Windsurfing versus Kitesurfing

[BelSkorpio]

Hi everyone,

It's freezing cold out here, it's snowing and I'm bored because I can't windsurf.

Let's bring up another subject.

I'm sure that many of you must have thought already about trying kitesurf. Probably many of you have already done it or are still doing it.

Some people consider kitesurfing to be the largest rival of windsurfing, especially the youth.

Me personally, I've tried it several years ago when the sport just took off.
I didn't like it too much already from the start.
For me, it was like the kite always wanted to pull me up and I lost all feeling and contact with the water surface & waves.

It's when I witnessed with my own eyes a terrible accident on the beach that I realized how dangereous and lethal it can get. I immediately stopped with it.

What are your ideas about it ?
All comments Pro or Contra are welcome.


Regards.

[Hot Ice]

I don’t kite but will one day.

I feel it is a great sport to combine with windsurfing especially in lighter winds 10 to 16 knots. The move towards wave riding with kites also interests me.

My best mate kites and I can see from him that kiting safety has improved significantly from the early days.

The ideal kit I am working to is
One kite board and kite
One Freestyle board and one freestyle sail
One wave board (single fin) and three wave sails.
That will cover me from 10 knots to 40 knots.

[davide]

Originally Posted by Hot Ice

.
The ideal kit I am working to is
One kite board and kite
One Freestyle board and one freestyle sail
One wave board (single fin) and three wave sails.
That will cover me from 10 knots to 40 knots.

I can relate but ... use instead an Isonic 122/133 with a 7.5-8.5 sail, and blast and be able to cruise around much better than with a Kite in 10 to 16, be covered from 7-8 knots, and even go out in 4 knots to floatingly fool around.

[Hot Ice]

Originally Posted by davide

I can relate but ... use instead an Isonic 122/133 with a 7.5-8.5 sail, and blast and be able to cruise around much better than with a Kite in 10 to 16, be covered from 7-8 knots, and even go out in 4 knots to floatingly fool around.

Full respect. An Isonic 122/133 with a 7.5-8.5 actually requires a high level of skill to get the best out of it. Its big kit and I could never get my head around it but I can see many people are stoked on it.

Maybe I am lucky that I have talked with and watched top class kiters, one of them an ex world champion.

They obviously make it look easy and while I would never come close to their standard I believe I could still have more fun on a kite in 10 to 16 knot winds than a windsurfer.

It’s the fact that kiters can get away with very small maneuverable boards in light winds that attract me.

[davide]

Originally Posted by Hot Ice

Full respect. An Isonic 122/133 with a 7.5-8.5 actually requires a high level of skill to get the best out of it. Its big kit and I could never get my head around it but I can see many people are stoked on it.

If you do free-style and high wind sailing you will be surprised by how easy it is to go out with a relatively big rig and a big board. I am not suggesting a formula + 10-12 sail, but a good size floaty board (a futura 133 with a soft sail, maybe a hot sail superfreak, would do as well), give it a try with a rental ... and have fun with the Kite, I have been tempted a few times myself.

Regarding kiting safety: danger is not a reason not to pick up a sport (ask mountain climbers), but maybe a combination of industry advertisement and a learning curve that is relatively quick results in a lot of "fools" out there: many kiters seem to have no idea about the risks they put themselves and other people in.

Personal experience? One not particularly dramatic: end of the season, Crissy Field, I am in the water to my thighs, with the wind dying, considering what to do next. I decide to stop for a while, prepare to flip the sail to get off the water, and I hear a wooooosh, I stop the sail, have not even time to look around and this woman on a kite sails by between me and the beach: in at most a yard of space. I don't even swear, but I think what kind of lesson would have been learned if I had flipped the sail and got this woman square, bringing her down with kite, my sail, board attached maybe a piece of myself ... some of it dragged for a few hundred yards on the beach after a 15 miles/hour impact!

[Deja Vu]

Originally Posted by Hot Ice

Full respect. An Isonic 122/133 with a 7.5-8.5 actually requires a high level of skill to get the best out of it. Its big kit and I could never get my head around it but I can see many people are stoked on it.

Maybe I am lucky that I have talked with and watched top class kiters, one of them an ex world champion.

They obviously make it look easy and while I would never come close to their standard I believe I could still have more fun on a kite in 10 to 16 knot winds than a windsurfer.

It’s the fact that kiters can get away with very small maneuverable boards in light winds that attract me.

7.5 and 8.5 I consider medium to semi-small when it comes to sails. 10.5 and 12.0 I consider to be big. A fully cambered 7.5 to 8.5 can be used (raced) in some fairly substantial wind! I wish I could sail 5.0 to 6.5 sails on a regular basis, but alas it just isn't in the cards for me; however, the big stuff has opened up a huge number, of what I now consider, good sailing days. When my buddy and I used our 12.0s at Hatteras a couple of years ago we were blasting by ourselves. No one else, including kite boarders, was on the water.

I've flown a training kite a couple of times and took a lesson; however, I must admit that the power behind these things scares me - I see some big potential for someone to get hurt and at my age recovery seems to take years! I have enough minor injuries from sailboarding thank you very much.

I remember the time 6.6 size sail was big sail!! LOL.....
Now i have a 9.5 but i really do not want to bother with anything bigger.And my fomraul was the oldest original 155 ( i wrote a story about sailing it, starboard liked it and it ended up on the forum year back! my only claim to windsurf fame)
Not that i dont think it ( a larger sail) wont work,
just that i do have other things to do.
like: fix stuff at home, my spend time with my wind widow ( my wife) , and at the camp, vehicle maintenance other ( gasp god fobid I admit) hobbies!

[Del Carpenter]

When it's too cold to windsurf on liquid water, and not cold enough to windsurf on snow or ice, then I windsurf in a parking lot on a landsailor (if it is not too windy for the landsailor).

[michelb]

Seems like lot of people that start Kitesurfing has left the sport. Seems like as it is a easy to learn sport it also is easy to left....
WS is more than a hobby or sport is more like a fight against yourself, learning is not so easy, but it also make you “live the sport”.

Michel

[Per]

I´ve been windsurfing for 12 years and sailing my whole life. I never tried kiting, but I´m curious. Especially because it doesn´t need so much room to keep the equipment (I can store it in my boat).
A few things stop me though: I windsurf alone more than 50% of the time. Kiting seems too unsafe for solo sailing, especially in winter.

I really like windsurfing, and I´m not at all bored with it. I´ve taken up longboarding, and railing a 372 board with a 10 metre sail in 5-10 knots seems a lot more fun than struggling with a kite.

Anyway I will try it soon, and maybe be convinced ;-)

Per