Interested to know when you first saw kiting and what you thought of it.

The first time I saw it would have probably been in the winter of 98. Living on the Gold Coast at the time and I was sailing on the western side of the Broadwater in a channel in a strong westerly wind. A guy was there with a kite and what I remember to be a surfboard to ride. He kept getting pushed downwind and was out of control. We talked about it but I wasn't really interested in trying it as it looked really scary.

At the time I never really thought it would get as popular as it has as I thought kitesurfing lacked control and was really dangerous. Kudos to the designers who made the gear safer for kiters.