Can a 'Kite' Surfboard be used for normal surfing?

[nekitesurf]

Hi all,

I surf and moved across to kitesurfing with a surfboard about 2 years ago.

I currently surf with a mixture of twin fins and thrusters which are 6ft to 6ft 6" long and all are 20" or more wide and 2.5 to 3" thick. I'm 80-85kg.

My current kite surfboard is 5ft 10" and 17" wide. There is no way I can paddle into waves with it.

I will always keep a surfboard for surfing and a 'kite' surfboard for surfing the waves with a kite but I go camping quite a bit with my campervan in the summer and I like to travel light when it comes to kit. I often head to places with a good chance of waves and sometimes wind as well. This leads to the question. Is it possible to take just one board to do both? I know I will be compromising both but by how much? I never really thought about it and last year took 2 boards but this year there seems to be more boards coming onto the market that look possible to paddle in with.

In particular, the 2 models I've seen and am interested in are:

Slingshot Dialer - 5ft 10", 20.7" wide, 2.3? thick.
Wainman Passport - 5ft 11" etc etc.

I know there is the option of getting a custom board done for probably less money but this question is specific to surfing boards made by kiting manufacturers.

Any advice in this area would be really appreciated. It would be great to hear from anyone who has ridden either of the boards mentiond or any other board that they have kitesurfed and paddled into waves.

Thanks,

James

[rambo808]

yea u can use a surf board to kite. Short boards are better. But fiberglass is a lot softer than a surfboard made for kiting. So eventually they buckle if u ride hard on em. I typically ride a board i can paddle surf with. about a 6'0" to 6'2" for kitesurfing. But when i surf i use a surfboard not a kitesurf board

[nekitesurf]

Thanks for the reply. This is why I was particularly interested in surfboards manufactured by kitesurf companies as I've ridden a few of my old surfboards and experienced exactly that problem - they didn't last long! I was patching them up most weeks. One had a nasty encounter with my spreader bar and did not come out on top

[TheJoe]

I know a few guys that kite with regular surf boards.

[haynman]

I'd have to say some of the 'Kite' Surfboards that I've seen, the outlines are garbage. Unless you've got some skills, I don't really see paddle surfing a 'Kite' surfboard.

The same board I surf on is the same that I kite with.

Polys cave in on one tack where as my epoxy is rock solid. Also the board sat curing for a month, which actually made it rock hard & lighter.

It's a 5'10" Flex-Wire epoxy. I've beat on this board alot.. .!!!Haven't buckled it yet. I love this board...double concave bottom is wots up.

[TommyDuotone]

Kite surfboards don't work well for free surfing, mainly due to the weight. And, surfboards work great for kiting, however, they don't last. There are 2 types of boards(surfboards) that I have found that withstand the punishment from kiting. Keep in mind I'm talking about strapless riding. The strongest are the tuflites. The tuflites are also fairly inexpensive and the selection is huge(most popular brands also are made with tuflite tecnology). I have a Rusty "project" tuflite that I've been riding that I simply love(no heel dents in deck ). The other boards are the stock firewires. The decks are not as strong as the tuflites, however, I still have not gone through mine. Which is a little odd because there's a current thread on this forum where a guy snapped his firewire board in a few days made specifically for kiting(has straps). Anyway, you can't beat the performance of the firewires on waves. Good luck

[nekitesurf]

Thanks for that. I only ride strapless so that is no problem.

I really like the look of the firewire boards. The 'kitesurf' dominator model looks interesting. I will be watching the other thread about the broken board closely to see how good the companies warranty procedure is.

[firewirekite]

You should check out the new 5'8" Dominator by Firewire. The board is insane for surfing as well as kiting. THe new boards scheduled to arrive in a few weeks!

It is a very easy board to surf. It has a lot of volume, making it a perfect board for bigger than average guys.