EVENT REPORT: Skyline Masters Goes Off!
Report and Photos from Brandon Scheid at https://brandonscheid.blogspot.com/
It’s always strange traveling from one spot, to another; so many things can change. Never has this difference been more apparent than the transition from San Diego to Utah. After taking a short flight over we met up with fellow Liquid Force members Arla Funk and Gregg (Tekko) Gnecco. They have the hook-up when it comes to the whole snowkiting scene, so it was nice to have them rolling with us to the event. We awoke the first day of the contest with news of wind up at Skyline, we packed the cars and headed off for the event. When we first showed up the wind was a bit light, we took the time to set up a few flags and get some kites inflated. Everyone was mingling with all the old faces, and a ton of new ones too.
The weather was beautiful, blue bird and fresh snow everywhere. Within a few hours the wind had picked up enough for us to ride twelves. I took the 12m Havoc and Tekko took the 12m Envy. We started with some warm up tacks back and forth in-front of the event site. The snow there had been ridden the day before and was all rutted up, so we decided to go scouting for the some of the freshy fresh.
It wasn’t long before we were climbing the ridge in the back, it’s a strange feeling being pulled up a hill by a kite. Once we got to the top the wind filled in even more and the snow was untouched. I was riding a 159 LF/DeCosse Alliance snowkite board. The board is amazing it rides just like a twin tip, I felt like I was riding on the water. The longer side cut and stiff flex made load and pop tricks effortless.
We sessioned the top of the ridge for a solid two hours. There were lips to boot of of everywhere, tons of fresh powder for wakestyle, and a huge hill that you could glide off of. The setup there is mind blowing!
Shortly after our first session Arla and Sensi arrived and were super excited to get some kites up. We setup a 10m Havoc and 10m Envy and it wasn’t long before we were all riding up the ridge. By the time we got up there all the other kiters had gone in, which left it all to us.
We rode for about and hour and then the wind started to fade. Me and Sensi managed to get ourselves stuck down in a bowl and lost all our wind. It went from the most fun session to the worst really quick once we realized that we were hiking out. Fourty-five minutes later and a lesson learned we arrived back at the parking lot exhausted. The day ended with a beautiful sunset we were all glad to get in warm cars and head out of the night.
After a great nights sleep we headed back towards the event site. The wind seemed still in the valley but after climbing up to 10,000 ft the wind was on. It was coming from a slightly different direction, which opened up a whole new area of fresh snow. It was quite a bit windier than the first day so the girls took it easy while we put up eights. Me and Tekko rode to the top of the ridge and shot some photos off this natural kicker.
It wasn’t long before the landing was scrapped, so we headed off in search of new terrain. We found some giant gaping holes in the top of the ridge, we stopped to session the downwind side of one. I was riding in and sliding the lip of the bowl which was about 15 ft. off the bottom.
The wind started to calm down and we headed down to get the girls out riding. We gave them the eights and we took out the tens. With everyone on the snow, I headed over to the rails that they had setup. There was a 20 ft. flat bar and a nice a-frame. Swave a filmer for Snowkite Cinema was there taking shots for his new movie Project Blizzard, hopefully I can score some clips.
As the sun dropped in the sky so did the temperature, and we quickly got down off the mountain. We ate dinner and talked about all the amazing riding we had over the past few days. That was hands down the best snowkiting I’ve ever scored, and I am looking forward to spending some time in Utah and getting more time on the snow. I will be heading to the Super Fly Open in the next week with the LF team. Hopefully we will score some nice shots and video, and some places on the podium wouldn’t be bad either. More of my Utah adventures to come!