Kitesurfing Lessons – kit and what to look for, buying your first kite.

Posted under Kite lesson, Kitesurfing Lessons

Buying kit is a notoriously sticky issue and something I would definately leave until after your kitesurfing lessons. Mainly because there are so many people and companies telling you completely different things, all claiming to know exactly what is good for you and which bit of kit is best. Unfortunately as a beginner you are especially susceptible to this kind of marketing as you don’t have the experience to know what is best for you, or even how you’d recognise it if it came up and clubbed you over the head. So many beginners end up buying a bit of kit because their mate told them to, or because it was the one that had the coolest design on it…sound familiar, that’s what I did and ended up taking a year to learn to go upwind because of it. However there are some simple bits of information which will allow you to navigate the minefield that is buying kit and if you follow them you’ll not only save money but also time and frustration. So we’ll start by talking about arguably the most important bit of kit…the kite.

Contrary to what manufacturers tell you a kite cannot be amazing at everything, it cannot have the most power, turn the fastest, be the most stable and the easiest to relaunch all at the same time.  Why? because a kite is a wing and wing design is based on compromise.  To divulge into a bit of aerodynamic theory, a wing at its most simple (and for all you physicists out there, I know, this is very simple!) can be either long and thin which will generate an awful lot of power or short and fat which will handle a lot easier. A wing cannot be both long and thin and short and fat at the same time, not on planet Earth anyway, it has to be built as a compromise between the two extremes. The same holds true of a kite.  Generally as a beginner you are better off aiming at the short, fat end of the spectrum, these kites will tend to be more forgiving and more responsive, also they are less likely to ping you 20m down the beach if you do something wrong, as they generate less pull. If you think that’s for wimps and your tough enough to handle a long thin one (kite that is!), be my guest, but I’m no slouch (if I do say so myself) and due to a long thin monster of a kite I spent the first year of my kitesurfing career in misery…you have been warned!

As to the whole C vs hybrid vs bow vs delta kite arguments (you probably won’t even know the difference but you’ll hear a lot about them over the coming months) it basically breaks down like this…hybrids, bows and deltas are all different types of bow kites that is they have some form of bridle and de-power a hell of a lot more than a C kite…get one of these, DO NOT…I repeat, DO NOT, buy a C kite, of course you’re your own person and who am I to tell you what to do but bear in mind C kites are much harder to control, kick like a shot of tequila and offer very little in the way of advantages to the beginner rider. In short the bow style kites are infinitely safer, easier and faster to get started on and will most likely be the kites your learning on during your kitesurfing lessons.

Next we look at how much you should be spending on your first set of kitesurfing equipment after taking your kitesurfing lessons.

Technorati Tags: kite, Kitesurfing Lessons