Expeditions can be a ton of hard work and heavy hauling. A friend once described this as “the blue-collar” part of the sport, which I often think about when I’m crushed with a heavy load.
- Full-speed ahead in the Sam Ford Fjord area of Baffin Island, right near Swiss Bay.
This photo was taken during one of the moments when we dumped all of our heavy gear, stripped down to nothing more than skis and a kite (well, and clothes, it was cold) and went out for a mega kiting session just for the fun of it. Baffin Island is way up north in the Arctic Circle where it stays light 24 hours a day at this time of year. This photo was taken after we had eaten dinner and were getting ready to sleep, but the wind and snow conditions were so perfect that we went out for a midnight kiting session I’ll never forget.
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Few topics on earth get people more fired than debating which snow kite is the best. I should know, as for years I was NASA wing evangelist and still am to a large degree. DEATH BEFORE FOIL KITES. Yeah, well, then I tried an Ozone foil, and, uhmmm, well, it was totally bitchin’. And so were the inflatables. Kiters are passionate about their sport and a large part of your kiting preference depends on what you learned on and what kind of kiting you like to do. As with backcountry skiing, the sport has many avenues ranging from strictly transportation across ice caps to floating monster air across road gaps. Kiting is a quiver sport.
- Using NASA Wing kites for Big Game chute hunting in Baffin Island.
I learned how to kite on a NASA wing in Antarctica and couldn’t wait to get home and sew up a few kites on my own. Since then I’ve made roughly 20 NASA wings ranging from 2.3m speed demons to 30m monster trucks. My quiver has expanded into foil kites and hopefully an inflatable for next season, but for expeditions, NASA wings are still my workhorse of choice as they are light, simple, cheap and generate a huge amount of power.
I’ve resurrected an old “How to Build a NASA Wing” website which I just moved over to StraightChuter.com. Click here to see how it is done.
- NASA wing kites – small enough to fit in your pocket, yet strong enough to rip your arms off.
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