There are many reasons why windsurfing cratered:longwhitecloud wrote:Kiteboarding should be more than trust fund kids and affluent middle aged riders. Kiteboarding is right now turning into windsurfing when it over teched out and that killed it.
Young riders are easily influenced by the current kite company's marketing and that is sad cos they don't need the expensive kit to rip nowdays.
windsurfing equipment is very heavy and unwieldy. You cant just drop it in your car and go. You also need a lot more equipment. to sail in the marginal 15-18 mph winds in the most of the US you need very large equipment. Finally, it is much harder to learn and is much more physically demanding.
The #1 reason why i switched to Kitesurfing is that the equipment fits in the trunk of my car and I can take it on planes without exorbitant fees. It turns out that I also get a lot more time on water because light winds are more fun and the equipment isnt unwieldy (like formula gear). The fact that it is less demanding and easier to learn is actually a minus. After 3 years of windsurfing I could only barely do a planing carve jibe (maybe 5%). Part of it was lack of windy days, the other part was difficulty. After under a season of kiting, maybe 30 sessions Im able to jump, carve jibe, ride toeside. Not that Im good at any of them, but I can do them.
I agree that a full beginner kit needs to cost under $700 (1 kite/bar, harness, board) new to bring it in competition to costs of entry level in other sports. Each kite can be an additional $400-500.
Kiting can much more easily be done on inland lakes (15mph) which means that a much larger # of people will be able to kite. Plus land kiting and snowkiting are actually pretty fun and can turn midwest corn fields to ski slopes in the winter. People in the midwest havent discovered snowkiting yet.
