windobsessed
Since 07 Aug 2008
120 Posts
Vancouver
Stoked
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 Thu Aug 14, 08 10:57 am Wind obsessed again... |
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It's been exactly one year since I tried kiteboarding and am totally hooked now!!
I'm an old time windsurfer, started coming to the gorge in 83' from Seattle,
then in 85' moved to Portland just so I could get more!
In the 90's got more and more busy with the kids until early 2000's
I pretty much quit. Last year I started windsurfing again and was looking
for a light wind board and that's when I really paid attention to the kiteboarders.
They were having a blast in light wind! So I took a lesson with my kids
and had a blast. Problem was that I thought it was easy, maybe too easy, did the
trainer kite and body dragging, all made sense. So got a trainer kite and
practiced a lot. Now what I did next I'm not promoting and you should
not do this! I figured why spend money on lessons, many of the lessons
I saw seemed like they where ineffective once the person got out in the
water. The instructor was yelling from the beach and am not sure the
student could hear them. Anyway so I bought last year's model kite and board
for about $1100 and was ready to go. Went out to the sand spit found some
space and gave it a try. Took awhile to get the floating in the water and
getting my board on, but got the hang of it. Then I thought go for it.
I got up right away and got cursing (thought wow just like windwurfing), then
I started to slow down so I thought ok "sheet in" next thing my kite went
into a full loop and is was flying through the air. My son said man you
looked like superman. Problem was when I hit the water I did not let go
of the bar at first so I got dragged for awhile, water forcing its way up
my nose and out my ears. Must have looked like a whale. Well I learned to
push the bar out quicker but I kept doing the loop. Finally figured out
that my natural windsurfing habit of sheeting in with my right hand was causing the kite to loop. Next day I was ready again this time I was not going to sheet
in. Got going, everything good then another bad windsurfing habit kicked
in, this time I flattened the board out to 'rid the fin'. Bad idea
I quickly reached Mach 10 before I finally went up in a cloud of smoke.
In hindsight should have taken lessons, would have saved me some time
and bruises , those lessons with the instructor on a wave runner sound
like the way to go.
Well I finally figured things out with the help of many awsome people on the
beach! The excitement and friendliness of all the people reminds me of the
early years of windsurfing, I loved that time before everyone started
getting attitudes. Hope kiteboarding stays that way. Anyway I'm riding
pretty much where I want to go now in control, working on transitions and having
a blast! Problem now is I'm constantly checking the wind again to see
when next I should go. Back to being "windobsessed" this time with a kite!
Sorry, for the long winded post, I like reading peoples experiences, hopefully
someone else finds this amusing…
BTW, I love all the pictures on this site!!! |
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