Back from kite boarding, all I can say is wow... its harder than it looks! I learned how drift launched from a boat, set the kite at the edge of window jump in the water get my board on, launch the kite to 1:00 then down in a power stroke and get on plane.... for about 10 feet then fall down... and repeat.... I am absolutely pooped, I am going to be stiff tomorrow!

We had about a 15 mph wind gusting to 20, I chickened out on starting with 14m kite even though the instructor suggested I was probably going to need the 14m, I started with the 10m kite. He was right, I was a bit under powered and could not stay moving once I got up but that kite was perfect for learning all the kite handling, geting the board on your feet and practicing geting out of the water. As the day went on the wind picked up to 20 mph gusting to 25, the kite was powered up pritty good getting me out of the water fast then pulling me over into a belly flop, I never got to the point where I could set an edge and cruise before I was too exhausted. I was out there on the water for about four hours and had enough, drank a couple of gallons of water, learned a lot and called it a day!

I did get to see my equipment in action, the instructor took out my kite and board so I could see kite boarding in person instead of watching a video. I was happy to see he had to work the heck out of the kite to stay up on the water, he weighed just few pounds more than me so I think I will have a good shot at being able to set an edged and cruis around in the future.

The instructor is going to send me some video clips this week that I will share when I get them! So does everyone get up and riding on their first try or does it normally take a few sessions?

You're on your way.

Sounds like you had fun and got a workout at the same time!
That kite size in that much wind I would never think of doing...Good on ya!

i hope in your lesson you mastered body dragging up wind and self rescue, with those elements mastered, you can practice more on your on safely.

if you can get through the first 10-20hours things will start coming together.

you have to get used to the "catapult" action, the good news is its mountain of fun...the challenging news is it only gets faster, but with practice it all smooths out.

keep rocking it!

Great work! No, not everyone can get up and cruise on their first attempt, as demonstrated by me in this video https://vimeo.com/75705639 . That was my first time in the water and the video was after about 2 hours of body-dragging on my side, to avoid drinking the entire lake, then on my front once I realized that my face wouldn't plow the water if I was powered up. You can see from the video that I was paranoid about sending the kite into the power zone because I think the wind was about 20mph and I was not familiar with the kite. I have a beautiful butt-out stance once I get up, then I start cruising until I don't control the speed, then start pulling away from the boat. You can watch what happens next

Sorry for the goofy camera work, my instructor was working on that

good go man, just keep at it!

Futahaguro you did awsome on your first attempt in the water! It looks as though we had the same instructor Mike, what size kite where you using?

I spent about an hour in the water body surfing and the rest of the day looping looking for more power, I should of switched kites, but I was getting too exhausted to pull out another kite.

http://youtu.be/651jAR5Q6Zk

http://youtu.be/AIATX9ynUMg

you guys are in great spot and have super deluxe set up, flat water, boat with instructor , good breeze.

get out and practice what you know and it will come together quick.

Chrisz, yes it was Mike Kratochwill from Lakawa. Judging by the waves I think I had higher wind speeds than you but I don't remember the kite size. Maybe a 10M? It looks like you are almost there. I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination but I would say drop that kite down closer to the water the power zone and you should get moving!

Phree - We are in Minnesota so we have plenty of lakes to play on, we just usually need to deal with inland, gusty conditions.