Alright, I'm starting this thread to help keep track of all of the snowkite specific gear that graces the planet. That means products that are designed for snowkiting and nothing but snowkiting. Chime in if you're savy.

Snowkite Jackets:
These outershells allow a snowkiter to wear a traditional kite harness inside of his/her jacket and have the hook pass through to the outside. The Mushow jacket also allows the entire spreader-bar to be warn outside, so as to prevent the jacket from being pulled-up by the hook.

Mushow Snowkite Jacket:


UltraNectar Snowkite Jacket:


Wild Things Snowkite Jacket:

Snowkite Harnesses:
After one year on the market, the Mystic Snowkite Harness is a pretty fresh product. It's designed to support one's torsue and legs with a hybrid climbing & kitesurf harness design.

Mystic Snowkite Harness:
http://www.mysticboarding.com

Snowkite Boards & Bindings:

Nobile Snowkite Board


Cabrinha Empire Snowboard


Cabrinha Effect Bindings


Best Summit Series Snowkite Board:


APO Snowkite-Taylored Snowboard (No longer in production?)


Anti-Gravity Snowkite Board (No longer in production?)

Snowkites:
These are kite originally designed for snowkiting. I'm not including inflatable kites, because I don't know of any that fit that criteria.

Ozone Frenzy


Ozone Access 2


Ozone Manta


North Fabio


Flexifoil Saber II


Flexifoil Rage


Slingshot B-Series


Slingshot Ranger


Airush Snow


HQ Montana 2

Snowkites Continued:

Naish Element (No Longer In Production?)
http://www.naishkites.com/

Flysurfer 2Cool
http://www.flysurfer.com/Content/306/?mnid=1284

Flysurfer Pulse
http://www.flysurfer.com/Content/199/?mnid=1083

Air Evolution Hybrid X-Air
http://www.airevolution-snowkite.com/uk ... il_uk.html

Gin Eskimo 2
http://snow.ginkites.com/products.html

Gin Zig "Depower"
http://snow.ginkites.com/products.html

HQ Apex
http://www.kitemare.com/sheetable%20foil.htm#HQ_APEX_

Boom Skite
http://www.boom-kites.com/english/products/skite.html?

Nasawing
http://kitec.net/powersport/nasawing.htm

Athlete Specific Rides:

Bjorn Kaupang's DeCosse Customs Snowkite Skis


Remi Meum Pro-Model Snowkite Snowboard

Ok... well, I may be having a conversation with myself, but it's helped me gather my thoughts.

Overalll there's a lot more gear than there was a few years ago when I started researching the sport. While we're overflowing with four-line foils, I see a bad trend here: Kiteboard companys are introducing four-line foils to start a 'snowkite program,' yet not putting much promotion behind their kites or distribution of their product. As a result, we really only have a few companies pushing the sport; both membership-wise and through innovation.

This isn't kitesurfing; simply having a 'snowkite' available for sale won't get you very far, and won't help the community grow.

Because kitesurfing was an offshoot of windsurfing, it 'converted' membership instead of having to create a userbase from scratch. Wind & water locations were already well established. New entrants into the kitesurf business scene enjoy an already robust market, making 'branding' the main game. Not so on snow.

Snowkiting is being built from scratch. Where else do people look for wind and snow? Most people try to avoid it. We need community builders. Don't just copy the lead company's product, slap your logo on it, and sell it to your own user base. Promote the sport first and your product will sell itself.

On the flip side, kudos to the companies that create new riders as part of their marketing. Kudos to those people who experience the sport and want to add to it with gear that's uniquely usefull in snowkiting. Kudos to those people making quality media and capturing the essences of the sport or promoting a new edge.

With that said; check out the Snowkiting.com Gear Snapshot '07:

i'm listening to ya, sorry i dont have much input yet. hopefully that changes a lot this year.

Simonsez!

Good to see you online! How's the ND treating you (I'm out-of-state right now)? It's probably a long ways from good snowfall... hmmm... never too early to pull out a kite.

Have you checked through all this gear? What's missing?

-Eric

Here's a great example of innovation:

Todd Hanson's Switchblade; Kite-Snowboard Ice Edge
I used this for the first time last year. At first it felt un-natural to be edging on ice, but it didn't take too long to get the hang of it. With some practice and trained leg muscles, you can surprise yourself with what you can do on glaze ice. It comes in handy in the lake regions (it was engineered in the 'Land of 10,000 Lakes,' in fact). Sam Salwei and Jason Magness took it with them on the 2XtM expedition... unfortunatelly most of the ice was melting and thin, so they didn't get any chances to use it.

Simonsez,

I know that Motz at normally has a teaser kite package that can't be beat.

Last year it included a small kite w/ bar, harness, gloves, and DVDs...