What is Winterlude?
From the NCC's Winterlude official information:
"Every February, winter lovers from around the world
are invited to celebrate Canada’s northern climate and culture. From February 2
to 18, 2007, North America’s unique winter celebration will storm into town for
three weekends of family fun during which Canada’s Capital Region will be
transformed into a one-of-a-kind winter destination.
Residents and visitors are invited to join the
NCC’s Winterlude team and the more than 650,000 winter revellers who
come to Canada’s Capital Region each year to take part in the
festivities. The Ice Hog family, Winterlude’s official mascots, are
awaiting the arrival of festival-goers to give out tons of their famous
Ice Hog hugs!
Created in 1979 by the National Capital Commission
(NCC) to celebrate some of Canada’s most famous winter traditions,
Winterlude has since grown into a world-class festival which attracts
hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. At the heart of this
enchanting celebration, you’ll find the Rideau Canal Skateway —
recognized as the world's largest naturally frozen ice rink by Guinness
World Records TM. Each winter, the NCC welcomes throngs of
revellers and skaters from around the globe who descend upon this
fantastic 7.8-kilometre ice surface. Families and fun-seekers alike will
find a wide variety of services along this scenic Skateway, including
rest areas, food concessions, skate and sleigh rentals, skate sharpening
and boot check services...
Facts:
- Winterlude was founded in 1979 by the NCC as a means of
celebrating Canada's unique northern climate and culture. Since 1984, it has
been the recipient of more than 30 awards from the prestigious International
Festival and Event Association.
- A 2004 survey estimated that 616,000 fun-seekers took
part in Winterlude activities that year.
- Each year, Winterlude welcomes hundreds of performers,
athletes and snow and ice carvers from across Canada and around the world.
- A 2004 survey estimated that Winterlude-related
spending generated a total of $151.7 million of economic activity in Ontario
and Quebec and $82.5 million within Canada's Capital Region.
- In 1979, the first edition of Winterlude was presented
with the help of a handful of volunteers. In 2006, close to 800 people
generously volunteered for the NCC during Winterlude, giving over 10,000
hours of their time helping out with various activities.
- Most Winterlude activities are free of charge.
Registration and admission fees may apply to certain collaborators’ and
sporting events."
2007 Winterlude Kite Demonstration Event
Following the success of the
2005 Winterlude and
2006 Winterlude Kite Demonstration events, the school
VL Kites and the
NCC again teamed up to organize a kite
demonstration event for Winterlude 2007 on Feb 17 and 18. Actually, due to the very warm "Global Warming" weather in Jan
2007, Winterlude Kite Event was not planned this year at all. Fortunately,
the winter became more stable in early February so NCC and VL Kites made some
emergency arrangement to make this event happened.
This was
what our kitesnowboarding and kiteskiing playground looked like in Jan
2007
Again, this
is the world first large scale winter kite demonstration event for a very large
number of non-kiter audiences, fully insured with $2,000,000 public liability insurance.
Due to the large number of surrounding audiences, only instructors or riders
with more than 3-year experiences were invited to ride in the event.
The main objectives of the event are
to:
-
Show the northern climate way of
life
-
Promote kiting to a very large
group of non-kiters
-
Make kiting a legitimate and
official sport.
The event was fully
supported by the kite manufacturers and the kite magazines. Due to the
rush to coordinate year event we only contacted our previous sponsoring
manufacturers Best Kiteboarding
(http://www.bestkiteboarding.com).
Best sent us 3 2007 Waroos for the riders to use during the event (and
then to keep afterward)
Also
fortunately,
SBC Kiteboard Magazine sent us "just in time" 1 box of the Kiteboard Magazine to
be distributed to the audiences. Many thanks to Best Kiteboarding
and SBC Kiteboard Magazine for recognizing the important of the Winterlude Kite Demonstration
Event in the promotion of the sport
and sponsoring the school as well as the riders.
Winterlude 2007 Kite Event Report
Part 1
Following are the photos
and the report of the event (Saturday Feb 17 and Sunday Feb 18, 2007).
This year event was the best
Winterlude Kite Demonstration event we ever had. The wind forecast was
good, the snow was excellent and NCC has reserved lots of space for our
riders at the optimum spots in Dows Lake. Even thought we had only 3 main
riders, we had enough spaces to put up 5 kites on the sky.
The riders have done
an admirable job and have really impressed the skaters. There were huge
jumps ,tricks, kickers, rail ride, etc. on skis, snowboards and
telemarkskis. The event was
a major success.
Furthermore, this year, the
local news paper came and Interview Brent and the
national CTV station crew filmed Claude and Hung kitesnowboarding.
Arrived early
morning at Kite Camp on Dows Lake.
This year,
we are right on the main skate way and our backyard is the kite area
Brent
unloaded our gears while Peter stakes the kiting territory with flags
Pump me up
Scotty!
Peter
tested out the terrain!
What a
beautiful morning for Peter to test out the 2007 Waroo 13m kite
Kite Camp
is ready!
Kite Camp
is on the main skateway and the "backyard" is our playing ground
Skaters
started arriving on the World's Largest Skating Rink
Claude, the
"Crazy French Man" tested out the new Waroo 15 while the newly came
audiences watching from the main skateway
More people
came over to Kite Camp
The show is
on! Brent in his "trade mark" kitetelemarking form
Brent hit
the kicker and going big with his telemark skis
Hung's turn
on his snowboard.
See how
good the snow coverage was.
landing
time for Hung! You can't stay up there forever Hung!
Peter came
back out for an expression session spinning off the kicker.
Expression
session! Can I grab my telemarkski mom?
Expression
session! Claude went out for more.
Skater
taking photo of the expression session!
"What do
you call this?"
"It's a
kite"
Local news
paper interviewed Brent
This
reporter got some "serious" camera lenses!
Claude:
"that's all for today folks. We'll be back tomorrow"
Day 2 (Sunday February 18th, 2007)
Click here
for day 2 photos and report
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