Getting To Know The Kite

I met a friend, Alan, at a cigar lounge (Barclays Rex) I frequent on Broad street that mentioned his interest in learning Kiteboarding. One of the best ways to learn a sport is it take it up with a friend, and its even better when you both are learning at the same stage.


So Alan made the initial investment and ordered a Rush Training 2 meter kite.



We took it out for a flight at a local park in Jersey and I quickly learned how powerful even a 2 meter kite can be given the right wind conditions. And it also turned out to be quite a workout.

This was also my introduction into controlling a kite with a bar. It's similar to the handlebars of a bike. At this point, I was focused only on keeping it in flight. Knowledge of the wind window and parking it at 12 o'clock were all a mystery to me.



A couple of weeks later we took another trip to Sandy Hook to check out the beach and to try to fly the trainer kite. "Try" being the operative word. The weather was gorgeous, but the wind was non-existent. After a few failed launches, we decided to just enjoy the beach. Did you know parts of Sandy Hook have nude beaches? Hmmmmm, but it's not the kind of nude you really want to be bragging about.

No kite time that day, but we did get an eye full.

First Encounter

I decided to start this blog to chronicle my journey and learning process of Kitesurfing aka Kiteboarding (I'll use the term interchangeably).

I remember seeing kite surfers for the first time in 2003. We were walking the beach at Crissy Field and noticed what looked like crescent shaped camping tents laying on the beach, blowing in the wind - surfers with their boards looking out at the bay and Golden Gate in the distant.

Then I saw it. A group of surfers making their way back to shore, planing on their boards holding bars with lines that lead up into the sky - drawn by what looked like some kind of modified parachute.

I looked back at the beach and realize these "tents" were parked kites, leading edge down, facing the same directions like a group of giant colorful bats all abiding to the laws of the wind.

My first impression was that these surfers were a whole new breed of extreme water athletes.
Little did I know then that I would later work my way to join their ranks.

It wasn't until we started spending more time in Morro Bay (around 2005) that I started seeing more kiteboarders. In my mind, I decided sometime in the future, I will take up the sport. No definitive date or milestone in my life. Just some vague future dream.

That dream manifested into action June of 2010. And so it begins