Remember the Newbies.

[skysurfr]

When I pumped up my kite at Oval last weekend, I noticed another kite on the beach as well. The guy was eyeing me from a distance. I saw the gear was quite old and tattered. I think it was the original 2 line Naish kite that I learned on. I walked over and said hi, quickly realizing he had hardly ever flown the kite. He told me his friend in the Gorge mailed him the stuff, and he really didn't know how to use it. When I pointed out that his kite needed more air, I found out that he had inflated it by mouth, as he had no pump. That also explaind why he looked light headed. No you don't need to knot the kite lines on, and yes you need to wear the leash on your wrist tightly.

I did a 30 min rigging and safety session with him and then asked that he reach out on this site or learntokite.com and get more lessons.

He whipped out a 5.0 surf board that he'd made in shop class! It looked pretty nice. He was ready to finish sand it. He had been surfing down in Chile when he saw kitesurfing.

We decided after flyng the kite on land for about 4 minutes in 20 knots, that he wouldn't fly it anymore on land that day.

When I came in after a nice session, he had packed up and gone off with his Mom. I hope I gave him a shove in the right direction and that everyone else will do the same when they stumble on a new enterant to the sport.


Mike

[V]

I am surprised that someone would get the stuff to kitesurf in the mail, stuff for a sport as dynamic as this with potential for injury, and then never bother to even look on the internet for a few minutes for information. Using your lungs to fill the kite? Even inflatable rafts come with pumps. This certainly indicates he didn't bother to do any research at all. Hopefully he will read up a bit before giving it another go. I'm just surprised that someone would blindly attempt something as complex as this. Glad you were there!