Guy Lebrun is back again in the top spot just narrowly beating out Christian Labbe by .05 mph! Making Christian the fastest snowboarder we've ever had in the ranking.
The Canadians have been dominating the top spots this season but this week Felix Kersten of Germany managed to get 3rd place, pushing out Marcel Lepine to 4th and keeping the Canadians from taking all the top 3 places. We are happy to see Petri Lehikoinen making a long overdue appearance as the season winds down. He's been one of the fastest in the ranking in past years and one of the few to break the 70mph mark. We know it's hard to find the time and conditions, especially after the last two seasons, but maybe he can get another session in and give the Canadians a run for the top spots. We want to give a shout out to Nicholas Elliott, formerly of NH and now out in Idaho throwing down some tracks. He's the youngest participant this week and one of only two riders under the age of 15 in the ranking this season. As the season runs out of time many of the U.S. participants are already on the water. For those of us lucky enough to still have winter riding conditions, please keep the submissions coming but also please be safe out there as conditions change with the approaching spring. Thanks again for all the support and we look forward to seeing what you have next week! This week's T-Shirt winner is Nicholas Elliott! A reminder, For those who have one t-shirts the previous weeks please contact us with your shipping addresses and sizes. Thanks again!
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It pains us to see it but the season for many of us has either ended is is coming to a close and this week's participation shows it! BAH! Oh well, we can't fight the seasons.
For week 9 of the GSR Guy and Marcel have returned from a short absence to remind us that for 2017 Quebec has dominated the GSR and as the season winds down the pool of potential riders that can take the top spot from Guy is draining fast! It's all in good fun and Guy, Marcel and everyone else in the ranking have been giving it a good try and we are psyched to see how people have done this year in spite of some difficult conditions. You all rock! Week 10 submissions are due by 3/11/17. We will try to continue the ranking the full 12 weeks but we can't make any promises. ;-) T-shirt winner for week 9 is Robert Bocik out on Mille Lacs! See you next week!!! For the first time ever in the GSR a woman has taken the top spot!!!
Molly Savard had a speedy day on Lake Sunapee here in New Hampshire. The surface was rough but she made it work on a zippy little 4m Ozone Access V6. Molly was followed by Robert Goodwin for second place and narrowly beating Herb Cuene by .2 mph. We always smile when we see Jonas Axelsson tempting 50mph on his skates. When things go bad on skates there is little chance to recover. Very exciting. ;-) This week's t-shirt winner is Mike Lapukta! Once again, great job out there everyone. We know some of you are losing conditions fast but keep those entries coming as long as you can. But remember, it's for fun and bragging rights. Be safe out there and don't chance it if the ice is too far gone. See you all next week! WEEK 7! There seems to be a lapse in the Canadian domination of this season's ranking and this week US riders have taken the top spots. There seems to have been a little battle between Robert Cook and Robert Bocik out in Wisconsin with Cook coming out just slightly ahead. Very cool to see the two riders competing on the same kites. Almost "one design" racing out there this week. :-) Die Hard Dave Armovit, one of our most dedicated participants rounds out the top 3. This week we received our first entry from Scotland! Dougal Ranford had to do some climbing to get to some snow but he got the goods and got his first submission in. Winter hasn't been kind to Scotland this year and his submission took some substantial effort to bag. (See pic below.) Now the rules state that you have to be on a flat surface, we know. But Dougal submitted his speed based on an uphill run and he went to a lot of effort so we will let this one fly. :-)
This week's t-shirt winner is Herb Cuene out in Green Bay Wisconsin! Thanks again to everyone who submitted! We are looking forward to seeing you all next week! Week 6! We can't believe we are halfway through the the 2017 GSR. Guy continues to dominate but Robert and Dmitry gave it a good shot out in Wisconsin on their current fast conditions. And again we see more ties this week! Bruce and Dave are tied for 10th place while Alden and Chrissy are tied in the 14th spot. We rarely see ties and here we see multiple ties, 2 weeks in a row. The winner of last week's t-shirt was Mike Glaser out at White Bear Lake. This week's winner is Alden Strong up in Maine! We are still working on the overall ranking. Please be patient. Thanks again to everyone who submitted the week. We appreciate the support and look forward to seeing you all again next week! Deadline for week 7 submissions is 2.18.17 2017 Mid-Season GSR Master ListWeek 5 is in the books!
This week we had 28 participants in the ranking. But wait, 28 entries but only 25 spots? YES! That's right! This week was apparently the week of ties for the GSR and we had 3 of them. 6th place was taken by Lonny Heiden and Timothy Lilya. 15th place is shared by Jeff Jacobs and Micheal Hostawse and 16th place was shared by Vanessa Woroniak and Craig Schiefer. Vanessa and Craig missed a 4 way tie for 15th place by just .9 seconds and Mike Glaser missed beat it by .1 second!!! This is the first time we've see so many speed so close together or tied. Alden, Ted and Rob almost had a 3 way tie. Even Bill Pyle narrowly missed a 3 way tie by .7 seconds. Very close competition this week!!! Next week's submission are due by the Feb. 11. Thanks again everyone for playing and see you all again next week! Week 4 is complete! This week's participation was GREAT!!! Lots of people seem to have speedy conditions and the opportunity to head out and play. :-) Guy Lebrun is back in action after a no wind week and assumes the top position yet again with a top speed of 69.14 mph. Knocking once again on that 70mph door. Followed closely by Bob Pelletier also of Quebec with 64 mph and in third, Marcel Lepine rounds out the top 3 and helps Canada dominate the top 3 spots in the GSR. Well done!! Robin Larsson of Sweden was the fastest rider on skates this week with 45.1 mph. Crashing on skates can get ugly so we applaude his bravery as we do with Jonas and Johan, also from Sweden and our lone American on skates, Doug Scieszka. :-) Big shout out to Kylan Morneau for bagging 18.5mph. Not only is he the youngest kiter in the ranking but this was also his very first day riding solo! He looked totally pro out there and we are looking forward to seeing him climb the ranks in the future. A special mention for Mike and Adam Woroniak for hitting 29mph as a tandem tow. It was great watching them burn up the miles out there Sunday. The winner of this week's random participant T-shirt drawing is now other than Paul "The Badger" Morse. Congrats Paul! Week 5 submissions are open from Jan 29-Feb 4.
Week 3 of the Hardwater Kiting GSR is complete! Reports from various regions state that recent warm ups and lack of wind are keeping a few regulars out of this week's ranking but we a few people lucky enough to have decent conditions have managed to get a speed in for the week.
Even here in NH the conditions have been less than stellar with extremely sticky soft snow hampering movement never mind any speed attempts. We went out Saturday and it was so sticky kites would simply stall out. But it's all relative and still fun to see how people manage even in adverse conditions. Leader of this week's ranking is Marcel Lepine at 50.6 mph. Followed by Robert Pelletier with 38.8 mph. The third place spot was won by American Bruce Genereaux with 42.9 mph. We were surprised to see periodic regular Richard Baillargeon enter this week's ranking on skates as well. Tells us a little bit about the conditions just north of HWK Hq. :-) This was a good week for HQ kites as nearly half the field (limited as it is) was on HQ product. So once again, the Canadians dominated the ranking. We are looking forward to results for next week. Good luck, go fast and have fun! Winner of this week's T-Shirt drawing is Bill Pyle!! WEEK 4 Submission period is from Jan. 22- Jan. 28. Canadians take the top two spots in GSR Week 2!!!Week 2 is complete and once again Guy Lebrun stays on top with 64.6 mph. Fellow Canadian Bob Pelletier was a close second place just 3.3 mph short of catching Guy. Chris Krug cam in with an even closer 3rd at just .2 mph short of catching Bob and barely,BARELY keeping the US in the top 3.
Northeast Canadians are a fast bunch! We are happy to see former ranking winner Petri Lehikoinen of Finland returning to the ranking with a respectable 51.76 mph followed closely by a speedy Molly Savard with 50.2 mph! And last but not least, the winner of this weeks random t-shirt drawing of participants if Jeff Jacobs of Pewaukee Wisconsin! We are impressed with the speeds people are entering already this season. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! Week 3 entry period is Jan. 15th to Jan 21st. See you next week! Preseason EntriesLebrun, Guy 77.5 MPH Cabrinha Crossbow 7m Ski 45kts Hard New Richmond, QC. Can Cook, Robert 54.7 MPH Slingshot Rally NA NA Hard Madison WI, USA Brooker, Kevin 12 MPH Flexifoil Blade 7m Ski 8 kts Soft New Hampshire, USA. GSR Week 1 is in the books and we're off to a good start. What a difference a year makes! Especially given the fact that so many of us didn't even have riding conditions last year at this time. Fingers crossed that the trend continues! Looking at the results for week one, perenial speed freak and list topper Guy Lebrun returns again and starts the ranking with an impressive 62.13 mph. He has had primo speed conditions for nearly a month and he has been taking full advantage of them. In fact we are starting to think that his local riding arena is the snowkite equivelent to soft water speed kiting in Namibia Africa. Alway look forward to seeing what Guy will throw down. In second place we have a new comer Marcel Lepine, also of Quebec. From Magdalen Island to be exact. Frankly we had to look up where this was and it looks like a pretty amazing place to kite. Basically mid-way between New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Look it up, it's worth checking out. At 50.5 mph, he's done a great job of introducing himself to the ranking! Third place goes to Robert Bocik out in the land of "Cheesheads", Wisconsin. At 49.9 mph he narrowly misses the 50 mph barrier but it is a great speed and already faster than his best speed last year. A great start to the year with and a great place to set the bar for himself. We want to mention Brad Mcphee's speed. It's rare that we get to ride with our participants but Brad came down for a visit and to try some new kites. The day he got his speed it was wet, deep snow, rain and wind was 4kts gusting to 8kts. It is always a thing to see how fast modern face kites can go in so little wind. As stated earlier we are changing the format a bit and we are picking a participant at random each week to win a HARDWATER KITING t-shirt. (How many T-shirts does Guy need right?) This week's t-shirt winner is Michael Olsen out in Colorado! Welcome back everyone who has participated and support the ranking for the last few seasons. We are happy to see some familar faces and look forward to seeing you more the rest of the season. On a side note. You may have noticed the pre-season (before the 1st) entries show Guy's speed as "TBA". We have been a bit busy here at HWK and haven't been able to get to the task of scrubbing the data. He has supplied us with the required 2 sources of data and the optional 3rd source and He hit some impressive speeds back in December. You can imagine what he might be doing in 45 kts of wind and we just want to be sure of our results before we post them. :-) Week 2 started 1.8.2017 and you have until 1.14.2017 to get your speeds in. So get out there, see what you can do and have fun while you do it. Marcel's Speed Way. |
Hardwater Kiting GSRThis ranking has been created in the spirit of the original Stormboarding World Speed Ranking sponsored by Rachael Miller/Stormboarding host of the original Snow kite speed ranking and New England Kitestorm event. Archives
October 2019
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