Not here to bag kitesurfing its looks like fun. Just want to respond to the "grim faced missile of death" comment. Got into course racing this year and I know when it time to go down wind with a big sail in strong winds my face must surely look grim. When I bear away around the top mark locked into the harness & straps, fully sheeted in and hanging on with my toenails its full concentration. You feel the board accelerate and its starts leaping off the back of chop onto the the next wave in front, start praying I dont catch a rail, teeth gritted, heart rate must be topping 190 and adrenaline is pumping,on the edge of control, awesome feeling. At that time theres nothing else in the world only what i,m doing then and there, I might not be smiling but that doenst mean I,m not having fun.
Also not here to bag kiting, but to answer
Do you think this windsurfing vs kitesurfing is a bit like surfing to bodyboarding?
When body boards came into fashion in the 90's (think Wingnut and Manta) loads more people were on the beach, all of a sudden the beach was more accessable.... possibly those who found surfing hard took it up.... but both "classes" had some brilliant hardcore waterman(women).... both had their fun, massive shories on esky lids, and styling on surfboards.....
I think kitesurfing has become popular because "apparently" its not as hard to learn. Windsurfing takes loads of dedication.
I will say I haven't kite surfed and can only form my opinion from what kiters and windsurfers who have kited have told me about kiting. Nor am I against it.
At the end of the day, happy for windsurfing to stay at the numbers its at. In VIC there is a good friendly community, and I like it like that. Newbies get loads of help and lots of free clinics run by Inverloch Windsurfing Club, with heaps of help for people at any level. I can't relate to the hostile windsurfers comments, pretty much every time I have been out people are chilled and friendly.....
Saying that, all the kiters I have seen out are friendly and chilled too and will drop by on the beach and have a chat...... maybe the Vic weather tappers us down here.....
At first, I did try learn to ski all by mayself.
With disastrous result and no progress for a few years. Then I joined professional training camp and learned ski in one week !!! Now I know I could take complete beginning moron and teach him in just three days to ski.
Possibly similar analogy apply to kite and windsurfing (that you need professional or consistent advice), but with that difference that I could not imagine average guy to learn windsurfing in less then a year.
I could be wrong but it could be handy to see results from windsurfing school for such milestones :
How many lesson / hours/ days to learn on average (say for 5 in the group of 10 pupils) ?
- waterstart
- plane gybing
This two milestones stand for me for windsurfing proficiency definition...
Macroscien, I lived next to a popular flatwater windsurfing spot for 17 years and witnessed many learners progress to waterstarting within 2 weeks, usually with tuition. Gybing on a plane is another story.
A good learning technique, which I believe I read about in Peter Hart's seminal windsurfing book, is to try to visualize a move (e.g. duckgybe) when going to sleep. The next day you may well find that your motor memory knows how to do it. Works for me.
I've done some kitesurfing and believe it has a much shorter learning curve, and a similar fun factor to windsurfing. I don't think it's as safe as windsurfing though - my kiting friends often talk of long swims back to the shore and of being dragged/flown into all sort of ground-based objects...
Kitesurfing is much easier, it took me a few days to learn as opposed to a few months to get going on a short board with windsurfing. And this is the crux of the problem with kitesurfing, it's too easy to do hence the masses of noobs getting into the sport and creating all the issues associated with it. As far as enjoyment I prefer windsurfing, kiting is OK, but you are restricted. My local sailing spot is 2km out to sea, you can't realistically kite out there due to the fact it's 2 km out to sea. Also in 3/4 years time, if kiting continues as it is, there will be very few places you can legally kite. As soon as one council bans it on their beaches, others will follow suit.
Love your analogy to surfboards and body boards k dog. I totally agree but around these parts there are no windsurfers. We get a few groups up here at the start of the season when we have swell and decent wind but by Christmas there are only kites. Crowding isn't a problem yet and everyone looks out for each other no matter what there on with beers etc shared by all at the end of the day. I think with a large part of our season having light wind and no swell the kites are more popular. The windsurfers also seem to have trouble with all the shallow reef.
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Yeah and then there's the wind - too windy and you can't kite! As soon as it hits 20+ knots it gets wery wery quiet..
we dont even go kiting until its 20+ kts down here!!
Select to expand quotesomeawe said...
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Yeah and then there's the wind - too windy and you can't kite! As soon as it hits 20+ knots it gets wery wery quiet..
we dont even go kiting until its 20+ kts down here!!
Show off!
moving from windsurf to kitesurf, i've noticed the depower on a few years old kite is like going from a 7m to a 5m sail, very handy to stay out there and trim the lines on the fly or come in for a quick front line knot adjust
If i had the dough i would windsurf in winds above 25 knts, this is when windsuring gets fun.
the other day at scabs i was fairly lit on the 7 just to watch a poor windsurfer losing ground trying to plane, in approx 20knts maybe a kook???? i think it says it all. i overtook him full bottle he was bopping up and down like a float on a fishing rig!!!! or someone dunking a dilmah tea bag... there's just not enough days in perth to warrant windsurfing unless you live in gero or have a spot x all to yourself.
by the time that you area any good at either sport if you have chosen wind surfing you will still be allowed to do it (particularly if you live around Perth where kitesurfing will be a thing of the past due to bans)
