www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32186

Would he have gotten different responses if he posted in the windsurfing forum?

Veerrrrrrry different

I think that its much as Combs said "Its horses for courses". I love sailing and for me windsurfing is the purest form of sailing. Some will understand that (the fortunate few) others may not, but for me that is their loss. I did try kiting but for me being dragged along by a string just doesn't equate as sailing.
If anybody gets as much pleasure from kiting, surfing, or playing golf as I get from sailing then they are going to have a lot of fun.
But you also have to admit that it fun to tease the teabaggers.

NotWal said...



I find it hard to imagine that, having been so focused on w/s and with so much left to learn that I would switch completely.

that's probably it for most of those who love to windsurf. personally, the fact that the tricks take so long to learn is what keeps me interested. Unfortunately the really exciting windsurfing tricks tend to be "all or nothing" tricks where you can't slow them down or hang for longer in the air to learn them, and you either commit completely or you pike out. i'd guess the result is not many people get good at the tricks, so the tricks are rarely seen by the majority who might like doing it if they saw it - and then on the other end of the spectrum are the many folk who windsurf for years and years and barely get beyond gybing and chop hopping, decide to take up kiting, and become overnight experts at kiting??

I say!! I'm gonna invent a special parachute that pops out the top of the mast so that you can jump off a wave, dangle for a while like a kite so you can practice the maneuver, and land gently. I'll patent it and call it the haircut hangtime extender trick practice parachute



anyway, come QLD christmas to end of january when we get that month of depressing 8 - 12 knot days of unwinwindsurfable conditions i can see the kite coming back out again. Though looking at our wierd weather pattern so far, maybe we will have the bestest windiest january ever

Nice thread guys, a good read.

Cheers GT

P.C_simpson said...

Hi Guys.
I will be kiting a bit over summer when it's a nice day and not enough wind to rig up my wave gear, but my sailing will always come first, over everything..

hahahahaha!!!

thats what i said too...

beware the dark side

peto said...

I dont know why kiters even go out in the surf

because with the kite 25 metres away from you, and only the bar in your hands, it feels more like surfing than slogging it out with a mast, boom and sail in your face.

and you can ride a normal poly surfboard, instead of trying to bottom turn a sluggish half ton pole board you can actually snap the board around with a kite

and i agree, floaty jumps do look pathetic and have no place in the waves

stamp said...

peto said...

I dont know why kiters even go out in the surf

because with the kite 25 metres away from you, and only the bar in your hands, it feels more like surfing than slogging it out with a mast, boom and sail in your face.

and you can ride a normal poly surfboard, instead of trying to bottom turn a sluggish half ton pole board you can actually snap the board around with a kite

and i agree, floaty jumps do look pathetic and have no place in the waves

Slogging it out with a mast, boom and sail in your face?
Bottom turning a half ton pole board?
Sounds like you have been taking your formula gear out in the surf?
My 70L Evo weights 6.2kgs and I have no trouble with snapping the board around with my 4m sail

stamp said...
...
and you can ride a normal poly surfboard, instead of trying to bottom turn a sluggish half ton pole board you can actually snap the board around with a kite
...

Half ton eh... sounds like one of those old plastic longboards.. Did it have a centreboard?

Anything (even formula gear) would feel more like surfing than riding one of those in the waves with a non-battened full fabric sail on a one piece fibreglass mast while wearing flouro budgie smugglers.

If it's all about "feeling like surfing", then go surfing!

Peto was on the money - wavesailing is not 'wannabe surfing' it's a whole different thing. The waves add a different element to windsurfing entirely. I am yet to see a kiter who does something on a wave that they couldn't do just as well on flat water. (apart from trashing their kites in breaking waves of course)

stamp said..


and i agree, floaty jumps do look pathetic and have no place in the waves

but the big floaty jumps sure are fun though.

I am starting to think that it is not the actual difference between the two disciplines that makes one preferable over the other. It is the difference in the Culture of two wherin lies the difference. Reading from the kite forum I am going to stick with windsurfing. Kiting culture seems selfish boorish and arrogant.

Half ton eh... sounds like one of those old plastic longboards.. Did it have a centreboard?

Anything (even formula gear) would feel more like surfing than riding one of those in the waves with a non-battened full fabric sail on a one piece fibreglass mast while wearing flouro budgie smugglers.

Well I'm offended.
I feel it is unfair of you to talk about me behind my back like this!
"why are people so unkind." (quote- Kamahl )

Kitesurfing in waves is nice because you don't have to paddle for them and wait all the time, it's tow surfing with the wind. When you get good at it while you ride the wave its like the kite isnt even there, then it gets used again to take you back to the line up.. In that sense, riding waves with a kite is surfing. Doing tricks and stuff off the waves suspended at the end of lines is kiting.
In windsurfing you get your speed from the sail to jump, do loops, catch waves, do tricks, etc... I agree it is its own sport, thats why i love it too .

frant said...

I am starting to think that it is not the actual difference between the two disciplines that makes one preferable over the other. It is the difference in the Culture of two wherin lies the difference. Reading from the kite forum I am going to stick with windsurfing. Kiting culture seems selfish boorish and arrogant.

I think the difference in culture stems from the pedigree of the two sports.

Windsurfing is strongly related to surfing and sailing.
Kitesurfing however seems to be more related to skateboarding and wakeboarding.

I wrote a long diatribe about the difference in culture between these activities, but it got a bit acidic, so I deleted it.

Geez, look at that. I've done more posts this week than in my entire life!
This could mean only one of the following;

1. Somebody changed my medication.

2. My tax returns are due and I don't feel like doing them.

3. I feel I have some deep and meaningful contribution to make to this site for the betterment of mankind.

4. I have finally gone saline and thought there were lots of people out there who cared even a little bit about my point of view.

For those who picked "2." above as the reason, you win the prize, which is one empty beer can, suitable for recycling.

I took a whole week off to do my tax returns. So far I have been surfing 4 times, windsurfing twice, (maybe 3 times if it picks up a bit more), dismantled my biro 3 times, read about 500 posts on seabreeze, and posted 50 more. (well it seems like 50) and spent about 2 hours on my tax. And here it is friday afternoon already. Doh! And my tax is nowhere near done.
Somebody shoot me.

Ugly pills?

I am actually taking beauty pills. You should have seen me before...