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What type of skis for kiting?

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Chrisk7
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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby Chrisk7 » Wed Oct 28, 2020 3:11 am

Excellent replies guy's, I really appreciate it. Gives me all sorts of things to consider. I just won an Ebay auction for a snowboard with bindings and boots used but in great shape. I guess I'll start there. I've never skied or snow boarded on land or water so I guess I'll just take it slow and easy till I get the hang of it.
I would really like to hit the water in the summer on a kite board so I suppose the snowboard knowledge would carry over to the kite boarding somewhat.
I ride motorcycles off road so I figure my riding gear and helmets will help somewhat for protection.
I'm also building a kite buggy to mess around with too. May have to come up with some snowmobile skis for converting it to snow in the winter.
I have the HQ APEX 8m kite for the land but come summer I'm thinking of getting either a LEI or closed cell foil kite for the water.

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edt
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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby edt » Wed Oct 28, 2020 3:49 am

Don't die! Most kiters take lessons. It's easier I think to get started kiting if you learn on snow first and water later because you don't have to water start.

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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby andylc » Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:13 am

If you have no experience with kitesurfing or snowboarding then unless you have really good kite skills and innate talent you may be asking for trouble deciding to go out snowkiting. Try not to end up in the news please...

Chrisk7
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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby Chrisk7 » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:18 am

Oh I do plan on taking lessons for sure.

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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby irwe » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:38 am

Skis are far easier (safer) to learn on then Snowboards. Find some inexpensive skis and boots. I just picked up some used skis and boots in great shape for $100.00 USD yesterday.

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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby jumptheshark » Wed Oct 28, 2020 2:30 pm

I learned to kite about 17 years ago on snow. Well, I bought a used kite of E bay and learned to fly it over a period of a couple months in the fall before the snow came. Got proficient at rigging, self launching, relaunching and packing it back up. Did all that on a few local hillsides in between 10 and 14 knots of wind. The kite was an 11m C kite. I read about and then rigged it with a 5th line for safety and help with relaunch. Worked great. managed to figure things out without any serious bumps or bruises. There were no lessons anywhere north of the tropics at the time. I also had very limited snowboard experience but went that route in the winter. First few tries were pretty funny, but on about the third decent conditions day, it clicked and I was riding all round the place. SUPER stoked that day. Sold the remainder of my windsurfing stuff that spring and never looked back. Many years later I'm super grateful for all the improvements and evolutions in the sport and now pretty much foil exclusively in summer and still get a few decent days on snow in the winter. Where I've poured more than a few bucks into kite gear over the years, I've purposefully never spent much on the snowboards. They take a beating and its just not worth it. Learned that sidewall construction boards and skis are much more durable than Cap construction and how to sharpen and wax boards.

If there are lessons around, I recommend taking enough to get the basics figured out. We were on our own and it took longer for sure. Most of the places we stumbled through the early stages are off limits to kites now, and it remains a challenge here for people to learn on their own. We still have no reliable lesson programs within easy reach. Some of tried, but the nature of the sport is inconsistent enough that instructors don't really last all that long due to basically having to give up the sport to teach it. Good luck, be as safe as possible and wear a helmet on snow every single time.

This sport is great and there are so many great options these days.

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Re: What type of skis for kiting?

Postby Hardwater Kiter » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:25 pm

Chrisk7 wrote:
Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:18 am
Oh I do plan on taking lessons for sure.
:thumb:

Learning to snowkite on a board or skis, if you have kiting experience is fairly straightforward. I've taught buggy riders with no skiing experience how to ride skis with the kite in about 2hrs. But they had top-notch flying skill.

Learning to pilot a kite, if you have good ski or board skills, also fairly straightforward and the most common student I have.

Learning to fly the kite while learning to manage what is on your feet, nearly impossible at best and flat out dangerous at worst.

As recommended above. Lessons. Ski/Board lessons are generally more readily available so I would start there. Without having the basic edging principles down you won't be able to combine the kite with the board. Kites won't fly without line tension and you can't have line tension without being able to hold a solid edge against the kite's pull. With my first time students, even if they are primarily snowboarders, I recommend the rent skis and boots and start there. As stated, having the ability to move around makes learning a lot easier at first.

In case there was anything missed in the earlier comments, this may be more helpful. We go into a bit more technical detail...

https://www.hardwaterkiter.com/skis-boards-boots.html


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