Outpost

KiteBoarding

Hatteras

Kiteboarding is the most sophisticated of the board sports. It is the most expensive to get started in. The lessons cost twice what windsurfing lessons do and three times what surfing lessons do. To rent or buy the equipment is also twice as expensive. So watching the colorful kites out there on the water and seeing the kiters soar up out of the water or skim at high speeds along the surface is tempting, but thinking of joining them requires some very careful consideration.

The lessons are also more sophisticated. The usual format is to start with classroom lessons on safety and general fundamentals. Then the student is taken to a beach where he learns to fly the kite. A kiteboarding kite is basically a stunt kite. It would help for a student to learn to fly basic stunt kites, which are controlled by two or four lines. Kitty Hawk Kites and other shops teach basic kiting and sell the kites. Someone must be proficient with the kites before they can make any progress in kiteboarding. But they're still not ready. Next they are put on a board and taught wakeboarding, that is, how to ride while being towed. In this way kiteboarding is a step up from waterskiing. Finally, the student is placed on a board and handed the controls to the kite. Oceanair has streamlined this process somewhat. They get the student out on the water quicker than most. After three two hour lessons a student is actually surfing along behind the kite.

www.oceanairsports.com

It should also be understood that managing the kiteboarding equipment is more involved. A tuber has an inner tube. A bodyboarder or surfer has a board. A windsurfer has a board and a sail. These are quickly lifted out of the vehicle or pulled down off the roof rack and hauled to the water. But a kiteboarder has sails to unroll (above), lines to hook and lay out without tangling, the board to unpack, and various accessories to lay out. When he's done, carefully rolling all this equipment up, packing it properly and storing it is critical because it is extremely high tech and requires great care. It also takes up room. Surfboards seem to be bulky, but they do lay flat on a roof rack or atop a van full of luggage. The kiteboarding packs are large and square. Those sails are bulky even when packed right.

It might sound like we're trying to discourage readers from taking up this sport. Not true. Kiteboarding is tremendously challenging and exciting and once you develop the skills it can bring a great deal of pride and satisfaction. It is a beautiful and graceful sport and one that people can excel at over a lifetime. It develops muscle tone, cardiovascular condition and body balance. It will really tighten up your abs, upper body, arms and legs. And it can be done almost anywhere. So we love the sport.

But we've seen too many people get all excited about it and then feel crushed when they find out it's beyond their budgets, or requires more instruction than they have vacation time left. More than any other sport at Hatteras, kiteboarding requires advance planning, advance budgeting and hopefully some conditioning and skill development back home.

The reason Hatteras has become such a kiteboarding center is Pamlico Sound. Just as with windsurfing and kayaking, the Sound offers a huge expanse of clean, warm, shallow water, miles and miles of beaches from which one can launch or land, and consistent winds. Oceanair will take students to whichever beach is best on that given day. As wind and water currents shift, different beaches are better or worse for people just learning the sport. However, certain locations are extremely popular. Kite Point, about a mile north of Buxton, and Canadian Hole Beach, about a mile south of Avon, look like kiteboarding festivals on breezy days. Their skies are filled with brightly colored sails, the beaches filled with four wheel drive vehicles and friends or family watching the show.

Pamlico Sound is not without its hazards. Jellyfish migrate into its warm waters at certain times of year. To deal with this, kiteboarders coat their legs with lotions just as beachgoers use sunblock and kayakers use insect repellant. The 2009 fad is JellyfishSquish, but there are a dozen on the market. Of course, sun is also a hazard, and high SPF sunblock is recommended. You're out there with the sun not only beaming straight down, but reflecting up off the water, and you can burn to a crisp pretty quickly. In effect, you'll be french fried. Most kiteboarders come ashore every hour to reapply their sunblock and jellyfish lotion.

You also need a pair of watershoes. The Sound floor is soft and sandy, but is littered with shells from the various critters that live there. You can cut your feet on those shells.

Equipment has come a long way in the last few years. Smaller sails and larger boards allow younger and lighter kids, especially teenage girls, to take up the sport. You'll see advanced kiteboarders soaring up out of the water as the sails lift them and their boards ten feet in the air. But they're using huge sails (see green, black, red and orange sails in photos higher on this page) and small boards. With the smaller sails and larger boards there is no way a beginner is going to be airborne.

Physical Education teachers have been warning us for years about how out of shape most Americans are, especially kids. Kiteboarding reveals that immediately. It will exhaust the typical couch potato in an hour. If you or your kids plan to take up kiteboarding, back home, before you come to Hatteras, you should begin a routine of chinups, rowing, leg presses, various lifts and anything else which will develop arms, abs, legs, and shoulders. Otherwise, you'll anternate an hour on the water with two hour naps back at the rental cottage.