Hi All,

Enjoy the last movie from our rider Romain in Canada.
Feel free to contact us if you need any advise on snowkite, we will be happy to help you.

Can't wait for 2014 New Zealand trip.

.be

Awesome!

Wow, this is amazing and so scary at the same time.

With all these trees and also when he is paraliding with the kite I would have though shorter lines would be better.

Jeremy

Hope he is a registered donor

Skied all my life but never snow kited. Must give it a go. Just out of interest. What is the line/strap between the flying lines on land kites and snow kites. and what does it do? And why don't water kites have them?

Hi edhead,

The strap between the back lines is only used on foils. When pulled, the kite back stalls and it's supper easy to land by yourself.
It is used as well to reverse launch when the kite is up side down.

This is not used on water kite as it would work as good due to the rigid structure of the inflatable.

Hi Alystan,

We dont use short line because snowkite is a combinaison of a lot of things. To be able to jump and fly, you will need to go uphill first in marginal wind, so 25m lines are essential. And flying under 25m lines makes it different than paraglide, the swing underneath the kite can be big and I guess it's what we are looking for.

Goodness. That's duran duran.

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boon said..

Hi All,

Enjoy the last movie from our rider Romain in Canada.
Feel free to contact us if you need any advise on snowkite, we will be happy to help you.

Can't wait for 2014 New Zealand trip.

?rel=0

Great video well impressed

it doesn't even look like the wind is blowing!! how strong was the wind Boon?

Hi kemp90,

Good thing with snowkite is that you dont need too much wind. Best conditions are between 10 and 20 knots.

On the video, Romain is riding the EMPIRE 12m, and guessing it's around 10max.
The hill is quiet steep and Romain is using the speed downhill as apparent wind.
You can actually ride straight upwind when you go downhill.
So if he is going 10-15 knots downhill facing the wind, and the wind is 10 knots, then the apparent wind in the kite is 20-25 knots ... then it's easy to take off high !

The hardest part is the landing and also going uphill in less than 10 knots.

When we went to NZ last year, we were using 7m inflatable from 8 knots to 35knots. The range of the kite are massive on snowkite, it only depends on your light wind flying skills.

Definitely help to ride light wind on water then!

Duran Duran is unfortunate. But WOW! Just WOW!

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boon said...
[br]Hi All,

Enjoy the last movie from our rider Romain in Canada.
Feel free to contact us if you need any advise on snowkite, we will be happy to help you.

Can't wait for 2014 New Zealand trip.

.be

Hi all, I'm seriously considering NZ this winter and getting my bro to come with.
As a 88kg kite boarder I'll fly my 12m from 16-25knts in the water so I'm curious how many sizes should I drop down in the snow ? 4sizes? Or should I take my 8 and 12m to NZ I've never been there so I'm also not familiar with conditions over there any advise or help would be appreciated about where to go, what to take, and where to stay would help.
Also are there any web pages for NZ snow kiting I should be checking out?

Hey Shane75

Try looking at the Snowfarm / Cardrona near Wanaka. Just a short hop up the hill from Queenstown too. pretty awesome when conditions are in nick

Hey Shane75,

As frankief said Snowfarm and Cardrona are the most accessible spots arount Queenstown without the need of a 4wd and local knowledge.
Cardrona works only with westerly wind, and Snowfarm works with Northeast thru to West but can be kiteable in any direction.
Stayign in Wanaka or Queenstown is the best.

Check this link : www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/Snow-kiting-New-Zealands-South-Island_2643059.aspx

Size : We kited 75% of the time with 7m inflatable last year so definitely take your 8m. You will use your 8m from 7/8knots to 25/30 knots. Dont consider going out in stronger wind. Storms in the mountains are never really nice. 12m is good option in light wind days if you can bring 2 kites.

We will be staying in Wanaka from 15th of August to 15th of September.
Hopefully see you up there.

Ben

no gorgo?

hay boon what ippi level in paragliding you reccomend before pulling these stunts?

Hi kookaburrahz,

I wouldn't recommend anyone to do what Romain is doing.
I wouldn't recommend anyone to surf Jaws on a big day either, same thing!

Everyone has their own limits and we have to respect them. Romain has been paragliding and snowkiting for long time, he is really talented and also really crazy.

Just dont try this at home :-)

Ride Safe

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kookaburrahz said..

no gorgo?

...

Don't ask me. I don't really know anything about high flying off kites (other than boosting big. )

I would have thought it is not excessively dangerous provided you know what you're doing, plan it and execute it properly.

Kites are made from stronger materials than paragliders and kite lines are thicker and stronger than paraglider lines so in terms of materials there's nothing wrong with going flying from a kite.

You'd want to make sure your attachments and quick releases were set up for the job.

I have read about kite flyers using climbing harnesses together with kite harnesses and having a reserve parachute attached. That seems pretty sensible. You could have a 5th line that pulled out the reserve if you dropped away from the kite. The free fall would be minimal.

Hi Gorgo,

You are right about the material, even if we are now using the same material for canopy as paraglide (Porcher Sport Skytex 32g/m for example)
The design have usually more reinforcement and more bridles than paraglide.

I guess the difference is that if you break one bridle on a paraglide it still flies, if you break a flying line on a kite, you will drop!

We usually use the bottom of a climbing harness combined with a waist harness. the attachement is made with a carabiner to safely lock everything in.

The parachute option has been used by few riders but they will need at least 50/100m to open it safely depending on the system they use to extract.
This mean parachute is useless for fly between 1 to 50m. Also if the kite collapse/close, it's more likely to reopen if you are 100m high than 5/10m high. we all know that 5/10m high crash could be fatal.

There are lot of stuff to think about before flying, as you said it's all prepared for the best, material is checked at every session, conditions are good and the Romain is talented.

The risk is known, it's the same for basejumpers, paragliders, skydivers ...

Another movie from our riders in France last winter...