Ive been teaching Kiteboarding to adults for a while and now want to get my son in the game.
Has anyone given lessons to children, and can give some incite on specific brands that might suit children. Kite, harness board etc.
He is a skinny and light 8 yr old.
Thank you

Ozone cat v1 dakine girls seat keeping that bar low, short leash attached to preferred side / front,
board comes later

STELLA01 said..
Ozone Uno with short throw bar and Axis grom 115

Flying Objects xxs seat harness

Any additional info on the short throw bar would be appreciated - custom made or standard brand bar? Shortened lines? Thanks.

BPBPerth said..

STELLA01 said..
Ozone Uno with short throw bar and Axis grom 115

Flying Objects xxs seat harness

Any additional info on the short throw bar would be appreciated - custom made or standard brand bar? Shortened lines? Thanks.

Just have to order it through an Ozone retailer, not really a special custom its just that demand is not great enough for retailers to stock.
Yes the Cat is an awsome beginer kite but for an immature rider the Uno is the safest option.
A totally forgiving kite helps build their confidence quickly. Basically with the UNO when you let go of the bar all of your power is released and there is no backstall due to flying in low wind conditions.

STELLA01 said..

BPBPerth said..

STELLA01 said..
Ozone Uno with short throw bar and Axis grom 115

Flying Objects xxs seat harness

Any additional info on the short throw bar would be appreciated - custom made or standard brand bar? Shortened lines? Thanks.

Just have to order it through an Ozone retailer, not really a special custom its just that demand is not great enough for retailers to stock.
Yes the Cat is an awsome beginer kite but for an immature rider the Uno is the safest option.
A totally forgiving kite helps build their confidence quickly. Basically with the UNO when you let go of the bar all of your power is released and there is no backstall due to flying in low wind conditions.

Awesome, thanks for the info.

hardhat said..
Is it just me who thinks attaching an 8 year old to a kite rig is the worst idea ever?
No kite is designed for 35 kgs and 12 knots.
One mishap and and they'll be off it forever. You reckon their thought process is developed enough to make the right discissions during a beating?
My kids ask, I tell them 14 or 15.

All I can say is I wish kiting was around when I was 8 and my folks got me into it, too much cotton glove treatment with kids imho

STELLA01 said..

BPBPerth said..

STELLA01 said..
Ozone Uno with short throw bar and Axis grom 115

Flying Objects xxs seat harness

Any additional info on the short throw bar would be appreciated - custom made or standard brand bar? Shortened lines? Thanks.

Just have to order it through an Ozone retailer, not really a special custom its just that demand is not great enough for retailers to stock.
Yes the Cat is an awsome beginer kite but for an immature rider the Uno is the safest option.
A totally forgiving kite helps build their confidence quickly. Basically with the UNO when you let go of the bar all of your power is released and there is no backstall due to flying in low wind conditions.

Dealers can order the short throw bar which is in stock, from Kitepower.
I know there is a Axis Vanguard grom size board there too, and the Uno's are also in stock.

4m Uno with 15m lines and the calm waters of the pond

Taught my little fella 8 yo on a wopper stand up paddle board using a trainer kite with shortened lines. He was cruising along and had the general gist of it in no time.

www.iksurfmag.com/kitesurfing-news/2015/11/davi-ribeiro-youngest-kitesurfer-3-years-old/

There are inherent risks with all sports, whether you are sticking your child on a horse, motocross, bmx, football, skateparks....

Although you will never mitigate all risks, the aim like all sports is to minimise these associated risks. My children have been flying trainer kites from a very young age, and have spent a lot of time in the water with me flying and developing their skills. At home we also talk non-stop about kiting, watch youtube clips and look at skills he would like to learn next.

The spot that my son kites is shallow for a good 200-300m. He can stand if he needs to, plus he kites on good gear, in moderate wind conditions, with a number of others out on their kites (they keep an eye on him), plus I stand in the water with a harness on and watch him the whole time.

I look forward to the day that we can kite together but that can wait until I have complete faith in his skills.

ActionSportsWA said..
Hi Tommygun,

Best kite for the job is either an Ozone Uno 4m kite or an Ozone Alpha 6m. The bar is not a big deal, a 45cm Ozone bar will work fine as the depower throw on small kites like that is really short in any case. They fly well in very light winds.

The ION Ripper harness in XXS is excellent and very cheap. Finding a board with small enough footstraps will be the issue. Any of the 128cm Soliel North/Duotone boards with the SMall NTT straps will work a treat. The board is the easiest problem to get around initially.

The hard part is finding an instructor with the credentials and equipment to teach a child so small. Do your homework on that one. Anyone who blurts out "no worries, I can do it", should be treated with a healthy degree of scepticism. Anyone teaching children should have a working with children permit and more importantly should be hesitant and cautious about teaching your son without a thorough briefing with the parents first.

Problem is, little kids can easily learn to kitesurf, they naturally adapt very quickly and can bu up and kiting in just a couple of lessons. BUT! The reason IKO and most teaching standards the world over only teach people over 12 yo, is that young children do not have the emotional maturity to handle a stressful situation on their own. A crashed kite that has a rear line caught around a wingtip and starts death looping in choppy waters could easily be the end of your boy.

Choose carefully

DM

I found the problem with a std bar is the fact that short arms can not reach the bar after they let go and also short arms can not reach the depower.
If you control where and when your kids kite, surf, skateboard, mountain bike ride, MX ride, horse ride, cross the road, snowboard, snow ski etc you won't have a problem. Put them out in 25 knots open ocean unsupervised on inappropriate gear and you probably will.

STELLA01 said..

ActionSportsWA said..
Hi Tommygun,

Best kite for the job is either an Ozone Uno 4m kite or an Ozone Alpha 6m. The bar is not a big deal, a 45cm Ozone bar will work fine as the depower throw on small kites like that is really short in any case. They fly well in very light winds.

The ION Ripper harness in XXS is excellent and very cheap. Finding a board with small enough footstraps will be the issue. Any of the 128cm Soliel North/Duotone boards with the SMall NTT straps will work a treat. The board is the easiest problem to get around initially.

The hard part is finding an instructor with the credentials and equipment to teach a child so small. Do your homework on that one. Anyone who blurts out "no worries, I can do it", should be treated with a healthy degree of scepticism. Anyone teaching children should have a working with children permit and more importantly should be hesitant and cautious about teaching your son without a thorough briefing with the parents first.

Problem is, little kids can easily learn to kitesurf, they naturally adapt very quickly and can bu up and kiting in just a couple of lessons. BUT! The reason IKO and most teaching standards the world over only teach people over 12 yo, is that young children do not have the emotional maturity to handle a stressful situation on their own. A crashed kite that has a rear line caught around a wingtip and starts death looping in choppy waters could easily be the end of your boy.

Choose carefully

DM

I found the problem with a std bar is the fact that short arms can not reach the bar after they let go and also short arms can not reach the depower.
If you control where and when your kids kite, surf, skateboard, mountain bike ride, MX ride, horse ride, cross the road, snowboard, snow ski etc you won't have a problem. Put them out in 25 knots open ocean unsupervised on inappropriate gear and you probably will.

Most bars we would sell someone short in stature would have either a sliding stopper or we would recommend a click bar. The trim is the least of their worries. The depower throw is so short, any stopper set at areach where they can grab it, will still completely depower the kite. I think you are missing the point of my post. I have two daughters myself and I wouldn't have taught them kiting until they reached at the very least 10 years of age. There is no shallow water where I am, so choppy deep water is an issue which creates stress if it goes anything but according to plan.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but as a professional school employing professional instructors, we would be in the firing line of any parent should an accident occur with little Johnnys lesson. We would speak with the parent making sure they completely understand the full extent of what can go wrong and the potential danger they are putting their child in, and would integrate them into the lesson too.

Teaching your own child is one thing, taking professional responsibility of someone elses child whilst teaching them an extreme sport is a completely different matter and a lawyers wet dream.

I know as an adult when being attached to a death looping kite, I have been rattled. Our excellent safety record is from not leaving things to chance or playing a rogues game.

DM

I am fortunate to have a great spot for learning that is knee to thigh deep for 300 plus meters. Started my boys 2 years ago on a 1m two line foil kite with a bar, told them I would buy a "real" kite when they could both fly it for 15 minutes without crashing. Month later, bought a 5m Cabrinha Radar with the recoil bar that helps keep the bar within reach. Initially on XS and XXS waist harnesses but ended up with seat harness in same sizes. Just better at keeping bar closer for slim bodies with short arms. 8 year old small for his size and was getting lifted by 5m kite at 12 o'clock in 16 knots so added a 3.5m Cab Radar and shortened the lines to 15m. Shortening lines made the 3.5m less twitchy and more manageable for youngest.
By the next season, oldest was just doing water starts, gets going 20-60m then looses control and crashes. At this point I booked him in for a 2hr lesson with great instructor that has taught a few kids. Using radio helmet, Gearge had him staying upwind and doing simple transitions by the end of the lesson.
This season I added a 7m Drifter to the quiver which oldest (now 12) has used a few times in lighter winds but is keen to get out in some windier sessions.
As a side note: I've had both kids at the cable park over the last two seasons when it wasn't windy and both could ride either foot forward and edge before they even tried water starts.

Adding to the above, I have a few points I think are important when teaching your own kids:
Most important: Kids get bored easily! If you try spend hours teaching self rescue, how to set up and connect lines, kite care and packup etc before they even allowed to try the board then they will loose interest.
I have taught mine the most important things: if you feel uncomfortable: pull your safety!
If you crash: Let go the bar!
Note that in the above post, I have already mentioned I have the luxury of a perfect learning spot and they can stand up at all times.
At the moment, we kite together and use the standard signals drilled into them over 6 years of Nippers for "I need help" or "Come to me"
There will come a time in the next few years when they will want to hit the waves or go out kiting with friends. That is the time to go: "Sure buddy, as soon as you can demonstrate self rescue, proper setup etc"
Untill then, we, as responsible parents do the hard yards (setting up, packing down, maintaining 3 sets of gear), keep an eye on our kids and bail them out when they need it.
This will be a similar analogy across most sports: your 10 year old doesn't change the oil in his MX bike, grease the bearings on his BMX, check tyre pressures etc until they are older. Until then, we are the "supervisors" and responsible for all that stuff, let them be kids and enjoy the stoke as long as they know how to pull the safety, hit the brakes, stop moving forward, it's all part of learning

swartgevaar said..

BPBPerth said..

swartgevaar said..
www.iksurfmag.com/kitesurfing-news/2015/11/davi-ribeiro-youngest-kitesurfer-3-years-old/

Now at age 10 he is part of Duotone:
www.iksurfmag.com/kitesurfing-news/2018/10/welcome-to-the-team-davi/

kiteboardingwa.org.au/kite-karnival-2019/competitor-profiles/

Davi should come compete against our WA juniors Anthony,Patrick and Nathan will teach him a few moves, it was nice to see the turnout at the Nationals the kids had so much fun. the future of any sport is in the development programs

Cauncy I hope you are ready for the grom attack at the Midwest Windfest in November

We're really gonna focus on this, also girls , had a meeting already last week, I'll need a hand this year as we will be looking to improve certain aspects as mentioned, yep great to see local kids and wa kids going well, a big high 5 to KWA team looked a great event down there