Guides

This chapter covers how the wind window works, what kite size to fly for your weight, how to waterstart, and how to ride upwind. Most people ride independently after 15–20 hours of tuition, 20–30 hours total time on the water.

That is what it costs to reach the level the cards call IKO Level 3 or VDWS Level 5: riding upwind, launching yourself, getting out of trouble in deep water alone. This chapter is the path from a trainer kite in a park to the day you rig without an instructor, with what lessons cost, how to pick a school, and where the water makes it quicker.

What each part does, what kite size to buy for your weight and your wind, and what a full setup costs new and second-hand.

The order that saves the money is lessons first, then a trainer kite, then a one-to-three-year-old kite and bar you have pumped up and inspected yourself. What follows is what the gear costs, how to pick a kite size for your weight, how to inspect a used kite before you pay, and how to keep it alive for four seasons instead of two.

This chapter says what each change does on the water, what it costs, and how much of it a normal rider actually needs. The 40 m jump record and the ISO 21853 release standard are in here too, with their numbers.

Wind direction matters more than wind strength: cross-onshore is the safest direction at any beach, and offshore is the one that sends you out to sea. This chapter covers wind direction, kite size for your weight, gusty wind, turbulence behind obstacles, forecast models, tides and the clouds that mean land now.

Per hour on the water the injury rate is low, but beginners get hurt around sixty times more often than professionals, and the fatal accidents repeat a short list of scenarios. This chapter is that list, plus the quick-release sequence, the self rescue and the pre-flight check. Read it twice.

Shorter ones cover tangled lines, how to stop a death loop, a broken line or failed gear, how to body drag upwind to get your board back, squalls, how to self-land when nobody is on the beach, and getting back upwind. Every technique here is one you rehearse on an easy day, on purpose, before the day you need it. The middle of an emergency is the worst classroom there is.

The unwritten half is beach etiquette: where you rig, who you help launch, how much room you leave a beginner. One principle sits above both codes. Never insist on your right of way.

Shorter ones cover how to ride toeside, carving transitions, grabs, the back roll and board-offs, strapless gybes and tacks, how to get a hydrofoil flying, light-wind riding and big air competition. Every move comes with the wind range, the kite size and the water that make it easiest to learn.

This chapter tours 25 of them region by region, with the months, the wind in knots, the water and who each spot is actually for, and it ends with the checklist for judging a spot nobody has written up. If you are picking a first kite trip, start with the shallow lagoons: Lo Stagnone, Dakhla, El Gouna, Long Bay.

This is the practical side of kitesurfing that no lesson covers, and the side that decides how many days a year you ride.

Video will not teach you kite control in real wind, which is what lessons are for. From the waterstart onward it is the cheapest coaching you will ever get. Every tutorial named here plays on this page.

This chapter covers everything that sits around the riding, one question per section. Read the section you came for; none of them depends on the others.