A kiteboarder is born...

Wikipedia - "Kitesurfing, also known as kiteboarding, involves using a power kite to pull a rider through the water on a small surfboard or a kiteboard (a wakeboard-like board)."


I first learned about kiteboarding back in Jan of 2006 when a good friend of mine invited me to join her and her friends for a weekend at the beach. I met a friend there named Derrick who was taking his lessons from one of the local "instructors". Later on I would meet up with him again at the Monsoon Madness and there I would see kitesurfer's strutting their stuff doing some really radical moves. I was in awe and totally amazed at this new sport. Since then I wanted to become a kitesurfer or kiteboarder, whatever you fancy calling it.

Sometime in February, on a trip to Koh Samui ,Thailand with my girlfriend Sherlyne, I signed up for some lessons with Kiteboarding Asia. Three days later I got my level 1 & 2 IKO International Kiteboarding Organization card, and got the gear locked up. I was now an official kiteboarder.

Apparently, there's a lot more to it than just three days of lessons (with very weak wind at that). Getting practice time on the water was and is more difficult. The wind isn't always strong enough for me to get some experience.

I struggled and am still struggling to get consistent rides on my gear. I have a 12 meter kite, a Switchblade Cabrinha, and a 135 Airush Decoy board. Although I am getting better every time I feel like my progression has been slow. Aside from the inconsistent wind the beach we kite at is like 300 kms. away, roughly a 2.5-3 hour drive.

The true test to see if I knew how to kiteboard was when my Sherlyne and I went to Phuket. The wind was blowing pretty hard. I'm not sure about its exact speed but I'd guess around 15-20 knots. It was more than enough in fact I had to trim down the setup of the kite since I was getting lifted up just standing up.

True enough when I dipped the angle of my kite somewhere around 2 o'clock, I was kiteboarding effortlessly. My only problem was going back upwind. Whenever I'd make the transition I would simple fall over and have to float back to shore and start again. This is attributed to riding goofy or switch stance when headed back, which is not always that easy to begin with. Anyways the older guys back at shore assured me that I was doing it right and that I just needed more riding time to get that sorted out.

So basically that is how I got into this lovely extreme sport of Kitboarding and that is basically the level I am in now. The Goal for now is to ride consistently downwind and upwind. I am so close, yet so far (from the beach he he.)

This blog will chronicle the hi's and low's of my so called kiteboarding career. So sit back and enjoy the ride.