By Tim Parish
Just about any decent sized kite can be used to snow kite. We all know there isn't much friction out there on the snow or ice, particularly if you're wearing skis or skates! So in theory, just about anything with a bit of pull that's hooked up to a kite harness will get you moving. However, from a practical point of view, some kites are much more suited than others.
In fact, some traction kites are made specifically for powering across snow and ice. It's a popular activity too! Just search on YouTube and it's not hard to find a good snowkite video where someone's gliding swiftly across a powdery white landscape.
What Makes A Good Snow Kite?
As a general rule, depowerable 4-line parafoils are ideal for snow kiting. This kind of setup takes care of the 4 most important aspects of a snow kite:
* steerable - of course!
* soft, flexible construction
* reverse launchable
* variable power
It's pretty obvious that you need some sort of steering ability. Just like the mainsail of a sailing boat, you need to position the kite according to whether you are running downwind, crosswind or trying to make progress upwind. On top of that, if you're more adventurous, you might be into getting 'big air' off the ground. This involves flying the kite high and piling on the power.
Like any aerial hobby where you fly something into the air, it's going to hit the ground hard once in a while. It would be frustrating and expensive to always be replacing spars, so a soft flexible design makes the best snowkite. They are easy to pack away and carry too! Parafoil designs are ideal, although even these vary in how much punishment they can take.
What happens if you make a mistake and the kite ends up on the snow? That would be really inconvenient if the kite wasn't reverse launchable. That means you can get the kite into the air again, from where you are, a huge bonus. Just lift off trailing edge first, before you spin it around and start flying leading-edge first as usual.
Conditions on the snow can change every day. For many years, skiers had to own several kites if they wanted to kite ski in a wide range of wind strengths. But now there are kites designed to deliver variable power. The control bar is pushed away from your body to reduce the pull, and pulled in again whenever you need more power. These kites cover the wind strength range of 2 or 3 traction kite sizes.
Parafoils aren't the only type of kite used as a snow kite. A 'C' kite or 'Leading Edge Inflatable' is a style of kite that is mainly used over water. Tubular spars pumped tight with air hold the kite's shape. These are depowerable too. However, you are in trouble if an inflatable spar springs a leak.
Depowerable Or Not?
What's the difference between ordinary 4-line foils and the depowerable variety? The ordinary type have 2 steering lines which hold nearly all the tension most of the time. The other 2 lines are rigged to the rear edges of the kite, which act as brakes. Brakes are a good safety measure, since they can be used to slow the kite down or even stop it flying altogether.
A depowerable kite is flown on all 4 lines at once, so it's angle to the wind can be altered. 'Sheet' the back edge of the kite in, and it slows down and pulls like crazy. 'Sheet' the back edge away from you, and the kite speeds up but has less tension in the lines. Hence some people call them sheetable foils.
In Conclusion, A General Grouping Of Traction Kites
One day, I did quite a bit of research on more than 70 specific traction or power kites of all kinds. Interestingly, they fell into some noticeable categories. Here's what I saw...
* 2-line stunt kites for flying in the park, with steering ability but little power as a snow kite
* bigger stunt kites, with more useful amounts of power
* small 4-line traction kites that could be used for snow kiting
* low-end depowerable snow kites, tough and ideal for beginners
* more expensive 4-liners, quite good to snowkite with
* mid-range depowerable foils, perfect for snow kiting
* most expensive kites, stable with smoothly controllable power over a very wide wind range
Just about any decent sized kite can be used to snow kite. We all know there isn't much friction out there on the snow or ice, particularly if you're wearing skis or skates! So in theory, just about anything with a bit of pull that's hooked up to a kite harness will get you moving. However, from a practical point of view, some kites are much more suited than others.
In fact, some traction kites are made specifically for powering across snow and ice. It's a popular activity too! Just search on YouTube and it's not hard to find a good snowkite video where someone's gliding swiftly across a powdery white landscape.
What Makes A Good Snow Kite?
As a general rule, depowerable 4-line parafoils are ideal for snow kiting. This kind of setup takes care of the 4 most important aspects of a snow kite:
* steerable - of course!
* soft, flexible construction
* reverse launchable
* variable power
It's pretty obvious that you need some sort of steering ability. Just like the mainsail of a sailing boat, you need to position the kite according to whether you are running downwind, crosswind or trying to make progress upwind. On top of that, if you're more adventurous, you might be into getting 'big air' off the ground. This involves flying the kite high and piling on the power.
Like any aerial hobby where you fly something into the air, it's going to hit the ground hard once in a while. It would be frustrating and expensive to always be replacing spars, so a soft flexible design makes the best snowkite. They are easy to pack away and carry too! Parafoil designs are ideal, although even these vary in how much punishment they can take.
What happens if you make a mistake and the kite ends up on the snow? That would be really inconvenient if the kite wasn't reverse launchable. That means you can get the kite into the air again, from where you are, a huge bonus. Just lift off trailing edge first, before you spin it around and start flying leading-edge first as usual.
Conditions on the snow can change every day. For many years, skiers had to own several kites if they wanted to kite ski in a wide range of wind strengths. But now there are kites designed to deliver variable power. The control bar is pushed away from your body to reduce the pull, and pulled in again whenever you need more power. These kites cover the wind strength range of 2 or 3 traction kite sizes.
Parafoils aren't the only type of kite used as a snow kite. A 'C' kite or 'Leading Edge Inflatable' is a style of kite that is mainly used over water. Tubular spars pumped tight with air hold the kite's shape. These are depowerable too. However, you are in trouble if an inflatable spar springs a leak.
Depowerable Or Not?
What's the difference between ordinary 4-line foils and the depowerable variety? The ordinary type have 2 steering lines which hold nearly all the tension most of the time. The other 2 lines are rigged to the rear edges of the kite, which act as brakes. Brakes are a good safety measure, since they can be used to slow the kite down or even stop it flying altogether.
A depowerable kite is flown on all 4 lines at once, so it's angle to the wind can be altered. 'Sheet' the back edge of the kite in, and it slows down and pulls like crazy. 'Sheet' the back edge away from you, and the kite speeds up but has less tension in the lines. Hence some people call them sheetable foils.
In Conclusion, A General Grouping Of Traction Kites
One day, I did quite a bit of research on more than 70 specific traction or power kites of all kinds. Interestingly, they fell into some noticeable categories. Here's what I saw...
* 2-line stunt kites for flying in the park, with steering ability but little power as a snow kite
* bigger stunt kites, with more useful amounts of power
* small 4-line traction kites that could be used for snow kiting
* low-end depowerable snow kites, tough and ideal for beginners
* more expensive 4-liners, quite good to snowkite with
* mid-range depowerable foils, perfect for snow kiting
* most expensive kites, stable with smoothly controllable power over a very wide wind range
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