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I'm about to commit to lessons for kiteboarding. It's not a small amount of money so obviously want to start with the right place. There are 3 different schools in my area. They will all be much the same price I think.
What should I look for in deciding which one to go with?
What questions should I ask?
Thanks
Ask them if the use bbtalkin bluetooth communications or simular ...
This helps a lot in early progression.
Some decent wind.. Not a good time of year to learn up there wind wise. Good luck!
Good question and post.
The first thing I would look out for, is the instructor committed to safety and best practice? They don't necessarily have to be IKO qualified. I would be asking the trainer to brief you on what the lesson(s) actually entail.
What will you learn on the 1st, 2nd, etc lessons, and how they are going to teach you to kite surf your way - not necessarily their own way. Some trainers think it's all hard-core riding and jumping all within a few lessons! If they are suddenly letting you fly a proper kite on your first lesson, I would say thanks, but no thanks. Oh and make sure they have full personal and public indemnity insurance.
Anyone who focuses on getting you up and riding quickly at the expense of safety should be avoided like the plague.
Safety means thoroughly covering the stuff that is less enjoyable to learn, like a proper "on the water" self rescue, like teaching the basics like how to choose a good day and beach to go kiting. Self land and launch, coz lets face it, you will want to get down and practice asap after your lessons and if you haven't been taught how to be a fully self reliant kiteboarder, then you have had only half the training you need.
There is a lot to learn and getting up on the board is the least you should be concerned with. The riding part is easy, so is flying the kite, you need to learn the stuff that will keep you, and those around you safe.
My advice is to go to the local kite beach closest to you on a good day and ask the local kiters who they recommend. Get a few opinions.
Best of luck and enjoy the learning.
DM
Someone suggested you go to the local beach and ask the local kiters who they recommend. The fact is Kiting schools change their teachers regularly - and the local kiters don't know if the teachers are any good or not.
When I was learning I was a victim of 2 kite schools who used transient teachers and they were awful in fact I nearly gave up. Both those schools were supposedly reputable schools.
Its very hard to find a good teacher who can explain what you are doing right or wrong - a teacher has to have the following characteristics
Patience
Kindness
The ability to take the fear out of flying a kite
Be able to explain in small steps if necessary what to do and what not to.
I would recommend using a wireless helmet
Video recording and playback is also really helpful because you can't see what you are doing
I recommend you go down to where a school is teaching and observe the kitesurfing teachers, see if they get short tempered and take note of the tone of their voice, if they are bossy stay clear.
Talk to their students after the lesson and see what they say - privately of course not in front of the teacher
Talk to the teachers at the beach just after they have taught someone - before you sign up see what they are like.
My own learning progress has been less than spectacular and I've reflected on how it has gone (and how it could have been better) quite a bit. Getting lessons is the easy (and fun) part but if you have the standard 3 lessons it only gets you about 10-20% of the way to being an independent kiter. The really hard part is getting from the point of having lessons and then having the confidence to get your gear out and practice - then getting the support you need to feel confident enough to go and practice to eventually be able to safely and confidently kite and enjoy it. You really need some help to get to this point.
As I see it you have two broad choices for school. Either its an independent who doesn't have the agenda to sell you gear and will probably not teach when conditions are poor OR it's a school associated with a shop who are trying to sell you stuff and will likely hold lessons in less than ideal conditions as they need to cover costs. So its clear to see a winner here and this thinking informed my own choice.
Looking from the outside - the upside of the shop scenario is that they will likely have a better after lessons support / community that you can hook into. This means that you can probably keep access to a wider group for help in the after lessons stage (which is where you have to make most of your progress).
The other thing you need to consider is your ability to get away from work midweek and kite when its good. If you're flexible with work then you're off to a massive head start. I can only speak from my own experience but if you've got a flexible job then an independent instructor might be the best bet. If you are likely to be restricted to weekends then a shop based school (and the after lessons support) might be best. Its also worth saying that sometimes you'll go out for a lesson in good conditions and you make good progress then next week the winds a bit less then you struggle - then there's no wind (when you're available) for 4 weeks and you're just about back to square one.
My instructor definitely got the board out too soon. Definitely didn't do enough safety and self land. I had at least 10 lessons. I've been going for about 2 years and I reckon I've flown a kite about 20 times and I'm just about getting to feel happy heading to the beach and going kite surfing (but better when its not too busy).
Hope this helps
