To El Toro.. He's certainly committed!

If you can make it up to Elanda point lake Cootharaba over the next week I'll be happy to help you out with getting started. Not much further along myself but there will be a group of us beginner/intermediates with learning gear and shallow flat water. Gentle winds forcast.

Started at 55 and only 3 years in :-). Loving windsurfing - reckon I'll hurt myself badly with kites.

Cheers Jeff

Some thoughts from Italy, where lack of consistent waves makes the choice different.
I do not kite but it's evident that one can learn kiting much much faster than windsurfing; and, if TOW needed to learn how to go out and come back can be just 2 x time for windsurfing, the most important difference is in TOW needed to enter the realm of "high performance" (jumps, fast runs, carves, ...), there I'd say it's 10 x for windsurfing.

The big, big "down" for kitesurfing is, as some already pointed out, ugly company. "Show" kiting is way easier than "show" windsurfing and this lead lots of "show" idiots into the sport. Usually they know nothing or so about how to behave on the water and put at huge risk both themselves (which would not be a problem, but just natural evolution) and others. This past Summer I saw a child of maybe 8 - 10 years with her face and neck badly bruised by the lines of one such idiot who couldn't avoid manouvering as close to the beach as his short fins let him. Must admit I also saw quite a few accidents between windsurfers, but never anything that wasn't solved with a brief chat, a hand shake and sometimes some money going into another wallet.
So better stay away from kiters if possible.

Another "down" with kitesurfing is, true, when things get tough with kites they get really tough; but it seems to me that advancements in materials drove the alarm level way up; making both for generally less dangerous situatons, and for less confidence with those when happen.

I have some friends that used to be avid windsurfers and are kiters now; of course they have lots of experience and do not belong to the "idiot" category; and some of them admit they had to pick up kiting because of physical problems with their spines, and still admit "windsurfing was a different thing". And, luckily, in my spot there seems to be a consistent trend with less kiters and more windsurfers.

I was also thinking you should keep an eye out for this windsurfing club. it's sunshine/fraser coast based.

www.windwanderers.org.au/

a lot of us on this forum are members and sail together. myself included.

jirvin4505 said..
If you can make it up to Elanda point lake Cootharaba over the next week I'll be happy to help you out with getting started. Not much further along myself but there will be a group of us beginner/intermediates with learning gear and shallow flat water. Gentle winds forcast.

Started at 55 and only 3 years in :-). Loving windsurfing - reckon I'll hurt myself badly with kites.

Cheers Jeff

Thanks Jeff,
Appreciate your offer.
Are you up there on the weekend at all?
Ken.

Snip.,,

Thanks Jeff,
Appreciate your offer.
Are you up there on the weekend at all?
Ken.


> sent a pm
Up there from tomorrow morning

Cheers Jeff

Using the power of the wave with smaller waves.

I windsurf and my two brother-in-laws kite surf. Most of the points have been made already but a couple more from me:

Windsurfing can handle crappy, gusty conditions way better and safer than kites. I sail all winter, they wait for the consistent summer seabreezes. A 5-30kt winter front is a recipe for disaster for a kite, for a windsurfer it can be fun bobbing around waiting for a big gust over flat water.

I think they need less gear. One of them has three kites and 3 boards to cover 10-30kts, flat water, freestyle and waves. Hard to do that with windsurfing gear and it takes up more space/harder to travel with.

Kiters do have an edge in low wind now (as little as 6 kts with the right gear) on flat water but I recall watching a big day at Margaret River where the kites were dropping out of the air yet talented young windsurfers would slowly float out and but once on a wave they were powered up and ripping and slashing. My chances of doing that are 2 fifths of... well let's just say I'm a realist.

Good luck with your choice, either way you're going to have fun.

float and ride does take a fairly high skill level.


I bought a supsail, bypass the skill part.

Great topic, certainly bringing out some ripper footage.

nice one ken hope you have fun! your sup is definitely big enough to learn on.

biggest tip i can give you is to keep your feet along the centreline of the board. once you get your weight over the rail you'll be in the water in no time.

you WILL need a lesson or 2 so don't be afraid to ask. i'll drop you a line in the next few weeks and see if you need any more help.

you might benefit from a few youtube vids on how to rig a sail and how to uphaul. those are the places to start.

step 1



step 2

Gees gesalt, hope you save some waves for us, on those epic 5-10 knot days.

That last video of the guy riding the wave was amazing! It went on forever!

just to add to it, ive windsurfed since '83, started kiting in '99, and liked it until about 06-07..then it changed.
so started windsurfing again in '09. completely stoked on it..even for lightwind, id rather sail formula in lightwind, or sup sail if waves.. dont miss kiting at all, the lines, the pumping, the attitude.
windsurfing just feels more connected.
although, the smaller gear in the trunk was nice, they take up just way too much room on the beach and the water.
it was fun for a while though.
maybe i'll go back to it again when im older.. who knows.