Utah Windriders Association

I didn't have the chance to go last night, but burmester would've gotten you a some rides. It was good from about 1:00 to 7:00. With the heat coming on it should be good most afternoons. On the mesowest:
http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/roman/meso_base.cgi?stn=urm
Just a reminder if you want to kite and there isn't any wind at the water spots, check it out. Another way to keep up your skills.
Justin and I were talking about doing a regatta or something to get some more people out there. May try and get it going for July when there isn't wind anywhere else. It is much safer and much more fun if your not out there in the boonies all alone.
Mike L.

i'm totally up for burmester, but don't have a mountain board. perhaps someone has access to multiple boards, or maybe some have to share? how is the surface out there? could i make up some monster board with big grass wheels and high risers on some normal skateboards with normal trucks and some sort of binding system?

Mike,

I have a MBS Mountain board with Skateboard trucks and you can have it. Skateboard trucks do not work well for mountain boarding. I need to go down to Salty Peaks and get a new ride. Seriously, you can have my board.

You guys might be able to tempt me from leaving the water. However, the Salt Ponds have just been so good to me... and now, I keep looking at the pond right by the Tooele exit. Looks rideable...

Kenny

The ponds by the Toole exit are dry half of the time and used to turn out good land riding... they'd be nice with water in them too.. hmm.

Its worth the trip to Burmy for the long runs tho.... and think about buggies as well as boards. since you can sit down and kite one handed while enjoying high speed rides. Buggies are likely the fastest kite vehicles with current top speeds in the 60-70mph range.

Now that Windzup is in central Utah, we are closer to Sevier Dry Lake and Ibex, which is sweet if there is no wind because there is a ton of bouldering and climbing around there.

Burmy is the ticket tho with the consistent lake effect winds. Last year we drove around the entire lake and found some great buggying on the north side of the rail road tracks.... there is endless terrain to explore around the GSL.

The current mountainboard models will be available to demo this Saturday at the Mill Creek Fest... the Salty crew is bringing out ramps to drop in on.


Windzup,
Brian Schenck

Hey, Mike. No kiting today, but I'm so very up for a session friday. It's getting hotter, so the thermal is definitely going. I think we might be in the regular summer pattern now. Give me a ring if you want to get out.

Brian: we mentioned some time ago getting a rally out there, and I think this would still be awesome, but I was hoping you might use your star power to wrangle up a buggy and maybe a board or two so that people without gear can give it a go. Would you be game for something like that? In the summertime, land kiting at Burm is one of the only games in town, and I'd be stoked to see more folks making use of this epic piece of terrain. Of course, not too many would be willing to sink in the resources for something they've never tried before, so it would be super cool to get you in on this action.

What do you think?

-J

I might be able to get to Burmy at a decent hour Friday... Saturday I'm locked into a fest all day...

Next week I'm off to Cali and the Bay.

I can always donate boards for a demo if I'm not lucky enough to join you myself.

Lets keep posting and it will happen soon!

Windzup,
Brian Schenck

was thinking of hitting UL today, but life got in the way. the same goes for burmeister until monday, but it sounds like ul might go off again. i'm planning on going up to deer creek to show my support for the games and then try and hit the festival on my way home. i think an old friend of mine has organized this.


kenny- why don't skateboard trucks work? is is because when you land you need some shock absorbing effect? i might just take the wheels off your hands... give me a shout some day or perhaps we will get to landboard soon together. keep me informed on when you go out.

Mike M: Skate trucks work fine as long as they have a stiff bushing in them and you aren't looking for speed. They wobble at a lower speed and don't have an adjustable stiffness. The channel trucks from MBS don't provide any shock absorption, that comes exclusively from the deck. GI's first gen bionic trucks do provide some cushion because the kingpin "floats" through the tension cube. The newer bionic trucks have a solid connection. Nonetheless, the shock absorption comes from the board in GI's line as well.

Brian: That would rock if you could lend a couple of boards! I think there are at least a couple of people here wanting to try out the landboarding.

Not to push my luck, but what are the chances of hooking up a buggy?

-J

My complaint with the skateboard trucks is not the shock absorption. I didn't like how the board turned. However, I have no skateboarding background, so it may be more personal preference.

nice. i'm excited to build a monster board for landboarding. i'd appreciate the wheels from you kenny, or just the whole deck. who knows, i may be able to build something we both like. i have a skateboarding background and used to race skateboards both slalom racing as well as downhill and ditch racing (like dropping in big wave surfing). id' imagine that if you added risers to the truck baseplate the angles would dictate that you would need stiffer bushings. i actually was out kiting a field up in heber with billy and got to try two different boards. he was on a MBS i think old school mountain board. it was just too stiff for me. he had a carve board as well (you see them advertised in surfing magazines) that has extreemly loose trucks and slick wheels. the whole board tips over at a 50 degree angle if you really tip it over. i perfered the tippy surfy feeling over the stiff landboard. just like water kiteboarding where you can really crank over your board and throw spray if you want.

hope to get out there soon with you guys. i've got a number of longboard decks that i could bring out for anyone else who wants to try and build up a monster landboard.

Mike M.... sounds like you are dialing in to your own style on the ground boards... I'd love to see what you create! What you will find tho is at any amount of speed a loose carvy board will become a death trap ready to flip you over....where as the stiffer trucks only require you to ride powered up, and then you can throw as much spray as you like... for me the power slide is the ultimate trick and is properly demonstrated on a ground board, and the stiffer the trucks the bigger the spray.

Of course the opposite applies if all you want is to cruise, when I ride in the mall and wallyworld parking lots, I only ride my loosest trucks cuz I want to swing out and carve thru the turns.

In retrospect after this morning ramble I realize... TWO BOARDS FOR EVERYONE!!!

Windzup,
Brian Schenck

i agree! two boards for everyone! or, in my case 20+ boards! if i head out for a weekend of skating i can sometimes bring as many as 5 complete setups for whatever type of riding we may do.

i perfered the loose board when we were riding on a soccer field- not too much room to get cruisin. tightness of trucks is a fine line for sure. i know very well how trucks behave at 15 mph versus 45+. you'd be amazed at how lively a skateboard can get when you push 40. sometimes it is better to back your trucks off a bit and let your ankles and knees do all the wobble correction. i can only imagine the same would apply for kiting. i do have a question though- when i skated ditches on a modified short longboard i noticed that i tended to do harder carves on my frontside carve- that is facing the top of the wall or enbankement. after a weekend of hitting the ditches hard for a combined time of i'm sure 12 hours or more- i noticed my bushings and actually my deck were showing wear patterns reflecting this one carve. the board was acutally a bit warped towards my heelside edge. do you guys notice any wear on your boards or a tendancy to warp towards your heelside edge since we are riding on this edge 90% of the time with kites? do the mountain boards hold up better to this kind of use?

Yeah, a MTB will definately hold up better. IF you have channel trucks. They don't have normal bushings, they've got egg-shaped elastomers that take all the deformation. I've been riding the same set of the softest eggs that MBS has to offer and three years later, they're still just fine. I don't trust the GI system as much, and some GI riders I know tell me that the cubes wear out much faster. But, judging from what you're saying about your riding style, you'll probably favor an MBS anyhow. There is some weirdness from riding heelside all the time, but you can rotate your springs and eggs in an MBS rig to counter that. Just do it when you're rotating your tires. But, after years on my board, downhilling most days, and many miles kiting, I have not seen any unusual wear. Also, some people put harder eggs in the heelside, or crank down harder on the suspension (MBS has pretensioning "top hats" that compress the eggs to give a tunable suspension) on the heel side. I never have. I don't think you'll need to, with the experience you have.

If you haven't guessed, I'm an MBS guy all the way, but I'm not really happy with the way they've segmented their lineup in the last few seasons. To get to the level of board I'm talking about means you pay quite a bit, and there's not much choice in the mid range. You'd have to go straight to the pro models, which require dinero.

Anyhow, good luck with all of it.

-J