.Joel Posted January 6, 2017 Report Share Posted January 6, 2017 Many moons ago... Northern Kites Australia, SoutherlyBuster, windstruck and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobM Posted January 7, 2017 Report Share Posted January 7, 2017 Good to see a helmet being worn. Knowing my (lack of) skating skills I will be adding elbow pads, knee pads and wrist guards when I try to combine kiting and skating at Kingston in a week or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Kites Australia Posted January 8, 2017 Report Share Posted January 8, 2017 I was lucky to see George at Altona's Apex Park doing the exact same thing. Great to see one person single-handedly stop all dogs and dog owners from shitting in the park, well for one day at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Htxdea Posted January 3, 2019 Report Share Posted January 3, 2019 Saw a video with George using Nordic xc skates with a kite, I’m wondering what are your thoughts? I am a decent kite boarder I enjoy in-line skates and snow skiing so I imagine that kiting with these skates is a combination of the three sports and looks pretty fun but I don’t want to buy $300 “slow” skates without asking someone with experience first how much do you recommend these. THANK YOU! In advance. i Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mfwetu Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Hi @Htxdea, welcome to the forum. I had exactly the same idea as you and was lucky enough to pick up a good second-hand pair of Powerslide nordic skates. They feel very different to inline skates and skis so I've taken a while to get into them but they are a lot of fun - even @carltb has got himself a pair now although he spends so much time in the air it doesn't really matter what he's riding They do cost a bomb so suggest you buy second hand or borrow before committing - you may find you prefer the off-road inline models rather than the "wheels of doom" nordic skates. I could be wrong but I think that @windstruck played about with both styles before an unfortunate accident made him change his ride. Have a look at his posts under this section of the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windstruck Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 4 hours ago, Mfwetu said: Hi @Htxdea, welcome to the forum. I had exactly the same idea as you and was lucky enough to pick up a good second-hand pair of Powerslide nordic skates. They feel very different to inline skates and skis so I've taken a while to get into them but they are a lot of fun - even @carltb has got himself a pair now although he spends so much time in the air it doesn't really matter what he's riding They do cost a bomb so suggest you buy second hand or borrow before committing - you may find you prefer the off-road inline models rather than the "wheels of doom" nordic skates. I could be wrong but I think that @windstruck played about with both styles before an unfortunate accident made him change his ride. Have a look at his posts under this section of the forum You are correct. A few years ago I had what I refer to as my "freak gasoline fight accident" (Zoolander) while riding on a grass field with wheels of doom and a 9m Ozone Frenzy. A dirt devil snuck up on me and I am said to have been 30-40 feet in the air. I have no memory of the flight or subsequent crash but I do have a broken helmet and a recovered subdural hematoma to show for it so I guess it happened. To stay married to a woman I love I agreed to stop kite skating and snow kiting and stick to buggy riding with an AQR. Easy decision. I'm a proficient ice skater and skier so I picked up kite skating easily having already been buggying for a while. I owned both wheels of doom and 3-under off-road skate setups. IMO, pluses and minuses for both. Wheels of doom are great for tracking long powerful tac lines but a little more clumsy in the turn as you need to step turn. I had some nice aluminum frames out of Germany with pneumatic knobby 150x50mm tires that were sweet, sweet, sweet. Even worked in plush grass and worked really well on hard lakebed surfaces (and I'd think hard beach sand but not tested by me). I would be spooked to do a lot of (purposeful) jumping and landing under kite power with wheels of doom setups because of the risk of wrenching your knees if you don't land in good alignment. Clearly people do this but I'd be cautious to start on wheels of doom without first going 3-under for the knee wrench reason alone. My other off-road skate frames were by Powerslide and had three 125x25 mm pneumatic tires that had a tread pattern similar to a road bike. These skated like big clunky hockey skates and with a little effort could be made to do anything you can do on ice skates. By that I mean skate up to speed, turn by carving, skate backwards, etc. I never did try to "hockey stop" but I've seen it done on video. For kite skating these sorts of skates don't offer quite the ability to tac against the force of the kite because you are poised above the skate wheels and not down between them, but it is certainly possible to work them this way and of course many people do. For jumping I'd certainly think these are a better option at first since you could land any which way and probably skate it out, something that might not work out so well with wheels of doom. Downside was these smaller narrower wheels had more resistance in plush grass and I suspect would dig into beach sand more if it wasn't really hard. My two cents. Both are great setups with different feels, different benefits and different shortcomings. Good luck! Mfwetu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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