Sports & Fitness

New Sport Alert: Snowkiting


snowkiting

Tired of the typical winter sports? Snowkiting might just be the change of pace you’re looking for.

Wind, speed, height and excitement: rising in popularity throughout the sports world, snowkiting is an exciting and new way to enjoy winter.

It’s derived from the original water version of the sport— kitesurfing or kiteboarding—and requires a kite and harness, a board or skiis, an open expanse of snow and good gust of wind, reportedly started by a boy in Berchtesgaden, Germany during the ‘60s who started to experiment with skiing and kites. By 2000 the sport developed quickly in terms of technology, skill level and geography—multiple countries around the world now had avid snowkiters. And its limits continue to be explored.

Faze spoke to Dave Grossman, editor-in-chief of Drift Snowkite Magazine, to discuss the growing popularity of this great new sport.

In snowkiting, while your feet are attached to skis or a board, your body is harnessed to a kite that pulls you across terrain and up into the air. Unlike skiing and snowboarding, snowkiting is not a gravity sport (thus, no decline is required), but wind speed is a major factor in a successful run.

Since snowkiting is much like skiing and snowboarding, if you’ve done either, the learning process is much easier—you already have most of the skills needed to snowkite,  Then, it’s just a matter of practice.

snowkiting

After you’ve learned those basics, you can then explore all the various activities you can do within the one sport. “Snowkiting is a very diverse sport,” says Dave. “It can be done in a whole bunch of different ways; it can be as mellow as something leisurely, where you use it to just go out and explore a little bit of terrain. It can also be done as a full on freestyle sport, like skiing or snowboarding.”

You can go strictly for speed, racing the clock across a specific course; or try for amazing tricks—with the added element of wind, the options are limitless!
Also an expert in the field is Dave’s partner on the magazine. “One of the first active participants in snowkiting is actually my partner James Brown. He got to kiting around 1999, early 2000,” says Dave.

Starting in the sport just a few years later than James, Dave soon saw the need for a publication that would broadcast news about the sport. “Basically, our goal in the magazine is to be a voice for this new emerging sport and to help turn people on to snowkiting. We have many readers in Russia, Sweden, Norway and lots in North America, so it’s really a global sport.”

Full of adrenaline, momentum and excitement, snowkiting is a sport that can be enjoyed by athletes of all ages, in fierce competition and or simply in the spirit of winter fun. And since we’ve got so much of this white fluffy stuff, we might as well enjoy the snow while it’s here!

“I dove headfirst into snow kiting,” says Dave, remembering the fun he had in those earlier days. “And I never looked back.

snowkiting

Tired of waiting in line for that slow-moving chair lift? With snowkiting, you can actually use the wind to propel you UP A MOUNTAIN, and then ski or board down again.


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