I am lucky enough to just be back from 10 days in Tarifa, "the windiest place in Europe", trying to learn to kitesurf.

Unfortunately, for the windiest place in Europe it wasn't really very windy - we were on the turn of the season and we only had about 4 days with really good kiting breeze.

I had been flying a 1.5m training kite for a year before hand, so my kite control was OK and the lessons proceeded pretty quickly, but once it was time to strap on the board everything came to a halt all progress came to a halt.

I got in about 14-15 hours instruction, and I spent the last lesson standing up for about 3 seconds and then falling back in, getting launched, losing my board etc etc.

I have a little snowboarding experience, but that is it, and my board skills were very poor - lots of skidding sideways, lots of digging in the downwind edge and launching over the top.

Now I am back I am looking at some lessons on Botany Bay before I forget everything I learned, but I am wondering if maybe doing a Wakeboarding lesson first to concentrate on my board skills would be a good idea.

Does anyone do this to help them get going?

Does anyone have any recommendations of a Wake school in Sydney - I assume I will have to go out to Windsor and do it on the Hawkesbury?

SB

PS - Check out the Tarifa goodness.....

safetyboy said...


PS - Check out the Tarifa goodness.....

If my local ever gets that many kites, I'm moving [}:)]

Cable would be a good idea!

p.s; Is that Hadlow, or is that just his kite ^^^^pic.

vk2him said...

safetyboy said...


PS - Check out the Tarifa goodness.....

If my local ever gets that many kites, I'm moving [}:)]

That was a quiet day in Tarifa - I didn't have my camera down on the days when it was windy!

koma said...

ADEN said...

Cable would be a good idea!

p.s; Is that Hadlow, or is that just his kite ^^^^pic.

It's a Hadlow Pro Model but it doesn't have the Red Bull logo = not Hadlow.

I didn't think they would sell them to the public, only Flexi team riders.

Wakeboarding will help.
I used to wakeboard and when I started kiting, my board skills were good, it was just a matter of learning how to "steer the boat" and wakeboard at the same time when I started kiting - its difficult!

I wakeboarded for years before I took up kiting & it definately made the learning process a lot faster. It meant I could concentrate 100% on the kite as I already had the board skills.

You'll definately learn to kite ok without wakeboaring but if you want to get up & going quicker then go & have a wake lesson...its worth the fun anyway.

Unfortunately there are no cables in Sydney any more. There are some people around running lessons, look under the section Australian Organisations here: www.wake.com.au/search.php?keywords=modules.php name Links

Cheers

schmik said...

Just spend the money on more kitesurfing instruction. Neil who (i believe) works for KP does lessons with a jetski and/or jetboat in botany bay. He plonks you out in the middle hands you a kite (that he flew out there.... yes on the boat/ski) and follows you. You get instruction through the helmet walkie talkie. As soon as you get close to shore he takes the kite off you and you do the whole thing over again. Out in the middle there is no one to content with and nothing to crash into. Nice.

I may have his card somewhere ebut KP defo have his number.

mike

No one out there to crash into, just heaps of sharks to troll for!

I got ok kite skills but struggled to get up and riding when i was starting out until 1 go behind a mates boat. Don't get wake boarding lessons. if you can just get one try behind a boat you'll get it first go. then add the kite and you'll wonder what it was you were missing before. everyone had told me the right things to do but i had to feel it once then it was easy. most people get up and planing on their first go at wake boarding i think, so i reckon it would be very worth while. it was for me.

general_dude said...



My friend is now selling his boat

What boat and how much for?

GreenPat said...

safetyboy said...


That was a quiet day in Tarifa - I didn't have my camera down on the days when it was windy!

That is indeed a quiet day in Tarifa, and with that few kites you could have as much of the 6km beach to yourself as you wanted.

Yep - wish I had have got a photo on the day it was cranking.

It was the first day I was there, and I thought it would be like that every day, so I didn't grab pics.

We went up into the town in the morning, the seabreeze came through and on the drive back to our hotel up on the beach all you could see where kites - I have never seen anything like it.