Speed Thrills
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The racing heart, perma-grin and adrenaline buzz that comes from kiting fast is one of the great pleasures in life. It also seems to be one of the most basic human passions. We see the speed chasers in every sport and hobby humans enjoy. We are driven to push ourselves and our competitors to go fast. Whether it is at a track meet, on an oval track, a dry lake bed, or on the side of a mountain we crave speed. We have pushed our bodies so that we can run as fast as a bike, race the bike as fast as a car, drive a car as fast as a plane, fly planes as fast as rockets and our rockets go, well, really really fast.
The kite world has some amazing speed records too. Cabrinha announced recently that one of their riders with a tuned Crossbow IDS set a new record traveling 49.84 knots (57.35 mph) on the water near Luderitz, Namibia and expects to break the 50 knot barrier shortly. That is highway speed! And not done with some powerful motor or with some souped up racer. This was done simply with the power of the wind. And as fast as that is, it is only a middling effort if you look at the speeds snowkiters can hit on the snow or ice of a frozen lake. Stormboarding.com out of Burlington Vermont holds an annual contest to see who can go the fastest with a kite on the snow.
This is a worldwide contest for snowkiters. Just put a GPS in your pocket and ride. At the end of the day check and see what your high speed was, snap a digital photo or download the file and send it to us… -Stormboarding.com
Last year, kiters Chris Krug, Charles Meding, David Knight, Chris Mason, Marty Roy and Brian Beveridge registered more than 60 mph rides and Joe Levins hit 70.0 mph on White Bear Lake in Minnesota. On skis and flying a 9m2 Slingshot Fuel Joe did something that most people require a car or motorcycle to do. He also did it on a day that most people were worrying about getting their taxes filed. Hmmm… maybe Joe just needed to get his tax return to the post office.
