Conditions - Ghost December 27th

Wind is low this week. Ghost has about 16" of ice (big SUV's drivin on it) but is almost bare with only a skiff of snow on it. I recommend first removing your own brain before putting on your skates. Skates are for hockey players and bobsleds......hey, waitaminute, anyone got a bobsled?

Conditions December 26th

Incase you have not checked out the Calgary Kiteboarding site, there has been a little bit of activity on it. I will not be posting a link for it here as it doesn't have much to do with our area and always seems to have something wrong with it.
However, the links I have read show that Spray Lakes has lots of activity on it. Sounds like the ice is 8" plus and there is 6-8" of hard snow. Basically this is almost perfect. Anyone going out between the 27th and 30th should send me an email and we'll go check it out.

King Andy

Hey Yo, those of you who know King Andy can follow his Blog. Link is just to the right, "King Andy & Loretta".

This Weekend

Kiters, I am hoping to be out for at least half the day on Saturday so call if your coming. I am booked for 1pm so I will be kiting early. I am also thinking of doing some a cool setup in the morning light so if your into getting some killer photos of yourself, I need a few stunt popsicles. Call tonight.

I also talked to Linda today and we have the use of her field this winter on one condition; I have to be there. She knows that I am a trained emergency responder and she feels better if I am there to deal with any injuries. So please, if you want to be out there, respect her request and we will get our access.

Thanks.

Blue Birds & Champagne

Left work today around noon to meet Barrett at Veterans Field (launch #2) for some warm-up runs. First time out this year, wind looked light but up high it was strong. Started with the 9.5m but within a half hour had to put it away, strong winds up high maybe about 25+km. Decided to pull out the 7m Montana, with wind changing from S to W, she took off like a rocket. The sun was out and the wind was a perfectly steady 25-30km. The power was whicked and the 8" of snow was good enough, speed runs and even boosted a few 6 foot floaters.

I would have to say today was my second best day with the 7m. The only thing missing was Andy!

Call if you can make it out Wednesday at all. Saturday early is all I can do right now.

Day One

Well we now have a few more members and had a chance to get out today. Even for an hour it was good to shake-off the dust. Pretty cold though with -35 windchill. I think this will be a great year, looking forward to some great days out and socials after with a good crew.

Go Time

The fields look good. Right now I will be riding from RR12 start, or the Veteran's Park launch (near the sliding hill). Linda's is no go until I get confirmation.
Please send me an email ASAP so I can update a phone list.

Cheers!

Well the Crossfield Kiting crew dropped in for King Andy's going away party on Friday. It was good to get together and I think it is a good start to our year. King Andy will be missed, who will be that european voice of reason, "why don't you just do it? it's easy!!!".

But really, we all wish Andy and Loretta a safe trip and good wind. Keep us informed of what you are doing and send an e-mail once in a while to brag about the heat and constant wind.

Cheers!

The King Is Leaving!

Hey guys, King Andy and Loretta will be leaving us on the 29th of October. I guess they have had enough of the winters here and are driving the "HUT" down to the East Coast of Mexico in search of sun, and constant wind. Come on out to our place and say SIANARA and have a few beers. They will be out around 6pm on the evening of the 23rd (friday). If you haven't been to our place in Crossfield, just send me an e-mail or call my cel (get the number from my Spindrift Photography site).

See you there!!!

VROOM VROOM!!!

Yes, one little early snowfall has a few of us waking up. Are you out there? Turn on your aggregators, the blog is up and running and we are cleaning the gear for the whitestuff.

On a sad note, we will be losing the King (Andy). King Andy and Loretta will be moving to the Mexican Coast for the winter to kite the wet-stuff. We will be checking in with them from time to time just to see how misserable they will be. Hah, suckers.

Stay Tuned!

Not Really A Bird...

Just a quick news flash! I guess King Andy and Barrett were getting some good hill wind at Crowfoot Crossing when a gust took Andy up and dumped him down the hill. He is currently recovering with a few bruised ribs (and ego no doubt). The good news is he can still drink beer and it gives some of us a chance to catch up to him.

See image for his description of the incredible event.

Not Too Bad

Well, we got our chance to check out the Airdrie sites. The ground was smooth but a few too many gofer holes and King Andy ended up breaking his board.

Apparently some sick people are going to check out the remaining soft ice on the local lakes. If your interested, Contact King Andy and see what he is up to.

I will be racing in this weekends' "Where's The Fire" adventure race at Mountain Aire Lodge. Check out the site at J2 adventures.ca and follow the link to the tracking page to follow us if your interested. Team Couch-Recon.

Have a good one!

Busy With Fire

Sorry it has been long between posts but I knew this month would be hectic. I am in some fire courses right now with our department but they will be done soon.

For those of you courageous enough, Head out to Bass Pro out at Balzac and look behind the building. Lots of terrain, just be smart about it. Our location in Airdrie is still on the back burner so we will let you know when it is a go.

It's Over...For Now

Well, the King and Mr. Spindrift thought they might have one more kick at the Ghost, but no dice. A little scouting around did find us a little inland on dryer terrain. Cow Paddies were only semi-dry but still fun to roll in.

Looks like the ski/snowboard season is a gonner so bust out that Mtn Board and look for some open fields. Speaking of which, Mr. Pine has given me the heads up on a potential riding area that will rival Linda's with snow. And get this, it is in Airdrie! Once I know the details and have checked out the ground, I will update those on the list.

Oh, and another thing, I can not be held responsible for anyone's husbands buying more gear like Mtn boards, armour and the like. All I can say is it's safer than fueling airplanes and a lot more fun :) .

Plan "B" And A Well Deserved "Cold One"

Not many kiters made it out to Linda's this morning so those of us who did decided to shoot out to Spray for the day... we never made it. Driving through the Ghost we found 3-4" of spring snow on the lake and after a weak hour of 15km winds we got hit with 20+.

If you get a chance this weekend, the Ghost is killer! Wide open and blowin straight out of the south. Snow is great, just watch for the 2500lb moving steel and glass targets that seem to not care for a kiters right-of-way.

Anyone thinking about going to Linda's should know that as I write this at 1 am Sunday morning, it is dumping hard and conditions should be good there also. I won't be around to report conditions so take your chances, and have a great session. Oh, and if you see the "King", ask him how he is feeling.

Spring Conditions & BBQ

As unbelievable as it sounds, a good 3/4 of the field at Linda's Farm (the "kite-field") still has 3-4" of snow on it and is covered 100%. I checked the snow tonight, it is feeling like it will hold up for the day. Just count on spring conditions. If the wind is right it will be killer. The Clearsky site is showing 9-18km so keep the fingers crossed.

Also, I will have the fire pit out there so bring something to cook for lunch and something to drink for after. This will be the last day for us in the fields so try to make it out and bring someone with you who might be interested, I will have all the kites and trainers as well.

Anyone who needs directions can e-mail me tonight. Have a good one and we hope to see you Saturday!

Hard To Stay On The Ground

The fields up here are awesome again so some of the boys came up from the city. And as you can see from the picture even launching in this kind of wind was more like flying. Winds were gusting to over 40km so the 6-7M kites were perfect. Not recommended for everyone but if you do get a chance to get more comfortable in these high winds it can be a real rush.

On another note, I have had a few e-mails from people in the area who are maybe looking to get into kiting or trying it out. if you are one of these people who is serious about trying kiting or learning more about it, please send us an e-mail and we can put you on the list. We have a full range of trainer kites as well as a full range of sheetables.

Conditions are good this week so anyone already on the list should call if they are coming up.

Cheers!

Another Day At Spray

It is amazing the information you can come up with when you use your GPS. 3 hours moving time, and in that time we logged 56km, with a top speed of 44.3km/hr. All this in 15-19km winds.

Although wind was light and it snowed most of the time, we got some good rips in along with some decent airs. There was about 4-6 inches of fresh blown snow, and the spot just south of Driftwood is cool for terrain riding.

There was 5 of us today. Some had to leave early, some just lost their job, some work as little as they can and at least one of us, hates their day job. What did we have in common? The fact that at the end of a fairly decent day of Kiteboarding, we all had a perma-grin on our faces. The world and it's worries do not exist when your sending the kite, or your holding on trying not to get bucked on your a%$. Sure it's a cool sport, there are lots of cool sports. The point is to get out, enjoy yourself, push your limits, and let this unreality strip away to what really matters...

...what really matters? LIVING!

Hey! It looks like the mexican drug-lords did not get a hold of King Andy, so now that he is back he is jonesing for a rip at Spray Lakes. Let me know if your coming and plan on a good long day (read: food + beer).

Long Live The King!

Deep Freeze

Well, Allister was brave enough to come out on Sunday but I can't say it was the most comfortable of weather conditions. The wind was 36km and -26 but it was steady and the 7m Montana flew awesome. As we found out it was sketchy to launch but once your up it is not bad. I highly recommend learning in these conditions as it will eventually give you the confidence to fly in crappy weather. This goes for back-country or mountain flying as some of us have tried it and been tossed hard.

I am looking forward to a warm spell and the lake surfaces getting spongy on top. Spring skiing conditions are coming soon.

Awful Conditions

I just got an update from King Andy. As most of you know he is somewhere near the Equator. Turns out the wind has been consistant 50-60k, perfect for the 9m. Wind and sun everyday, but the snow there is deep, slushy and salty and great for crash landings...

...poor bastard!

The Snow Is Good

Although we did wait patiently today for one hour of decent wind, things could have gone better. Wind was just 5km too low to really get going. The snow however is great and should be quite rideable for another week or two. Anyone who can get out during the week should call me and I can line you up with the right fields to kite in.

4 Inches With More On Back Order

Woke up to 4 inches of the fresh stuff and it looks like at least one more snowfall warning for this area by the end of the week. We will be out here this weekend for sure. Wind has been consistant the last few days as well. Anyone who can do Sunday for sure should drop me an email by the end of the week.

Hunting It Down

This weekend a few of us are going to try to shred the last of our relatively untouched areas and make use of what is left of the white stuff. Those interested can send me an e-mail and if the wind is good we can send King Andy to Mexico with one last great session.

Weather Tool

In case some of you are wondering where we are getting our weather data from, some sky watcher (think telescopes and space) in our area has created a graphical representation of regularly updated weather data from the Canadian Meteorological Center. Most of the time it has been quite accurate and even a little lower than conditions turn out to be. If you have time, visit the link to the right (Clear Sky Crossfield), check it out and send him an e-mail with props. It is just one more tool we have at our convenience.

Next Session

Conditions in our area are looking weak for Sunday but we still have some white stuff and the wind always comes in stronger than predicted. Hoping to go out on Sunday so anyone interested needs to e-mail me by Saturday, 21:00hrs.

We also have an alternate that we need to recon just 30 minutes NE of here so if conditions
are not favorable, we will be there. Smaller but almost guaranteed wind.

Contribute

Welcome.

The purpose of this site is to inform and grow our community of kiteboarders that have formed out of the riding and hooking up in the area between Calgary and Red Deer. Unfortunately it is also borne out of the frustration of using some of the kiting forums. With so many views and rarely a respone, it is easy to see that many want to do it but few want to contribute to it.

Contribute to what you ask? Well as I see it, this sport of Kite-(insert form of riding here)-ing may not be in it's infancy but it sure is young. Not just a lot of new development in the technology but we are seeing cross-over sport styles like wakestyle on snowboards, and even park riding. This is cool, this is a cool time. The sport is about to go big like snowboarding did in the late 80's.

So contribute? Or should I say "BE" a part of the sport? I have met so many people lately that are just catching on, moving up from trainers, wanting to know more, and spend the time it takes to ride well. Unfortunately just going to a forum to try to hook up with a few other kiters doesn't work that well.

And what about the someone who is looking for something different and hasn't even seen a kite? We have had so many people stop and ask, "where do I get one of those"? Not, "what is it"? Most people don't care what it is, they want to do it. It looks exciting.

Crossfield Power kiting is about contribution. We are a community interested in growing the sport in our area, showing others what it is about, and having a blast while we do it. We will be posting demo times and locations for this spring in Airdrie, Crossfield, and area. We will have demo kites for use and for sale. As well, we are now a dealer for HQ powerkites.de so anyone interested in purchasing new gear can come right to us.

Like I said, it is about the sport, and about the fun. There's lots to go around!