[Closed] Kite Surfing - how difficult?

Never tried it but I'm led to believe it's actually pretty easy...

Get lessons from Airzone at Lee-on-Solent, brilliant guys and years of experience.

Dont just buy kit and get dragged down the beach, it ain’t cool.

Pretty easy to be fair, the only hard part to learn is the multitasking. Flying a kite and riding the board but a good instructor will get the info across and have you up and running quickly. If you get a good wind for 2 days you should be well on your way.

Been doing it for about ten years. Awesome 🙂 Not me, the sport 🙂

Don’t want to invest in lessons if it’s a really hard thing to do.

It's a really hard thing to do safely.  Big power kites will kill you soon as look at you if you don't know what you're doing.  Get lessons.

Personally, I'd learn kite control on land before even thinking about hitting the water.  I've never kite-surfed, but I've used buggies and I'd want complete control over a kite before adding additional complications.

Dont just buy kit and get dragged down the beach, it ain’t cool.

This.

If you can handle a big kite without looking at it, it’s not too tricky. Especially if you’ve done other board sports (particularly wake boarding).

Having shared a beach with several kite surf schools, trying to learn kite skills while lumbered with a board or floating around looks *rubbish*

If you’re keen I’d recommend buying a  5m four line kite and spending some time with it: it’ll always be a good fun kite to own, and will speed your learning down the line.

I did my lessons in Lanzarote and the first time they set me up the kite took me up into the air on the beach with the strength of the wind, and I was held down by the safety rope the instructor had, and I am heavy. The second time we were pulled out of the water in the Atlantic as there was a Mako in the water.

Gotta know the wind and have good balance but in a week you started to get the hang of it - so maybe equivalent to skiing?

Cheers all. From observing the hardest part does seem to be getting from land to sea with kite and board. Kite lessons on land sounds sensible.

The good thing about Meon Shore is there are a lot of really nice guys and girls there who will help you if they can see you have some core skills... down near Hill Head Sailing Club and Monkeys Hill where a lot of folks launch from they too are a nice bunch..

A word of warning, it’s pretty easy to spot someone whose not had any sort of instruction and rightly the locals will advise you to get some instruction before heading out on the water..

Over the years plenty of beaches have been closed because of irresponsible Kiters, please don’t make one of the Solent’s best launch and ride beaches one of them.

Its my local spot, we enjoy plenty of fun down here.. join in, take lesson from the guys at Airzone and go get wet.. Kiting isn’t easy, despite what some may claim. Control and Recovery are key core skills, getting back to the beach without a board is essential to learn.. the launch and land are fairly easy on land but a kite upside down in the water is complex unless you know how to waterstart.

All these (and plenty more) skills are essential to safe fun kiting, instruction will enhance the enjoyment and make others around you feel safe, and we want everyone to enjoy Water sports and ultimately be safe and feel safe.

Enjoy the learning process.. 👍🤩

I did a 2 day course down at sandbanks and was up and riding on the board in that time, I wasn't able to turn round though, more bin it recover and head back the other way.  I had a 3m land kite and board so had a bit of prior experience.  It's a great sport but I reckoned that chances of the right wind conditions and a free day wouldn't actually conincide that much so I didn't take it any further

And just to prove a point..

This was a shout from Hayling Lifeboat today..

Launch today16:00

Hayling Lifeboat paged to respond to reports of a Kite surfer 'packed down' off the Funfair on Hayling Seafront who had not moved for 30 minutes. Crew paged and Atlantic 85 crewed and Launched and made way to scene. On scene discovered 2 persons on one paddleboard - one being the original Kite surfer complete with packed down equipment and the other a paddle boarder who had gone to assist. Both these casualties were escorted ashore into the care of a local Coastguard. Some additional VHF exchanges then took place regarding a brown sail and a casualty in vicinity of Eastoke Corner - the Atlantic therefore performed a shoreline search to confirm there were no other incidents to be handled - the Lifeboat was then stood down and returned to station where it was made ready for service.

Any kitesurfers near Brighton on here? I last kitesurfed 9 years ago and would like to take it up again having moved down here - but no longer know anyone who kites and am not really sure where to start.

I'm from Brighton and don't kitesurf, but a couple of my mates do. I think Hove lagoon is the go-to starting point

I was at Hayling yesterday and left just a bit before that shout was made. It was pretty placid onshore conditions. I'm guessing the kiter had stuffed themselves and was unable to get back in because of that...

Not a kiter but have been tempted. About to start windsurfing again after a long layoff and the simplicity and physical size of the kit appeals in comparison. There was a foiling kiter out yesterday and that looked fun in light airs. Was doing jumps and landing straight back into foiling which looks a pretty skilled thing. When it was very marginal he did spend 20 mins trying to get going which looked quite a lot less cool! Come to think, it might have been him that needed rescuing if the wind dropped on him as he was doing long runs up as far as the fun fair.

Windsurfing friends that have tried a bit of teabagging say that it is easy in comparision but I guess that is people with 20 years of windsurfing and sailing behind them (and a good amount of wake boarding) so quite a lot of transferable skills.

Its really sociable sport, I think partly because it's always helpful to have someone else around to help launch and recover. You see it all the time on the beach, someones at the kite and the riders at the bar and board setting themselves up.

Also, I'd hazard a guess at it's 55/45 Men/Women in the sport. Go along to Meon and you'll see just as many Women out there as Men.

Poole Harbour is a great open expanse of waist high water and plenty of kite schools there, that's definitely a great way to spend a day.

The foiling guys come out from HKA Kite School on Hayling, they can't launch on their part of the beach for two reasons 1) the club (HKA) have battled with Havant BC and Havant BC won which means foils are banned form launching near the Golf Club, normal kiting can, and it's also too shallow on the Bar 2) launching at the open kite beach near the skate park is way easier and more open and no groynes to get in the way.

We lost a kiter in Jan at Hayling, a local who knew the area very well (been windsurfing/kiting for over 20 years) launched, went for a play in 15knts and didn't return. One of the HKA guys watched the kite drop and not relaunch and went over and found him... very sad.

But that does point out that having someone else around is both safe and fun.

I did my IKO 1-2-3 at Glass Beach in Fuerte, I'm wave head windsurfer and I thought I'd give it a go.. so I chose a school and a holiday and went out and enjoyed every minute of it.

Also 2XS on West Wittering run a Kite School, very very knowledgeable and friendly. Always top notch tuition and a beautiful surrounding too.. Could be worth a call....

Modern kit is massively easier than older stuff so you can discount a lot of horror stories from "back in the day".

The best way to learn is combining it with a holiday somewhere warm and windy.  Cape Verde, Mui Me (Vietnam), Tarifa etc.

Another thing to consider from a safety aspect is safety of others.  It might not be immediately obvious, but kite lines travelling at speed at throat height can potentially give a bystander a really bad day.

A word of warning, it’s pretty easy to spot someone whose not had any sort of instruction and rightly the locals will advise you to get some instruction before heading out on the water..

I used to work with a kitesurf instructor. This makes a lot of sense.

Kite lessons on land sounds sensible.

I believe 80% of kitesurfing is kite control. It's certainly how I was being taught before venturing into the water (admittedly 15 years ago).