I spent my weekend hiking Mt Adams via South Trail. Didn't made it to the peak but I made it to Pikers Peak! It was windy and cold between both peak! I drove pass Hood River and guess what? Yep everyone was kitesurfing! Kinda made me wish I lived there or closer to a river/lake! Never tried it but always wanted to! Water would be a lots more forgiving than on dirt when crashing ....

If you were there, let me know how it went! I might consider going there and rent gears/take a lesson there because I read somewhere that there is some shop in Hood River that offers kite surfing lesson!

Picture view toward Hood Mountain from Pikers Peak!

There are a bunch of outfits in Hood river that do lessons, although many of them are closed for the season at this point. I wasn't out there on the 11th, was up at work. The crashing is normally more forgiving, however it can be much more frustrating figuring out lines and whatnot after a crash. They "float" but when you're keeping yourself up and getting slowly dragged downwind things are a bit more interesting then on land or even deep snow.

Highly recommend learning at Jones Beach with the outfit there, much less crowded and in my mind a better place to fly although there is more ship traffic.

Thank for recommendations! Yeah there are like 30 kites up at the same time near that toll bridge. Makes me wonder how people avoid tangling each other's kite!

If you've ever buggied on a very short beach it's about the same, you stay in your space they stay in theirs. Downwind kiters kites stay low, upwind riders stay high. I stay away from the fray (or used to) but it's not as bad as it seems from shore. That being said i much prefer the kite beaches that aren't so busy. Lauching with tons of kiters right off shore is a pain especially if someone is mowing the lawn or thrown down (for the cameras) right off the launch neither of which are uncommon.