Nice one Decrep

Soooooooo laid back and graceful

Laydown downwind tacks. Impressive!

Looks great, don't it?

Hate to rain on da parade, but as an ex-pat living in those kind of conditions (Great Lakes), I can assure this is one-in-a-winter sort of conditions. In fact, I would say one every 3-5 years. I suspect they flooded some area for a competition (esp. if december as they say).

Natural ice on rivers and bays always has tons of snow and snowbanks. Even on those rare occasions when it's bare, it's full of annoying ripples and bumps.

The only time you get those conditions is late in the spring, when water melts and floods the ice, then freezes overnight. Ice skate boats come out 2-3 times in the year max.

When I got here first, me built one of them's skate things, but ended up seldom going out. Ah well.