2012 Episode 1 by Joe Irons

Joe just sent me this link of the first in a video trilogy he is putting together of the 2012 kite season.  Joe has featured some of the Montana Snowkite Crew having a great time in our corner of the world.  Joe does an amazing job of editing, and self filming; see if you can spot the clips he filmed of himself or others remotely.  Thanks Joe for your contribution!

El Norte 2: Updraft Thursday

Packy penned this post of the great day of kiting Thursday, enjoy!

Updraft Thursday

Winter is finally making an appearance in Southwest Montana, and when the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast the north wind or “El Norte” for the “Montaho” region, it didn’t slip by the local kite crew. Appointments were dropped and new plans were made, this was not a day to be missed. The northwest wind showed up right on time, the clouds broke, the sun came out and we were on it. Wendensday’s warmth had put a crust on the snow, and luckily the snowmobilers hadn’t rutted it up, so it was smooth and fast.

Where Have We Been Again?

This past week Frances and I headed south to the Superfly Open.  This year, because of snow conditions at Strawberry Reservoir, the event was moved to Skyline.  I loaded Frances and all of our gear into the vee-dub-you-a Wednesday after school and motored south from Montana thru Idaho to Utah.  We arrived in Fairview, UT after midnight where we hunkered down in a museum parking lot and slept till past 9:30 the next morning.  Jen was finally able to roust us from our deep sleep and gave us the wind report. 

Strawberry Superfly Open Event Changes to Skyline

Jen M. and Jake B. contacted me yesterday afternoon to confirm that the Superfly Open, scheduled for this week, (February 14- 20) will not be held at Strawberry reservoir but at Skyline further south.  Due to difficult snow and ice conditions Strawberry is not suited for the competition this weekend.  Skyline has received new snow this week with more in the forecast.  Skyline also has a favorable wind forecast for the coming days.  For more information please visit the North American Snowkite Tour  I will post more contact info as soon as I get it so please check back.

For more info on the Skyline location Kite Utah has a great write-up.

I have done some investigation on lodging and this is what I found:

KB4Girls (Kiteboarding for Girls) Schedule

I am a huge fan of Kristin Boese, as no other woman has done more for promoting the sport of kiteboarding than this amazing woman and she is incredibly nice and down to earth to boot.  Kristen was the International Sailor of the Year in 2010 and is a 9-time world champion.  Besides doing all of this she also has made time to promote social charities and introduces 100’s of women to the sport of kiteboarding each year.  If you have not attended one of Kristen’s KB4girls events you really should, it is a bucket list items for all women kiteboarders, in my opinion.  Check out the schedule on the full post.

Lightweight Ramblings -An ode to Sewer Cop

This past week I ran into a friend that just so happens to be a renegade writing hero of mine.  For the purpose of this blog post I will call him by his renegade pen name: Sewer Cop.  Back in the nineties Sewer Cop had a regular weekly article in our small circulation newspaper titled “The Adventures of Sewer Cop.”  This weekly article was made up of the shenanigans of fictional archetypes that resembled infamous community members so much that on any given week half the community was smoking mad while the other half laughed their hineys off.  Sewer Cop is a master of satire and made an uncomfortable sewer and water dilemma the axis of how our world turned.   When I think back to the Sewer Cop days, this guy was so ahead of his time and so lucky, he got real ink and paper to blog on, how cool is that?

Kite Soldiers Event Change

This is just in from Trisha and Monty-

“KITE SOLDIERS 2012 UPDATE…
After deliberations and work with the town of Fairfield, unfortunately due to timing and logistics, we will not be holding Kite Soldiers 2012 in a formal way.
We will be in Idaho snowkiting during the weekend of February 25th and/or the weekend of March 3rd depending on conditions, so come kite with us.
We are very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. If you’ve made plans, we encourage you to keep them. Idaho snowkiting is epic! You don’t want to miss it!
LOOK FOR US IN 2013 BECAUSE WE ASSURE YOU WE WILL BE BACK AND WILL CONTINUE TO FLY THE SOLDIER FLAG!! -“

Upcoming Snowkite Events

This is a reminder of some upcoming events in the snowkite community in the Northwestern US.

•  2012 Dillon SnowKite Open, February 9th – 12th 201, Lake Dillon, Co
• Superfly Open, Feb. 17- 19, 2012, location to be announced.
• 9th Annual Montana Snowkite Rodeo, February 16-18, 2012, Jackson Hot Springs, MT
• Kite Soldiers, February 23-26, 2012, Fairfield, ID
• 5th Annual Georgetown Lake Open (GTO V), Thursday, March 1 to4, 2012, Georgetown Lake, MT

“The Search” -Trailer

This trailer for a movie shot by one of my favorite H2O photographers, John Builderback, just makes me wish i could spend a week on the Best Odyssey,  Thank you Best Odysseys  for teasing me some more!

-Mel.

Congratulations to Luke and Frances!

Ken (Ninjafly) just posted the following on the NAST page naming Luke Orton and Frances Cronin the riders of the week, voted by the majority of pro riders in Jackson:

“After a really great week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; 2 individuals have been awarded prizes from the BigMt SnowKite FreeRide. They have been offered their pick of great prizes from Pistil hats, CW-X tights, Superfeet insoles, Kleen Kanteen water bottles, and Dakine. The 2 individuals are: Frances Cronin and Luke Orton.

Frances displayed a huge amount of composure during difficult snowkite conditions. This young athlete showed many of the older snowkiters how to keep it together when the going gets tough. Luke displayed an incredible amount of progression with his snowkiting skills.