Hi Guys, loving this forum (always of great help)

Anyone can give me ideas of how can I learn this with just a minimum amount of lessons?

I've bought a training kite and that is helping, but when I go to the water things will be different (I guess).

I have an instructor who really knows the stuff and charges a decent price, but he's always busy. (I can not afford to pay the costs the schools charge?

Anyone can give me a suggestion?

Thanks

You shouldn't need to re mortgage your house for $600 .That will get up and riding safely in about 6 hours. The other option is that you wing it and loop your kite down the beach crashing into family's and wrecking your body , kite and puting everyone around you in danger.
Just do the lessons and within 2 days you will be riding and having fun instead of watching you kite sink from smashing on the water over and over again!

Get a second hand trainer kite and fly it every night for 3 weeks. ($80?)
Practice sitting on the sand and pulling yourself up onto your feet hundreds of times.
Practice flying the kite one handed without looking at it.
Loop the trainer in strong wind and get a good understanding of what an 11m is going to do to you assuming the power is 10x that of the trainer.

Now watch a good video of how all the safety works 100 times
Now go down to the beach and ask good kiters if you can watch them setup, do this 10 times at least.
Now you are ready for your lesson, you will learn WAY more than someone coming in clueless, and you will get up quick, and learn more safety stuff that others forget because there's too much for them to take in.

You really need to loop a trainer in 30 knots to get a good understanding of just how badly a big kite can beat the crap out of you, and how important it is to be able to fly a big kite one handed without looking at it so this never happens accidentally.

Assuming you are around the 80 kg mark. Look around for a cheap 5 meter kite that includes a bar. When I started I found one for $120. Pay someone to show you how to set it up and launch and land. Now go to an isolated beach in 12 to 20 knots and practice. A 5m kite in light - moderate winds wont loft you but is powerful enough to teach you kite handling skills. Spend some sessions bodysurfing with your kite.

After all this pay an instructor to teach you on a board.

You can then sell the kite and put towards a full size kite.

Just nimble it.

I practiced HEAPS with my trainer kite to the point I could fly it blindfolded one handed. Then got a 9m kite and practiced heaps on the beach with a kitesurfing friend in literally 5-10knots. ie barely enough to keep the kite in the air at times. After all that practice I only needed to have one professional lesson, got my card and have never looked back.

Mind you I started windsurfing 30yrs ago so have a decent ability to judge wind conditions. A beginner playing with a kite on land in the wrong conditions could go very bad.

Alternatively get a competent friend to teach you for a carton. The only difference between them and a professional instructor is insurance and their ability to give you some type of competency card if that's important to you.

kb53 said..
Now go to an isolated beach in 12 to 20 knots and practice. A 5m kite in light - moderate winds wont loft you but is powerful enough to teach you kite handling skills. Spend some sessions bodysurfing with your kite.

you can easily get messed up looping a 5m kite in 20kn, especially if they are flying it really quickly across the window without an understanding of wind window combined with sheeting (eg rookie error to instinctively pull in bar as things go wrong).

not disagreeing with the premise of what you are saying as a way of learning, but its probably not a good idea for someone to head out and do this without understanding the risks as well. maybe start with someone experienced advising/watching you in this remote location?

+1 what WISHY said

To minimise your outgoing expence absorb everything about the sport you can including the progression vids prior to next lesson.

Ask the local boys if any are qualified instructors ( you should get a lesson 1/2 price shops charge.)

I believe that 6 hrs wont get the average Joe up and going confidently at all.

Through my teaching experience I have found that it takes between 9 and 15 hours to be semi independent. You might not be riding up wind, or planing very long, but you will be safe and know the skills to save your bacon should something happen. The early training should all be about kite control and using the safety systems like they were an extension of your body. The muscle memory is paramount to not getting injured. I reinforce a simple lesson about letting go of the bar, and I drill it over and over randomly to test their ability to react. It may take me longer to get a student riding the board, but they are safer for everyone and themselves by following this process. I never give anyone a board until they can demonstrate a self rescue on their own.
The trainer kite is an invaluable tool for the initiate. Safest way to learn on the beach as everyone has mentioned. Good luck and enjoy the process. The learning curve is steep but short. Have fun.

dafish said..
Through my teaching experience I have found that it takes between 9 and 15 hours to be semi independent. You might not be riding up wind, or planing very long, but you will be safe and know the skills to save your bacon should something happen. The early training should all be about kite control and using the safety systems like they were an extension of your body. The muscle memory is paramount to not getting injured. I reinforce a simple lesson about letting go of the bar, and I drill it over and over randomly to test their ability to react. It may take me longer to get a student riding the board, but they are safer for everyone and themselves by following this process. I never give anyone a board until they can demonstrate a self rescue on their own.
The trainer kite is an invaluable tool for the initiate. Safest way to learn on the beach as everyone has mentioned. Good luck and enjoy the process. The learning curve is steep but short. Have fun.

couldn't agree more

Approach with caution mate. I was proggressing real well - coming from a surfing sailing maritime background. I got complacent launching in squally conditions was lax about potential danger. The incident (trauma injury) was last september, I had surgery for the injury last week (sooner was not possible). The op cost 10 grand, 6 months rehab to come. Lucky I had some savings. Can you afford this? I still have 3 kites and two boards that I cant wait to get back out there, the sport is just to fun to consider defeat. Aproach with caution these kites have enough power to **** you up bad or kill you dead. Serious

Let's say you get 2 hours of lessons on how to kite and you practice a bit and pick most of it up by yourself. 1 year down the track and your feeling confident about your kiting.Your on a long tack and about 1 km out .One of your lines breaks and you go ohhh **** I have to learn how to do a self rescue!!!!!..Its going to happen at one stage or another.

There are no silly questions, just silly answers :)

The card Freddofrog is referring to is probably the IKO (International Kiteboarding Organization) card, which some schools/instructors hand out to their students. The idea is to ''certify'' the student's level of competence. But since there is no real ''test'' or control of quality, cards are being handed out to students who can't even self-rescue or recover their boards body dragging upwind or relaunch their kites in deep waters, etc. read more here: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/General/IKO-kiteboarding-card/

Dafish and Tgcp's comments are spot on. Friends teaching friends always seems like a good idea at first, but without structure and appropriate sized equipment it usually leads to accidents. So many times I have to have a chat to friends teaching friends as they are flying oversized kites with long lines on the beach in 20-25 knots + and they simply don't see the danger of it. Also, I haven't seen any of them teaching self-rescue and correct launching techniques or going over risk and conditions assessment...Nearly all those students learning from friends end up being a liability and they practice water starts at a very early stage of their progression right next to the shore, crash on other people, don't know how to use safety systems, etc. It's becoming a bigger issue every year with more and more people wanting to learn and ''save money'' on lessons.

As others said, this sport can be very dangerous and people get injured regularly, some seriously injured and some get killed...

Don't cheap out on lessons and take your time shopping for the right school and instructor who's primary goal is to teach you safety and independence. Any school or instructor who's primary goal is to put you on the board and doesn't teach to the basic safety and independence skills simply don't deserve that tittle. With the low quality of lessons many schools offer I can understand why people would ask their friends to teach them, as in many instances the quality of tuition would be similar between both.

Friends are a great asset once you complete your lessons and once you are already independent (self-rescue, board recovery, water relaunch, etc.) so they can keep you motivated and give you some tips for riding.

Good luck,

Christian

I'm thinking about starting up a business called Rent-A-Kitesuit ...

it's going to be aimed at folks who wish to teach themselves how to fly a real kite in real conditions on land.

What do you reckon ?

waveslave said..
I'm thinking about starting up a business called Rent-A-Kitesuit ...

it's going to be aimed at folks who wish to teach themselves how to fly a real kite in real conditions on land.

What do you reckon ?

^^^ Looks the goods, it should give physical protection - but is it lawyer proof..?

Maybe just change the name to Rent-A-Lawsuit

waveslave said..
I'm thinking about starting up a business called Rent-A-Kitesuit ...

it's going to be aimed at folks who wish to teach themselves how to fly a real kite in real conditions on land.

What do you reckon ?



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I reckon it'd be too heavy when it gets wet