Has anyone tried kite surfing on water skiis or is a board the only way to go on water?

I believe the original pioneers of the sport started out on water skis! I saw it on a red bull history of kiting DVD thing! Looked very difficult though in comparison!

Check this out on Doomwheels website:
http://www.doomwheels.com/articles/kiteski.php

I'd imagine it's a lot harder to carve/go upwind on them though? but who knows! would be fun to try either way!

Thanks for the info Dom, I've been skiing for years but have never been on a board . What PL and/or Flysurfer kite would you try with skis for a 200 lb newbie?

Bill

Yup, Cory Roesler ( sp ) pioneered kiteboarding from the Gorge and started out on water skis. The company was called kiteski. His kites were like the P.L. C quad sort of. Rods arced to form a Bow like kite + this monster real bar for lines and launching.
I've often thought about giving it a try and would if I had a set. I almost quit kiting when I discovered that I missed out completely on all board sports and learning the surfing part of kiting was holding me back BIG TIME ! I'm most at home on my Coyote rollerblades and snow skis with a kite. I learned to ice skate at such a young age I don't remember ever not doing it so that stance is natural to me.
Corey was doing huge jumps right off the bat but I've never seen any footage of him jumping with water skis. Possibly you can't cut hard enough to set up a jump. That is an issue with the blades.

It is hard to guess what size of kite you would need to kiteski. I'ld look at what the boarders are using and start one size smaller.

I had a kiteski setup years and years ago. It worked well but it was suited to higher winds (a.ka. the Gorge). Wish I didn't sell my reel bar. I had the smaller high wind kite and it was huge. Unfortunately a couple spars broke and the replacements were very expensive. I also had my first Wipika at that time and figured the Wipika flew better so I'd sell the Kiteski setup.
The reel bar with the kiteski worked great. You didn't have to set everything out and have to have a large area to launch from.

I still have the gaint branded Kiteski duffel bag for all the gear.
Scott

I'm 250lbs and get along fine with a 16m PL Scorpion, gets me going on a decent sized board in 12-14mph no problem, wicked depower as well.

There's also a couple Venom's going on E-bay for reasonably cheap, the Venom's make a little less power than the Scorpions per size, go with at least a 16m unless you live in a wind tunnel. The 13m Venom's are sweet, just need 20mph winds to get up.

Flysurfers are wicked as well, something in a 13m Psyco II would work nicely.

Pab's.
Have you found / can you guess the top end winds with the 16 ? On land and also water.
Can you try to relate that to someone my size for winds on the same kite.
If you were average weight ( you know, lighter than you :P ) and needed to keep to one Scorpion what would be a good one kite size IYHO ?
Speleopower,
You are my Hero of the Month !!!
For some lucky reason I saw an educational t.v. show back in about 99. It was a girl getting instruction and the TRYING to kitesurf. All the :wow: footage was of Corey with his crazy kites and bar :cool2:
When I saw the King of the air event in about 01. I knew I was hooked. So I went out and bust my leg on the motorcycle :duh: The good part was I went to Hawaii to convaless and spent a day hanging out on Kailua beach. By then equipment had changed and the sport looked far more accesable + folks had started up at the spit. The next year a local was offering lessons and I was in.
The fact you had the :moon: to go for it back it kiteski days gets MY ATTENTION You DA MANN !!!!!!!!

For me I've ridden the 16m Scorpion on the ATB in a solid 20mph gusting to 30mph no problem, bottomless amounts of adjustments on the kite to turn the power/speed/turning up/down on the kite. I've ridden a solid 22mph winds at GP park on both the board and buggy no problem, enough control to give the kiddlets a slow ride around the park on the back of the buggy, sheet it in a little and yank on the bar and go for a spirited rip. On the surf I've only had it in 14mph up to about 18mph, 14 was a little light for me, I got up and cruising but didn't stay upwind, part of it is my crap board and inexperience on the water though, by 18mph it was nicely powered, bar all the way in though, could have easily held it down in 25mph, probably 30mph would be my top end. I'm planning on using it mostly in Squamish this summer.

For a guy your size, I'd think a 13m would be do-able. I've buggied with my old 13m Venom in a solid 35mph winds, also buggied in 5 gusting to 25, ugly but possible. The 13m Scorpion would be a wicked kite for you, depower is pretty much the same range as most of the bow kites. I'd consider looking for a used Venom I/II though, there's a number of them popping up on E-bay for under $500 complete. If you're looking for Squamish only, you could probably get away with a 10m kite.

You've got that 10m Psyco II though don't you. Want a hand tuning/flying it to figure it out? That'd probably do you fine once you get it dialed in for your style and weight.

Thanks Pab's,
I'm happy with the P2 and think the 10 is a good size. I'm just a bit impressed with the Scorp' and will probably suggest it to folks in gusty locations. Like Chilliwack. It seems to have a much wider wind range and trim options than other arcs.

You should take it out some time in 10-15mph winds, it's a baby to fly if you don't do anything sudden with it. I've already had Tara flying it a couple times and she normally only flys 3m fixed bridal kites.

It was fun back in the late 90's. Many people told me kitesurfing would not work. I think I have the tv show with Corey flying in the gorge on tape.
I'm still stuck in the foil world. The LEI kites just don't do it for me yet.

I never tried waterski's because I went straight to surf boards when I got my Wipika.

Looks like there are people trying trick skis these days. Looks like fun.

http://www.reflexworld.com/1video/Video%20twin/Kiteboning2.w...

:cool2: