Hi Everyone,

This is the end of my trip to NZ, after two perfect weeks on the snowkite camps Jon and I were ready to go for some back country snowkiting finally. So, as we never get tired, we woke at 7am, checking the latest forecast to be sure it’s still windy. We jump in his car, we saw the clouds moving fast in a westerly direction so we decided to go first to Cardrona.

Man it was really windy up there. Something like 30 knots (it’s a lot on snow) especially when the mountain is steep and not so wide open. But the spot is so nice up there that I decided to test it with 6m Access XC 09 on 15m lines. As you can go kiting direct from the parking lot from the Cardrona ski resort, I jumped in my bindings and snowboarded down, to make a few turns in the pretty good powder.

And wouaaaaa, I was amazed by how easy it is to snowkite in those conditions with an Access XC 09. I was going full speed from the bottom to the top of the ridge with no fear, there’s such a good depower, I was making turns everywhere on the wind lips, even jumped on some pretty good rocks like snowboarding style. What a early day. So by the end Jon got some nice pictures with this kites in the nice back country of Cardrona resort – sick.

I realized that the conditions were a little bit too extreme for Jon, so we packed the kites and decided to go to Snow farm, cause we know we have more space to ride in this strong wind, and more option to get some more beautiful pictures. I tested all the kites, so I have to tell you, I really like the 9m Frenzy FYX for cruising and also freestyle. The Bar pressure is really nice and you get great feedback from the kite. In stronger winds it starts pulling so that’s where I still prefer the Manta II 09. But the Frenzy FYX flies super fast too on big flight, so you can imagine the crazy kiteloops I did, that’s was wouaaaaaaaa.

And I got to ride the Access XC 09 more this time. I was really surprise, cruising in mountain with it, in strong and gusty winds, and you don’t want to do crazy jump - this is a superb toy. So for sure I’ll get one in my quiver.

So see you soon on the snow.

Ciao Chasta