First Kiteboarding Experience

July 18 2010 marked the day as my first Kiteboarding experience. I had been playing with a training kite for quite some time, and was ready to get in the water. After being surrounded by many people at work who enjoy the sport – it peaked quite an interest.

I decided that Squamish, BC would be the perfect place to test the waters. So I jumped in my car with a few friends and ended up at “The Spit” in Squamish.

It was incredibly windy and cold – perfect conditions for learning how to Kiteboard.

The lesson was 3 hours and half of it was going over sheeting, self-water rescue & setting up the kite. After that I finally hit the water with my instructor.

He launched the kite and I jumped into a small boat with him. We ventured off away from all the other kiteboarders into the middle of the ocean. He then stopped and attached the kite to me. I quickly learned how to control the kite and the importance of sheeting. It was quite funny as at first I didn’t understand and pulled in on the control bar rather quickly. This is called sheeting- in, this powers up the kite and as I flew 15 feet in the air to land in the ocean- my lesson had been learned.

Soon enough he had me in the ocean doing body drags. Body dragging is an essential skill in kiteboarding. If you lose your board, this is the way you get back to it in the ocean. You have a rather large kite attached to you – so swimming is not really an option. Since these kites are well over 1k each – you also don’t want to lose your kite! Soooo.. after swallowing gallons of water trying to body drag, I finally got that down.

Unfortunately after all of that I only had 10 minutes left in the lesson. These last precious moments were spent trying incredibly hard to get up on the board. I got up for a second or two then bailed. The lesson was over and I was beyond drained.

Overall it was a great experience and I am excited to add this sport to my weekend routines!

Here are some highlights of the day:

Above is me and my buddy Alan – I am wearing a rather large dry-suit and life jacket. It was quite uncomfortable – and that’s the last
time I will ever wear a dry-suit