Ice Board | Windsurfing board tests

January 19, 2013 By Claes Leave a Comment

Jeff Brown – Iceboard speed session at Lake Massabesic

Jeff Brown managed to reach 48 knots (2 sec) and impressive 43 knots average speed (5*10 sec) in just 15 knots of wind. Jeff used his specially designed iceboard sail, Custom JBD 4.0 (1995) and proved that less is more when it comes to sails and ice boarding.

I sailed Ice Cup Sweden last weekend and used a Naish Grand Prix 7,8, which is great if you need acceleration on a small slalom track, but on long speed-runs a large sail is more of a disadvantage.

Jeff Brown: “We had miles of near perfect black ice, grade 9. This was some of my best effieciency numbers reaching 48 knots with only 15 knots of wind = 3X wind speed”. Source: GPS Icesailing.

Iceboarding on perfect black ice at Lake Massabesic

Ice growth predictor at Icepredictor.com

November 21, 2012 By Claes Leave a Comment

Ice board knee guards

To protect your knees while ice boarding is crucial. Last season I borrowed my sons hockey knee pads. Great protection but they felt a quite clumsy (and smelly; ).

Troy Lee Designs Lopes Knee Guards

661 Riot Knee Guards

Down-hill kneeguards for ice boarding

I have used MTB Downhill knee guards quite a while now. Slimmer than hockey knee-pads better ventilated but still providing same great protection for your knees.

September 15, 2012 By Claes Leave a Comment

Iceboard speed sailing log March 2012 – 42 knots

We had a great day Iceboarding at Muskö Sweden. The Day contained a chase-cam crash in 35 knots and although one of the skates wasn´t in mint condition after the crash I managed to set my new PB (so far; ).

GPS Speedsurfing log – 2 March 2012

Iceboard chase-cam crash – 35 knots

Iceboard PB run – 42 knots

March 24, 2012 By Claes Leave a Comment

Ice Board – Spine and shoulder protection

When I sum up the season, I can say that I had a couple of real close calls when it comes to Ice Board crashes. The worst crash was when i went through double layers of ice at 35 knots (Video).

Ice Board shoulder protection will save your “ass”

Fortunately, I landed flat on my back, which made the snowboard back protector to absorb most of the impact. The fall was very similar to the ones I have had while snowboarding. Last time it took almost two years before my shoulder was alright again.

Quite expensive but there are cheaper options

For next Ice Board season I will definitely get some kind of shoulder protection. The shoulder protectors showed below are quite expensive, Euro 230-300, but there are cheaper alternatives. On the Swedish market you can find shoulder protection like the ones below from about Euro 90. Exactly the same setup but different/cheaper brands/materials.

Dainese – Fullcoat W2 shoulder protection

>> Dainese – Fullcoat W2 shoulder protection

POC Spine VPD Tee Spine and shoulder protection

>> POC Spine VPD Tee Spine and shoulder protection

Pro Tec Pinner suit LT – Spine and shoulder protection

>> Pro Tec Pinner suit LT – Spine and shoulder protection

March 17, 2012 By Claes Leave a Comment

Ice Boarding at 42 knots out-side Muskö Sweden

We had an epic day Ice Boarding out-side Muskö, Sweden. I used my smallest sail, an Sailloft Cross 5,5 and the new Caliber down-hill trucks.

Caliber down-hill trucks – Speed vs Gybing

The Caliber down-hill trucks showed no wobbling tendencies what so ever and I was impressed that the Caliber trucks with its high-speeds performance still was able to deliver really great gybing.

Sailloft Cross – Stable through-out the speed range

All though I was quite over-powered at times the Sailloft Cross was easy to handle and remained really stable through out the whole speed-range.

GPS-logg March 2, 2012

Top speed display 42.1
Nautical mile 33.96
>> More at GPS-Icesailing