I have a kite cat and also kitesurf.
Cost wise yes the kite cats were expensive but all the hulls were individually custom made and then Although the frame breaks down to some smaller
lengths the long hulls and complete cat were all shipped from down under so not cheap. There are a few around and used come up once every handful of
years. I think there may be one for sale near Ottawa Canada soon but have yet to follow up with my buddy about what kind of price he'll want.
They are larger for transporting and I wish I lived closer to water to get out on it more often. Hulls may need maintenance if you ride hard, mine is
older and gets small hairline leaks along the seam of the two piece hulls so redoing the glass along that seam this year. They ride very easy and
steer very quick for the size, ride very much like a buggy. They are fun to get out and tour around on them.
For Water play Kitesurfing is actually very simple to do by comparison, throw a board, kite and harness in the car and good to go.
To use anything else on water it's about whether the craft will actually plane when you put kite power on it or if it'll just roll you off. Then next
is, can you steer and control direction. Downwind with anything is a given, steering and getting upwind is a differnt game especially if the wind
comes up and you are dealing with chop or waves.
I think something like this is a lot like a the learning experience of a number of activities. If you don't have anything to compare it to you can
have a lot of fun. No right or wrong just your personal enjoyment. At some time down the road you may try better gear and you'll make a leap and look
back and wonder why you were doing it in a way that now seems so hard but it doesn't take away the fun you had. So because I kitesurf I can look back
and say why would you want to struggle with something that won't give you the same pay off - but for someone that doesn't have the other experience or
comparison and as long as you are having fun, go for it.
Mark Groshens NAPKA KC 13
WindSpeed kites & design - Canada
Peter Lynn Arcs: Charger2 22.5 +18 + 15 + 6.5, Charger I 6, Scorpion 16 + 10, Phantom II 12 + 9, Orig Phantom 9 + 6, Synergy 10 + 8, F 1200, S 840
Ocean Rodeo: Flite 17 + 12, Rise 13 + 10 + 7, Razor 9 + 6
Foils: PL Leopards and Lynx, Airea Raptors, some PL Reactor IIs + IIIs, Libre Spirits, Cross Kite Sonics, Ozone Flow
Peter Lynn Kite Cat for cruising the lakes
buggies: PL XR+, Cameleon Pagona, custom bigfoot, PL Bigfoot, custom ice buggy
Boards: 2 custom directionals, O.R Surf series 6-3 and 5-11, Mako Duke, Mako Skinny, Mako 140 Wide, Mako 150 Wide, Mako King, Brunotti
lots of old school skis, snowboard