Hi all i just got a new water kite but have yet to buy a board.
A friend of mine owns a wake board, is it possible to use that or will i need to get a kite board.
If so whats the difference between them?

Regards

get a kiteboard.

yeah, a wakeboard seems like it would work.... but it just doesn't.

kiteboards: better edging, less rocker, thinner construction for flex, grab handle inserts

Trying to learn on a wakeboard will ruin the experience. As said you can make them work. You can make a McDonalds tray work. A skim board or surfboard would be a better choice by far !!!
Used kiteboards are getting extremely cheap now. Do yourself a big favour and get one !

The big difference between the wakeboard and a kiteboard is the rocker, wakeboards have way more rocker, the rocker acts like an anchor killing any forward speed. It's not bad when getting pulled by a 90+hp boat, but it'll stop you dead in your tracks with a kite.

I've made a homebuilt plyboard that rides pretty good if $$$ is an issue. I got the basic design from this site.

http://kitesurfingschool.org/board.htm



I built one of these to learn on, worked fairly well, I didn't add fins so it's a little loose, but it gets the job done and now that I've got other boards I still drag it out for low wind days.

Thanks for the input guys.
Pablo, i visited the site and its awesome. gonna start on my board tomorrow morning. one more question on the site... it has boards that are similar to snow boards, will a snowboard work at all?

Go with the plyboard. They work FANTASTIC. By FAR your best bet on a budget. As I mentioned you can ride a serving tray if you have the kite / surf skills. It's just SO much easier to learn on something purpose built !

Haha! Thanks Snowbird

Some are snowboard shaped, I just layed my buddies kiteboard on a peice of ply, traced it with a pen and cut it out, sanded the side rails nice and round, sanded the bottom of the front/rear ends just on the bottom to act like a little bit of rocker, two pieces of an old nylon lifting strap from a construction site and a couple layers of polyurethane varnish to seal it up.

It's what I learned on, got my first upwind rides on, still works well when the wind's light. I went 150cm long by 45cm wide so it's nice and floaty, only down side is without fins it's a little snakey in the chops. I love the fact that in light winds I can ride a $5 board upwind while some of the guys around me are having trouble staying up on their store bought ones. Total cost on the plyboard was $5 for the varnish. I've just bough a 7 1/2 ft directional 3 strap board for the really light wind days though, couldn't resist for $100