If I didn't hate cold water , weather and wind I could get a LOT more riding in around here.

I know why I am attracted to land.


Whay are YOU ?

Why do you think kitesurfing is so much more popular ?

:puzzled:

98% of my time is spent on water!............aj

Me personally is water seems a lot more involved that landboarding. For me, i can grab my landboard, kite, etc... and just drive to the park (15 minutes away) pull it all out and go. It seems to me like water would be more involved, you get out there, have to get your wetsuit on, etc.. well, I guess the only difference is you get wet, and have to put on a wetsuit.

I guess I don't have a good reason why ;P. Nothing but I started on land, and happened to have a mtn board laying around... No one has a kiteboard laying around, and i definitely don't and didn't have $400 laying around to buy one! Other than that... I might be trying out the water here in the next year or so

I figure it has got to suck ,being 1/2 mile offshore when the wind says "I'm done for the day". Now you've got a $1000 sea anchor that the tide is carrying away. Oh, yeah there goes your $500 board that is floating away too. And don't get yourself tied up in those lines that are all around you now.
"where is a jet ski when you actually need one?"
Nah, that is just too much crap to go wrong and we haven't even talked about some not so nice sea life around here.(and I don't mean sharks)

300 miles to the coast pretty much dictates my flying.

I ask myself the same question BR. I tried to get on the water last summer, but the conditions never worked out for me. This summer I will be putting much more effort into getting on the water.

We have a lot more water here than land to ride on and the land seems to be getting smaller all the time. Plus they haven't kicked people off the water YET because of the plovers. The good thing for us here is we can ride in the lakes and rivers ... no salt water or likely to hurt you creatures

After finally having a breakthrough session this summer in the water, I haven't even taken my landboard out of the car let alone the buggy. With the really lousy inland winds we have here in North Georgia I have to drive over 5 hours to get to the beach anyway so I might as well get in the water. Much more diveristy in terms of locations and wind direction as well plus the crash/splat factor diminishes greatly. No doubt I'll continue to landboard but the water is pretty freaking cool. I highly recommend making the transition if you've been considering it.

Greg

After my breakthrough water session, 5 years ago, landboarding has become a second choice, but still a fun one, when I don't have time to ride on the water.

Some other reasons:
- Riding on the water provides you with access to a much larger area than most land based spots. Even when snow kiting, most of us in Ontario ride on frozen lakes, for the this same reason - more riding area / fewer access hassles.
- Jumping is much easier / safer on water. Especially so when trying new tricks.
- Wind is typically much cleaner (less gusty), with large fetch areas over open water.

In the end, it's all fun, so just do your thing, and don't worry about what's popular. One of the most appealing aspects of kiting is the many modes of ground transportation. If you get burned out on one, there are always new challenges awaiting in the others. If fun is in the journey, not the arrival, then more sports means more fun in the long run.

haha we are landlocked around here. About an hour east will get us some decent sized lakes, but nothing special. Some members have lakes around their hometowns so they hit the lakes on breaks.

For the most part, we ride land, and the only water we locally is the frozen flaky kind

i prefer to buggy more

i hate seaweed under my feet. years back when the wind died, my kite went into the water and my lines ended up with more seaweed.

with local riding, its got some good days, but in order to get riding in the summer means a 1-2hr drive first to Sqamish.

ill only kitesurf a few places, White Rock, Crescent, Boundary Bay, Jericho and the Gorge.

We have seasons here and we are landlocked too so I do it all. When we have open water, I head for the water (we do have the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world with some world class riding spots just an hour away). I ride snow, when we have snow (just 5-20 minutes from home in any direction). When there is no snow or open water, I groundboard. I do the later the least. I groundboard to fill in the gaps to get a much needed kiting fix. I would probably do more groundboarding if we had better spots to do it here.

Probably more people here ride snow than water with the fewest who groundboard or buggy.

Land kiting is for the brave, enough said..lol.

I do it cause I don't have the cash for water equipment and any body of water is a good 3 hours away at least.
Nuff Said

Brian

For me it is location, location, location. Nearest lake that is kite friendly is 4 hrs away or I can ATB in the neighbor's hay field or join Flyjump in a 115 acre park 10 minutes away. As others have said, convenience of setting up in a few minutes to ATB opposed to having to put on a wet suit, inflate/deflate my lei, etc. Easier to stop and chat with a bud on the land than on the water. As long as you have a kite involved, it is all good, and good wind makes it even better which has been not cooperating lately. I am starting to get the shakes, thinking about it.

Ever tried the walk of shame on water?:embarrased:

i do it because its faster then walking!!

more kitable days on land than water.

Yeah, here I'm limited to wind from the north for kitesurfing but on land, I can ride any direction ... even on my weenie wee field

The first bit of power kiting I saw was a fellow worker riding on believe it or not a slough like wet land just off a major highway. I was like you're crazy man!!!!(mostly because of swimmers itch) The first question I asked was if he could use the kite for snowboarding. He was like yeah man! I was like that's F@!%ing amazing. Me having experience skiing and snowboarding made me want to get a kite fast. I haven't snowboarded yet with my kite but hope it happens really soon cause I'm getting anxious. I already got myself a kite to try on the water next summer (don't know if a 7m waroo will be able to drag my fat a$$ around though) Guess all in all being on the land seems to be a great place to gain confidence, learn to handle the kite. Plus when you own half the gear and live in the prairies, land seems much cheaper to get started on.:dunno:

You GOT IT PHREE!

Land opens up the whole low wind range.

It seems to me that if I would get out of my skirt and into my drysuit I could have the best of all worlds. Land allows low wind riding and around here water is the only reasonable option in winters shoulder seasons.

I haven't had my breakthrough on water the last while I haven't cared but I know I'm missing out not getting out there.

BRrrrrrrrrrrr :ticking:

Quote:

Originally posted by PHREERIDER more kitable days on land than water.

access to excess,....the needful 's dream

I think land is chosen (at least in the beginning) by most people because if you start out static flying when you get into kites, all you have to do is hop on a landboard and you can start cruising. With water, not only do you have to have a depower, but it has to be a closed cell or LEI or SLE etc., and most people don't start out with those kites. Plus learning to landboard or snowkite is much easier than learning on water, just because certain factors (learning self rescue, being able to balance on the kiteboad, etc.) aren't there on land. However even saying this I have never been on water but I'm just passing on what I've learned. I myself have not been able to hit the water because of lack of the proper kite during the summer, and I don't live by the beach or a big enough lake to kitesurf on. Everyone has a neighborhood field they can fly at, but not as many people have water.

land kiting is easier.... i am better at it than surfing.... i still love the feeling of kitesurfing, though.... much more dangerous on water for me at the moment, but thats because i am not very good at it yet...

you also need a good bit more wind to surf than to atb