New to this, is it realistic to teach myself?

[PullStrings]

Listen to the sharkman
He knows his stuff
I think he's in Sarnia
He knows all about the lake and spots
Ask him where to go and not to go for each wind directions

[JaZone]

Holmes point , lake Simcoe is a pretty good beginner spot if you want to just fly your kite.

Rig your kite , and have someone help you launch when you are in the water.
It’s pretty shallow for a good ways out.
You can go out and start to swing the kite a little. And then practice your relaunching ,
And body dragging , and your self rescue procedures.

If you can manage that stuff confidently, then
And can manage handling the kite with one hand, then you can try going into the water with a board.

Give yourself a lot of space because you’re gonna crash the kite.

Glad to hear that you’ve decided to get some supervision initially. If you’ve done your homework , things should progress in a safe manner.

[mbs]

Get the lessons.

Do not try to teach yourself unless you have a beach that has nobody else on it. Otherwise you could potentially hurt people around you which is very bad for our sport. Even if you don’t hurt anyone, if bystanders perceive danger it is very bad for the sport. We have closed beaches to kiting and issues of access bc of people like you who don’t think they need lessons.

Probably more than half the people on here came from windsurfing, sailing, surfing, etc. It doesn’t make you unique. You should still get a lesson.

Lessons will save a lot of time. Also could save $ as you won’t be slamming your own gear trying to figure it out.

[fernmanus]

For any others new to the sport. Step 1 buy a trainer kite and fly it until you are extremely proficient. 2. Take a lesson. 3. talk to local kiters to find out what kite they use and why. Ask for suggestions. 4. Buy you first kite.

It is tempting to just go out and buy the gear, but when you don’t understand the sport, you don’t know what to buy and what to avoid.

A 5 year old kite can be great or worthless depending on the condition of the kite and what is appropriate for your location.

[iriejohn]

^^^ true.

[apollo4000]

Thanks for the pointers, gonna take a lessons at least to get it in the air and make sure i can control it and not doing anything stupid and then go from there.

Makes good sense. It be interesting to hear your views over the coming month. Good luck and enjoy

[HugoMC]

I began kiting last year. I was a good sailor, self-taught windsurfer and I could surf. I wanted to buy a kite and try it myself but upon the advice of local kiters/windsurfers, I took lessons....... The moment the instructor put the kite into my hands and it was flying over my head I understood why....... It is a different animal to other sports. The power and acceleration is unreal but that means the margin for error is smaller too.

Moral of the story...... Do yourself and others a favor and take lessons..... 100% worth the money and time.

[HALF]

Strange that people recommend getting a trainer kite. How much do you expect a learning person is going to use it? They aren't cheap as well. After 2-3 days of playing, it will be completely useless piece of cloth that cannot even be sold easily as the demand is not there.

For the same price just take couple of lessons, the teacher will have the proper gear to teach you, and you will learn much more.

[tomtom]

IMO this is completely wrong advice and reflect what i see on water. Lack of kite skills among quite advanced riders. I was kite instructor in kite dark ages PRE 2007. How do expect somebody to gain kite flying skills?. We still have to rely on flying hours we are still don't have matrix learning. Back in my instructor times i gave people basic theory - show them how to fly trainer kite and tell them to return to me when they can fly trainer with eye closed - then we proceed. Of course you can skip this - but then you end up with people riding on water with very poor kite flying. And this sport is as much about kite flying as it is about board riding - at least for me.

[Flyboy]

IMO this is completely wrong advice and reflect what i see on water. Lack of kite skills among quite advanced riders. I was kite instructor in kite dark ages PRE 2007. How do expect somebody to gain kite flying skills?. We still have to rely on flying hours we are still don't have matrix learning. Back in my instructor times i gave people basic theory - show them how to fly trainer kite and tell them to return to me when they can fly trainer with eye closed - then we proceed. Of course you can skip this - but then you end up with people riding on water with very poor kite flying. And this sport is as much about kite flying as it is about board riding - at least for me.

This. When I started, I spent a lot of time flying a SS B3 trainer. As a result, I very, very rarely dropped my kite, even in the first shaky sessions on the water. Most of the "learning" I see is in Cabarete. There. for obvious reasons, people are on an accelerated learning curve & may only spend a couple of hours on a trainer. As a consequence, the water at Kite Beach is littered with floating bodies & downed kites. It's hard to learn anything when you're drifting downwind with a kite in the water waiting to wash ashore.

Also: if you live in TO something like a B3 is a blast to use in the winter in strong winds - especially on skis.