Kiteboarding Adventure
Last week, we hosted Brian and Jenna on their 1st cruiser overnight and shark fishing trip. This week, it was Brian’s turn to introduce us to something new - kiteboarding. Kiteboarding combines kite flying (really big kite flying) and wakeboarding for a fun action watersport. Yesterday, we had ideal wind conditions to get out and learn. Read on for the story, photos, and video.
The Baby Kite
Brian started us on a baby 6′ kite to learn about controlling its direction. This kite was quite sensitive to control inputs and was fun to fly as we got the hang of it. We had some impressive crashes in the process - one of the reasons to start with a small, relatively cheap, and somewhat robust kite. You can watch John fly the training kite in the video below.
Beach Practice
Once we could fly the training kite for a few minutes without crashing, Brian upgraded us to a 14′ ‘real’ kite. This kite is the real deal and requires a harness similar to a climbing rig to keep it attached. Besides directional control, this kite also has ‘power’ control which is used to adjust the pulling thrust while kiteboarding. With the power on, it will easily drag you down the beach. The bigger kite moves a bit slower, but we still had some good crashes.
Into the Water
We had ‘cool’ conditions for us Floridians with temps in the 50’s and the moderate 15-20mph winds. John suited up in a wetsuit to join Brian for the on-water attempt at kiteboarding. As the photos and videos show, he was a good sport for a number of impressive crashes while getting a feel for starting up on a wakeboard via wind power. You can note Brian’s concern for the student in the photo at right.
Perserverance paid off and John got a 30 yard 1st run in - followed shortly by some longer runs. Brian capped off the morning working with a new 16′ kite he bought for a song off e-bay. Thanks Brian for a fun morning and we look forward to trying this again.
