I lived in Mobile in the 90s and Fairhope was a great place to windsurf in the summer months--a strong thermal funnels N->S thru Mobile Bay on many days. I don't know about kiting access, however.

Another technique is to ride one-handed (back hand). With your shoulders rotated you'll gain a couple of more inches of reach with your back arm. Having your body rotated can also help you work upwind better, when that is your goal.

In the last few frames you can see what appears to be a line upwind of him snapping through the water.

I'm 57 with so-so knees (one with a metal plate and three screws). Flat water kiting doesn't bother me a bit, but my main beach can become quite a washing machine with incident and reflected waves from a breakwall. On those days i definitely need ibuprofen. Another option is foiling; once you get pa...

I still have a pair of those on an older board. Not super comfy but serviceable. The main annoyance is that the end of the laces often falls out of the the little velcro pouch on the side and then get looped over my toes.

The curbside check-in is usually much less picky than the airline counter--they sometime don't even bother to weight it, let alone question the "golf" label. Especially if they see the $$ tip in your hand.

Check your bag at the curb. Have a $10 bill in your hand for the tip. They won't look inside--at O'Hare (Chicago) the guy didn't even weigh it.

I've also got the NSI Deceiver. American Airlines managed to break one of the wheels on my 3rd flight with it. A little fiberglass repair to the broken plastic has held up--though now the bag is another pound or so heavier. For my last trip I had a 135 cm board and 2 kites (12 & 17), bars, a pump, a...

I agree that a suit full of water will have the same buoyancy, but it'll have a lot more mass inside it, so swimming or even treading water can become very difficult.

Another issue to consider with a drysuit is flotation. I don't usually wear any flotation with a wetsuit, but I do with a drysuit. In the unlikely but still possible event that you get a tear in your drysuit it can fill with enough water to make it very difficult to swim.