Looking thru the previous threads I see a lot on locations for kitesurfing lessons. But, I was not able to find much on prerequisites. If I missed it, please post a link, Thanks. I know I have not banked the experience/skill set to work toward the water this year, but it is a long term goal of mine.

It looks/sounds like anyone can take lessons, even with little to no experience. But, is there any guidance or standard to the skill level or skill set you should have before taking this step?

Are there any skills you can work on before you take the first lesson? My only previous experience is water skiing. I don’t know how relevant that is. Body dragging came to mind. Something I often see listed as a must master. But, then I found a thread that said not to body drag at all unless absolutely necessary.

I’m just trying to keep my goals reasonable. But, develop my skills when I have the opportunity.
Thank You.

If you have the kite skills dialled in before you go for your lesson you'll be miles ahead of average joe/jane with no kite experience. There's a bit of a learning curve to the LEI world but It's actually easier IMO than the relaunch learning curve would be on foils. Giving what you know about foil flying though, even that relaunch lesson would blast by fast and you'd be in the water in a hurry.

Water skiing might not help much. I got out a couple times on a wake board and tried a snowboard a few times and it all kinda feels somewhat alike.

I say grab your Synergy and go fly it in waist deep water. Have fun, drag yourself around, launch yourself so you can feel how much (and how little) the water breaks your fall. See what it feels like when you mess up and the kite drags you through the water while you say your hail marys hoping the kite depowers soon (I mean this in a fun way - it's great!).

I remember before I took to lessons trying to body drag but it seemed pointless. You need a target upwind to drag to so take a can of beer out and throw it 5-6 feet upwind of you. When you reach it, you've earned it ; )

You are good to go take the lessons all of my experience was with fb before my first lesson and we blew through most everything quickly when we got to a few things he thought I should have trouble with he made me do them twice because he had never had anyone succeed on there first try 90% of the people that actually take kitesurfing lessons have never touched a kite in there life right out of the instructors mouth but do pay attention to everything being said they do things a certain way for a reason

since you already know how to operate a depower kite. i would get thru body drags quick and on to board starts. i assume wind knowledge and sailing mechanics are present since you already kite. relaunch a tube is breeze compared to PL. i would just get in the water with your SYN15 drag around with decent wind like 15mph plus (think one handed flying!). then when at your lesson straight away DO the drag/ launch/relaunch for the instructor and finish with board start that way you get right to business. if you can demo solid kite management skills things will move along quickly.
you gotta know body dragging it will help get you comfortable being in the water.

make it fun

+1 for body dragging. That thread about not body dragging is misinformation. Make sure you know the area and any underwater hazards by asking around but it is a required skill.

It took me a while to get the board starts on my own. A lesson helped along with making a balance board and spending hours on a longboard skateboard. Waterstarts are like riding a bicycle now. I have seen a wakeboarder guy pick up kiteboarding on their first try. Having the board balance and muscle memory helps the learning curve but persistence will get you there.

+ another 1 for getting body drags down + for the don't drag thread being misleading.
Know your area !

Being at the body drag stage and doing it upwind is about the best time to invest in a lesson. Getting to that stage can happen fast! Do you know the correct approach to it?

Thank You,
That helps. I’m going to continue with the land stuff thru fall and winter, hoping to have the comfort level to jump in next year.

I like your motivation macboy. You really need to want it.

Bladerunner: Not sure exactly the correct approach you are referring to.

Also, I have a seat harness. Does the waist harnesses have any serious advantages/disadvantages? Or is this still a purely preference issue?

A seat harness is better for learning and body dragging. The waist harness can ride up in a downwind body drag which you will be doing first. You can sit a bit higher in the water with a seat harness when pulled by the kite. That is just the experience i have had between using a OR Sessions II harness and Mystic Firestarter waist harness.

I think Bladerunner was meaning do you know the steps to body dragging? You may well know but I'll toss my hat in for all to enjoy. I'm no expert though...but then again I've been quite good at retrieving that board (thank goodness...they're damn expensive to lose )

So here's what I do - not sure there's a right or wrong really? In deep water I find you just gotta send the kite to the edge of the window in the direction you want to travel, let go with your underwater arm and make your body like superman, pointing your man of steel cross and upwind. Without a target you'll never really know you're going upwind - hence the beer or any other suitable marker upwind of you.

There are those that say you can't drag upwind with a lifejacket on (or maybe just not as well) but I did it and if I can do it - heck, ANYBODY can!

Shallow water dragging for practice is similar except you can start from standing, send the kite over to the edge and go with it as you feel the pull. I wouldn't bother trying to drag in anything less than chest deep water. Realistically if you were flying in waist deep water and needed to retrieve your board you'd just stand up and walk to it. Don't tempt yourself to develop bad habits like thinking there will always be a bottom to grab onto to steady yourself. Know what I mean?

Most important I think is to keep the kite at the edge of the window so it pulls you to the side, not downwind. Keep the power in the drag by sheeting in and out on the bar.

(I use a seat harness because my torso lacks the triangular adonis-like delta shape that I think you need to prevent a waist harness from becoming an armpit harness.)

Only prerequisite for learning to kitesurf ... not being a dumb-ass. Oh and calling it kiteboarding ... trust me if you even think "surf-" anything at an airport, you're paying extra fees

I come from a waterski/wakeboard background and really appreciated having the board skills when I added a kite to the mix. In watching others that were obviously just learning, I noticed that when they fell, they were getting pulled over the front of the board. I don't think I've ever been pulled over the front of the board. To give example of the learning curve, every person I've tried to teach to wakeboard that took my advice of getting up on 2 skis if even for a 10 minute ride, has learned to wakeboard. Everyone that won't take that advice has failed, sometimes for days on end, except for 2 people. 1 of those had an extensive snowboarding background and the other was extremely strong and had good balance too.

So bottom line, I think my boat based activities really helped me because all I had to learn was how to be more efficient coming up on the board as compared to letting the horsepower of the boat just launch me out of the water no matter my body position.

OK, thank you

macboy: Then I guess the answer is kinda. I have not seen a written description of how-to. Haven’t even looked yet. I guess I was still in the “is this wise” mode. Thank you for the description. Seems to sum up what I had in mind from observation. The rest I was going to try to feel out. If it is acceptable to try on my own, I need to start area shopping for a place where I can stand to start. I was also going to start with a life vest, never thought it would make it harder to learn. Just less efficient.

Kami: Well, I fixed the title... that will have to be good enough. For some reason kiteboarding seemed to be a catch-all for any board activity; water, land, & snow.

Shopping for shallow water areas to learn? I'm sure there are some in NJ, but I don't know where they are. I would recommend Dewey Beach, Delaware. East of Maui is a surf store with a good selection of kites and boards. They also do lessons locally. Good group of guys. The other folks to contact who do lessons in the area is a group called Yukatan Kiteboarding. They do lessons in the Chesepeake, Dewey Beach, and some other locations in the area. Really nice group of folks.

If you are looking for places to play around on your own, Dewey Beach, bayside is a good place to start. Wind direction is key here though, you really need a south-west wind for optimal. Comfort Point (Cape Henlopen) can be really shallow, but only on a low tide. High tide and it gets pretty deep pretty fast. Best wind direction for CP is north-west (rideable on a full north, sketchy on a NE).

Hope this helps!