About 7 years ago, I was in Hawaii and saw a couple of guys towing themselves out through the waves behind big kites. I hadn't heard of kiteboarding before, but it looked like something that I absolutely had to try. It seemed like the perfect marriage of my aviation background and a lifelong passion for surfing....
Fast forward 6 years, and kiteboarding was still just that one thing that I still wanted to do but never really did anything about it. Last year I finally bought a trainer kite and started at least learning how to fly the kite (since I figured I already know how to ride a board).
Since then I have tried to get actual lesson on the water no less than half a dozen times and it just never happened.... the wind died for the season around here, two trips to Mexico with unseasonably light winds and several trips to southern California I just kept getting skunked.
Finally today, I got a hold of an instructor in Rio Vista (about 30 miles from home) and met for my first official lesson. I am pretty psyched!
We started by going over the basic skills with the trainer kite which, thankfully, after a year of practice I was fairly proficient with. Still I could see where I can use a little more precise skill even with this small kite.
Next we pump up a 4 meter (relatively small) inflatable kite similar to the one that we will be using on the water. We spend a good deal of time going over the safe operation of the kite, activation of the safety systems and getting a feel for the significantly greater power generated by this type and size of kite.
Finally it's time to get in the water. We rig up a slightly larger 6 meter kite and I get outfitted with a harness, life jacket and helmet with a radio piped in so I can take instructions from my coach on the shore.
No board this time, the first step is to simply learn how to generate power and control direction of the kite while body dragging through the water. It was impressive how much power you could get out of the kite by flying it more aggressively and how fast I could get moving through the water.
I went through a number of drills to get the feel for what it will be like once I actually have a board under my feet. I wasn't looking forward to this part of the learning process, but it turned out to be a ton of fun. After about 40 minutes I had drifted about 2 miles downwind where we landed the kite and got a ride back up to where we launched.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to get back out with the board before the sun went down, so that will have to wait til next time.
It feels great to be learning something new. And this perhaps even more after spending so many years thinking about it. I can't wait for my next session.
