Why start kitesurfing by taking lessons rather than learning by yourself?
Why shouldn't I learn kitesurfing on my own using the internet and YouTube, just like I've learned many other things?**
The sport can be self-taught, but it is typically started through a course. You wouldn’t go skydiving without training, would you?
If you have experience with boarding or skiing, it helps but is only a small part of the sport. Practicing kitesurfing is largely based on kite control, understanding the weather, and knowing how to avoid and handle the problems that will inevitably arise.
**Responsibility**
Getting yourself hurt is not desirable but of course allowed. However, it’s important to note that there are other people on the beaches and lakes. As an inexperienced kitesurfer, you might cause a risk to someone downwind of you in an emergency situation. A child, an animal, a skier, or whoever might be downwind – and this is not okay, even accidentally.
Even just rigging the kite (assembly) and setting up the lines requires knowing how to handle the kite correctly in relation to the wind direction and always ensuring that the lines are attached correctly, with no fraying, cuts, or other factors that could weaken the lines.
**Lifting/landing the kite, where most accidents happen**
- It’s not fun to end up in the kite’s power zone pulling you. If you lift the kite from the power zone in stronger winds, you can get airborne and likely injure yourself. Lifting the kite from the edge of the wind window is a safe method, and you will learn this in the course.
**Deathloop: how to act and avoid it in the first place**
- There are videos on YouTube about this, and a deathloop is always a situation that requires immediate reaction because escaping it is not always straightforward.
**Self-rescue: how to properly save yourself from the water**
- Beginners often have trouble with the kite falling into the water and getting it back up (also occasionally with more experienced kitesurfers). At some point, it’s best to pack the kite in the water and swim to shore with it. If you haven’t practiced this, it can feel almost impossible and pose a risk of getting tangled in the approximately 88 meters of lines.
**Body drag, for example, to retrieve a lost board or get yourself back to shore**
- An essential skill for practicing the sport because the board will fall off your feet, and it generally stays upwind. With the kite, it is only possible to swim upwind for a very short distance.
There are many small things and techniques in the sport that affect success, and for example, you need to know how to use the emergency release and other safety mechanisms correctly and without thinking.
Kites and other equipment can break during practice, and that’s part of the game. Without a course, the likelihood of breakage is very high. I just repaired my own kite for €280, so in that sense, the course fee often saves you money and health in the long run.
The aim is not to scare anyone away from the sport, as normal cruising in the sport is very safe. In the course, you will learn how to practice the sport safely and how to avoid and handle the aforementioned problems.
Those who have taken the course have a much faster learning process than those who haven’t.
The above-mentioned things can be learned by everyone, and they come relatively quickly with the help of an instructor. Courses are suitable for all people in basic physical condition.
If you have any questions, feel free to call or message us. We are happy to help.