Hi everyone,

Just got into kiting recently and I've been wondering why people arent using anything except twintips or surfboards? For the beginner without any board sport experience, learning to fly the kite and manage the board simultaneously is a difficult task. Even myself who has been surfing and wakeboarding my whole life, I still find it challenging to fly the kite and ride the board (especially learning to ride switch stance!) Regardless, wouldn't it be much easier learning with a knee board (maybe put two small fins on the back for directional stability) so that you could face the kite the entire time and lean left or right to create an edge? Or use big twin waterskiis to achieve the same effect.. and eventually use a single slalom ski to really dig an edge and go upwind. I feel this would be great not having to change between goofy or regular stance.

This surely would be worth trying, as the original boys experimented and rode lots of different boards back when kiting was in its infancy (water skiis included). But like everything in "boardsports" world, image is king and anyone not riding the latest gear or following the latest trend is seen as a kook..

And to finish, Im fairly certain that surface area and the ability to get an edge on the riding craft are the most important factors to board design. So why do we not experiment more with other designs? Im new to the sport so maybe there is something Im not aware of. yet Let me know. In the meantime, im going to give the water skiis a go.