It had been 3 or 4 long years.

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Since I had gotten out on the water kiteboarding.

While symptoms were strong over the past few years my coordination & fine motor skills were pretty poor, so it would have been unsafe to go out and attempt it.

But now that I've done what I've done (see thread in sig) & am stronger and healthier than pretty much ever in my life, it was time to get back out and give learning to kite a go again.

It's most difficult on the water (vs. land/snow) & the last time I was out I was so frustrated with not being able to coordinate my board movements w/ the kite which resulted in losing my board/wiping out over and over again...

But I got out to Squamish on Saturday for the first time in a few years and was able to get up and riding in both directions for a while, lost my board a few times but was able to get back to it and right back up again... then I crashed my kite near a log boom and the lines wrapped around some logs so I had to spend about an hour dealing with that which ended my session because I'm not good enough to confidently go out while there isn't a rescue boat on shift and they were wrapping up for the day. Even though I'm still a relative n00b it was still a personal best for kiting on water, so I was pretty happy with the day trip. (~75kms each way)

Decided to shell out for a half season pass instead of just paying day fees in order to force myself to make the time to get up there when I can for the rest of the Summer... sooo, after spending Sunday at the Pride Parade with my cousin, I ripped back up to Squampton on Monday and went kiting again - this time doing even better than Saturday. I was able to board up wind fairly well w/ my left foot forward, and made it out farther into Howe Sound than I'd been able to venture before! I was hoping to keep going way farther out into the bay, but I ended up getting stuck in a dead wind spot I didn't know existed and once my kite was down on the water upside down there wasn't enough wind to flip it over and re-launch.. so I had to wind my lines up while in the water and get rescued by the sea-doo again. All just a part of learning. Even with session ending silliness, I was still smiling from ear to ear afterwards!

Bye bye dyspraxia symptoms messing with my ability to go do what I want to.. and hello kiteboarding again - bigger and better than ever!

Hopefully the weather cooperates & I can get out again this Saturday and Sunday. I'd sleep in my car the night in between, but I have to be back in town for my mom's surprise bday dinner on Saturday evening.

Google image pic, but this is where I was and what I was doing:

Drove up Friday night & got there at 2am, slept in my car, kited Saturday - another personal best for skills/distance and so on and had my first unintentional "jump," on the water as I got lifted up and set back down. It was a great session until I got stuck in a low wind area of the bay and had to pack up my kite and wait for the rescue sea-doo to come get me again. I'd have stayed for another rip buuuut I was pretty worn out from fighting with the kite when I downed it and had to be back down in town for a surprise bday dinner for my mom.

It's busy up there due to the Squamish valley music festival and Crankworx going on in Whistler this weekend... BUT, after brunch I'm gonna see about sorting out my lines and making a rip back up to Squish for a kite session this afternoon.

Best kiteboarding session of my life so far!

Plus I met some really awesome people.

man alive, sounds like you had a hell of a time!!
now i've only been kayaking, but kiteboarding is definitely something i'd like to try out in the near future.
there's not many places in town where one could rent/buy equipment though. but it's still kinda popular here.

Sure did!

On Sunday I made it upwind passed The Spit for the first time & crossed the Squamish River estuary and went out a ways into Howe Sound. I was cruising around out there all over the place for a couple hours. Twice I saw a seal come up for air about 20 feet away from me. So SO cool.

I only lost my board twice, once I could get it and the other time someone was able to kite by and grab it and bring it to me. Made it back to the beach for a celebratory beer on finally making it waaay up wind. Ended the evening with some great conversations with other kiters on the beach.. the kind of conversations that could only happen on a kite beach or maybe in the movie Point Break. (because so many kiters tend to be rebels, risk takers & rule breakers) Such an amazing time.

I've been heading to local Vancouver beaches after work on sunny days instead of sitting in rush hour traffic in the early evenings, but definitely looking forward to the weekend and hoping the weather holds so I can get back up to Squamish and kite.

now, are there kiteboard competitions? are you looking into those?
i live in southern California, in a place where waves are not very big because of channel islands. i don't know if that's conductive to kiteboarding or not.

Yes, there are. There was one at the spit a couple of weekends ago - on my first day out in a few years. It happened to be "Kite Clash 2014" & there were kiters there from Colorado and other states. There are more local competitions & others around the world. I don't know if I'd ever want to compete in the sport, but I do want to compete with myself - to get better each time I go out.

If there's on or cross shore wind, then it could be kited.. of course there are other safety variables to take into consideration. i.e. tides, currents, rocks, logs, weather conditions, wind shadows/turbulence/obstacles etc.. but in general, if there's wind blowing towards the beach then chances are it's kite-able. Google the name of your local beach and kiteboarding and see if any results pop up of people having kited there.

got out for another great couple hour session of Jesusing again early this evening!

getting a bit better with each trip out.

..but after this trip I have some gear to clean, some gear to repair, some gear I hoooope lasts the rest of the season so I can repair it after the weather turns... and a car to fix. my brakes were overheating when I got to the bottom of the sea to sky and after I let them cool off I checked things out and it turns out my throttle was stuck open because the cable is partially broken - gotta get one and change it tmw eve if I can.

Time for break & then to load my car and rip to Squamish for another kite session or two!

Sooooo thankful for my drysuit today!

Went out, had a blast for a couple hours even though the wind was relatively weak.. then the wind died down a bit and I crashed my kite on the water and couldn't relaunch it. :/ OK, no big deal.. wound up my lines and held my board in my left hand while holding onto the main bladder of my kite with my right hand. Usually you're spotted pretty quick and someone scrambles out with a seadoo to pick you up. I wasn't spotted for a while. I'm not sure how long it was, but I'd guess about 25-30mins or so as I was far enough from the launch beach that they could barely spot my downed kite with binoculars. In most places this wouldn't be such a big deal.. but at Squamish the water is really cold and hypothermia is a very real possibility even in the middle of the Summer. The Squamish river's glacial runoff dumps out into Howe Sound right beside the kite beach. Even with my drysuit on and doing whip-kicks the whole time me legs were getting prrrreeeetty cold.

Ah well, worst case scenario I'd have had to have tried to drift straight down wind and scramble up to the highway to thumb a ride. Well, no, WORST case would be that it got dark and the wind completely stopped and I couldn't use it to self-rescue and I'd spend a lot more time in cold water trying to get to any shore. At least today's trip out reminded me of a few safety things and makes me think about how I'd have handled the situation if they didn't come get me. Always good to have a plan B!

Annnnd even though I ended my session getting rescued again, I still got to practice kiting underpowered in low wind which meant more precise board angles & kite piloting was required - always good to practice! Annnnnd, I didn't lose my board once the whole session - so, that was a success.

Sleeeep time & then most likely making the drive back for more tomorrow!

Ooooooh, looky at how many people are out right now!

http://squamishwindsports.com/conditions/webcams/

I had a nice late sleep in & late brunch. Now it's time to throw my gear in my car and go rip 100km or so to the beach to join 'em for the rest of the afternoon/early eve until the wind shuts off.

The wind is cranking pretty good, so if you do have a look on the webcam while I'm there after about 3:30pst I'll be the only guy flying a Rasta coloured kite - it's red, yellow, and green with a black leading edge and a silver fish logo on each side. IF the wind happens to die down low (lol not likely today!) then my bigger kite is blue/red/grey with flames & bullet holes on one side. I wear a blue/grey drysuit & chrome helmet and ride a plywood board. Soooo, you can't exactly mistake me for someone else. Hopefully if you spot me I'm up and riding all around with the seals vs. getting rescued by the seadoo!

Today will be my 8th day out this Summer and I've progressed better and better with each trip out, so rescues are getting to be fewer and farther between! Buuuuut a few weeks back the wind died and my kite was down and I was too far from the beach for them to see for a while... barely spotted me with binoculars! So I had to wait it out over half an hour in the water... which is kind of a big deal considering the water temperature is VERY low. Thank God I wear a drysuit! I'd have lived, so meh. It just would have been hella inconvenient to drift to the downwind beach, pack my gear up, and hitch hike on the highway until I found someone willing to drive me around the other side again. (nearly 10km, or else walk ~4km or so through the marsh and trails) Hopefully there are no kitemares that result in that crap happening! But if it does I hope I can flag a taxi on the sea to sky and convince the driver that I WILL pay for my ride once we get back to the beach with my wallet! Others have had to do that very thing.. but I hope I never have to!

Anyways, time to throw my gear in the car and hit the road! Hope you're all having a blast this weekend, too!

Soooo I accidentally overinflated my kite and my centre strut exploded like a firecracker mid flight yesterday... I managed to ride it back to shore but was done for the day.

I was going to rent a kite today, but one of the kiters offered to lend me an old one. It was a more advanced kite with some unfriendly flight characteristics so it was difficult to fly.. but I managed it and had a good 2 1/2 hours on the water this afternoon. I think it probably accelerated my learning a bit by being harder to fly.

Got my main kite all fixed up and made the drive to go ride it yesterday... but the wind was too light and I ended up flying my bigger kite anyways. It was a nice light wind session for sure!

On my way out into the water I saw something I'd never seen there before.. a jellyfish! About 1 foot in diameter, and a nice light pink colour. Pretty cool!

Only lost my board once & someone was nice enough to bring it to me when it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to get back to it by myself. It's such an awesome community that way. Like some girl on the beach put it a month or so back "I can't wait until I'm good enough to help out others by getting their boards back to them!"

I'm just getting ready to load up my car and head back for more! It'll be my 11th day out in the last 2 1/2 months! That's more days on the water than probably all of my kiting in years past! (much of it was on land/sand/snow/ice.)

I've pretty much outgrown my beginner board.. but still gonna ride that plywood with pride through the end of the season here this year, then I'll invest in a smaller more professionally made one for next season. Then hopefully I can get some of my close friends to get into kiting next year and get them up and riding on my plywood skimboard construction style kiteboard.

Tomorrow is the last day the Squamish Windsports Society is allowed to operate at the spit w/ their rescue seadoo... after that I'll still go out but ONLY when there are several others out who can help me out should I lose my board. I'm getting good enough now not to lose it much if at all, and so long as I have my board I can get back to the launch beach no problem.

Each day out I've pushed myself to learn something new & improve. Yesterday I was practicing my transitions from regular to goofy, and goofy to regular (all heel side still) as well as board control and sharper turns. Today I guess we'll see how the wind and water are behaving to see what I can push myself to practice... and I do hope I see some seals out there popping up for air - always a bit of a magical moment.

It was a pretty fun session! I didn't even lose my board at all, either. I was one of the last few people still out on the water as the wind was dying down in the evening, too. I'd say the biggest thing I forced myself to do better today was cutting harder turns and spraying a bit of rooster tail. Also continued to practice my direction transitions.

Thinking of getting a board leash so I can continue the season w/o losing my board and not being able to get back to it now that there's no more rescue boat.. but still on the fence as 99% of people don't use them because of safety concerns of getting hit by a flying board that's tethered to you. Biggest concern is getting hit in the head as it's happened to others in the past when leashes were a bit more popular.. but I wear a helmet, soooo I should be alright. Hmmmm.