Congratulations! Were you the lone ranger or were there other early kites in your area? I started with an 8.5 m Wipika Classic. It was so slow, but had nothing to compare it to at the time! I had one of those old mega rocker wakeboards too. I used to wonder, when is someone going to make these smaller boards for kiting? We were always looking for a "better" kite. I had a PL Arc for a while, that was an interesting kite particularly with the auto-zenith tendency. I went through a bunch of open and valved intake foils looking for something that would work in our light winds, not realizing that it didn't exist yet. I wasn't able to stay up wind, much anyway, with two line kites. I was amazed to see the Pete Cabrinha, Rush Randle, Don Montague stay upwind off Sprec's in 1999 and wonder, how do they do that? It came down to strong enough wind, edging hard and spending enough time in it to make it happen. Staying upwind and a great deal more became easy overnight with 4 line LEI kites. You made your own bar, well done. There was a lot of experimentation with bars, QR, depowering systems. I seem to recall a kite bar that was made out of a hockey stick.
I had two pickelforks, one I could ride and the other was only good for stronger wind. I wish I had kept one of those. My only kite a while later in light south Florida winds for 1 1/2 years was a 5 m Wipika. If not for a 7 1/2 ft. directional and 10 m line extensions it never would have worked out. My favorite board was probably that old 7 1/2 ft. Fox directional designed after Maui tow-in boards, 1998 vintage. What was your favorite early board?
Yes, helping each other online was such a big deal back in the day, still is really. It is even better at the beach once there were other kiters there. It is good to have other interests. If not for photography I suspect the amount of kiting would have fallen off a while back.
Yes, here's to another 20 years!
or6 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 04, 2018 6:30 pm
Interesting, Rick. I started in 1998 as well, never realised, also on a 5 meter classic Wipika. My first board was a wakeboard, something with far too much rocker, but there wasn't anything else. I built my own bar, for some reason, maybe the weren't sold yet? I then changed to Peter Lynn waterfoils, and bought a 210 Brunotti High Wind, if I remember correctly. A year down the road, still couldn't really get upwind. Well maybe six months, I don't remember. Things started getting fun on my first proper twintip, the LF Pickleforck. Still have that board! Don't ride it though.
Yeah, we have come a long way. It was a challenge then, no clue what I was doing, but the community was like I still enjoy it now. We help each other out, give tips, and I still love going out, still can get a hard on for a good session.
The gear...no comparison. It's all so much easier and especially safer.
Like you, I changed to surfboards only. My knees can no longer cope with the impact of hard sessions on twintips.
I have picked up other sports, MTB in particular, but kiting is still everything to me. Still magical.
I vote for another twenty years, let's see what kites are like then!