Local kiteboarding "school"

Why the bashing?

Not sure about the unbranded kite that goes for $99.

The JAKKS Kites are made by JAKKS Pacific's kite division GO FLY A KITE. While they probably aren't built to paraglider standards, they're probably fine as recreational flyers.

Considering the initial lessons most likely focus on judging the environment & wind conditions, the wind windows, launches, relaunches, ground work, etc not really sure how fancy/spendy/advanced the kite needs to be.

Free kite with lesson is just a way of providing you with a gateway drug.... not that there's anything wrong with that.

I expect if you want a more advanced kite, you can probably upgrade to it at the time of the lesson with a slight upcharge. They already offer you a 10% discount if you mention them on your Facebook feed.

Past their trainer kites, their selection seems to be name brands, so I don't have a real problem with them trying to minimize their overhead at the low end.

Gotta put food on the table and make sure the cat gets fed.






ATB,
Sam

My hat off to you pyro for saving that lady a wasted 2hr drive. Who needs lessons for land based stuff, just hook up with a local flyer by joining a forum.

"Trainer Kites, or foil kites as they are often called, are an excellent kite for beginners who are not sure if they are into kiting yet or for kiters who just want to dominate on the land. They are perfect for all ages and help with the progression of kite control."

Hang on tight, this is a long winded one...

"Considering the initial lessons most likely focus on judging the environment & wind conditions, the wind windows, launches, relaunches, ground work, etc not really sure how fancy/spendy/advanced the kite needs to be.

Free kite with lesson is just a way of providing you with a gateway drug.... not that there's anything wrong with that."

This is exactly it Sam. At Hardwater Kiting we offer the same thing with an HQ 1.7m sport kite. We offer it as an option for people who are unsure if they want to pursue snowkiting and want to try flying a kite first without major investment. They get an hour instruction and they take the kite home as homework to prime them for their next lesson.

This is important as many of our student are from 3-6hrs away and sometimes weeks pass between lessons. The result is we spend a good part of the next lesson refreshing what they learned in the first lesson. Which is not the best use of that lesson time.

As a bonus they have a kite that's just fun to fly as well as good for building muscle memory. If they want to upgrade to a higher performance wing, such as a Hydra, we do that as well.

It's interesting to see people's point of view about kite schools. The mentality of " just have a buddy teach you." is always a fun one. If your buddy is trained, experienced, experienced, experienced and certified then I say go nuts. If not, you get what you pay for and you will only be as good as your buddy's skillset and safety protocol.

I see a lot of buddy instruction and it makes me cringe. If you think you can teach someone everything they need to know and make it stick in 3hrs you wrong. We offer a 5hr intensive lesson that is supposed to do exactly that and very few people are able to digest and retain it all. Breaking it up does much better but most people want instant gratification.

That said, I see "professional" instruction sometimes that's not much, if at all, better. IKO cranks out instructors left and right for land and surf kiting. It's a huge money maker for them. Go through their instructor lists tho and take a look at how long some of those people have been kiting. Many are less than 5 yrs.

Many of our water riders transitioning to snow often remark about how little they learned in their water lessons. The focus was mostly just in trying to get they client flying the kite and maybe riding at some level. Without the self rescue instruction, right of way, etc... That being the case there may be some value in buddy lessons if your buddy is kiting at a pro level and has an excellent safety record.

The as BR pointed out we are here in the land of the lawsuit. I got my IKO instructor cert. to qualify for their insurance. Otherwise no insurance company will cover you here. If you don't have insurance, proper paperwork (the paperwork SUCKS) you are completely open to liability WETHER YOU TAKE MONEY OR NOT. When you assume an instructor role you assume the liability. If you have someone on your gear and they get hurt you can bet a good lawyer will be able to push it. As far as IKO certification goes, at least for snow, much of the IKO snowkite certification is simply their water cert converted for winter. It doesn't deal with many of the aspects we teach in our lessons. Our goal is to build snowkiters. We want disciples to the genre not dabblers. Those who say any form of power kiting is easy to learn probably isn't riding at any remarkable performance level.

I don't know who this outfit you guys are trashing is. It doesn't matter. But I want to let people know that instruction is serious business and often certified instructors and local kite hero can be lame instructors just like local riders can be excellent instructors. The same goes for students. Sometimes you get students that are committed and open to the experience and sometimes you get people who just thought "it looked like fun". I've had maybe two students that really seemed impossible. To the point that they did 5hrs and didn't really get a handle on much of anything and were no way certifiable to L3. I prorated follow ups for them, thinking it was a failure on my part. It really bothered me for a long time until I asked around to other instructors and long time professional educators. After describing the experience they assured me that not everyone get it. No matter what "it" is. Sometimes there are just bad students. But that's rare.

On the other side of the spectrum I get a few raw beginners who sign up for a level 1 certification and they blaze through in about half the time and finish sometimes able to do everything for mid L3 certification. It kills my future lessons with them but it makes more new snowkiters to ride with and that's damn awesome.

Some people will say you shouldn't have to pay for lessons. People pay for ski lessons. People pay for golf lessons. Kiting is at least as technical as those examples. Some say you can learn on your own. I'm proof of that. I learned a lot more learning on my own than I would have learned from lessons. But if I could have taken lessons some things would have been learned faster and safer. I could have learned the extra stuff the IKO doesn't cover after getting the fundamentals dialed. But I think a lesson, even if it's L1 (mostly safety and ground school) is a great investment.

It's hard to tell. From the description here it sounds like this outfit may just be a money grab. Maybe it was a bad day for everyone involved, I don't know. But I will say that becoming an instructor (for both snowkite and mountain bike) and trying to make a living at it is by far the most work you will ever do for the least amount of money.

But when things go well. When that student does their first huck or manages to go upwind and starts cruising around the lake at will, it's and awarding and exhilarating experience.

And I'm spent. :duh:

Feyd, I always like your insight on all aspects of kiting, thanks for sharing. By the way I'm self taught and forum taught and today I somehow hit my release on the venom and somehow hit the leash release the same time. I had the leash hooked to the spreader right next to the chicken loop. Maybe a lesson would have saved me from chasing my kite.

Quote: Originally posted by pyro22487

@redsky She was trying to learn kite surfing but like I said they could t get the rig up in the sky. From what I gathered he said there wasn't enough wind. If i remember correctly it was a 12m LEI.

Ok cool. I have a habit of reading things wrong. I thought she was there to learn land kiting.