Here is a photo of my windski I built. Been using it for 5 seasons so far and it's holding up great.













Front view from the nose

what kind of ski is that & what are best conditions ?
ice, snow, crusty snow, etc ??

here are my sleds (far left and far right not used yet)



and I am building what I call a guyski - from gtj

I used a waterski for my setup. I give it a pretty good coat of wax before I start the season. The wax stays on for several sessions. When the conditions are perfect, I don't even need to wax the bottom of my windski. I built the deck which sits 5 inches on top of the ski with stainless steel risers supporting the deck. Very balanced ski. I only use a 4.7 and 5.3 sail. Any larger sail doesn't perform very well. Correction, I have used a 5.8, but that is max size for my ski. I can bump n jump better with the lighter sails.

The best conditions for my windski is firm, packed down snow. Fresh powder is no good, can't get going in powder. But if it's between powder and firm snow, my windski will plane on the snow. The set-up is super light. Ice is no good, because I need to catch an edge to track and move forward. Crunchy snow works well too. Just no full powder and no full on ice. All other condition are just fine. I love my footstrap settings, just like on the windsurfing. The Deck on my windski does have a kicktail on the rear towards the rear footstrap which gives me a lot of leverage when I jump. The snow mobiles make great bumps in the snow for me to jump.

well, finished building my windski, but temps have gone up and XMAS is here $%^&*(

So it looks like you mount your boots on the ski. Is that right? Do you wear a harness when your on the ski? Your skies look really long. Looks good for traction. Did you have to connect skies together to get the length you wanted.

Nah, that's just the camera playing tricks on your eyes
I have NOT tried this setup yet.
My blade version has not been tried either
Those skis are about my height 185 cm
and the ski boots were "modified"

You can read all about it here:

joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/2016/12/windskate-and-windski.html

this is the magic part of the recent build:




and check what Guy can do with such a setup:
pronounced Gee with a hard G

Hard to relate to sitting here in 35C + degree heat with the aircon on with a 40+ degree day forecast for xmas

Looks like great fun though - I'm sure it would be pretty technical with both feet parallel.

You wouldn't need much wind I'd expect

That tack at 1:26 is so smooth.

When I used to landsail heaps I was able to do a similar sort of move.

Great video.

Clarence

Wow that looks really cool, no pun intended as I sit in my Gold Coast home sweating. Interesting concept.

I made front page in my Local News Paper today.

I just realised I have a collector's item now. The old North Sails ZETA. lol

nice pics
i still have a NS Zeta !!
and this has been my go-to setup so far this year
as i am a regular on ice n snow - no appearances in local paper
but have seen people run out from their car to take pics





still need to add music and cut the video

Nice ski Joewindsurf,

How's the performance?

this sled was based on discussions with Feodor , a Norwegian, who races his sleds @ WISSA events
his version is a little more fancy and technical savy
he can adjust the angle of the skis with "hinges"
it is called a "savo sledge" and here is the DIY build instructions
www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=winterwindsurf&e=com

the performance is what you want to make it
the only thing touching the ice is the metal edge
i usually go in ~20 kph winds with a HotSailsMaui Fire 6.3 sail

this weekend hope to pick up some smaller sails to go out in "bigger winds"

one thing to realize is: each model has its limitations
this one is the ice version and can go in snow up to about 2.5 cm / one inch
or on crusty snow


if you want to go REALLY fast on ice - talk to the "ice ratz"


and found some demo software where i started adding music to my amateur slow clip

Wow that's great to hear. Interesting thing about mine is that with many experiments with larger sails, my ski won't perform well with larger sails. The ski seems to bite too much to the snow at the bottom of the ski 3/4 to the front end area of the ski. Found any thing less than a 5.4 and down works perfect. Guess the larger sails are too much weight for the small ski. My ski is a little under 6 feet long.

on the same setup I have used 8.0 sails - SW Retro and MS-2
here is a clip with the MauiSails

as I was reflecting on this type of sailing, I was thinking it reminds me of what people are saying about foiling
it is windsurfing and yet it is completely different
you can use smaller sails in lighter winds
a lot depends on foot placement and balance
there is NO need to use the harness
you almost feel like you are floating - was actually thinking of making a real sled for deeper snow
however, it is NOT quiet - except that sound is cut when wearing the helmet
i am REALLY glad i found this alternative way of windsurfing in the OFF months !!!


and i was also wondering if we should discuss this elsewhere - like iwindsurf
probably the majority of the readers here have NEVER seen snow - nor ice outside

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Magic Ride said..
Here is a photo of my windski I built. Been using it for 5 seasons so far and it's holding up great.













Front view from the nose

That would be a sick speedboard! (A bit tough to get on the plan though).

It's a pretty quick little windski. It only weighs in at 16 pounds, so it's super light! As soon as I step onto the deck and enter the footstraps and hook into the harness lines, it just wants to Take off! The foot strap settings line up with the design off sailboards, except I designed the footstraps to be much wider and taller to accommodate the size of a snow boot.

yeah, butt we are waiting for wind n videos now

No kidding, there was wind this weekend, but of course I was working two 12 hour shifts those days. Lol... Forecast is not looking very good for wind here for this week. Stay tuned, hope things will change. Got the gopro, sd card, and boom mount, so I'm all set to film when the wind arrives.

This is some footage from last week. The ski is not giber friendly, but top speed is in the mid to upper 20's in MPH range. I also found the ski to have great straight line speed.

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joe windsurf said..
this sled was based on discussions with Feodor , a Norwegian, who races his sleds @ WISSA events
his version is a little more fancy and technical savy
he can adjust the angle of the skis with "hinges"
it is called a "savo sledge" and here is the DIY build instructions
www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=winterwindsurf&e=com

the performance is what you want to make it
the only thing touching the ice is the metal edge
i usually go in ~20 kph winds with a HotSailsMaui Fire 6.3 sail

this weekend hope to pick up some smaller sails to go out in "bigger winds"

one thing to realize is: each model has its limitations
this one is the ice version and can go in snow up to about 2.5 cm / one inch
or on crusty snow


if you want to go REALLY fast on ice - talk to the "ice ratz"

and found some demo software where i started adding music to my amateur slow clip

Cripes a stack at that speed would hurt! I suppose you'd slide forever..

Not so relevant for us in Australia but just bumped into this cool Wind Skate video from the Netherlands with some nice drone flying.

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Magic Ride said..

This is some footage from last week. The ski is not giber friendly, but top speed is in the mid to upper 20's in MPH range. I also found the ski to have great straight line speed.

This looks fun... I wonder whether it would be gybe friendly and still safe enough on a relatively flat snowfield - like the one on your video clip, if you didn't have the footstraps. Do you need them for foot steering?

That's insane speed!!! It also puts into perspective that AA's record run in the channel in Luderitz is 2 knots faster. Crazy ****!!!!!!!

impressive .guys
wheres the new ezzy sail .magic ride

I wish I could find a carpark that big &smooth it would be really liberating to were full body armour helment motorcycle gear &race a windskate to the total limit .
I ride a longboard with drop through trucks to stop death wobbles .
Works great.

Bhc,

The footstraps are very necessary at least with my windski. The straps keep my feet secure into place so I don't slip around especially at higher speeds. This windski is very light and lively so the straps are a must have. Plus the straps give me leverage to do some minor bump n jump. More or less bunny hopping over the roughed up icey snow chunks that you see in my video clip. I didn't do any bunny hopping the day of the video because it wasn't windy enough.

Hi Tardy,

Good times on the windski. I will save the Ezzy Legacy for water only. I use all my older sails on the snow. When they get punctures, I just tape them with sail tape. For the extreme cold temps and sharp crusty snow, I don't like to introduce my nice newer sails to that type of environment. The temps here are starting to rise into the mid 40's to low 50's in southern Oregon now, so the season is coming to an end. I would say I will be out on the water in about 1 month from now. Windsurfing season is just about to begin.

as stated, the ice and snow sleds are merely points of interest for our friends "down under"
just wish to share my last run since it is a trial run with a DIY backpack selfie
and to show we are still hit by Jack Frost (about -20 C on the occasional night still)
plan to try this stick on the water too, but must consider water in the pack getting out !!
here we are getting anxious to get back out on the water
a bad session on water is better than a good day @ work