Kiteboarding water start- How to

First step take a lesson or two.  These videos are good but nothing beats a instructor to make sure your doing things correctly and safely.  There are a lot of videos on YouTube that show you bits and pieces of how to Kitesurf and many of them are just trying to sell you their dvd.  Here are a few of the videos I found helpful:

Nice basic tutorial on launching the kite on land:



Great kiteboard relauch video for the times you crash your kite in the water.  The same principal applies to a snow relaunch



Good tutorial on Water launch after you get the kite in the air:

Today's Lesson - Find an open area to surf

One of the first things I learned about kite boarding was that it is really important to be aware of your surroundings.  On our first trip to the lake my teacher was quick to identify the nearest power lines, thin ice areas on the lake and large trees.  His point know your surroundings and carry a knife.  I didn't really grasp the importance of that until a few days later when I came across this video:

   Check out the sequence around 1:30 as this snow kiteboarder gets his kite stuck over a pavilion and rips a whole in it (Screen shots below)-

Houston we have a problem

A whole new twist on the sport- Tree climbing kite boarder

Never a good thing!

That's going to hurt your resale value.

This video was from youtube.  Motzzy has a lot of great snowboarding videos and is a pretty good boarder from the looks of it.  Check out Motzzy's channel

Welcome to my kiteboarding adventure

Hi my name is Jon Ballard and I'm a 40 year old web developer from Southern Wisconsin.  I'm new to kiteboarding (In my case kiteskiing) and like a lot of new kiteboarders I've been spending time on the web learning about the sport.

The purpose of this blog is to detail my journey and share resources with other beginners.  I've been lucky enough to have a family member who is a great teacher and I've had a few lessons but I have a long ways to go.  I hope you find my blog useful.  Again, I'm not an expert.  I'm just an addict and want to learn more.

That's me below on my first day of boarding on Castle Rock Lake in Central Wisconsin: