Back to HK thinking kitesurfing is rather hard to play here as the beaches are narrow & too many obstacles nearby. So I gave up to continue, kept my windsurfing.
Gradually heard HoiTin and some guys "secretly" started and were successfully kiteboarding in open sea with the boat. In Jan 06 some friends & I went to Boracay (Philippines), & I was initiated to pick it up again. Thanx to Celica who borrowed the kite to me and I played around myself and finally could do water-start and rode <100 meters.
After that I determined to be a kiteboarder, and I bought the 16m Switchblade!!! & joined to kite in the open sea fr Feb 06. Maybe the help of the bowkite and enough size of the kite, I progressed unexpectedly quick. And soon I bought the 12m xbow for my riding in stong wind. With just few times of practice, I could ride both way as long as I could.
As I was mainly training in the open sea near ShaChau, I went to Hua Hin (Thailand) in Apr 06 aiming to get used to doing it from the beach and upwind riding. Unfortunately the wind was not that good and my last board (F-one skate8 128x34) was too small for the beginner, I was still far from going upwind!
Then my breakthrough came after I bought a new board (Fanatic 131x40) in late Apr 06. And surprisingly, I went upwind instantly with the new board, I was impressed that the board can make such a significant difference in upwind ability.
Once I could go upwind, I addicted to it as trying the tricks (toe side riding, jump, loop transitions...) is unexpectedly easy to achieve, pretty rewarding. And I couldn't imagine I would sell all my windsurfing gears except keeping my memorable 03' JP FSW 84L (the last Josh Stone signature model) + 5.1m Core.
I hope U could be motivated that KITEBOARDING IS POSSIBLE TO U TOO, if u know the right methods, have the right equipments, the guts to try, and the determination to succeed!!!
