JC Kite School

Well pretty much anybody who can swim! In our experience of teaching we have noticed that those people who don’t mind getting their head wet tend to do well. The youngest student we have taught was a 7 year old boy and the oldest was a 70 year old female, both are now accomplished kitesurfers.

No, you don’t need to be strong at all. All of the power of the kite is taken through your harness, and you only use your arms to control the kite, much like a paraglider or skydiver controls a parachute.

Kitesurfing is actually a very easy sport. The first hour or so is on the beach learning to control the kite, the second and third hours are in the water body dragging, and from the third or fourth hour it's all practice with the board. On average, after about 6 hours our students are standing up and riding. Most students who take up the sport can ride comfortably both ways, and upwind, after a total of 10-15 hours of time on the water. If you have had experience windsurfing or sailing and an understanding of the wind this will help. If you have wakeboarded or snowboarded these also help.

Sunglasses preferably with a floating strap. Sun protection, board shorts or swimsuit. Towel, change of clothes, water, sun block and snacks. We provide you with rashvest or wetsuit. We will supply ALL KITESURFING EQUIPMENT, unless you are doing the advanced refresher lesson: bring your own!

Historically it was quite a dangerous sport and during the early years there were some serious accidents. However now with the kite schools around the world offering kitesurfing courses run by qualified instructors and recent developments in the kites and their safety systems the sport has evolved and is quite safe once proper training has been completed and certification achieved.

You can opt for our rental assisted service, where you rent the equipment and get supervision from our experienced staff from beginning till end.

We provide you with harness, bar, kite and board, rashvest. Additionally, we provide helmet and radio if you choose to do rental assisted.

There are two main styles of boards that you can rent from us. The twin tip, which allows the rider to stay on their heel edge going in both directions. This is very similar to snowboarding when learning to go down the mountain. Learning on the twin tip means the control bar is always in front of you.

The Surfboard with straps is a directional board, which most surfers feel more comfortable on, however in one direction you will be riding heel edge then you have to transfer to your toe edge and have the kite pulling across your body!

When learning to kite, the 2 most important factors to consider are, 1. your location and 2. the wind conditions. Attempting to learn in the ocean comes with a hefty price, the waves. This will prolong your learning curve significantly. Flat shallow water is paramount when just starting out.

Learning in wind too strong or too light makes kitesurfing much harder to grasp. The optimal wind speed to learn in is 15 – 20 knots.