Hi guys, i saw a guy kitesurfing a few weeks ago in spain and thought it looked fun so ive been checking out the forum.been reading through the posts and a lot of you guys have mentioned the neccesity to have lessons as they are expensive I was wondering how many lessons you guys had before you went solo? I snowboarded for about 8 years and have wakeboarded a couple of times am I right in saying that these skills will be transferable to kite surfing? went out today down South Shields with my mates Flexifoil Blade Powerkite and had a blast. I thought I did really well being a newbie and got some slides in although the wind was relatively week lol. Oh I was also wondering too if there were specific seasons to do it in? someone mentioned to me today that the sea is warmer in the winter than the summer is this true or an old wives tail. Cheers

Hi,

heres a brief rundown of what you will learn on a 3 day kitesurfing course:

day one - some theory, flying a powerkite, setting up a LEI (kitesurfing kite), water session where you will learn body draging and SAFETY.

day 2- this is where you are introduced to the board, if the instructor feels you need to do some more bodydragging to improve youre kite skills then the board might not be introduced untill a few hours into day 2, from there you will learn your board starts.

day 3- is a day where you tidy up and loose ends, nailing the boardstart,learn some other landing and launching techniques ect.

for full details on whats involved on each day click on the link in my signiture.

a 2 day lesson will probably be sufficient for you aslong as you put in some hours with your mates blade and this will help you LOADS when learning on the water as you wont have to worry about the kite as much and with your past boardsports experience the board part should click into place quite easily aswell.



the water is temp lags a couple of months or so behind the air temp so basicly its at its warmest now and by next month it will start cooling down a bit but to be honest our sea temp doesent fluctuate to much anyway.
as for seasons there is none for me its a year round sport but for a learner I would say the cut off point is about the end of october

hope this helps
if you have any questions just ask or you can email me using the email ad below

jamie

Hey. Yeah lessons are definitely the best option. There's too much that can go wrong that you wouldn't know how to deal with if you didn't have lessons. Also you'll progress a hell of a lot faster with lessons. The skills from wakeboarding and snowboarding will be helpful with kitesurfing but the biggest element will always be the kite as it is your source or power.
If you're interested in lessons then there's KA kitesurfing which is a BKSA school run by kev. The website is http://www.kitesurfinglessons.co.uk/

good luck

Jen

Cheers for the lowdown guys, I think ill practice a lot with the kite before I start the lessons, Thanx again

I know I'll probly get shot down and snarrled at for this but It's probly worth you getting the other side argument.

I didn't have lessons. I was in a very similar situation to yourself. I had 3.5m foil with 4 line handles much like the blade. I had been flying that just at the beach or in parks, without a board. I just used it for jumping about or getting dragged around on my arse. I had that kite for about a year and flew it maybe once or twice a month. I had also snowboarded for about 8 years.

In about april this year I saw a cheap kite surfing kite going for sale and just thought "why not, i'll give it a go". I then got all my other kiting gear second hand too. Mind you, I did quite a lot of research about what type of board and harness to buy. But I didn't buy a helmet or life jacket, just a normal wet suit.

Having flown the foil I was fairly confident in knowing where the power was on the kite and how to use the wind window. I did a lot of research on the net about how to launch and lanch the kite, use the control bar and MOST importantly how to use the leash. So I started by flying it on the beach and leashing it until it became second nature before I got in the water. I also had a mate with me the whole time apart from one time when I asked some other friendly kite surfers at the beach to give me a launch and give me some pointers. Before even launching on the beach I had researched what wind conditions were right for my kite and which directions worked for various places. The internet is a wonderfull place! Wind Guru and google maps satellite view and a splash of common sense can get you to the right beach in the right wind.

In terms of actually teaching yourself. I found body dragging very obvious, I dont see how lessons in body dragging would have changed my approach. Within half an hour I could upwind body drag.
However, board starting was very difficult and my 8 years in snowboarding didn't mean a thing. In terms of water starting and getting going for the first time it's completly different!!! It probably only started to feel similar to me when I got to the stage where I could plain confidently without concentrating on the kite and paying more attention to my stance and body position (as you would when bombing down a moutnain on a snowboard). BUT, i did it. It took me about 2 or 3 weeks with the board before I could say I could confidently water start and get going. Bearing in mind 2 - 3 weeks would have only been 2 or 3 sessions lasting 2 - 3 hours.

Sorry if this seems like I'm having a go and i'm not tying to de-value lessons (I know there are some instructors on here) but I just wanted to share my story because I was in exactly the same situation and a friend of mine told me exactly this same story when he learn't and that influenced my descision not to invest in lessons. Its just the other side of the coin. What I will say though is get INSURANCE and don't use a BOARD LEASH!!

If you decide to go for it, get some hours in with the blade and when you buy a kite get a second hand one because you will trash it. Do however get a post 2007 one with lots of depower.

Cameron

Cheers for your side of the story Cameron you raise some valid points, I guess its down to what the individual can afford at the end of the day and thats why I was asking how many lessons it normally takes as if it took as many lessons as it took me to pass my car test there would be no chance lol. I guess for all the information especially the safety aspect lessons are worth the money. I suppose with starting out the water you cannot draw comparisons with snowboarding but what about wakeboarding? is this quite similar?? as ive managed to pop out the water and ride on a few occassions. The kite ive been flying has handles, will there be much of a learning curve using a bar instead? cheers once again for your reply, appreciate it

Lessons are vitally important. Not just for getting up and riding, but more importantly, the safety aspects of it. Kitesurfing is an extreme sport and has/is still known to kill people (Don’t let this put you off by the way). That coupled together with flying a massive power kite in a howling gale, on the water only has a recipe for one thing if you do not know what you are doing = ACCIDENT/A&E!

Believe me, you cannot learn this from reading a book or watching a video on the Internet!

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Bang! Bang! Cameron, I’m gonna shoot you down…I’m surprised it’s taken so long for anyone to say owt here like….Andrew is so polite with his words, I however am not so.

I watched you once at Budle and my first thoughts were ‘look oot’ this ones a proper hot potato, I proceeded to take the wide berth. This was just before you hammered your what looked like a large blue and yellow C kite in the killer marin grass at 100mph, nowt worse when it happens like. My general thoughts were what is this guy doing over there….he’s a walking liability.

Reading your post now reconfirms my initial thoughts, I’ll be sure to always take that wide berth. Believe me your not out the woods yet it’s early days in your kitesurfing career, your going to get into some very sticky situations kitesurfing some you might be able to handle others you won’t know what to do, lets hope there will be someone at hand to help you out, or all your homework pays off, good luck in the future.

From my perspective, by not getting lessons your making fellow kitesurfers session more awkward, I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every two seconds because there is a loose canon out there somewhere. For the sake of everyone on the beach, get lessons, and don’t try the ‘billy I’ll be a hero’ approach like Cameron here.

I Love the Hooulie!

The Borginsteiner

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feel like i need to add something to this debate

i too started with a 3.5m foil on handles, i flew this kite on the beach for 2 years before getting a harness and buying a landboard before adding a 6.5m foil also on handles to my kites, i then progressed onto the water with 2 days lessons, all this previous experience with kites and landboarding still didn't give me all the safety information and progession that i learnt in those 2 days with a qualified, experienced instructor, however it did help me with kite control and the wind window
i would seriously recommend having lessons not only for your own safety and peace of mind but also for the safety of other beach users, not just kitesurfers.

i have seen even experienced kitesurfers getting into difficulty on the water and having to be rescued by the RNLI, as andrew stated kitesurfing is an extreme sport for a reason and can be dangerous, i'm not trying to put you or anyone else off the sport after all everyone on this forum absolutely loves it and for good reason but we all have a responsibility to be safe and try to keep others safe

sorry if i seem to be preaching but
get lessons even if its only 1 or 2 days

having only 1 day course with instructor usually body dragging etc,i went and tried to get experience through other kitesurfers budle bay and first time found out the hard way and no one would help,till i met two experienced kitesurfers who helped me with kite etc,remember once sitting on beach and they said conditions wherent right so we will wait,next thing someone went out and he got in too trouble hence find some experienced and friendly kitesurferes,get lessons know there are expensive have seen some kitesufers pay a lot of money and not take up sport paul