The snow is falling the temps are down and snowkiters are already going fast all over the world.

In the first early season round up, Petri Lehikoinen of Helsinki, Finland saw several runs over 50 to top out at 53.4mph last weekend. You can see a graph of his runs building up to the top speed on http://www.stormboarding.com/speedranking1011.html

Garrett Sorensen of Manitoba, Canada had a huge session on the last day of November and you can check out his tracks all over the lake he was riding on from his Google Earth image on Stormboarding's speed page.

We also have to acknowledge Saulius Muliolis in Cleveland, OH for putting the middle of the US on the map as the first American rider on the list this year. Even if it was on a slightly snow-covered field. We posted his video of that early season session.

Check out http://www.stormboarding.com/speedranking1011.html for all of the speed contest info, rules and speeds. Prizes will kick in soon and we have some more great ones this year from beanies to wallets to windsocks and more.

We are psyched the snowkite season has started around the world and hope to hear from more of you.

Have fun. Be safe. Ride fast.

Think snow,

rzm

Stormboarding
www.stormboarding.com

That vid of the guy in Ohio is awesome. Landboarding with skis.

bob

Sweet I love the contest look forward to it every year its a great tradition in the snowkiting world keep up the great work

Thanks!

We love seeing the top speeds as much as we love seeing people get their personal bests. And the change in technology since we started running the contest so many years ago is incredible. Between the GPS programs and Google Earth, we can 'see' people's runs. Even an iPhone is all you need to record your session as well as add a photo and send it all to us while still on the ice.

Looking forward to more this season.

Think snow,

rzm
www.stormboarding.com

Saulius is the man. That vid is awesome.

Hopefully next week some of us here in New England will get in the mix. Looking forward to another great speed ranking and great season.

What a pity I was not aware of this contest while I arranged a kite ski touring course in south Sapmi (Lapland) in November. The participants were provided with GPS devices but we did not use them for logging.

Here one of the participants is swooping by in high speed with a "big yak" (Ozone Yakuza 14m):


For next course maybe we should switch on logging...

Thanks for all the comments on my video.

I was really hoping to get the top speed for the week by being the first to post a speed, but Petri and Garrett beat me to it! That was the best speed I could manage on grass with just a suggestion of snow on it. I got better speed yesterday on Sandusky Bay, but the wind was light. Should be better wind next weekend. Hopefully I'll have time to get away from the family on Christmas weekend.

Here's yesterday's video:

Congrats , great way to start the season. Was that realy snow or just a heavy frost ?

Nice vid, not so much snow

We've had a great season start here in Finland, super cold and more snow just keep coming. Lakes and sea are starting to get more and more ice all the time and all bays are filled with fresh powder snow! Winter came really early and fast, I only had 2 weeks between last water and first snow session.

After that speed session it started to snow and seems like no more records for a while, now it's just freestyle and preparing for Red Bull Ragnarok competition You can see conditions here from Tomi's pics, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomitahti/sets/72157625417815765/

Btw, that speed was a bit more...after checking results with gpsarpro software top 2second result was 88,89km/h = 55,23mph. And it was a first time when I was on snow with LF Havoc 2011. Seems to be pretty fast kite and results should be better when first storm hits in

Petril,
I wish we had those conditions. By the way that is a very respectable speed. Keep up the good work

Happy Holidays