1/11 Strawberry 15 waroo

[Jason Klein]

A really nice day at strawberry. I pulled into chicken creek at around 11:15 to see two people on foils barely (and sometimes not) staying in the air. Wind was about 8mph in the lot. Moved across the street to Co-op where winds were 14, so i rigged there. I put up the 15m and Lynn went out on the 11m. Winds gradually picked up to 15-18mph, where it stayed most of the day. Mixed sun and clouds. Snow was variable, but there were a number of mini-valleys where the snow had accumulated and was fresh pow. I found a pretty good sized one and spent some time working out my landings on big straight jumps. I've been finding that i end up coming in backwards for the landings on jumps that i'm in the air for more than a few seconds. Finally figured out that by re-directing the kite back in the direction that i'm traveling sooner, the kite pull will spin you back in the right direction. Once i got that worked out, and since conditions were pretty much perfect, i decided to try my first back rolls on snow. Spent about an hour doing (trying) one after another. Probably tried 35 and crashed 30 of them. Worked up quite a sweat pulling myself out of the snow every other minute. Definitely tougher on skis than with a board on the water. Don't know that i actually improved much over the hour - i probably landed 1 out of my first 5 and 1 out of my last 5 - but i definitely felt more comfortable with the rotations at the end. I mostly didn't do much with the kite and would make roughly one rotation. When i tried sending the kite a little for lift, i'd do 2-3 rotations. Need to get the timing down better. It's easy to get into a pattern of only doing things you're comfortable with. I probably haven't done enough pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, but i did today and am glad about it. when i finished up and was about to head back to the parking area, i looked back at the the area i was in that had been unbroken powder. It was cut up with tracks, but also had 30-40 neatly spaced snow craters from all my crashes - pretty funny.

Two guys on foils were also at co-op, but we were never at the launch at the same time, so i didn't get to speak to them. Also saw a couple of people pull up to have a look, but then move on to other locations. There were a half dozen or so kites across the street at chicken creek. Looked like there was plenty of wind there from maybe noon on.

[Sarah Ranes]

Hey Jason, I just wanted to say that I've enjoyed, your detailed, posts about new stuff you are learning, about getting stuck, and loosing your kite, in deep snow. It might help some newb, figure things out a little quicker, by remembering what you wrote. Also thanks for posting details about new areas that you try. I hope I can be good enough, to try a few of them some day. You guys all make it look so smooth and easy!

[swilliamson]

I agree, that was an awesome relay of what you experienced out there. i hope to be trying back rolls and putting down my own sitzmarks one day.
I'm trying to get down to Strawberry tomorrow and kite for the first time on snow. Any other freshmen want to join, please let me know. I want to go the rest of the week if we get some wind.\
susie