When Kite and paraglide play together

Awesome!

Hope he is a registered donor

Hi edhead,

The strap between the back lines is only used on foils. When pulled, the kite back stalls and it's supper easy to land by yourself.
It is used as well to reverse launch when the kite is up side down.

This is not used on water kite as it would work as good due to the rigid structure of the inflatable.

Hi Alystan,

We dont use short line because snowkite is a combinaison of a lot of things. To be able to jump and fly, you will need to go uphill first in marginal wind, so 25m lines are essential. And flying under 25m lines makes it different than paraglide, the swing underneath the kite can be big and I guess it's what we are looking for.

Hi kemp90,

Good thing with snowkite is that you dont need too much wind. Best conditions are between 10 and 20 knots.

On the video, Romain is riding the EMPIRE 12m, and guessing it's around 10max.
The hill is quiet steep and Romain is using the speed downhill as apparent wind.
You can actually ride straight upwind when you go downhill.
So if he is going 10-15 knots downhill facing the wind, and the wind is 10 knots, then the apparent wind in the kite is 20-25 knots ... then it's easy to take off high !

The hardest part is the landing and also going uphill in less than 10 knots.

When we went to NZ last year, we were using 7m inflatable from 8 knots to 35knots. The range of the kite are massive on snowkite, it only depends on your light wind flying skills.

Definitely help to ride light wind on water then!

Hey Shane75,

As frankief said Snowfarm and Cardrona are the most accessible spots arount Queenstown without the need of a 4wd and local knowledge.
Cardrona works only with westerly wind, and Snowfarm works with Northeast thru to West but can be kiteable in any direction.
Stayign in Wanaka or Queenstown is the best.

Check this link : www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/Snow-kiting-New-Zealands-South-Island_2643059.aspx

Size : We kited 75% of the time with 7m inflatable last year so definitely take your 8m. You will use your 8m from 7/8knots to 25/30 knots. Dont consider going out in stronger wind. Storms in the mountains are never really nice. 12m is good option in light wind days if you can bring 2 kites.

We will be staying in Wanaka from 15th of August to 15th of September.
Hopefully see you up there.

Ben

Hi kookaburrahz,

I wouldn't recommend anyone to do what Romain is doing.
I wouldn't recommend anyone to surf Jaws on a big day either, same thing!

Everyone has their own limits and we have to respect them. Romain has been paragliding and snowkiting for long time, he is really talented and also really crazy.

Just dont try this at home :-)

Ride Safe

Hi Gorgo,

You are right about the material, even if we are now using the same material for canopy as paraglide (Porcher Sport Skytex 32g/m for example)
The design have usually more reinforcement and more bridles than paraglide.

I guess the difference is that if you break one bridle on a paraglide it still flies, if you break a flying line on a kite, you will drop!

We usually use the bottom of a climbing harness combined with a waist harness. the attachement is made with a carabiner to safely lock everything in.

The parachute option has been used by few riders but they will need at least 50/100m to open it safely depending on the system they use to extract.
This mean parachute is useless for fly between 1 to 50m. Also if the kite collapse/close, it's more likely to reopen if you are 100m high than 5/10m high. we all know that 5/10m high crash could be fatal.

There are lot of stuff to think about before flying, as you said it's all prepared for the best, material is checked at every session, conditions are good and the Romain is talented.

The risk is known, it's the same for basejumpers, paragliders, skydivers ...