Snowkiting
Snowkiting has become more popular in places often associated with skiing and snowboarding, such as Russia, Canada, Iceland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Northern and Central United States.
American Cory Roeseler together with his father William developed a Kiteski system for waterskiing and began winning in windsurf races featuring high following winds, such as in the gorge of the Columbia river.
In the mid-1980s e.g. some alpine skiers used a rebridled square parachute to ski upwind on a frozen bay in Erie, PA.[citation needed] In the late 1990s small groups of French and North American riders started pushing the boundaries of modern freestyle snowkiting.
The Semnoz crew from France began hosting events at the Col du Lautaret and other European sites where the mountainous terrain lent itself to "paragliding" down the hills.
In North America, riders were mainly riding snow-covered lakes and fields where tricks were being done on the flat ground, jumps, rails and sliders.
The extreme envelope of snowkiting freestyle and back country is being pushed by Chasta, a French kiter sponsored by Ozone Kites[8] now based in New Zealand.
Better equipment, safety practices, community know-how and qualified instructors are readily available in many areas, allowing people to learn properly and safely through different means than trial and error.
The sport is currently being enjoyed by kiters of all ages and in a wide variety of activities ranging from mellow jaunts on a lake, to kitercross events, from multi-day expeditions, to flying off mountains, from freestyle jib tricks, to huge cliff jumps as well as endurance and course racing.
[citation needed] On 5 June 2010, Canadian Eric McNair-Landry and American-French Sebastian Copeland kite-skied 595 kilometres (370 mi) in 24 hours to set a distance world record.
This happens because in leaning back to be a counterweight against the force of the kite, the heels of the snowkiter naturally dig into the snow, causing the board to turn upwind.
It can prove more difficult to have any riding time when you go on a steeper slope, as the wind can be blocked and or become turbulent passing over the peak of the hill, causing the kite to behave erratically and even fall or be pushed to the ground.
