Kiteboarding Reassessment

I don't know about this kiteboarding stuff. Since I started learning in May of this year I have had more weird gear failures and awkward, on-the-water incapacitations than I ever experienced in 20 years as a windsurfer. I would say if you're reasonably happy with windsurfing, you'd be best off to ignore any "grass is greener" kind of feelings about getting into kiting. It seems to involve a lot more hassle and danger and isn't necessarily funner than windsurfing. Perhaps a good compromise would be to windsurf like usual, but to hang a ropeswing from a tree in your backyard so you can get the swooping through the air feeling of kiting.

What inspired this reassessment? Well, when I was kiting yesterday I mis-timed a jump, which created slackness in the kite lines. The kite took the opportunity to "Hindenburg" out of the sky, then turn itself inside out, such that it wouldn't relaunch off the water. Of course it happened when I was at my furthest point from shore, about a quarter mile out. I hand-over-handed up the lines to retrieve the downed kite, then attempted to do a wind-powered self-rescue by pulling the kite's wingips together and using it as a U-shaped sail. When I folded it into a U, the main bladder valve blew out and all the air hissed away. Doh! There was still air in the struts, though, so I rolled the kite up into a sausage-shaped package, tucked it under one arm, and started side-stroking for shore. It was slow going with the drag of the kite, my feet tangling in the lines, and the board bumping along beside me, but I made it before the sun set and did not get eaten by a shark or stung by a portuguese man-o-war jellyfish. My friend was watching from the beach, ready to call the coast guard, but no one else was out kiting that could have helped with the rescue.

Anyway, here's a video from a kite session I had this weekend, where, unusually, nothing went wrong. (I didn't have my camera on for the grand self-rescue yesterday).

More Kiteboarding in Fort Pierce, FL from James Douglass on Vimeo.