The two objects were unmistakable from the Egan Drive traffic.<\/p>\n
Large kites, similar in appearance to the ones used by paragliders in the summer, sailed gently above Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge on a rainy December afternoon. Below the flying instruments were two black dots, kiteboarders, grasping a small bar to steer themselves across the watery landscape. As the kites cruised across the top of the channel, so too did the drysuit-clad bodies some 60 feet below.<\/p>\n
“Did you see my air?!” Rob Cadmus said to his kiteboarding companion after unclipping from his kite.<\/p>\n
As winter seems to be arriving later and later with each passing year<\/span>, Cadmus and others turn to kiteboarding as a way to get turns in before Eaglecrest Ski Area <\/a>opens<\/a>.<\/p>\n “There’s a small group of guys in town who do it,” Cadmus said. “It’s kind of like when the skiing’s not good and it’s windy, we go kiteboarding.”<\/p>\n Thatcher Brouwer was still learning the ropes, literally, from his friend by steering the kite. For that he didn’t bother strapping on a short, twin-tipped board; instead, he sat in the water while fiddling with the kite, getting a sense for how it reacts to the wind.<\/p>\n “I did a little practice dragging myself through the water, just down on the water and having the kite pull you through the water,” Brouwer said. “It’s pretty easy to go straight downwind, it’s not too easy to (go) side-to-side, or upwind.”<\/p>\n Did you know there are kitesurfers in Juneau? Here, Juneau commercial fisherman Thatcher Brouwer and his friend, Rob Cadmus, test out the winds at the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge last month. pic.twitter.com\/6pXPikFQs8<\/a><\/p>\n — Empire Sports (@akempiresports) January 5, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n