Kite surfing- Costs
Kite surfing or boarding will be a costly affair, if you are going for the extremities in this sport. However, as far as a beginner is concerned, it is quite inexpensive. It does not cost much to get started. While buying a kite and other associated accessories it is very important to look into the safety provided and the price tag. Go for the optimum product in your price range. There are two prominent manufacturers of kite products. They are Kiteski and Wipika.
The Kiteski kites come with a rigid frame work making it stronger and reliable in strong wind conditions. It is hand launched and the surfer can use the control bar that lets it out slack and inflate the kite more, as the surfer moves farther from the shore. When kite is down in water after deflation, you can make use of the control bar, which has a reel in it to re launch the kite quickly with less downtime.
The kites manufactured by wipika are inflatable. It floats on water initially and the launching is done without reeling. It has a control bar and reel, though reeling not used for launching.
Let us have a look into the various parts of kite.
1) leading edge (the kite)
2) flying lines - two
3) bridle lines- two
4) control bar –one
While surfing, it will be better to have some safety precautions, like the wet suit, buoyancy or life jacket, water shoe, safety release, a helmet and board leash etc. There are mainly three types of kites that you can choose from as a beginner- the inflatable type, ram airfoil type and the single skinned framed one. All the kites mentioned before can be re launched from water surface. Many other kites and surfing equipment manufacturers are available. Some of them are –Naish, Banshee, Kiteski, siesmik, C-quad, f one and Concept air.
Depending on accessories, the set up cost for a kite system ranges from about 1500$ to about 3000$. The board price ranges form about 499$ to around 1500$. Well you can get these for a substantially lower amount. Some people use their old surfboards with slight modifications for kite surfing. In this way, it is possible to save money on the equipments. There are other costs which are indirectly included in your surfing venture. It is in the form of cost for surfing lessons which ranges from 60$ to 90$ an hour. It takes 2 to 3 hours for each class depending on your interest and the depth of class required by you. This cost will totally depend on your interest and ability.
The final cost or expenditure to be accounted for comes in the form of traveling expense. The places suitable for surfing will be usually away from the densely populated locations. More over there has to be lot of open space and a nice beach shore for surfing. So in case you don’t find one near your home the traveling expense to a suitable location may become prominent.
