My 16 year old son is keen to learn kiting but 50% of people I speak to about it say it's too dangerous and they know kiters who have been badly injured.

Is this through kiters being overadventurous or do kites easily get out of control?

Guidelines for kiting safely please...

Thankyou

(and yes I do know I'm overly protective)

I've been skate boarding, snow boarding, skiing, water skiing, snow kiting, sky diving, paragliding, speed riding etc etc

Kite surfing is the safest form of extreme sport

Even swimmers if they want to go for championship they'll end up under surgery for their shoulders so as long as it's all just for fun he will be safe

New equipment (Safety Technology) a few lessons and it's more safe than crossing the road.
Get the grom going and let his generation really figure out what is possible..

With 1522 post on Seebreeze, you are thoroughly researching the subject before giving the go ahead to your son

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sebol said...

With 1522 post on Seebreeze, you are thoroughly researching the subject before giving the go ahead to your son

with a simple look at his profile it would seem he is a windsurfer

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Windxtasy said...

My 16 year old son is keen to learn kiting but 50% of people I speak to about it say it's too dangerous and they know kiters who have been badly injured.

Is this through kiters being overadventurous or do kites easily get out of control?

Guidelines for kiting safely please...

Thankyou

(and yes I do know I'm overly protective)

Number One guideline for kiting safely is to receive good standard lessons from a reputable instructor.

Given that you are a Windsurfer I am sure he is comfortable with being in and on the water as well, which always helps. Never fails to surprise me the number of people who start the sport who aren't confident swimmers.

Having and using a good quality watersports helmet will help too. There seem to be some good light ones coming out that have impact protection.

Being a 16 year old, regardless of whether he takes up kiting or not I'm sure he will find new and imaginative ways to push himself to the limits of safety, better on a kiteboard than in 2 years time behind the wheel of a car.

Apart from that, the kiting community is very sociable and if he makes an effort to say hi to people on the beach, he will have a bunch of people keeping one eye out for him in no time. If they give him advice he should definitely listen to it.

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Windxtasy said...

...... 50% of people I speak to about it say it's too dangerous and they know kiters who have been badly injured.

Is this through kiters being overadventurous or do kites easily get out of control?

I'm guessing that about 50% of the people you speak to are windsurfers?

It was dangerous a few years ago but with the advances in safety I don't think it should be called an extreme sport anymore, there is heaps of people in there 50's, 60's & 70's kiting.

If you are constantly doing huge kiteloops etc then you are bound to get injured at some time but in my opinion the positives gained through improvements in health and fitness (both physically and mentally) outweigh the negatives.

I'm sure you would like him to follow in your footsteps and take up windsurfing but times have changed and not many young ones want to windsurf anymore.

With lessons and modern equipment he will be fine and will love you even more for giving him the opportunity.

Perhaps you could learn with him and find out what it is about first hand.

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UP said...


Kite surfing is the safest form of extreme sport

LOL Seriously, why do people call kiting an extreme sport. There is nothing extreme about it. 10 years ago maybe....

There are a few things the grom will need to learn so he will need some lessons, then find him good and suitable kite equipment and the sport is actually very safe - as long as he has some common sense.
Do some research regarding kite schools there are some dodgy schools around.

After he completes the lessons I'd probably stay close for a while and being young he'll be doing handlepasses in no time. And that's when you start to consider swapping your windsurf gear for a kite

extreme sport ? , its as extreme as you want to make it ...
regularly see john who must be 70 if a day out at corro's on his surfboard having a great time .
get a couple of lessons from a good instructor , buy some reasonable equipment , ( not a 3 year old C kite ) and if possible find someone / somewhere to help him out after those first couple of lessons for a little while till he has it all figured out , and yes once he starts doing the handle pass's he will probly want you to trade in that windsurfing kit

My 11 year old finished her lessons about 5 weeks ago with AKS, the opportunities to go out have been a bit scarce since, but in as near perfect conditions as we can get, she goes out and body drags and practices getting on the board.
We have some other kiting parents with 8, 9 and 10 year olds learning on Ozone 2.5 Uno's (4 line inflatable trainer) and 4m Catalysts.
If you're concerned about safety go along to the lessons or even learn together, new equipment is a lot safer as some of the other posters said get new equipment and definitely get lessons.
Your profile says Bulls Creek there are plenty of schools both north and south of the river, go down talk to some instructors, or even customers to get a feel for the right school for you.

I have a 9 year old who has kited for nearly a year without incident. Spent 6 months flying a trainer, then made the transition over to an inflatable. Now holds his ground on a TT.

Biggest thing I reckon is your preparation - don't send them out in less than ideal conditions until they are ready for it (at my kids age anyway)

Good supervision from you if your proficient, or an instructor goes a long way (or both). Might mean you miss a few sessions yourself, but will be well worth it later on!

I raced supersport bikes before taking up kiting so this is safe as knitting to me.

Let the young fella give it a go.

My son's 14 and he's been doing it for about a year and he absolutely loves it.
It's not dangerous if you use common sense but lessons are a must.

We have some firm safety rules that we follow:

1) no kiting in dangerously strong wind or frontal/stormy weather
2) no kiting in offshore wind
3) no playing around on terra firma - kiting is a water sport
4) no jumping over solid objects

Also when learning pick a less populated part of the water, preferably downwind from other water users.

I reckon about 90% of bad accidents happen when those rules are being broken.

The video below shows him kiting in October last year when he had less then 1 year of experience:

Nope stick to windsurfing..

50% of people.. Interesting numbers there. 50% of people I speak to think that windsurfers are mid life crisis types.

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dusta said...

sebol said...

With 1522 post on Seebreeze, you are thoroughly researching the subject before giving the go ahead to your son

with a simple look at his profile it would seem he is a windsurfer

and he is a she...

Thanks for all the feedback, keep it coming.
Yes, most people I have spoken too are windsurfers, although many do kiting also (or did), but that's why I have posted this thread on the kiter's forum, to get the other side of the story.
It sure looks like fun, and he's a sensible boy, not a crazy risk taker. I guess I will take lessons as well so I understand how it all works. That way he'll be able to tell me about his sessions without too many blank looks from me. I guess even if we are in different disciplines we can still go to the beach together and to similar holiday destinations...

Reading "his" profile, I think "he" is a "she".

There are hundreds of thousands of people riding around on kites in all sorts of conditions, using all sorts of gear, with all sorts of levels of skill.

The vast majority of us are all here with all bits attached. It's as safe as you want to make it.

The absolute rule number one of all "extreme" sports is to have an escape route and maintain it at all costs. In kiteboarding that means keeping yourself far enough away from hazards so that you can ride out anything that goes bad.

That is, keep plenty of distance to rocks and roads and power lines and stuff downwind. Soft sand and water = good. Rocks, boats, people, etc = bad.

Ride the other way and get out of the way of hardcore dudes, the incompetent, and grumpy old windsurfers.

Lessons are a good idea, especially for a kid.

Used gear is ok but make sure it is no more than two years old at most.

By far the biggest decision you have to make is how much you trust your son. Is he a smart, sensible, reasonably athletic 16 yo? Or is he an immature deadhead? If he is sensible enough then he will be fine.

If he is a deadhead then getting heavily into an all-encompassing and healthy sport might mature him. It's happened at our beaches with some 16-18 year olds reaching world class skill levels after a year.

BTW. Perhaps you should take up kitesurfing too. I windsurfed for 20 years and now I'm into my 12th year of kitesurfing. I sold my windsurf gear 10 years ago. You and your son could go down the beach to kite in the family car with two full quivers of gear and have room to spare. That gear will do you quite happily in winds 12-15 up to 30+ knots. Flat water or surf.

More BTW. One of the dads has a mini-van. He takes all the kids kiteboarding. The van rolls up and half a dozen kids pile out and off they go. Dad launches and lands kites and used to carry gear back after the walk of shame. One of those kids is now a sponsored rider and the others are not too shabby.

It is pretty safe these days, if I can learn it without hurting myself anyone can. The only injury I have seen this season in Lancelin was an foolish euro that was boosting/kite looping in 6 inches of water, last I heard he ended up in RPH with a screwed up shoulder. Not even a normal 16 year old that thinks he is superman is normally that stupid.

His ego and confidence will get the better of him at times, but kiting seems to be self-correcting, when you get a bit over-confident you undoubtably screw something up and end up self-rescueing and spending the rest of your session untangling your lines. Nothing worse than untangling your lines (again) whilst everyone else is out on the water carving it up.

But same as all the others,
lessons are an investment,
buy a new or late model kite, bar and lines
don't go out further than you can swim back
always untangle your lines before you leave the beach

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Windxtasy said...

and he is a she...

he she same **** different package

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hipppo said...

I have a 9 year old who has kited for nearly a year without incident. Spent 6 months flying a trainer, then made the transition over to an inflatable. Now holds his ground on a TT.

Biggest thing I reckon is your preparation - don't send them out in less than ideal conditions until they are ready for it (at my kids age anyway)

Good supervision from you if your proficient, or an instructor goes a long way (or both). Might mean you miss a few sessions yourself, but will be well worth it later on!

"Spent 6 months flying a trainer" .Please note that this is a very important aspect of learning to kitesurf .How many times do you hear experienced kiters say "kitesurfing is 80% kite skills " many punters just don't get this , so many people just don't get that flying regularly (like every chance you get and don't let a light wind day go by .It actually requires excellent skills to fly in light winds and the risk to yourself and others while you automate flying skills is greatly diminished) and automating the kite first is soooo important.

Kiting is certainly safer than it used to be but **** can happen at anytime you are still at the mercy of a powerful force that you ca'nt see or control(wind ) and a device that can hoik u and a fallible animal called a human (that can make mistakes and misjudgements ) at the controls

I personaly believe that the above argument is rubbish, trainer kite do not have depower.

There is nothing to learn from them,flying a kite is not difficult, you pull left and it turns left, you pull right and it turns right.

There are no skill in flying a trainer kite.

It makes money for the retailers and it is a good toy for the kids but pretty useless as a mean to learn kitesurfing.

You may get a vague idea of the wind window and realise where the power is but it takes 5 secs to work that out on any kite.

Lessons however are necessary as they are are many safety issues to take into consideration and the advice of an experience teacher who can assist your son is extremely valuable.

Lessons will also be conducted on a real kite that doesn't zoom around like a mosquito after a red bull bath, he will need to learn about positioning, launching, powering,depowering, safety release, rigging, self rescue.....

Money well spent when it is your own flesh and blood

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sebol said...

I personaly believe that the above argument is rubbish, trainer kite do not have depower.

There is nothing to learn from them,flying a kite is not difficult, you pull left and it turns left, you pull right and it turns right.

There are no skill in flying a trainer kite.

It makes money for the retailers and it is a good toy for the kids but pretty useless as a mean to learn kitesurfing.

You may get a vague idea of the wind window and realise where the power is but it takes 5 secs to work that out on any kite.

Lessons however are necessary as they are are many safety issues to take into consideration and the advice of an experience teacher who can assist your son is extremely valuable.

Lessons will also be conducted on a real kite that doesn't zoom around like a mosquito after a red bull bath, he will need to learn about positioning, launching, powering,depowering, safety release, rigging, self rescue.....

Money well spent when it is your own flesh and blood

I have taught hundreds of people, How do you explain how people who have automated trainer kites and can fly them by feel ,can learn how understand how to set up,launch land ,fly ,relaunch ,not cause hassles for others and understand how to sheet in and sheet out and fly a kitesurf kite efficiently and d evelop constant powe rwithin a short time on a a kitesurf kite and those that haven't don't and usually keep asking" when do i get on the water and on the board" (in other words focus on the destination rather than on the journey and also having fun along the way) and the trainer kite experts are just out there doing all solo within a few hours.I also find that these people develop a passion for kite flying and learning rather than seeing learning to fly a kite as some inconvenient annoyance that takes forever .
i hardly sell any trainer kites I lend them out for free .Personally i feel that time on a trainer kite (and also being shown what it is that you have to master) ,is time well spent

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Windxtasy said...

My 16 year old son is keen to learn kiting but 50% of people I speak to about it say it's too dangerous and they know kiters who have been badly injured.

Is this through kiters being overadventurous or do kites easily get out of control?

Guidelines for kiting safely please...

Thankyou

(and yes I do know I'm overly protective)

I rekon u r more likely to get a needle stick injury from knitting...

just spend some cash on some good lessons and he'll be fine

At Least 2 people will die in W.A road accidents this weekend

Dont drive him to the beach or anywhere ever again....

unless your car is wrapped in cotton wool too

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sebol said...


There is nothing to learn from them,flying a kite is not difficult, you pull left and it turns left, you pull right and it turns right.


Lessons however are necessary as they are are many safety issues to take into consideration and the advice of an experience teacher who can assist your son is extremely valuable.

Lessons will also be conducted on a real kite that doesn't zoom around like a mosquito after a red bull bath, he will need to learn about positioning, launching, powering,depowering, safety release, rigging, self rescue.....

Money well spent when it is your own flesh and blood

As an instructor and ex school manager I tend to agree here (I can't believe it) with Sebol. We had trainer kites but was encouraged not to use them with students. And at over $200 each they are a waste of money. The best trainer I have seen is the Ozone UNO Trainer. RRP around $300 kite only** works with an ozone bar RRP$500.. I mean $800 for a 2.5m trainer kite.. WTF!

If you wanna piss fart around on the beach with 12 year old kids then they are awesome. Not my cup of tea. Get lessons and learn about the safety, land/launch, wind window, self rescue ect..

oops,don't burst their buble,

there are a lot of skill in flying a kite right and it is definately more evident in light winds, the capacity to get the maximum pull out of the kite by constantly moving it in the window and adjusting the power on the bar.

It is like watching pro surfers in one foot mush, they seem to generate their own power and are so smooth in linking turns that they don't kill the speed.

It has no similitude with a trainer kite
Get lessons so you know all the safety then spend time flying an actual kite and you are on your way!

To put things in perspective,I do a lot of offshore yacht racing (I.e. Sydney to Hobart) many see that as dangerous.. I spend a lot of time on the water undertaking various activities, and have a lot of training and understanding of safety. I am more worried about some idiot running a red light at an intersection and cleaning me up as I cross the road!

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MrKite said...

To put things in perspective,I do a lot of offshore yacht racing (I.e. Sydney to Hobart) many see that as dangerous.. I spend a lot of time on the water undertaking various activities, and have a lot of training and understanding of safety. I am more worried about some idiot running a red light at an intersection and cleaning me up as I cross the road!

I agree - I think I've beaten the crap out of myself more working on the bow of a yacht than I have ever done kitesurfing...

And the worst injuries I have sustained were whilst Snowboarding...

I've hardly been hurt from kiting, my boardshorts over my wetsuit always protect me, shazam baby!

it's getting way too crowded out there on a good windy arvo. You should definitaley insist he learns something else.
Maybe that thing where they chase a rolling cheese down a steep hillside, that looks awesome.