A Guide To Kiteboarding Gear

Hello, I'm Thomas from the Kitesurf Centre. Today, I'm just going to show you a couple of tips on how to fly a kite and how to get into these brilliant sports of kite flying. This is a quick guide to kiteboarding gear and all the kit you're going to need if you want to get out kiteboarding.

So, first of all and for the most important, we need a kite. So, we got loads of different sizes of kites. Anything from 3 to 15 meters, you got a huge size range.

In the UK, on our average winds, a good size to go for if you're going to get one kite is a 10-meter because it's all variable depending on your weight. So, lighter people might want to get something smaller, big people, perhaps something bigger, and if you're going to go for two kites, get something big at 12 or 13 and then perhaps a small one as well, an 8 or 9 to go with it. If you're really lucky, you might want to get all three kites and if you've got a bit of money to spend, you get something smaller or a couple of those.

So, the other thing that we need with light kites is a bar. So with most kites, you're going to get that, it's part of the package. But it's really important, you need the bar and you need the lines.

And so with the kites, you get a few different sizes of the bar, so this is quite a long one, this is for a bigger kite, so longer bars go with the bigger kites to make the kite turn a bit quicker and small bars with the small kites. Okay, so now onto the board. Again, very important, you need your board.

So you see, you have these straps on the board. Your feet go in so the size of the board's really important. When you're starting out, you don't want to have that thing too small because it's going to make it really hard to learn.

A board with this outline, nice and square, and nice and wide, it's going to get going really really nicely. Another important thing, we need our kite harness. So, I've got some over here.

Got two types, we've got out waist harness and the seat harness with the leg straps. So it's a good idea to go and try some on in your local kite shop and see which you find the most comfortable for yourself. Maybe when you're having your lessons, have a few go's on either type and then see which one works for you.

Another important thing especially in the UK, it's a bit chilly, you need a wetsuit. This is probably the most important thing to go to your local kite shop because it's all worth for a shop. Everyone's a different shape and the old wetsuits fit slightly different as these.

So, go try on a load of wetsuits. You're going to get a different price range. So, we've got something cheaper, not quite so stretchy.

Getting up to out top-of-the-range suit, it's really stretchy and really warm. So, wetsuit is something that you'd definitely get what you paid for. Last thing that's really important when you're learning is you might want to get a helmet, so something like this that can be used in the water and hasn't got the thick foam that you might find in a snowboard or bike helmet, really important when you're learning, and if you're not too confident, it's a good idea to get something like this.

They're buoyancy aids, or perhaps an impact vest, just a bit more piece of mind, helps with the crashes and helps with the buoyancy when you're boarding around when you learn. .