[Closed] Kite Surfing

Not personally, taught myself years ago (2001ish), but what would you like to know.

It's great if you like the idea of getting beasted for a week. Water doesn't provide a soft landing and the kites are very powerful.

I did it for a couple of weeks in the Red sea a few years ago. It was good fun.

man up a bit gonefishin - water is a damn sight softer than sand (think kiteboarding on land!) 🙂

You should never be getting beasted during lessons/early learning if taught correctly, the worst you'll get is a few low-speed faceplants. Things only start to hurt if you're out in too much wind or drop like a stone from a high jump. Or REALLY cock it up by not taking any notice of your instruction. My sister in law recently learned in Egypt, and she's really not keen on being beasted!

A good kitesurf school won't allow you to get spanked, safety is a number one priority although it doesn't look like a safe sport! It's their livlihood and reputation at stake.

If you have flown powerkites on the land for sometime expect to progress quickly. If you can snowboard / wakeboard / skateboard or surf, things may come more easily. If you have a basic understanding of sailing this will also help.

You need to be farily confident in the water as there are quite alot of duckings in the beginning.

If you don't have any of these experiences or skills you may find yourself a bit frustrated and not get the chance to get up on a board. A lot of kit flying and body dragging in the water proceeds putting a board on your feet, so this will be the staple of an introdauction course

All in all though it's a frikin' blast. I highly recommend it to anyone. Be aware though the airtime is highly addictive and easy to acheive, so you may find the MTB gathering dust when the sun is out and the wind is blowing.......... 😉

Real beginner here. Just saw something fleetingly on the 'net about courses in Lanzarote and thought that would be good to do next month.

Forgot to add that I am a good swimmer and have surfed/skateboarded before though

Is this Kite surfing then?
[URL]

Caher,

I reckon you should give it a crack, if it's not crazy expensive. The winds in Lanzarote can be a little fickle in October. Trade winds are at their most consistent in the summer, so be patient.

There's plenty of schools in the UK though if you need another couple of hours of tuition when you get back.

I just hope you live near a beach, otherwise there's going to be a lot of driving going on..........I used to drive 2.5 hours there and back to go kiting for the day.

Thankfuly its only 30 mins now!

We also have a British 5 x World Champion at the age of 21 too!

Check Arron's sight for some inspiration.

http://www.aaronhadlow.com/

Kitesurfing: It's as if somebody took all the bits of windsurfing that frustrate me, and that I'm not very good at and packaged them up as a separate sport. And yes, I have done it, and got going.

I stayed at an apartment on Kite Beach in Cabarete this summer and watched miserable people getting dragged about a lot.

They say the learning curve is rapid. Well, it is for the 20% who get it, but there's that 80% who don't and who quit after the first couple of days. And once you've learnt the basics, well, frankly it's a bit dull unless you're prepared to put a whole lot of effort into getting to the next level.

Mind you, the afternoon that a tropical storm came through and wiped out all the windsurfing one guy went out for an hour on a kite and he really looked to be having fun. I don't know how he managed - the rain was stinging our faces just standing on the beach.

But all-in-all, I think its just the next trend, like jet-ski-ing.

been kiting for 3 summers now - learnt in Tarifa 2007. compliments biking perfectly - riding when it's windy isn't fun, so go kiting, wind drops/starts raining, back on the bike.

It's very addictive though, once you start jumping, I seriously had trouble sleeping at night for thinking about kiting.

My advice, get some lessons - it's still a potentially dangerous sport. Get some insurance. and get yourself the new Progression DVD:

[url= http://www.progression.me/videos/type/dvds/progression-kiteboarding-beginner-dvd-2nd-edition/ ]Progression kiteboarding[/url]

very well made and gives you a lot of knowledge that you can top up between sessions.

If you're happy on a snow/surfboard, then the kiteflying bit will be the biggest challenge - worth buying a small cheap powerkite and flying it in a field for hours and hours before you go - it makes a huge difference to your learning curve...

I'm off to Tarifa next week for four days, can't wait!!

🙂

We went to Egypt this summer with the express intention of learning to kitesurf. We booked a ten hour beginners package of 10 hours for my 15 year old daughter and myself at £200 each. When we got there and talked to other clients it became clear that this wouldn't be enough to get us up and running with most folk needing 15-20 hours worth. After 8 hours I could do it 'in spurts', but lack of wind was hindering progress. I enquired about further lessons, and another 10 hours would have cost us £300 each. Enough was enough: £1000 to learn a new and potentially very dangerous sport, and then having to purchase kit adding up to at least another grand, and then having no mates to go and do it with, seemed a bit daft. So for the second week I re-discovered windsurfing and it was great, especially when i was racing dolphins on the last day of the hols!

(I recommend Moon Beach for a laid back get away from it all place, its not 5 star but its very chilled).

i'd give landkiting a go first. the most important thing is to learn how to fly a kite - where the power is, how it reacts to imput through the bar.
you can buy a decent land kite (if it hits the water it'll not fly again till it's dried out) for around £100, probably less on ebay/kite forum classifieds.

it's a darn sight cheaper than kitesurfing if you do decide you enjoy it enough to take it up; do you know how much wet suits cost? and water kites are ****ing expensive and have a limited wind range in which they can be used (depending upon style of kite - flysurfer and lynn kites have a wider wind range)

as said above, it can be and is a very dangerous sport. if you've weak knees, brittle bones or bruise easily i'd advise you to have a think about it.

i tried kitesurfing once but almost drowned (i swim like a cat). horrible experience.

Ah, yes, sailing with the dolphins at Moon Beach. And all that lovely swell about a mile offshore - and the falafel...

and water kites are ****ing expensive and have a limited wind range in which they can be used (depending upon style of kite - flysurfer and lynn kites have a wider wind range)

Simply not true Alpin, I think you're a bit misled there. Yes they're expensive but some of the modern inflatable kites put PL kites to shame and are a lot faster, but handle differently to land kites. Never played with a flysurfer but spent a lot of time on PL arcs/g-arcs. Something bow-like (inflatable water kite like a Waroo) can be had for ~ 200 quid second hand these days and will see 20-25 knot ranges (though not recommended for beginners at those extremes). They also provide near total depower and a range of safety options, something that PL kites seemed to struggle with a bit which was a shame as I liked using them.

Id certainly agree you want to get a small kite on land first, but I tried kite landboarding and gave it up after 4 sessions, it's so much more picky than water fun, the crashes hurt more and the scope for accidents is possibly larger.

Kiting is not a cheap sport when done properly. But you can get a 2nd hand board for 100, a kite n lines for 200, a harness for 50, a cheapo wetsuit for 50 and you're away. Some people take to it after a few hours, some take tens of hours. Once you're able to get up in spurts you can generally teach yourself from that point and you have all the safety knowledge. I started out in the days when the ARC1120 was the new thing (hell, they'd only just switched to 4 line kites!) and I taught myself on a deserted beach with a good few draggings and a lofting. HEre was my favourite after a clean, I wedged it and added a belly-zip for inflation myself - worked a treat:
[img] [/img]

yeah, ok. i'm not into water based kiting. too dependant upon tides/wind interfaces. lucky that i had two large fields near to me and could pop off for two or three hours after work without any fuss.

plus some of those boys out in the water looked ****ing cold, despite the sunshine.

i've not really flown a peter lynn arc. they never looked all that elegant in the air and you've a lot of fabric for their power.

i'm down to two flysurfers now. an old Rookie 6m and Speed 10m. the speed is an awesome kite. hangtime is silly long when you get it right. lots of depower, plus you can adjust the lines at the kite end to change it's turning speed/lift and again at the bar with the depower line.

roll on winter..... (and snow)

Agree with CK,

You can get a set up these days (kite, board, harness, wetsuit, helmet) for around £800. not cheap, but then neither is mountain biking.

kites these days offer a lot of wind range, and typically you'll use one kite size for about 80% of the time.

learning, well, that does depend on the person, but 20 hours seems like a lot. as I said earlier, a few days spent with a smallish power kite will make a huge difference to how long it takes you to learn with a larger, more powerful kite.

best advice though is to avoid kites more than 3 years old, prior to this they were a lot more unpredictable, with less depower and in the wrong hands pretty dangerous.

I'll say it again, get insurance, get lessons and you'll have a bloody brilliant time.

Well booked to go next week and get out of this snow but now having read the replies with the words 'dangerous sport' i am begininng to be slightly worried!

I was about to reply to this then I realised I did 4 months ago!

Let us know how you go on, enjoy!

coffeeking - Member

man up a bit coffeeking - sand is a damn sight softer than earth

i'd suggest getting a small 2nd hand kite to learn on. something like a HQ Beamer 3m.

oh, and don't worry about the snow..... the snow is where it's at!!!!

[img] [/img]

edit: wooooo... old thread!

I would agree with comments above that kite control is the the key, flying the kite is 90% of the sport I would say. The kites are very powerful and you need to know how to handle them confidently to have fun.

Lots of people do it and love it so why not give it a go?

I used to kite a lot.... used to landboard with 18m Phantom kites, great fun but potentially lethal, sand hurts from 20ft up but the speed you can get is just crazy! water was fun but more time consuming

Start with a 2m PKD buster, very easy to use and little power (but you will be shocked if you have never flown a proper kite, work up to a 4m fixed which will be pretty powerful. Then once you have a good 6 months experience try a de-power kite around 7m. then again work slowly up. Always pay attention to the wind and never use too big a kite!

Kite surfing from scratch is dangerous as you can drown as well as get ditched, and you can get stuck in the middle of no where. if you want to see what they CAN do watch this

personally i would learn on land, transition to water is far easier! I got to the stage where I could hit 30-40mph easily then turn with a 20ft jump and then back the other way, huge power slides... great fun on the beach on a summers day! the downsides.... drying kites all the time, getting sand off them otherwise they die, driving miles to find anywhere to fly (most places are banned now or you need a licence and club membership) that said I really miss the sport but politics and rules ruined it for me. If you want mroe info have a look at www.flexifoilforums.com

What's going on with your quoting there alpin?!

This is a holy thread revival situation isn't it! I wonder if anything came of the thought?

Just going back up a few comments:

They say the learning curve is rapid. Well, it is for the 20% who get it, but there's that 80% who don't and who quit after the first couple of days. And once you've learnt the basics, well, frankly it's a bit dull unless you're prepared to put a whole lot of effort into getting to the next level.

True, not everyone "gets" it, but I'd say 80% was not exactly realistic. I actually don't know of anyone who has tried it and not got to a stage where they could be let out on their own fairly quickly. And I personally don't find it at all dull just blasting too and fro on the water, but progression to tricks comes very rapidly and easily once you're used to trusting the kite and being confident with it, a darn sight easier than windsurfing IME!

They'll tell you kitesurfing from scratch is dangerous, and of course it is, but that depends on your levels of common sense, location and control. I taught myself before there were lessons available, on kites that are significantly more dangerous than modern ones and only suffered a couple of minor scuffs (broken lines = beasting through big waves, launching an ARC1120 directly downwind in near cliffs is dangerous if you miss the squall thats heading towards you), but there are those who've died, been smashed into cars, dragged over buildings etc, and none of that helps the sport so generally its a fairly good idea to get lessons.

also the most important thing is others.. lines at 70mph when you whip the kite can decapitate someone, generally people dont care about the pilot, councils etc only care about the risk to by standers etc... I did meet someone who lost a finger with the lines, also sadly met someone who has subsequently died .. got caught by a huge gust and got lofted. It was a 13mph day he had a 20m peter lynn out, he got hit by a 25 mph gust, no time to pull the safety. I had this issue on a Blade 3 10m luckily I took a very high 30ft high drift for around 20 seconds, I am very lucky I got away with that, so in a nut shell a lot of uk locations can be a bit dangerous as the wind is not stable

Wind is never stable and fully predictable, you take that risk and accept it when you lock yourself to your kite. I agree though, other people are the priority.

coffee are you on flxi forums?

You need to be working up to [url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8362671.stm ]this[/url]

gezzzz.. crazy

I have seen a good 50ft jump on land.. made me shudder, I will find a link but there is a great vid on the web somewhere of a bloke with a normal sabre 12m going down the side of a mountain around a 1000ft he just keep looping and using the up draft, pretty amazing!

sorry coffeeking,

coffeeking - Member

man up a bit gonefishin - water is a damn sight softer than sand (think kiteboarding on land!)

that top hat clip is a bit extreme. not something that happens often.

beaware that flying on land is a lot more dangerous than on the coast. the trees, hills and buildings can cause the wind to chop and change and creates turbulance.

first time i tried kite surfing was memorable as i also drowned. i'm quite an accomplished kiter on land and have no qualms about boosting high, 360s, toeside riding, inverted jumps, etc....
went to croatia for a week of partying but ended up spending most nights on the beach. got out a few times on the water but there was never really enough wind.
woke up one morning and the wind was blowing a gale. unpacked the kite, grabbed my board and waded out into the water. got up and planing along nicely. at this spot you could walk out a goo 100yrds or more and still be only waist deep. loads of power through the lines, massive rooster tail, kite in the sweet spot. blasting along. then BAM. the nose of the board hit a wave. i went diving headfirst into the water and got dragged by the waist under the water. i came up, the kite still fully inflated (Flysurfer, not an LEI) and pulling like crazy. i got the kite stable over head, went to steady myself on the floor and dropped beneath the surface upon trying to stand up. i then realised that i was a long way out - 300-400m from the shore. i'm not the strongest swimmer and i swim like a cat at the best of times. nor did i have a wetsuit on so i wans't massively bouyant. i then body dragged for the next 20 mins back to the shore. i'd lost the board, was coughing up salt water. i laid ontop of the kite for 10 minutes to stop it blowing away and for me to catch my breath. went back to the shack where some (newly found croatian) friends were. then spent the next 3 hours in an outboard motored dinghy searching for the board. found it evetually right at the other end of the bay.

i'm stick to sand, land and snow from now on.

by land I used to kite on beaches so no trees etc to mess the wind... you cannot beat a board on a huge beach!

I am going to Fuerteventura where here is a beginner’s school. My intension is just to do a non-office activity for the week - I am sure I will not be much better by the end of the week.
But i'd like to keep most of my body parts.

crash - used to be but it got far too full of idiots and egos, I only dip in there from time to time now (coyoteboy).

Alpin, sounds very much like my broken-line incident! Vowed never to go in off-shore winds ever again at that point.

Caher - Fuerte is supposed to be nice, but very busy. Personally I hate busy places, I feel like I'm putting everyone at risk and being "watched", but these tend to be the places with the most student-throughput so probably the best for teaching too, and rock-steady winds for most of the day. If you take another half, make sure you take a way for them to be sheltered on the beach, very often basically a sandstorm on the beach from what I hear!

re-reading this thread makes kiting sound suicidal. it's not. there is a risk (as in biking) but that's where you get the pleasure from. it's technical, it's physical, it's inclusive (most people can get to grips with it, though not as much as biking, admittedly)

kiting on your own ain't clever.

kitesurfing when you can only "swim like a cat" ain't clever either.

don't go further out than you would be happy to swim in (preferably not as far as that)

if you're a bit worried about conditions, that it might be a bit much, stay on the beach and watch others for a while, then if you still don't feel good. sack it off and go for a bike ride.

get lessons. get insurance. You'll love it. nowadays I have real trouble sitting still in the summer when the trees start swaying under the wind.

if you're a bit worried about conditions, that it might be a bit much, stay on the beach and watch others for a while, then if you still don't feel good. sack it off and go for a bike ride.

Good advice, but I do tend to find that the longer I stay on the beach the more I convince myself I'm not capable. Then I put a kite up under duress and realise it's fine, if possibly underpowered lol.

Thanks jimbobrighton for the less 'dangerous' words, it’s properly organised for beginners. I bike here in the Alps so I reckon that could have an element of risk too.

Alpin,

I have a 3m2 Radsails 4 line kite that I'm pretty confident flying in a field/ on a beach. It has 2 handles. If I want to use a control bar and harness when I'm on my skis (for scottish ski touring), what should I be looking at? Do the bars just 'hook' onto the harness, taking the pull, but leaving the pilot(?) free to control the bar (& therefore kite)?

Normally the bars just take the front lines through to the harness spreader bar, *with a quick release* for emergency, and the rears go to the tip of the bars, allowing angle of attack change and turning.
[img] [/img]

I'd assumed the powerlines went to the tips, and the brakes went to the middle. Do different systems work differently?

if you've a harness you can attach a line between the handles as below:

[img] [/img]

but make sure you wear kite-killers too.

not much point in having to fiddle and tweak the kite just so you can fly it on a bar. besides you know how it flys on handles. the turning and flying performance will be altered if you fly it on a bar.

as coffeeking said it can be done:

[img] [/img]

i've a mate who only flys on handles with a harness as he prefers the feel.

personally i think depower kites are for bars, traditional four-lines for handles.

oh, and have fun!

EDIT: coffeeking's pic shows a depower set up. the Radsail isn't a depower kite. if you were to fly it with a bar, the bar wouldn't have the ability to move up and down (if memory serves me right).

My radsail runs fine on a depower bar, in fact I'd not have it any other way. There should be no difference between a normal bar and a depower bar on a normal 4 line foil, other than the fact that on a non-depower bar you'll lose the ability to "brake" the kite with both back lines. I ran my radsail on a bar that was just all lines attached to the bar, it nearly killed me as I couldn't slow it without making it head upwards, which induced jumps. With the depower bar you can effectively pull both rear lines and drop the kites forward airspeed, but it does produce more downwind drag. I think that's the tradeoff of windspeed vs apparent windspeed generated when you get moving. Personal preference I suppose. Handles nearly killed me too as the loop I was using to attach to the spreader couldn't be unhooked under power - eeek!