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Check out the video http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=mnceVy070tQ
WindRiders weekend,
Well Fanø was great, secure beach, good wind, we all could ride together and friendly people. Friday was a great warm up day, with light NW wind, so the flyboarders were in the fore, great air and was good for us non kiters to try, even Henrik was hooked. Friday night was BBQ night, thanks Phil for the great wood, my oak was just a little to hard. Good fun and games which touch rugby and night frisbees. Up early on Saturday with good westerly winds, now everybody was out playing, flyboarders, kite buggies, kitewings, and blokarts and the speed challenge was on. The freestyle had long been gone to the flyboarders, those guys were so sweet. The only slight mark on the day was some dumb kite buggier (G1249) who seemed to think the beach was his and was being a dangerous pain in the arse. He did himself in with a very dangerous move and packed up his tangled kite and dragged himself off. The speed challenged was getting intense, as the blokart was in the lead with 51.9km/hr and only the kitewing with dirtsurfer coming close. The flyboarders were determined to do better and did, but the blokart was up to the challenge and moved ahead again as the wind was picking up all the time. It seemed the blokart had it at 53.2km/hr until I invited Sven from Buggy-ban.de to try in his kite buggy, he accepted the challenge and busted the blokart with 59km/hr, game over. Sorry Dominic, but is just my sense of fair play. Shame we did not get the kitesurfer to have ago as it would have been interesting to see what he could do. After a full day in great wind it was a early pack up and back for some food and beer. Got everybody involved in a game of nails, very Danish which went down well with a few beers, but most people were busted and it was a early night for some, others playing poker to he small hours. Sunday was good wind NW, not so early start and people a little blown, so chilled day and then people started moving off, Holland is a long way. Thanks everybody for a fantastic weekend, thanks Fanø for letting us play and catch you in the wind some day, later dudes!
New Video from Kitewing Kamp 2007
Youtube thanks Orfeus
67 km/t with dirtsurfer, will break into the 70's this year.
2008 Models
Down load PDF file for more details
Kitewing Kamp
Great weekend had by all, wind blew and the beach was dry for one day at least. Great turn out with some 17 riders of all skill levels from Belgium, Holland, Poland, England, Germany and Denmark. The Polish boys took the speed with 54.5km/hr, Ronald from Belgium took the freestyle with some smooth stylie moves and Sanders from Holland for best air time. Check out http://youtube.com/watch?v=A-09wPFVK1o for a video from the Polish boys, more videos and pictures to come. Another video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsNjB1FyHYc
New wave Warrior 75 video, go to www.youtube.com and search under Wave Warrior 75 or check it out at http://www.kitewing.com/wavewarrior/
Great Kitewing Kamp on Ameland, Holland
Thank you Sanders, Rink and Roubend for organizing such a great weekend and just how did you get such perfect weather every day? Some great days and perfect conditions to kitewing in and was great to see how far you guys have progressed, we have a lot of catching up to do. Hope we can do you proud when you come to Rømø. Forgot the map and got lost on the way home, well saw some very beautiful Dutch countryside!
Wow, what a start to the season, fantastic Easter, temps over 20 degree and I was out with me shorts on, had to keep reminding myself it was Easter and not summer. Lets hope this is a sign of a fantastic season ahead. We have got official permission to go on the strandsejler area for this season.. Because we call them Kitewings they think we should be with the kites, when all we are is a non fixed sail. So all please enjoy but be considerate for the beach other beach users.
New 2007 wings out and Henrik has had his limited edition out to play, those graphic and new features really are great. Been out with 'Black Betty' and turning a few heads, she really does look a little strange but goes very well even in light winds.
See pictures of our last outing just before Christmas, light wind on the sat, but fantastic wind on the Sunday. Had Black Betty, scrub and a new board from Flexboardz to play with, our review of flexboardz to follow further testing. New addicts of Rasmus, Lars and Phil, welcome to the kitewing craze. We are out again on the 30th of Dec on Rømø, you are very welcome to join us.
2007 Rage Range now out
The new wings have arrived, Rage 5.5, 5.5+ and if you are really fast a limited edition all in monofilm and the IV8 in dacron and mono film. Fantastic graphics, better handling and 3D laser cut and those who came to the Kitewing Kamp in sept will know how much better these wings handle. Same prices as the Skimbat range, e-mail for details and trail weekends, we are out most weekends if the weather allows.
Go to http://www.kitewing.com/products/ for full range details
Kitewing Kamp
Weekend great success with plenty of new toys for the boys to play with. Thanks to all those who made the effort and sorry for those that did not, you missed out on a new wing, dirtsurfer, flow boards, sailing the dam, great party on sat night and generally learning a lot from the weekend. Will do this again sometime in the spring.
Ramp, Rail and Radical weekend.
Come and see the professionals and others doing some wild stuff and even have ago yourself
Plenty of boards to play with, Scrub ATB, libre ATB, Dirtsurfers, Bush Pig and some home grown.
Wind shack party on the saturday night with live band 'Stiffer'. e-mail for details on accommadation
Check out the sand pit
Nice article on sejlerland.dk site, follow link
Great article, check out the link http://www.tekel.fi/english/examples/the_sky_s_the_limit/
The new Kitewing Mach 3.8 was developed for the smaller riders and for the hard wind enthusiasts. The wing has a wingspan that is 90 cm shorter than of the Skimbat 4.8 and Skimbat 5.5, which makes the handling easier for shorter people. The wing is also total fun for the heavier riders in extreme conditions, such as over 20 m/s winds on a slippery surface.
Name: Wind Sport
URL: http://www.windsports.net/
Description: Kitewing and action sports online community.
| It seemed a natural winter windsurfing alternative. So I
went out to give it a try. The instant that the wind lifted the sail and
began pulling me across the packed snow, I knew I was hooked...this is
windsurfing all over again! The half hour session turned into a three-hour outing and the three-hour outing turned into a full-blown trip to Finland to find the origins of wingsurfing and naturally, Santa Claus. |
 |
No one told me how long it was to going to be-a six-hour flight, Eight-hour
train trip and then another three-hour bus ride. On top of it all, no one told
me that Santa had left for Aruba on vacation. Course I should have known. This
was April and Lapland was just starting to thaw out and the long days were
beginning to bud out into the long nights.
But let me cut short the prerequisite travel chatter and spare you the details
of any glorious conquests this wind seeker might have had in the Arctic Circle.
Let me get right to the point: wingsurfing!
The event was named the Avoimet Siipi- Ja Leijapurjehduksen Suomen
Mestaruuskilpailut "Poroaidan Ympari" Pallaksella 22-26.4.1998,
translated, "Round The Reindeer Fence" Finnish Open Ice and Snow
Sailing Championships of Skimbats and Kites in Pallas Fells, Finland, April
22-26, 1998.
Gathered were a respectable group of Finnish enthusiasts, all pioneers of winter
windsurfing. They all took the long train ride and the bus, minus the plane. All
of them have abandoned the traditional form of winter windsurfing. Instead of
sails attached to skids they've all taken up wingsurfing, a simple concept of a
wing/sail propulsion with regular skis or snowboards.
Foremost in this group was Sami Tuurna, the inventor of the Skimbat WingSurfer.
Tuurna was also the inventor of the WinterBoard that made a brief appearance in
the snow covered fields of New England before the Freeskate ice-surfer took
over.
With Tuurna was Carl-Magnus Fogelholm, a man with a graying goatee and thick
droopy eye brows. Fogelholm can be credited as the co-inventor of the Skimbat,
the man who refined the idea and is now the driving force behind this new sport.
The concept isn't new- Tim McGruder had his Wind Weapon and Jim Drakes had his
WingSails ten years ago. It was Fogelholm and Tuurna who really refined the
flying wing technology and adapted into their most abundant resource- ice and
snow.
Morphed between a windsurfing sail and a hang gliding wing, the Skimbat Wing
looks more like two hal-ves of a windsurfing sail than a hang gliding wing. It
has half a boom with two struts reaching out to the wings and a harness line
attached to the boom.
When powered up, the sensation one gets from wingsurfing is even more
accentuated than windsurfing. There are no mast base or universal to dampen the
feel. All the energy of the wind against the wing goes straight through your
body. It's completely you and the wind. No buffer or interpreter.
I was impressed by how easy it was when I went out on the Skimbat the first time
on a pair of skis. But it wasn't until I went out on a snowboard that I became
enthralled. It became an anti-gravitational machine. I had wings on my back and
could carve S turns without pressure on my knees. I felt like a feather being
moved by the wind. It was euphoric.
I was hanging on my portable flying machine, carving across the lake faster than
anyone going down the steepest hills. No lift tickets, no lines, no limits. The
whole open snow covered lake was before me and it was my playground. The word
windsurfing fix exploded in my veins and my outlook on winter just chan-ged
forever.
So here it was, April, and I'm headed north into the Arctic Circle. Either I'm
crazy or this new sport has got a serious hold on me.
Turns out the inventor Sami Tuurna and I had meet twelve years ago on Lake
Winnipesaukee. I was working for Sports Illustrated at the time and was sent to
Wolfboro, New Hampshire to cover the World Ice Sailing Championships that year.
After that assignment I had decided to move to the Granite State and it was on
this same lake eleven years later that I tried the WingSurfer for the first
time, not realizing the connection. The fact that Tuurna and I were roommates in
the Hotel Pallas completed a circle of nos-talgia.
It was clear seeing the fleet that these guys had spent many hours refining
their craft and skills. My favo-rite was Hannu Nurmiviita who was a WingSurfer
snowboarder. He was fluid and graceful and glided across the surface like an
angel. I was sold on the snowboard combination, it was so fluid and poetic, just
like windsurfing. This was the case until a few days later, a group of
WingSailors showed up and blew my perceptions away. Way far away. They were on
skis and doing jumps higher and longer that I had ever thought possible. Leading
this pack was 27 year old Misa Leiber, Finland's top Snowboard Champion from the
town of Oulu.
He stood out above everyone. Sailing at a good clip, Lieber would turn into the
wind, sheet in and with no launching ramp, fly, soar, glide- high above people's
heads and for as long as half a football field. It was a sight to behold.
Misa's presence inspired everyone. It painted a clear picture of what the sport
can become. The flights were fluid and controlled. No stalls, no crashes,
perfect balance and elegance in the air- total harmony. It made me reconsider
skis. Not that snowboards can't fly, just that with skis they give the
WingSurfer mo-re ease and stability for landing. It also provides freedom to
skate into a plane when the winds are light. What became so evident on this trip
to Santa's home was the fact that anyone who can ski or snowboard can do
wingsurfing. There is none of the instability problems of learning on water.
Once they feel the wind, their will be hooked.
For all those northern dwellers who stare at a frozen lake all winter. For all
those ski and snowboard ent-husiasts who live hours away from a ski hill. For
those wannabe windsurfers who have found windsurfing just a bit too hard to do
on water. Well, I've got news for you! You'd better not shout, you'd better not
cry, you'd better watch out, I'm telling you why!
Santa Claus is coming to town!
John Chao - American Windsurfer
