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-	The art of Kitesnowboarding

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If you enjoy kitesurfing, making high jumps in moderate to strong wind, you definitely want to try kitesnowboarding. Kitesnowboarding is identical to kitesurfing especially if you use bidirectional board in kitesurfing. The difference is that you are likely to enjoy kitesnowboarding all by yourself on a snowy field or a frozen lake, there is nobody there to tell you not to jump high or to go fast and you don't have to wait 1/2 hour for the ski lift nor having to pay for it.

Kitesnowboarding is a bit harder than kiteskiing but much easier than kitesurfing so if you live in a colder climate and want to get into kitesurfing, don't wait until spring, go kitesnowboarding now! The skill you learn in kitesnowboarding is identical to kitesurfing.



Many people has a misconception that it is cold kitesnowboarding. On the contrary, I have found that kitesnowboarding is "warmer" than any other winter sports and much warmer than kitesurfing in spring and fall (and most of the summer too!).

The Equipment

To go kitesnowboarding you need the following equipment:

1. A traction kite, lines and associated control device. Any land or water kite can be used for kitesnowboarding. Use inflatable kites with care as they can get damaged by crashing on ice (also pumping an inflatable in -20C is not easy). Similar to kitesurfing, make sure you have a safety release system that you can depower the kite at any moment. Furthermore, you may want to use a kite that provides some depowering capability such that you don't have to stop and change to a smaller or larger kite as frequent. Similar to kitesurfing, you would need a number of kites to cover the whole wind range. A snowboard (any standard snowboard would do). If you want to go fast, select a a long, narrow snowboard. If you want to jump and doing tricks, select a short, wide snowboard. You need to reposition the bindings to be as centered as possible with 6 to 24 degrees duck stance (as in the picture above). Also, as you lean mostly backward, position the high back of the binding to make leaning backward comfortable.A pair snowboard boots (step-in snowboard boots are the most convenience; however, regular boots and strap bindings may be slightly lighter).A windsurfing harness (waist or seat harness is fine).A helmet (a must on ice or hard pack as you don't want to test the "rigidity" of your skull when it hits the ice). If you do a lot of jumping on hard pack or ice, protect your body with a wakeboard impact vest with elbow and knee pads or simply use the same protection equipment that a hockey player uses.Warm clothing. You normally need less warm clothing kitesnowboarding than snowboarding. It's best to use layers such that you can take off some layers when it gets too warm.A good pair of thin yet warm mitten. Don't use glove as your fingers can get cold rapidly.



So how big a kite you need for kitesnowboarding? If you can edge properly, you should use the same kite size as for kitesurfing. Use a smaller kite (around 3/4 of the kite size for kitesurfing) only if you cannot edge properly (ice, almost ice or some bare spots of ice)

The Place

The best place to kitesnowboard is probably a very large snowy field with clean wind (the minimum is twice the size of a football or soccer field). The second best place is a frozen lake with snow on top. If you kitesnowboard on a lake, just make sure you have checked the ice condition. In early or late season, the ice condition may be conditional, so it's wise to stay close to shore in the shallow area (maximum knee or waist deep). One of the advantage of kitesnowboarding is such that you can stay close to shore without having the risk of destroying your fins or board.

Normally, the ice is considered safe for any human activities such as walking or kitesnowboarding if it is around 10 cm or 4" deep. To check the ice thickness, just take an axe and dig a hole in the ice until you reach the water. The other more obvious sign of safe ice is snowmobile, car tracks or fishing huts on ice. These vehicles need ice thicker (from 6" to 1') than kitesnowboarding.

Even though you can kitesnowboard on ice, it is more desirable if you have some decent snow coverage (as long as you can edge properly). 1" of snow fused into the ice is good enough for cruising and 2-3" of snow is good enough for jumping.

As the pull of the kite is slightly lighter than kitesurfing, going upwind on a snowboard is easy. One of the main bonus of kitesnowboarding is that it's OK to kitesnowboard in off-shore wind. If worse come to worse you can simply depower the kite, pack it and walk back to shore (as long as you have checked the ice condition)