It’s pretty harsh when you have to leave near spring conditions in the Bow Valley to compete in true winter, but last week, Regina was the hotspot for kiteboarding in Canada.
A Red Bull Kite Farm event was scheduled for the Regina area on Saturday (Feb. 14), but Valentine’s Day there proved to be a -43 C (with windchill) blizzard filled one. The event was billed as North American’s first endurance race, but it was postponed until Sunday, when a more race-friendly -10 C was reached.
“I actually got a bit of frostbite on my face,” said Jay Kilgannon, who operates a kiteboard school on Spray Lake, and was one of about 100 Kite Farm competitors.
“Sunday started at -20, but it got up to -10 at race time, so it wasn’t too bad.”
As the temperature rose, though, the wind dropped and what was to be a 10-lap, 50-kilometre event was trimmed back to 30 kilometres of farmer’s fields, a couple of road crossings and a 30-foot cliff of powder over a creek.
Kilgannon, along with Gilles Boudreau and Cody Fletcher, were the fastest ski team and walked off with $1,000 cash and some swag, while Boudreau was third overall in the ski division. The event was split between ski and snowboard kiters.
Boudreau’s third-place finish nearly had him in line for the first-place individual prize of an all expenses paid trip to Norway for an April Red Bull international event.
Kilgannon said while he, Boudreau and Fletcher found the event bone-chilling, they also felt bad for competitors from Florida and California who took part.
“It was a new event and the largest one in Canada yet,” he said. “They’re planning on holding another one next year and it was a good event. There were tents and heated areas for spectators. About 150 signed up, but when it was cancelled on the Saturday, a lot of people had to cancel and head home.
“It was shortened to 30 km and the fastest guys were doing it in just over an hour. We had to do three laps of a hexagon shaped course and the three of us were on skis; typically, skis are a bit faster than snowboards.
“We all competed individually, but the three of us were fastest, with combined totals, as a team.
“Being a Red Bull event, it drew a lot of people and it was pretty well organized.”
Fletcher is a former student of Kilgannon’s, “who is now faster than me” and Boudreau helps out with the kiteboarding school. “We’ve been riding together for years,” said Kilgannon.
Conditions weren’t quite what the Canmore crew are used to on Spray Lake. “We were expecting a lot more snow, but high winds there blew a lot of the snow off the course. There were some grassy swamps that a lot of people got stuck in and we had to cross a couple of roads they tried to keep snow on.
“It was pretty tough on all our equipment, skis, kites, harnesses. Here on Spray Lake, I’d have to say it’s the premier spot in Alberta and we’d like to host some races as a school in the future. We have great snow, it’s pretty much always windy and there’s good access. It’d be a great place to hold a race.”
Up next is an Alberta Kiteboarding Association event at Gull Lake near Edmonton on March 7 that the three will likely compete in.
