Snowkiting is beginning to take off

Justin Caulfield grabs some air as he snowkites at the 2007 Kitestorm in Milton, Vt. The fifth Kitestorm is this weekend. (Courtesy Ned Castle/stormboarding.com)

Here's how you can tell if a niche sport has broken through into the mainstream: Ask its most ardent participants where a novice can go to watch the action. If the answer is a well-kept secret, the sport is approaching a tipping point - the hard-core enthusiasts are worried about too many rookies spoiling a prime location.

"I knew you were going to ask that," said Andrew Ghezzi, owner of Powerline Sports in Seabrook, N.H., when queried about local hot spots for snowkiting. "And, unfortunately, my answer is I have to plead the Fifth."

Ghezzi is in an awkward position. As the owner of an adventure sports company, his biggest moneymaker the past few winters has been selling gear - kites, harnesses, helmets, and snowboards - to people who want to ride the wind by skimming atop snow-covered fields and frozen lakes. But as a kiter, Ghezzi said he is bound by a responsibility to the sport's close-knit community. Snowkiting is going through a rapid phase of growth "like snowboarding went through 10 or 11 years ago," and as it struggles with land-use and safety issues, there is a concerted effort to make sure newbies know and respect the rules before turning them loose on a kite.

This weekend, beginners who want an introduction to snowkiting get a free pass without having to hunt for a secret location. The fifth annual Kitestorm event in Milton, Vt., is expected to draw 500 participants and an equal number of onlookers to frozen Lake Champlain for free clinics, demonstrations, and drawings.

"It's that feeling of controlled power - speed without gravity," said Rachael Miller, who is the first instructor in the country to be certified in both snowkiting and kitesurfing.

She founded a sports adventure and touring company called Stormboarding in Burlington, Vt., in 2004, and came up with the idea for the first Kitestorm shortly thereafter. (The clinics are free, but participants are asked to fill out online liability waivers at stormboarding.com.)

Although snowkiters can achieve speeds of more than 60 miles per hour and heights above 40 feet, the sport does not necessarily have to be pushed to extreme levels.

"It's a mix between surfing, skiing, and sailing," Miller said. "The whole thing about kiting is that you don't even have to leave the ground. It's really cool just to be able to cruise. What's good about this sport is you're able to get to an intermediate level very, very fast."

Snowkiting is still so new that its origins are debated. In the mid-1990s, the Southern Alps of France drew an eclectic collection of daredevils who adapted water sports techniques of parasailing to windy mountain passes. According to Ghezzi, at the same time in the western United States, disciples of "traction kiting" (using kites to pull buggies and other land-based apparatus) came up with the idea of slapping on a pair of skis to ride atop snow fields.

"It was really a very nerdy thing to do, and it wasn't pretty at first," said Ghezzi, who traded a career in finance 10 years ago to start a business related to his passion of stunt kites.

He explained that a lot of snowkiting's early "research and development" had to do with people getting battered, bruised, and even killed after being dragged by runaway kites.

It was then, said Ghezzi, kiters shifted to water and came up with kitesurfing, with an emphasis on speed and big air. The trade-off was that if you fell into water, you were not as likely to get hurt.

Practical aspects aside, the association with "surfing culture" is what sent the kiting industry soaring, Ghezzi said. Once kitesurfing became "cool" and had some brand recognition, manufacturers jumped on the opportunity to cross-promote their products, which has led to the recent resurgence in winter kiting.

"Snowkiting was here first," said Ghezzi. "It just wasn't sexy enough."

Snowkiting has improved markedly in terms of safety. A typical beginner's setup uses a 3-meter training foil with four lines that connect to a control bar. To steer, you move the bar in the direction you want to go. The bar also acts as a kill switch: Let go of it, and the kite folds, loses power, and drops to the ground.

Ghezzi said the main difference between kitesurfing and snowkiting is the amount of power needed for liftoff. In the water, you need a large, very powerful foil to get up and stay up, and all that extra power can be intimidating to a beginner. On the snow, you don't need as large a kite, which makes learning easier.

"The best way to get started is with used gear," said Ghezzi, estimating that he could equip a beginner with a basic setup for under $500, including two or three lessons. People with skiing or snowboarding experience are usually quicker studies.

However, Ghezzi said one of the problems with snowkiting is a tendency for beginners to buy more kite than they need. He frequently has to convince new customers to scale back. The danger then is that the customer leaves, goes online, buys the souped-up foil on eBay, and then attempts to launch it without the assistance or experience of trained snowkiters.

"It's really not the smartest thing to just go buy a kite, then tie yourself to it," Miller said. "In a sport like this, where certified instruction can be several hundred miles away, it's tempting not to take a lesson. But in this sport, a lesson goes a very, very long way in terms of safety and enjoyment."

Ghezzi agreed. "It's not worth it, to me, to sell somebody a $1,000 kite if I know they're not going to be able to control it," he said. "Nobody benefits - not me, not the guy throwing money around, and certainly not the snowkiting community."

The community aspect of snowkiting is important, Ghezzi said, if the sport is to prosper. This ties in with his reluctance to reveal the good snowkiting spots: In densely populated areas, snowkiters and the public have clashed over land-use rights. The use of kites on public property is so new that liability issues are only now starting to surface.

Snowkiters' desire for secrecy might seem a bit standoffish, but Ghezzi reasoned it's like a magician's code of honor: Those within the snowkiting community are willing to teach newcomers, but they want to first weed out irresponsible individuals before revealing any tricks.

"It's as close to flying as you're going to get, and that's the beauty of it," Ghezzi said.