March Breezes

March 3rd, 2010

The only odd thing about today’s kiting session was having to pick through the band of bobbing and heaving ice floes against the shore. While it’s still technically winter here in Haines, Robins were spotted this week and the weather nosed its way into what I consider to be comfortably rideable: above 40 degrees and sunny.
I couldn’t be blamed for dropping everything for a quick lunchtime session and season kickoff. The wind was pretty healthy–in the 15-20 range–and the day was just gorgeous. I picked through the snow from the road down to the launch beach and got set up. I saw that my normal entry area was totally clogged with a band of ice floes from the river. If I went through there, I’d probably get a good leg pinch! Instead, I opted to launch off to the side where the ice floe band was much narrower. Even so, it was a bit tricky getting in over the surprisingy dense and heavy floes (and they were bobbing around like crazy).
As soon as I was up, I realized that my foot straps were still adjusted for barefoot kiting, but I wasn’t going to stop now! I wriggled and squeezed my feet in and headed away from the shore over fresh steel green chop. The cold was hardly noticeable from my position above the water. It would have been a bit chilly if I’d ended up in the drink for any length of time, though.
After buzzing around, slashing some waves and popping some airs, I strategized how to get back to to beach through the ice floes. As I had experienced on the way in, all the normal approaches were clogged and because the tide was rising, the place I got in was now pretty choked. I ended up trying that area anyway and let myself down into the water and used my board to latch onto a big ice floe and used it to muscle through the rest of the floes towards the shore. From there, it was a hop and skip and I was on land again!
What a fun lunch break and a good way to break the ice on a new water season!