I am considering kiteboarding for those days when its not possible to surf. I live on a bay and have what I think would be a great area to learn. I am wondering if anyone can tell me the best route to enter this facet of surfing as far as beginner equipment and where to get it. Also wondering how much the average kite set up should cost. Any advice is welcome.
Thanks
I am considering kiteboarding for those days when its not possible to surf. I live on a bay and have what I think would be a great area to learn. I am wondering if anyone can tell me the best route to enter this facet of surfing as far as beginner equipment and where to get it. Also wondering how much the average kite set up should cost. Any advice is welcome.
Thanks
try windsurfing (sailboarding), it’s closer to surfing…
have look at some images…
Whether you windsurf or kiteboard really depends on the amount of consistent wind you have. I’ve been sailboarding for 25 years. I live in the LA area and we don’t have a lot of wind here. Luckily I travel to the SF bay area a lot on business which allows me to windsurf a lot. I will start kiteboarding this coming spring as the equipment is smaller and lighter for this area considering the lack of strong wind. Windsurfing is an expensive endeaver. The sails have a small window of power. You’ll need a different sail for every 5 knots of wind. I’m not sure about kite sails, but I believe they have a larger window. I have 4 sailboards, 78, 82, 92, and 101 liters. think you can get away with 1-2 kiteboards.
Looks like it’s pretty close to surfing
I’m learning to kite as well…I’ve been out a couple times and am currently building a board to be ready for spring. I have 2 kites - 10M & 16M, although for my size, 12 & 16 would be better. My friend who’s teaching me gave me the 10, so who’s complaining? Not me 
I have done quite a bit of windsurfing in the past. I don’t wanna do any more. Equipment intensive to da max. You might as well get into off road-racing. Plus 20 minutes to rig - and that’s if you have a vehicle dedicated to the sport & loaded, ready to go.
A whole kite rig fits in a bag the size of a golf bag. Keep it in the car - you get to the beach & its onshore…fire up the kite.
If the “Bay” you’re talking about is the SF Bay, you couldn’t be in a better place. PM me if you want details.
BTW, kiteboards are not real big. And if you make one on the larger side (mine is 140 cm * 39 cm which is huge by KB standards) you can use less kite for the wind strength and the only downside is less big airs. I’m ok with that So, being not real big, they’re great to practice your vac bagging & composite construction…
This here is, from the bottom up, double 4 oz e, 1/16" balsa, 4 oz crowfoot (biaxial weave), 1/2" d-cell, 4 oz crowfoot, 1/16" balsa, double 4 oz e. All epoxy resin…
OK ! Lets clear things up here. There is Kite surfing(Salth 20 picture rideing the wave) He is riding on a surfboard. Then there is Kiteboarding. The board that Benny shows is a Kiteboard. It is used for flat water and getting big air and doing tricks. It comes from the wake surfers. Bennys board must be powered up on a full plane at all times. You ride it on the edge and the shape Concave gets you up on plane fast.After that you are on the edge all the time. your speed is determind by the length or edge that is in the water. Your ability to go to windward and and how much pop you have is determined by how much flex you have. Flex x Pop = big air = good thing. You can ride these in the waves but you have to stay powered up which normally mean you out run the wave- not good. These boards have no floatation and are indestructable,which is good for big air. Now the surfboard shapes are, well surfboards but built stronger.They have floatation and you are able to surf them on waves just like a surfboard. You park your kite at the edge of the window so it is not powered and surf the wave. If you need more speed you power the kite a little. Need a lot of speed dump the kite to power and slingshot the board. Flex in a kite surfboard is probably a good thing for surfing the waves but it also means you will brake the board. So better no flex and use your kite for power. More weight is needed on a kitesurboard because you want to be able to cut through the chop at high speeds. Yes, when the wind is up it’s very choppy. I have found that concave not to be good as at speed you are sucking so much air under the board that you can not keep it on the water and you get cavitation and will spin out. You can get rid of the cavitation with the right kind of fins but you still lose controle. V seems to help here. So some guys will have 2 boards. A surfboard shape and a Kiteboard shape (Bi-directional) The surfboard shape you have to learn to change stance (switch foot) on your jibes. The Bi-directional you dont have to change stance, both end of the board are the same. As far as kites go most guys have 3 kites. If you use the newer Bo Kites then 2 kites. The advatage of the Bo kites is there broader power range and you can completly de-power your kite to surf the waves.The dis-advatage is they are very expensive. So for starting you are best off starting with used 4 line medium aspect kites.Because all the experienced kiters are changeing to the Bo kites there are a lot of good used 4 line medium aspect kites around for only a couple hundred bucks. Try to hook up with some local kiters to help you get started in Kiting. If you don"t have some one help you one small mistake while launching or landing and you can expect stitches and broken bones. Much more dangerouse than surfing or wind surfing. You should start out learning to fly a small practice kite maybe one meter.Fly it with the bar and harness set up that you will use on your big kites. Practice untill you can fly that thing in your sleep, with your eyes closed,and upside down. The more you practice with that sucker the fast your learning curve will be when you get in the water. You don’t have to learn to surf , you already know that so that part will be easy. FLY The KIte! Allways FLY the Kite, in time you wont even have to look at the kite your arms will know what to do just by experience and the feel on the lines. It is OK to use a 2 line learner kite but if anyone trys to sell you their old 2 line kites-don’t they are are to out dated and very dangerouse. Just for whatevers- I have been surfing since 1964, and wind surfed for 16 year and have been kiting for 6 years. So, although I don’t claim to be an expert I have been around and I am not a week end waterman ,but out there whenever there are conditions! Aloha , Wood_Ogre PS by the way Benny that a nice looking balsa kite board you are doing there! How bout a Picture when you are finished and straps on?
Many long time kiteboarders (like me) are turning to surfboards and riding them with and without foot
straps with generally smaller kites. The foot work can be a bit tricky at first but as surfers that
should come naturally. Any board will do but a ~6ft thruster is popular and as in surfing, quads are
somewhat the rage. Wider tails and flatter rockers seem to work. I’d try a fish if I had one.
Twin tip (wakeboard style) boards are also fun for your local flat water spot. Less rocker and larger
size seems to help beginners and allow the use of a smaller kites. You can use your surfboard in flat
water too and that will help you nail the footwork.
Learning to use a small kite will be good because they are more responsive which makes them better
for surf where you’ll need to turn the kite and use it’s power to pull you onto the wave. And you don’t
want to manage a big kite while you are riding the wave and not using kite power as much.
Swaylockers are more than capable of adding inserts to a surfboard. But many kiteboarders
don’t have those skills so I developed some peel and stick inserts and pads with built in inserts that
can be applied to a board and then used to attach footstraps. I know, sacrilege! Here’s a link to
the company that sells them: (let me know if its not OK to post that and I’ll remove it)
http://northshoreinc.com/kitepadz2.html#1
Here are some shots of a 5-7 x 19 quad that I built and ride when ever there are waves and wind:
-Hein
And please learn to fly a trainer kite and get a lesson before flying a kitesurfing kite.
The first thing to think about is location.Do you live by a launch site that has steady side shore winds,a large sandy area with no people, and a landing spot way down wind.Kite boarding is fun but very hard and dangerous in the wrong conditions.In gusty conditions you can get thrown 20ft in the air in two seconds.This is a sport where you need to learn with a buddy.You will need help just to get the kite airborne. Pumping up your kite and setting up your lines takes at least 30minutes for a beginner.If your lines get tangled, I mean when your lines get tangled it can take for ever to fix.Find a local kite spot and talk to the guys on the beach they spend a lot of time setting up.Go to a shop and ask for lessons,not cheap but will save you months on your learning curve.Learn proper technique and and how not to hurt yourself and other people. Buy a trainer kite and fly it every day, the one meter kite is a great work out in strong wind.The 3 meter can be used for sand and snow boarding.You should look for a four line 12 meterish 2003 or newer kite.(Craigs List)Ask guys what they are putting up at your local area.Most kiters have 3-4 kites and 2-3 boards just to adjust for wind conditions.A used kite set up can cost $600-$1000 for a board, kite,bag,harness,lines,and yes you need a helmut.To be cool
you must wear shorts over your wetsuit??Being a surfer I don’t get this.
I thought I would learn to kite surf for when the surf was lousy.After a year of playing around I concluded that at my local surf spot when it is kiteable it’s also surfable.Strait on shore is not so good.I need to drive 45minutes to get the right wind set up for a beginner.Surfing on a wave with just a board is more fun, but the airs with a kite are unreal.I may sell my setup next season due to the lack of time to spend driving and untangling.
Keep it simple,
Ian
Hein, Love the shape of that board. Lot of width in the back. Narrow toward the nose looks like a winner. How bout your rails? Rails look good to me. How does it go to windward? Looks like a shape that is crying out to be made into a balsa with a fish tail. Would you be willing to share some measurements? Aloha Wood_Ogre
Mark
Kitesurfing is a very natural extension to surfing, as most of the guys here have said it is a dangerous sport and when you think that the kite has enough power to drag you around the water just like a ski boat, thats a fair bit of power in your hands.
The best way is to have lessons from a qualified instructor, New generation kites are a lot safer than a few years ago and wood-orge is right about flying the kite as its about 80-90% of kite surfing. If you cant get lessons in your area there are a few good instuctional DVD,s but beware of the dangers in the spot, there have been fatilitys over the years and every season people get injured/hospitialised learning to kite surf.
Know with the warnings out of the way. Kiting rocks it has ruled my summers and winters for the last 7 years, I am just starting to get over the addiction now, be warned if you get into it and get hooked many an hour will be spent chasing wind and waves.
As for boards many crew are using just there old surfboards either with straps or without, sure they will break after a while but they are good enough to get you out there and on the water without the expense. cheap functional twintips (wakeboards) can be made out of plywood in a few hours (no glass) and can get you on the water quick and cheap.
Kites the new generation bow kites have almost 90% depower and are very stable but as in all new gear they are expensive. You should be able to pick up a 2nd hand 4 or 5 line kites for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of new
This is what i would do if i had to start again
A) drive around your area until you see some kiters, have a chat to them to get a handle on local conditions, safe beginer spots, sources for lessons and gear.
B) by a small trainer kite, this can be just a cheap two line stunt kite and rig it up on a bar with short 10-15m lines. Fly this until you can do it with you eyes closed, the steering action is a bit different. Fly it hooked into a harness.
C) Get an instructional DVD or mag and watch it again and again
D) get a lesson or two well worth the money for what you will gain and safety knowledge
E) buy the right sized kite and get out in a safe learning location ( sandy beach uncrowded large downwind area with no obstructions x-on wind no more that 15 knots and shallow if possible)
F) get out there and do it, learning curve is steep but quick.
Cheers
PS did I say get a lesson…
Hein, Love the shape of that board. Lot of width in the back. Narrow toward the nose looks like a winner. How bout your rails? Rails look good to me. How does it go to windward? Looks like a shape that is crying out to be made into a balsa with a fish tail. Would you be willing to share some measurements? Aloha Wood_Ogre
Thank you. The board is a prototype built with a 2.3# EPS core and a heavy glass job. I’m going to build a
balsa compsand when I get back to my shop. Maybe I’ll post some step by step pictures. I use
Pro/Engineer(CAD) to model my boards and then machine cores using a CNC router. The dimensions are
nose:11.8 mid:19.0 tail:16.1 thickness:1.9
bottom shape is a convex entry into a slightly V’d double concave
If you download and install a free 3D viewer plugin called ModelPress (http://modelpress.com/viewer.htm)
then you can look at it in 3D and take all the measurements you want plus take a look at the rails. Here’s the
3D file for ModelPress: http://www.impact3d.com/Hein5-7.3df. The 3D representation is at a low resolution
(to maintain small file size) so the surface instersections are not perfectly clean. But good enough to get a feel
for the shape.
Here’s screen shot of the viewer with the model loaded: Cool that it can report overall size, surface area
and exact volume.
Maybe you could take a screen shot of the model and sketch in the fish tail you like.
-Hein
Wood_Ogre, Hein and Kircore,
Awesome posts. I’ve been windurfing for 20+ years and wanted to start Kiteing last spring but was recuperating from shoulder surgery (torn Labrum and rotator cuff) Surf Doc said no way until this year. I’m selling my large sails and boards but keeping the small stuff for wavesailing in Baja or Central Cal.
Super informative, now a training kite…
DW
I agree with all the above…been flying a 2.2m every chance I get.
Fly it one handed…other handed…while running back & forth…all without looking…this sport is all about the kite - at first.
After that, you hardly think about it & it goes back to being all about the board
Wood_Ogre, glad you like it…its actually the dimensions of a Hein (!) board I saw on the Yahoo Kitebuilders forum. I kind of winged it on the ends & the rocker, but it’s coming out pretty nice. Goes back into the bag tomorrow for the last top & bottom layers of glass which will wrap the balsa rails (which I put on yesterday & shaped today). I have DaKine pads & adjustable straps for it. I still have to drill, fill, and redrill for fin mounts & then make a fin, mould it, and pour some fins. Good thing the wind where I live (SF Bay) is pretty much shut down until April… But I’ll keep taking photos…
That board actually has a double concave, as its wide. The concaves are easy to press in with the rocker table I made. Its a polycarbonate sheet over EPS ‘bones’ on a plywood substrate and the whole thing goes in the tube-bag with the board. Not taped down. For a double concave, I use 4 bones of EPS - sides & 2 just away from the middle. The air in between them compresses under vac & the polycarb flexes enough to let the board take on the contours. For a single concave, it would get bones at the edges & more next to those, and a center one too - I’m not really making the concaves, but making the convexes in between by changing the air pressure within the rocker table…
In this photo, you can see them in the table, under the clear polycarb…
could you kitesurf or board or both at a lake not a big one but not a small one ether
could you kitesurf or board or both at a lake not a big one but not a small one ether
Yes, you can kiteboard on lakes. The best conditions for
learning are smoother waters, a steady 15-20mph wind
and a wide open beach with no obstructions.
It’s a fun sport but the kites can be dangerous in gusty
or strong wind or in the hands of an inexperienced pilot.
If you loose control of the kite, it can loft and/or drag
you into something. There have been serious injuries
and deaths as a result.
-Hein
P.S. Here’s a pdf file for a lightwind plywood board:
http://www.impact3d.com/Hein_plywood137x47.pdf
You may want to stretch the length to 140-150 for
a beginner board. Minimal or no rocker will make it work
better in light winds. Plywood with a 4 or 6 oz laminate
works great although you can make a much lighter board
with foam cores and a heavier ~30oz laminate. Thin
Wood over foam works good too. I like what Benny
is doing.
Benny,
You may want to try some Thin (unfoiled) fins made
from 3mm polycarbonate. All you need to do is
make some slots and bond them in. Or you can
get some of my DIY Thin Fins. (PM or email me)
They’re lighter and have much less drag than wakeboard
style fins with the 2 screw mouting. And they’re much
easier to make. Have FUN!
i want to try to do it but there are a ton of powerlines around here and im very light a strong gust and i’ll be swimming with the birds
Thanks, Hein! I’m 210 lbs, and haven’t been all that happy with the feel of lexan & polycarb surf fins - are these thin fins short enough that they don’t mush out from too much flex? They look really cool…and what a great attachment system. I’ve seen them on your site before…
I’ve already got the board pretty much done, with no reinforcement inside the core for a slot like that. Do you think balsa skins & d-cell are strong enough already? Or would I have to route out a 3/8" slot, fill it with resin, and then machine in the slot & holes for those? Or would it be better to just plan for them on the next board? I have 2 more blanks… (thanks, CJ3)
Glad to see you popping up in here again
Ben
Hello Benny,
Polycarbonate fins work great for kiteboards.
I use .094" thick for my twintips and have
fins up to 1.5" deep. You’ll need to ‘foil’ them
by rounding the leading edge and tapering
the trailing edge. I have an ABS strip in my
core but I’m pretty sure you could just bond
them in.
The 5-7 surfboard has 3mm (.118) thick
polycarbonate fins and they are quite flexy
but hold great. (I’m only 155lbs) I also
laminated some with 2oz carbon and those
are much stiffer. Much less drag than a
thicker fin.
-Hein
Many thanks, Hein
"Goes back into the bag tomorrow for the last top & bottom layers of glass which will wrap the balsa rails "
Benny, could you please elaborate on this technique? My main question is how do you avoid an air bubble along the seam where the two surfaces of the bag meet at the apex of the rail? Are you using spray adhesive to hold the cloth down?
The 2 surfaces of the bag don’t meet because there’s a whole rocker table in there with the board… if you look at the photo way up above, you can see the rocker table & board in the bag. When I took that photo, the rails weren’t on yet, but its the same as if they were. I’d even tuck the bag tighter around the rails if they were on & shaped, because they get a radius, not a square edge…
I brush some resin on the rails first - they’re dry balsa at this point, while the deck & bottom are already glassed. Brushing does 2 things - helps the small laps stick to the small-radius rails, and also fills cracks & pores so the rails don’t suck resin out of the cloth & make dry spots or air bubbles.
Glass the bottom, wrap the rails (small freelaps) pull tight. Lay wax paper on the bottom & flip. Glass the top - but I don’t cut the cloth until its already stuck down & filled with resin. Then cut another small freelap & tuck it all the way around. It sticks really easy into the cloth that’s already on the bottom & still a little wet. I warm the resin a lot, so the bottom is definitely gelling - careful with that, though.
Then pick it up, peel off the wax paper, put it down on the rocker table, slip the whole works into the bag.
Pull to about 5 in Hg and shut down vac. That’s enough pressure to mold the bag around the edges to hold all the glass tight, and to squeegee air bubbles & extra resin off the deck. The bottom takes care of itself on the (waxed) rocker table. Then fire back up the pump & pull to 14 or so. Leave it all night with a couple of halogen drop lights suspended above - just enough heat to set it nice & hard.
This morning, I shut down vac (it probably hadn’t cycled in hours - the pump was cold - and after the epoxy is set, there’s not much movement anyway) and inflated the bag. I use a schrader valve for my bag attachment so I can pull vac & then inflate too - inflating the bag pops everything loose without having to pull & stretch the bag film by hand. It also looks cool to see the board inside a huge yellowish sausage 
I ended up with a little bead of glassless resin around the lower perimiter of the board which easily surforms off. I also got a couple dry spots on the deck where I pressed out resin too aggressively - but with very warm resin & the tips of a paintbrush I can fix those Otherwise, mirror shine on the bottom; top finish that can go straight to 400 or 600. Works for me
