"We all love strong winds!" Lake Winnebago chosen to host World Ice & Snow Sailing Championship for unique reason

LAKE WINNEBAGO (WITI) -- It's a unique love that brought athletes from around the world to Fond du Lac over Valentine's Day weekend. Instead of flowers and chocolates, it was the wind that was the gift of choice.

"Most people hate winds. We all love strong winds!" Jenny Back said.

The wind was howling across Lake Winnebago in Fond du Lac this past weekend. While many may want to stay inside when its cold and windy, Jenny Back was hoping for more. She was in Fond du Lac all the way from Sweden, along with athletes from 11 different countries.

"Sweden, Finland, Norway I believe, Russia's well represented, Switzerland, Canada of course, Estonia, Poland," Bob Deuster said.

"We're participating in the World Ice and Snow Sailing Championship!" Back said.

Because Lake Winnebago has a geological formation called "The Niagara Escarpment" that creates a nearly constant flow of wind, it was chosen to host the World Ice and Snow Sailing Championship, or WISSA.

"There are three different categories of sails. It's the wing sails and the sled sails and the kites. I compete in the kite wing. The kite wing is a wing that you hold onto, and it's hand-held -- so it's not stuck to a board or something and you wear either skis or skates on your feet, depending on the surface," Back said.

On Lake Winnebago, Back wore skates -- but not all skates are the same among competitors.

"Some people have just regular hockey skates. Some people have the more funky looking ones. Some have the long distance skates," Back said.

"Some of them are really elaborate. You look at them and you're like 'holy smokes!' They're this high off the deck and they're pretty impressive to look at," Deuster said.

There is a reason Back's skates stand a little taller than most.

"If you have an inch, two or three of powder, snow on the surface, not stuffed snow on the surface, we can still ride without having the boots plowing in the snow. Besides, you get a bit higher up because it's easier to hold the hand-held sail up higher. The wind is always better higher up," Back said.

In the distance, kites filled the sky as the other events of WISSA were taking place.

"The kiting venue, which is raced on a longer course out on the lake," Deuster said.

Athletes used skis to glide across the ice as the wind-filled kites powered them along.

"The last we got is more like a wind surfing type sail. It is a wind surfing sail and it's run on a board that has four blade runners and it actually steers like a skateboard, so you can lean your body weight to make a turn as opposed to using your sail to make a turn," Deuster said.

"It's a lot like wind surfing," Kellie Nightlinger said.

Nightlinger is a regular visitor to Fond du Lac. She's an ice boarder and wind surfer from Juneau, Alaska. She has been competing for two years, but for her, WISSA was bigger than just the events.

"The community here is amazing. There's a junior young man here from Russia -- you know, a teenager. It's wonderful to see the younger crowd out here. There's also people in their 70s and some pushing 80 or maybe in their 80s. I don't really ask. But I know they're getting up there. Some people have competed longer than I've been alive," Nightlinger said.

That feeling is shared by locals as well, including the Deuster, the president of the Winnebago Association of Kiteboarders.

"I think everybody has got just a love of being out here and whatever their wind apparatus happens to be, they're just happy to be out here I believe," Deuster said.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Winnebago Association of Kiteboarders.

CLICK HERE to learn more about WISSA.