Tell me about Kiteboarding

I'm VERY interested in it. How much? Any recommendations? I live in Virginia Beach if that helps.

PS- THis is NOT kitesurfing

Hi Riff,
Now Kiteboarding sounds like fun. Although water can be as rough a landing as the earth sometimes it doesn't sound like a sport where you could get badly hurt just learning how. If I was younger I sure would try it.
Vee

Please tell me more? I'm OH so interested.

What exactly do you mean by kiteboarding? I am a kitesurfer, and at least where i live, kitesurfing and kiteboarding are exactly the same....
Do you mean like to ride a mountainboard on the ground instead of a kiteboard on the water? Or is it me who completly misunderstands something?

http://www.kiteboardingmag.com/index.jsp

As in your on a wake board, and your strapped to a massive kite. You can also do this on a mountain board and a snowboard.

Well now im sure ... kiteboarding and kitesurfing are exactly the same.;)
But also, the name dosen't really matter that much;).

What matters is that this sport is SOOOOOOO fun that anyone deserves to try it out. If you think that it looks fun, then you should definitely go for it!
It's very expensive, which is what keeps most people away from it, but the first time you suddenly see yourself jumping jumping 15 feet into the air, you forget everything about money, TRUST ME.

If you want to get started, the most important thing is to take lessons. It's in no way good enough to watch an instruction DVD, or get a little help from a friend. A couple of hours with a teacher, will also give you the possibility to see if this is really something for you, without having to pay $3000 for equipment.
Alot of people have tried this sport on thier own. Some of them are still alive, but surely not all of them.:mad:
Allways rembember that if one of these kites take control, you can do NOTHING but wait and see if it lets you survive.

When i was still a beginner, one day i was standing at the beach talking to some guy. Suddenly i loose control of my kite (which was quite small, and the wind was weak). It got dragged across the beach, over a small fence, over a windsurfers sail and ended up in a beach tent full of kids:embarrassed: If i had hit anything i could easyly have been killed.
Later the same year, my dad noticed that the fence was broken(although it looks as if it could be hit by a car without beeing damaged), some surfers told him that it was another newb who did it.:shock:
Moral: Be sure to respect the power of these kites!

Hope that this can help (and hope that i was right when i guessed that you wasnt already into this sport:D)

It did, thanks! So how much, whats the price range i can look for. Also the price for lessons?

Well once again: This sport is VERY expensive!:(
The lessons here in denmark is usually about $140-$200 (for an entire course), but you can get to pay up to $600, if its several days and include somewhere to stay or so...
After this you should be able to buy equipment and go surf by yourself, without any saftey issues.
I would recomend you to have a friend or someone you meet at the course, that you always surf with. It's called a kitebuddy, and it's a very good idea to have one, especially in the beginning.

The price of the equipment, depends very much on how much you are willing to spend. Most kitesurfers buy a brand new kite range with 3+ kites, and at least one board, every year. It's hard for me to give you a price, because everything is much more expensive in denmark, but i would guess you would end up paying $6000+ for kite range+board (and most surfers buy new every year:shock:).
Of course you dont need 3 or 4 new kites if youre a beginner. You can easily start out with just 1 used kite, and a VERY used board. i payed a little less than $1000 when i started out, which included kite, board and harness. The only thing i needed to buy was a wetsuit (which my instinct tells me that you won't need where you live;)). I even think you could do it cheaper.

One of the most important things is that you get a kite with a safety system. There are two options to choose from.
The first is a kite with a 5th line, that will make sure that the kite just falls slowly down on the water if you release the control bar. Most kites from 2005 and so on has these systems, but eventually they can also be installed on older kites.
The other option is a SLE/Bow kite. These are a completly new type of kites which is very safe to use. On hte other hand these kites are very new, and therefore the used ones are expensive too, due to the low age.
Some SLE/Bow kites has 5th line too, making then even safer.

A place where you can go to learn much more about the different types of kites is http://www.kiteforum.com. Also, you could go talk to some of the kiteres at the beach. Kitesurfers are known to be very helpful, and it would be wierd if they would'nt take some time to tell you about thier equipment and so. Just watch out for "kitewhores"(dirrect translation from danish ... don't know what to call it in english). These are sponsored sailers, who get a share from the kites they sell. They will (of course) always tell you that thier brand is the best.
Also feel free to ask more questions here;).

Thanks!!!