World Ice and Snow Sailing Championship in St Ignace

The 2012 World Ice and Snow Sailing Championships (WISSA) take place February 20 - 26 in St. Ignace. The Holland Sentinel explains:

For the first time in more than 17 years, the World Ice and Snow Sailing Championship (WISSA 2012) is taking place in the U.S. — in Michigan, and athletes from all over the world will be competing.

The competition begins Monday in St. Ignace. According to its website, WISSA is the only world event where wings, kites and sails compete on snow or ice, slalom and course. It is expected the championship will be televised in more than 86 million households. There will be food and beer tents, a free shuttle, a warming tent and more.

The Detroit Free Press adds that they are expecting expecting 80 athletes, including some from all over the world. The championships were first held in 1980 in Helsinki, Finland, and the U.S. has hosted only three times before this year's meet - New Hampshire in 1986, Maine in 1988 and Wisconsin in 1995.

Unfortunately the worst ice conditions on the Straits of Mackinac means you won't be seeing images like those above this year. The good news is that the site at Chain Lake has great ice and pictures like the one to the left are being posted to the WISSA 2012 Facebook and their blog. We've read that some of the event might be televised and will report details here if we learn them!

Here's a little preview entitled "Les ELF KITES sont en ville" (the ELF KITES are in town). Keep an eye on WISSA 2012 at YouTube for more!