If you have been keeping up with the news on a global basis lately, you may have been lucky enough to catch a rather unusual news story.
There seems to have been a deluge of reports and stories this month (January 2009) about an activity that has been called kite skiing. This activity has been going for a while but has been kept rather quiet. In any event it has only just reached the attention of the world at large, through a number of reports hitting the internet this month.
So what exactly is kite skiing?
Well as you might expect it involves a pair of skis and a kite. But this isn’t just any old kite – the type you might see a young child playing with in your local park for example. This is a big kite – more akin to the size of a parachute in fact. And the combination of these two elements makes for an activity that is seriously enjoyable if you have the guts to give it a go.
This sport is seemingly called by a few other names as well – apart from possibly ‘difficult and challenging’! Snow kiting is a popular one, while the people who take part in it are known as snow kiters. Skiting would be a great name but it doesn’t appear as if anyone has thought of this one yet. Perhaps this news item will start a trend?
The idea is that you attach the kite to your body and then wait for a good gust of wind to come along and do the rest. It helps to be reasonably steady on your skis if you like the idea of this activity though. Even though the participants tend to stay on flat areas rather than attempting downhill runs, they can still pick up a lot of speed. Thirty miles an hour is not uncommon if the wind is on your side.
So where are these activities taking place? Well a recent event occurred on a lake in New York. Onondaga Lake was frozen over and some snow kiters decided to take full advantage of it. Apparently you can go even faster on ice, so they were clearly up for a good time.
Rochester in New York is also playing host to the Winterfest event soon, which will feature kite skiing among other things. Apart from New York, Oregon is another area where kite skiing has taken off (pardon the pun).
So if you are heading out to a ski resort – in America or elsewhere – this coming season, see if you can take part in some kite skiing as well. It certainly makes a change, and provided you are steady enough on your feet it’s a great way to travel fast without putting too much effort into it yourself.
You need to hang on to your kite of course, but if you can manage that you might just find that this new emerging sport for 2009 is just what you’re after.