Learn to Kitesurf 3 x Faster (even if there’s no wind)

The 1 thing you can do now to MASSIVELY speed up your time learning to kitesurf.

75% of people that start learning to kitesurf…NEVER LEARN TO RIDE.

93% never learn to ride upwind and only 3% get to the fun stuff like jumping…

However, there is ONE thing that we see time and time again make a MASSIVE difference to the chance of someone actually learning to ride.

Let me explain…

The hardest skill to learn in kitesurfing is the water start.

In that split second of intense action you are trying to put together a HUGE number of variables (most of which you can’t even see, ie. the wind, the current) and coordinate all this into a very complex movement to lift you up out of the water and propel you forward on the board.

For that reason, we often see a lengthy stall in peoples progress at this stage. As students piece this complex puzzle together piece at a time.

In some cases however we don’t.

In some cases when people are ready to water start we can hand them a board, tell them what to do and they just get it, on the first or second attempt they are up and riding.

These people all have one thing in common…

Wakeboarding

Wakeboarding is the no 1 cross over sport for kitesurfing. Not only does it require exactly the opposite conditions to kiting (ie. no wind) making it the perfect no wind alternative.

It is also the closest thing we can get to kitesurfing without a kite.

The board skills involved, especially at the early stages of the water start and early riding, are almost exactly the same as those required for kitesurfing.

It would be no exaggeration to say that wakeboarder’s learn to kitesurf 2-3 faster than everyone else.

Why not surfing or any other board sport?

The big difference with wakeboarding is not just that the board skills are almost exactly the same once you are up and riding, the big difference is that you learn to water start.

We often take people on our camps to the local cable park and the guys working there all ask the same question when the guys rock up to the dock to start for the first time.

The conversation goes something like this:

“Have you done this before?”

“No”

“Do you kitesurf?”

“Yes”

“Ahhhhhh…in that case you’ll have no problems, just do what you do there”

…and off they go.

While everyone else tends to flounder there for a good while before they actually get it.

All the same principles apply to the wakeboarding water start as to the kitesurfing water start and it’s fair to say that if you can do one, you can do the other.

So when we are teaching a wakeboarder to kitesurf and we run through the water start, instead of having to learn what to do with the board micro second by micro second, while fighting with the kite and getting gently caressed (battered around!) by the waves, they know exactly what to do and so only have to worry about the kite.

We have seen this so many times that wakeboarding is something we actually we incorporate in to our lessons and camps now.

What can you do right now?

Well wakeboarding is exploding at the moment and I’d bet my bottom dollar that there is a cable park somewhere near you right now where you can go and practice.

What’s a cable park?

Basically it’s a lake with a horizontal ski bar lift running around it. You hold on to the the bar and it pulls you around the lake so no boat is needed.

Most cable parks also have some dedicated pro’s there who are paid to give you training as you learn and most people can expect to be up and riding in 15 – 30 minutes.

You don’t need to buy any kit as the park will provide the board and any additional gear you need. So you just need to get in touch with them, book a time and rock up.

Most parks work in 15 min slots, which might not sound like a lot…but believe me it’s plenty!

So the first time you go I would just book a single session and see how you get on. After that it’s up to you. Just a few sessions of this and you’ll be knocking days off the time you take to learn to kitesurf.

Want to see all 5 of my top recommendations for what you can do right now to knock days off your kitesurfing lessons? (3 of them are FREE and you don’t need wind to do them!)

Over the years I’ve noticed that most people stall at the same points during their kitesurfing lessons and most of these stall points could be eliminated by a few simple things done before they even got to the beach. These points are so common I made a PDF file detailing them all.

If you want to download a PDF with all 5 ways to cut weeks off the time it takes you to learn to kitesurf and then regular information to improve your kitesurfing when you’re on and off the water (and 3 of them are FREE!), then…

Just fill in your email below.

How Easy Are These To Do?

I made sure these are so simple that anyone can do them and they can be done in your living room.

If you have questions, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.

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✌️?

Sam Guest
Founder of Tantrum Kitesurf