August Turns in Ontario, YEAH!!! August 14-15-16, 2005

Patrick

Active member
Am I crazy?

Some people thing I am.

Is Riverc0il crazy for skiing Tucks in July? The sane people would think so.

Maximum Vertical: 350-400ft (saw the two numbers).
Where: on the shores on Lake Erie.
Why: because it look like great possibilities last year during our vacation.
Similar in height and sleep like the bottom of the Bowl at Tucks, but on sand.


This year we decided the family was going to go back to the shores of beautiful Lake Erie, but I made sure I had my skis. This Sand Hill is located on the Sand Hill Park Camping. It mentions that it has the largest sand pile in Ontario. I informed myself that it was okay with the management of the Park last year, and again this year.

There's are a few things I learned last year when I started looking into Sand Skiing.

1) NEVER use your current skis. I choose a old pair of RC4 that didn't see action since Tucks in 1990.

2) NEVER use your current boots. Useless you want sand in them for ever. Sand is hard to get rid of, a bit like dog hair on a fleece.

With this in mind, I gather a bunch of old equipment and we headed for Southern Ontario visiting a few things in Johnny's town, Toronto.

Sand is not a very good slidding surface. It can be like sandpaper sometimes.

Day One: Heavy rain all night, shattered showers. The sand is wet and hard. Those were the best surfaces to ski. I made 3 runs. The first one was the main route people use to head to the beach. Not the best place to slide, untracked sand is definitely better.

Day Two: sand is warmer, sliding is a bit slower. What was fine the previous day, was too slow today. You need some good speed before you can make some nice turns. Another 3 runs.

Day Three: fine grain and hot sand tracks up by people at the beach. Not the best conditions. Made 2 runs.


Something I noticed during these days, is the bindings and sand don't mix. The equipment, like the US Army found out during Desert Storm in the early 90s, doesn't like sand. This equally applies to ski equipment. The binding were increasingly harder to put on. I pretty sure the DIN setting would be totally irrelevant.

What next?

Frankontour has Grass-Skis :-k

More information about Sand Hill Park:

http://www.sandhillpark.com
 
Admin":1hgx3j0c said:
Oh, I want pictures. Definitely pictures.

Not sure how the skiing pics will turn out, my 7yr old was the offcial photograph. My wife was busy with my youngest and the camcorder.

But I took beatiful pictures of the ... terrain. :lol:
 
I don't imagine that you will get any more days out of those bindings... Wet sand will scuff up any painted metal, and the moisture will rust all the inner workings. But a great way to send unused equipment to the snowstorm in the sky.

You're definatley crazy, can't wait to see pics. :)
 
Not sure I'm posting this in the right section, but here are the pics and comments from Patrick, for its sand skiing trip at the great lake Erie ! :)

Potential sand skiing terrain seen from chest high water in Lake Erie in August 2004. Notice the people on the beach (circles). Arrow indicates top of dune.
1.jpg


Climbing (august 14th)
2.jpg


Still climbing (pictures was taken from same spot): the 14th
3.jpg


Me on top of dune (august 15th)
4.jpg


View from the top (august 16th). I start off going straight down on the left then turn behind the bushes.
5.jpg


This is fun!!! (august 15th)
6.jpg


My tracks and runs. (august 14th) Lines indicates my runs. Top one were runs 2, 3, 4 and 7. Left side: 5, 6, 8. Steeper: Trying to get more speed.
7.jpg


In the lake. End of Day (august 14th)
8.jpg


Family pictures (august 14th)
9.jpg
 
Thanks for your compliments. It was just something I wanted to do, especially after seeing the dunes last summer.

To answer to Jonny (I think) in the original post, my old skis, boots and poles were tired of gathering dust.
 
Back
Top