch says 8-9mph, MPLS said higher?
Kite Island yesterday
Moderator: MK