Sunday, January 31, 2016

Winter Sailing

It's been a while since I posted. The lake iced over and has snow now, so it's time for winter sailing. Check out the the upcoming Sturgeon Stampede on Lake Winnebago if you have a chance.

Here are some pictures from one of my first days out this season on a snowfer. I think this was January 22 - ice came late this year.
Mostly ice the first day out
Mostly icey

January 23 we got some snow cover on the ice, and another session on the snowfer.

Lots more snow cover this time out

Winter on Lake Winnebago - Aden on an ATV, Zinger on the snowfer, and Alex kiting
Later that day I made a trip to St Vinny's to pickup some sweet skis to use as I try to learn to kite.
K2 190 cm skis that I found at St Vinny's in Fond du Lac. They'll work well enough for me. $20 and even came with poles ;)

Here are some shots from another day (Jan 27) on the snowfer. The team at Windpower Windsurfing dragged the WAK Shack onto the ice, so I sailed to there and back. Lots of wind. 6.0 was a handful on the snowfer.



Ben launching in front of the WAK Shack



snowfer selfie

Jan 28 I also got out on the snowfer, and the wind was a bit more tame (10-15mph). I'm starting to get the hang of it. 6.0 was a good size today. I sailed over towards the WAK Shack, but then saw Ben sailing on the ice that is being kept plowed right off Roosevelt Park. He was on a Hiberna getting some slalom practice before Worlds in Estonia. Snowfer did good on ice now that I am better at edging it, but still tricky to turn at speed. I just slow down before snap jibing it.



Jan 30 I sailed out to the Wak Shack again on the snowfer but the wind was pretty light. So, I towed my brother in law, Zinger, around on a snowboard behind the ATV. Ben's brother in law was also on the lake, and turns out he is a quite good drone pilot. Check out the video he captured.



The wind got a little better later in the day, so Alex joined us to kite. He was gracious enough to let us use his 6m foil Ozonefor practice while he rode his 12m inflatable Naish.

Alex on his Naish 12m with skis

Me on the 6m Ozone and Goodwill skis

Me kiting with skis

Zinger on the 6m Ozone with snowboard