54. I was living in the Middle East and watching the kiters having fun while I sat on the beach with my windsurfer waiting for a decent wind. And I thought I would NEVER stop windsurfing. The gear is now gathering dust
42. I'm 52 now.
Bought first kite, for light wind days only, as you do after 18 years of windsurfing.
Eleven months later remembered I had a rack full of windsurf gear so went for a sail. It was fun.
Eleven months after that, went for another sail, it was still fun. Then sold the lot for $600. The rack space was more valuable to me than the gear.
14, for younger guys starting out is hard, managed it though!
will keep kiting for long time and then myself and a few other guys here can talk about "the good ol days" of kitesurfing when we were in high school
34
was a poley and living on maui aged 22 when laird was struggling, and i mean really struggling, just to kite downwind from sprecks to kanaha. at the time it just looked like far too much hard work.
had many years away from the water then saw some guys charging in seattle last year when i'd bought an old slalom windsurfing setup cos i was living close to lake washington. the gear looked infinitely more efficient, safer, and easier to use than 12 years earlier. i became curious.
got back to melbourne with an itch to be on the water one way or another. compared price, portability, durability, wind-range and kiting came out so far ahead of windsurfing it was a no-brainer. then rob, seb and alex did over 50knots/500m and i was even more convinced.
one year after my first lesson i'm just starting to unhook and try a range of gear to find something that suits my ambitious-but-no-longer-an-indestructible-twenty-year-old style of riding.
I started at 16 years old, 9 years ago, I learned with wipika kites, the first kite you could buy, 2 lines, and directionnal board F.one 215. and I'm still not good.
Now it runs in the family:
my mother started at 48
my father started at 50
my brother started at 15
my other brother started at 14
started at 47 now watch the wind all the time, kite all year round have three mates who do the same, although a couple get caught up at home a bit ( hahaLOL) no regrets at all just love the rush!!!!!!!!!! 
never too much !!!! spend far too much on the gear though
...."12 !!!!! " **** your probably gonna be pretty good by the time you are old !
like say ........15
wish I started when I was 12.
Make the most of it whilst you can, ride as hard as you can while your body still bounces. Once you get to about 25 things start to go downhill and by 32 those stacks where you used to just bounce up and keep going, become sock knocking winders that leave you thinking " perhaps thats enough for today "
