Sunday, June 20, 2010

Wind-powered transport in the Iles-de-la-Madeleine

Does Al Gore know about this?



The often-windy Iles-de-la-Madeleine in eastern Quebec are a hotbed for the sport of kite-buggying: basically, zipping along the beach in a buggy, powered by a parachute-like kite. The driver holds a set of lines made of super-strong Spectra. A tug on the left turns you left; a tug on the right turns you right.

After a quick lesson on kite management from Eric Marchand, a world champion kite surfer and owner of Aerosport, everyone in our group had the chance to sit behind him in a tandem buggy and hurtle across the beach.

I spent most of my time yelling in glee as sand sprayed in my face, but I survived to tell the tale.


Now if only they could reconfigure Highway 401 to run on wind power....

Disclosure: I travelled to the Iles-de-la-Madeleine courtesy of Tourisme Quebec.

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