Windsurf Woody » Snowkiting

Snowkiting fun in April

Woody — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:24:15 +0000

Strategy session before hitting the lake

Strat and Brenna having fun

Woodette with her 6m Flysurfer ‘2Cool’ enjoying the blue sky

Guin showin’ some style

Dr. Evil jumping to the frickin’ moon

Tommy from Shaw TV doing a story about local snowkiting

Kites filling the sky

Coming down from a jump

Smiles all day long

Allen snowkiting for the first time

Powered up and lovin’ it

That’s right, it’s April and we’re still snowking in awesome conditions on Wabigoon Lake! Just last year we windsurfed April 20, but that doesn’t look like it’ll happen until mid May this year. So to take advantage of the conditions presented, 6 of us headed out snowkiting on what was a sunny warm day, with steady wind. My younger sis Guin along with fiance Allen, were in town from Toronto to celebrate our Dad’s birthday, and, just so happened to bring their kites, skis and snowboards with them. And with the conditions on the lake right now being just perfect for snowkiting, it was a smart decision on their part. We all had lots of laughs, spills and thrills during the day. It was a real nice way to wind down the snowkiting season as a group like we had. Strat was pulling his daughter around on the sled, Allen was cruising for his first time on a snowboard, Paul was hucking some huge jumps, Woodette was cruising for hours, Guin was having a blast and I was just soaking it all in…very nice!
Thanks to my big bro Al for shooting some 140+ digital images of the day. Great shots!
Have fun in life!

Woodette is "The Champ"

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:24:18 +0000

Rigging for Woodette…even in the winter!

Some of the kiters for a group photo. Look at the shine off my goggles!

Marg and I before the race

The Champ in her playground

Paul coming down after a 20′ jump! haha

Margot and Rob “The Professor” Evans (Men’s ski champion)

We are back from another terrific weekend spent with friends and fellow wind junkies at the 4th Annual Kite Crossing. This years event with over 100 registered kiters made it THE largest snowkiting event in North America! And who else better to represent the woman ski class as Champion? Well, non other than our very own Woodette! Holy cow eh!
The winds were forecasted all day Saturday to be steady in direction and speed, but good ol’ Mother Nature proves us wrong again, by mixin’ it up just a bit with a 40 degree wind shift 5 minutes before the start, failing winds halfway through a 32 mile killer thigh burning course, all the while with sunny blue skies above. Paul and I after crossing each other on a few tacks, to get to what was now, the windward mark (remember the 40 degree wind shift?), decided to stop for a ‘rest’ after the international ‘beer signal’ of a hand raised high in the air tilting back n’ forth was seen. I had packed some emergency beer in my backpack for such an occasion, so stopping made sense to us! We decided when we ran out of beer to just head back to the event site and cruise around with some of the other no-competing kiters. Good choice because later, better than half of the racers decided to either turn around, walk, or get picked up on the lake (remember the failing winds?). I was looking for Woodette on the return trip, but with kiters spread out all over the place and just trying to focus on the terrain in front of you, I must have passed her by.
Time passed by back at the event site by trying new gear manufaturer’s had to demo, kiting, chillin’ and socializing. I took my binoculars out to look for Woodette and spotted her still a few miles out struggling to keep her kite in the air with he lack of wind. I contemplated flagging down a snowmobile to go pick her up, but decided to just let her be… Sometime later the wind started to pick up, kiters were out and about then I grabbed everybody’s attention pointing to the sky and Margot’s kite heading to the finish line saying ” now let that be a lesson to all of us!” 3-1/2 hrs later she was cruisin to the finish that none of us made! Awesome stuff!
In the end, it was Woodette. The only woman to finish the race! Back-to-back Summer & Winter Crossing wins! Wow, that is still so unbelievable! By no means is she the most talented kiter or windsurfer, but determination? Well, her wins prove her will to finish!
Put your hands together for our Super-Champ Margot “Woodette” Woodworth!

Typical Sunday…

admin — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:56:56 +0000

Knowing there was a warm fire burning in the ice shack, we decided to walk down to the lake and just hang out for a bit. The wind picked up, so we rigged our kites and headed out into the sunset…
Stay Cool….

Winter Snow Kiting

admin — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:02:13 +0000

Well this Christmas season has been extremely busy with work, family and everything else I seem to find myself getting into to use up my spare time. I’m making a New Years resolution (haha) to try and not be so busy all the time! I can just hear Woodette saying ” Oh, I’ll find something for you to do”, so I better be careful for what I wish for!
The Woody’s had just a terrific Christmas this year and Woodette is now the proud owner of her first kite! It’s a 6m Flysurfer ‘2Cool’. Quite the appropriate name for her I might add. We flew the kite yesterday on Christmas Day in light winds. It was perfect winds for her to get the hang of flying it. She’s genuinely stoked about learning to snowkite which I think is pretty cool. My younger sister Guin flew in from Toronto to spend Christmas with the family again this year, which I think is pretty cool too!
Guin brought her 9m Monkey ‘Griffin’ kite with her!

Going over the kite safety system(s) with Woodette

Guin hooked in flying my 10m Ozone Access kite

Woodette powered up with my bro Al and Guin in the background

Guin and Woodette filling the sky with colour

Woodette showing us how it’s done! You can see from this video (thanks Al) when one of the previous pictures were taken. Cool!

I trust you all had a very Merry Christmas, and our wishes go out to you for a happy, healthy, safe, enjoyable, full-on ‘ride’ into the New Year.
Have fun in life!!

The Gift…

admin — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:59:32 +0000

Rigging in the snow…why do we live here!?

My butt was getting cold!

Self timer with my ‘photographer’ Woodette

No worries in the world at this moment!

The sky came alive at the end of the day!
Everyday a ‘gift’ presents itself in life…
…what that gift is may be sometimes hard to find, but most often you can see the gift with your eyes, smell it with your senses, or feel it with your body. Today’s gift for me was rigging my sail in the fresh white snow, walking through the icey cold crystal clear water until my 70cm fin cleared the sandy bottom, jumping up on my board, hooking in to my harness and leaning back to begin a fully wound session on my Mistral F2004 formula board/ Neil Pryde 9.8m V8 sail…..
I had a most memorable sail today on Thunder Lake. The wind started to die off late in the day, and it was at that time, the sky just started to come alive in colours.
What a gift I had today

**NEW** Click for windsurfing video HERE