Windski versus Kitewing !

Guy Trudeau is well known in Montreal for his free-style and his life dedication to windsurfing. He has designed a decent windskate for land windsurfing and also a windski for the winter. He runs a website called windskate.ca.

Clique to Enlarge

Ironically there also seems to be a more commercial site called windskate.com.
Which came first ? The chicken or the egg ?? { the rooster }

In any case, the reason for this post is, recently Guy posted regarding an outing with himself on his infamous windski and a friend with a kitewing on a snowboard. This was on Guy's blog linked from his website. It is in French and can be found here: Windski versus kitewing!


Because I have always been intrigued by both the windski and the kitewing, I found the article very interesting. I hope Guy does not mind that I translate it here - and i do give him FULL credit :-)

                   ------------------- Here it is in Hinglish :-) ------------------------------


Recently, I went out on my windski with Greg on his kitewing! I had already tried the kitewing with a skateboard but I had not seen what the kitewing looked like out on the snow! 


On the last Sunday of February, we had excellent conditions for sailing on snow-ice. There was ice and hard snow. In some places, there was a base of packed snow + or - 10 cm. They were the perfect conditions to test and compare my windski design with the kitewing!

On the one hand, I had my windski with all the experience I have  riding this thing and the other side, there was Greg with all the experience he may have with a few hours of snowboarding and practice with the kitewing. 

Although the two concepts perform differently in different conditions, the conditions were such that it worked very well for Greg and I. The La Prairie Basin was ice further out to sea and snowiest near the highway. I rode closer to the water  further out and Greg stayed closer to the highway, but we randomly crossed the center of the basin, often at full speed! Anyhow - we had lots of fun!

It would have been very pleasant to film everything to give a good idea of ​​what we could do with 15-20 knots. I had a camera with me but the battery charge dropped, probably due to the cold! By heating the batteries, we were able to take some pictures but only poorly on this beautiful day! 


Basically, here are the differences noticed: 


Rigging: the windski is simpler and faster to rig than the kitewing 
Planing: windski is the faster takeoff /décolage than the kitewing (at least on the surface we had) 
Making by: essentially the same for the two concepts {not sure what was meant by this - translated from faire du près - which would be more like sailing close to the wind or UPWIND capabilities}
Pure Speed ​​both machines could achieve about the same speed. 
Jump: kitewing can do jumps (up to 5 'and on that day a distance of up to 20'-25' long), the windski very little! 
Flexibility: although the kitewing can jump, you can do more things with windski. 
Harness: The kitewing is more appropriate for the harness. It is not impossible to navigate with a harness windski but this was more reckless. 
BodyStress/WorkOut: the windski seems more difficult for the arms and kitewing harder on  the thighs. 


In conclusion, we can say that these are two different concepts with which one can have great fun under such ideal conditions! 


Unless it is impossible, go play outside in the winter as so often stated by the government of the 80s!

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Hope you enjoyed Guy's article as much as I did !!!
What surprised me was the idea that the kitewing with snowboard was about the same speed as the windski. I am curious if the kitewing with skis is faster ? On ice with skates I am sure it is almost unbeatable and should be able to attain speeds like the quicker ice sailboard models !!!!

This year was NOT much ice anywhere #$%^&* However, some guys in New Hampshire did manage to get some and FLY :-) Perhaps the real race would be the kites with skates or weapon of choice against these dudes !!! Nice video with "old 70's" music :-) These guys are breaking water windsurf records - doing over 53 knots/100 kph/ 60 mph !!!