I know it has been brought up before but why are there so many people wanting to get into the sport these days that just straight out refuse lessons? or even refuse to listen about why you should have a lesson.

I feel like beating my head against the wall every time i hear the reply "yeah but all my mates do it already and they are really good" or "i have surfed and been in the ocean all my life and i normally pick things up pretty fast"

and just to make things worse i then have to put up with the abuse and attitude when they are storming out of the shop because i will not sell them any gear even if they are waving a hand full of cash literally in my face!

If people know that they know nothing about the sport where do they get the idea that they know enough about it to argue that they do not need a lesson??



Sorry everyone just needed to vent a little bit there.

I grabbed a copy of the photo in the news story out of Brazil when that guy got killed a couple of years ago if anyone wants it. It was a photo of the bloke on a stretcher minutes before he died of his injuries. I look at it sometimes to remind myself to be safe. Will post it when I dig it up, it's at home.

yeah I agree... I am just a beginner myself and even though I've done 3 lessons and a clinic I still 'find myself in times of trouble'. The VERY least you need to know is safety for the things/people around you.

Not that your not right Damo, but how did you learn? I know I was more or less self taught? There's actually quite a few people on this forum that are basically self taught- and a lot of them are instructors/shop owners now.

I would still say the responsible thing to do is to have a lesson especially so there's no accidents leaning to bans more than anything else. Still it's easy for us to say as accomplished kiters we need to at least acknowledge their point of view.

Good point spacemonkey but it's a lot busier now and not so easy to find a beach where you will only hurt yourself. Mind you I have heard of a shop in perth that doesn't require lessons because west aussies are brought up on the water[}:)]

Its exactly the same special logic that allows young hoon drivers to believe they can travel at 160km/h safely when everyone else is travelling at 80km.

I'm all for cutting people's lines these days. If they're too cheap for lessons, they'll probably be too cheap to replace their lines when someone walks up and cuts them meaning we don't have to worry about them endangering people on our beaches later.

^^^^shouldn't you be at dicko with this southerly?

There should be a simple set of rules for all new kiters:

A) you have lessons

or

B) you learn by yourself at a location which is not near any city centre and has no beach users

I'm quite happy for the darwin candidates to head off to a remote beach where they won't injure other kiters, other beach users, wildlife or power lines.

$100 for an intro lesson gives you a taste for the sport and is an easy way to figure out if kiteboarding is for you.
And $100 isn't much if your prepared to spend 2-3k on gear.

We; and most other reputable shops/schools; offer 'packages' on kits purchased in conjunction with lessons.
The real cost of lessons that will get you through to being totally safe and skilled enough to confidently move on independently can be as little as $300 or $400.
Apart from all the good reasons lessons are worthwhile the one I find most reluctant customers respond to is the fact that the lessons will get them up & riding months sooner than going it alone. It seems time is more valued than safety and/or responsibility.

The quote I love is the oft repeated remark from the lesson avoiders - "Yer but Im not going anywhere near the water till I learn how to fly the thing"
The 'thing' often being a really cheap but hardly ever used early century C kite from Gumtree.

goudmatt said...

It is strange to see that the problem is always the others
The others that don't take lessons while us we never did but we have a full list of obscur reasons

Sorry if I am speaking too fast as I don't know well the situation here in Australia, but in Spain (Im not spanish) there are countless people who take lessons and never continue again.
I have seen examples like everybody of people starting completely by themselves, doing crap and putting everybody at risk, but it is far from the majority, no?

A lot of people only kite in club, paying for the full package lessons + renting
Some other just think it looks fun, pay for 3 days and will never touch a bar again.

So is the situation really so bad?
Or is it like for everything, there are some black sheeps?

Matt

Just because we did it doesn't make it right.

The same could be said for skydiving. A whole heap of people try it once and never do it again.

You could say the same for scuba diving with the Padi Discovery Dive which costs about $100 as well. When I started diving plenty of people would take their mates out without doing the course. Getting them going wasn't the problem, the problems started when the guys got into trouble at 20m.

The short and sweet with a lot of other sports is very few other sports have the potential to injure innocent bystanders like kiting does. That means you aren't just endangering yourself if you choose to learn on your own.

Jr Walks said...

$100 for an intro lesson gives you a taste for the sport and is an easy way to figure out if kiteboarding is for you.
And $100 isn't much if your prepared to spend 2-3k on gear.

the thing is that you don't have to spend that much on gear .there is plenty of stuff on buy and sell right here that will set you up for a lot less than that.in my experience one of the greatest problems is that many people are impatient and want to be a kitehero in 5 mins and don't want to do the time required to automate kite skills in a range of conditions before even attempting to add a board in a crowded area

GreenPat said...

I grabbed a copy of the photo in the news story out of Brazil when that guy got killed a couple of years ago if anyone wants it. It was a photo of the bloke on a stretcher minutes before he died of his injuries. I look at it sometimes to remind myself to be safe. Will post it when I dig it up, it's at home.

lol.
You can't be serious ?
Don't bother posting up the photo.
Have some goddamn respect.

waveslave said...

GreenPat said...

I grabbed a copy of the photo in the news story out of Brazil when that guy got killed a couple of years ago if anyone wants it. It was a photo of the bloke on a stretcher minutes before he died of his injuries. I look at it sometimes to remind myself to be safe. Will post it when I dig it up, it's at home.

lol.
You can't be serious ?
Don't bother posting up the photo.
Have some goddamn respect.

Tell that to the news article

Lessons ? Times are tough guys.

For that money, people could buy some 7 year old kite with no depower and get some excitement getting dragged across the beach or into walls like in the good old days.

What's about throwing in some lessons in if people buy kite gear in your shops at RRP or last years gear? Win-Win.

I changed over to kiteboarding after 10 years of windsurfing ,I didn't have any lessons as i didn't feel as though it was nessesary .I just bought the progression disc one and spent countless hours researching the net on sites like this one and you tube looking at all maner of kite related videos ,from crashes to what not to do, to how to do ect untill i was satisfied that i had all knowledge required.All the answers and information is out there free of charge.

I don't want to come across as anti lessons, but in my case i just didn't find it nessary with all the resources out there and still feel that way.I get tierd of hearing people make it out like it is so hard and the most dangerous thing in the world cause it's not and if you don't have lesson's from a such and such instructor you shouldn't be one the water .

Don't get me wrong i have no issues with people having lesson's for the majority of newbies it would be the best thing no arguement here.I am just saying in some cases it isn't required as long as you do your research.Still at the end of the day i quess either way you go lessons or self teaching there is no excuse for not knowing what your doing either pay someone to show you or do your homework and research your self it really isn't that hard.