Hi, welcome to our little wind-crazed corner of the world.

The kiters can chime in more on specifics and what's currently working on kites but here's my $.02.
1) Lessons 2) Lessons 3) A trainer kite

Don't spend a year of your life mucking around the bottom of the learning curve. Skip a few premium coffees, disconnect cable for a couple of months, whatever it takes. Then go someplace where the kiting is really, really good (ie Hatteras) and spend a week and take lessons there. You'll be learning on good equipment, get a lot of quality time on the water and won't spend a lot of time learning bad habits that you'll have to unlearn next year. Then you can decide what size kites, what control lines, what boards work best for you.

Avoid the temptation to get something cheap and used unless you know exactly what you are getting. Kiting technology has evolved very quickly in the last few years especially in terms of ease of use and safety.

People here get together and get houses for a week or more up at Hatteras or you can get a place on your own or even camp. It doesn't cost that much to spend a week there. The place is so good that a some here will even go up for a long weekend (10-11 hour drive).

Now the not so good stuff. Atlanta sucks for kiting. The wind is occasional and not that steady. Worse, there aren't that many places, especially for a beginner, to safely launch especially with Lake Lanier full (subject of an upcoming article). We have trees. Lots of trees. A lot of windsurfers here are kiters elsewhere. It's not an either/or thing.

Last note on wetsuits - windsurfers and kiters use suits different than most other water sports. We need a lot more room in the arms and chest and we need exteriors that shed water so evaporative cooling doesn't negate the effects of neoprene (Traditional nylon exteriors hold water which then evaporates in the wind and cools the suit.)

Again, welcome and best of luck.

I want to watch! Just kidding.

Perfect timing, there is a "meet-up" of a brand new group of kiters/want-to-be kiters in Atlanta tomorrow, 1/09. That might be a good source of info for you.

http://www.meetup.com/Atlanta-Kiteboarders

As William mentioned, Lake Lanier is not ideal for kiting but....

I windusrf on Lanier a lot, and also kiteboard but not on Lanier. Hopefully this is about to change. I'm ready to give it a try (again) soon.

Gene

Ditto what Webguy said. Even with your experience with kites/surfing/wakeboarding, learning to kitesurf at Lanier - by yourself and safely - can't be done. At a bare minimum, go to Tybee island or the panhandle and take a lesson to see what is involved.

I hate to be another thrower of cold water, especially because I'm like you– really eager to get into kiting. :shock:

I've been sailing since the stone age, windsurfing for 25+yrs, flown all kinds of stuff including stunt kites and trainer kites. I even have a 14m kite and I've flown it (on land with Gene's help). I have a board and a good drysuit and Learn-to-kite vids that I've watched over & over. I am ready!

But here's the thing I figured out– I'm not ready. I need the lessons. Right away, I didn't know if my kite was too big or too small for the wind. (I figured too small would be safe– wrong!). I would never get the trick for body-dragging upwind unless somebody taught it to me... drift launch... kite lands the wrong way... self launching and a dozen other things. I'd totally get hurt trying to figure it out on my own.

From what I've seen over and over, Lanier is really unfriendly for even very experienced kiters... trees, gusty, shifty wind.

I'm a relentless cheapskate and what I know now, is that taking the lessons will be the cheapest, easiest, safest, fastest way to learn it. I know the people at Emerald Coast Kitesurfing in Panama City are good. Ditto the Kitehouse in the Keys and I've heard the guys at Tybee are good too. Lots of good instruction at Hatteras also.

It's 80º and breezy in the Keys today.

I'm planning a southern excursion, landing in the Keys Feb 7th or so, and hoping to catch a lesson then.

My wind guru, Garrison, tells me these guys are the best for teaching kiting:

http://www.upwindkiteboarding.com/leave_us_a_comment.html

Your situation resonates closely to mine a few years back. Allow me to share my introduction to kiting and hopefully you can avoid the mistakes I made. I was living in UT and HAD to get into kiting. I had taught myself all other sports (wakeboard, snowboard, surf) and was going to teach myself how to kite. I grew up competing in local wakeboard competitions on lake Allatoona so I figured kiting would come naturally. I bought a cheap, old C-kite 16M from craigslist and was quickly humbled while trying to kite on the lakes in UT. Old unsafe gear, gusty wind, poor launch sites and no mentor made it near impossible to learn. I was discouraged. Then bought a newer kite (06 Waroo 12M) and honed in my skills that winter snowkiting (with a friend showing me the ropes). Snowkiting is much easier to learn and the winter provided much more reliable wind. Far less gusty. Then my wife and I went to Bonaire for 16 months for grad school. Needless to say, the conditions were perfect. 18 knot consistent wind everyday. It's amazing how much you can learn when you're not worried about the kite falling out of the sky every minute. Kiting is, in my opinion 95% flying the kite. The other 5% percent is knowing when not to go out. Wakeboarding skills did not transfer to kiting. The feel and the pull from a harness is completely different to me than from a boat. Within a few weeks of practice in good conditions I was boosting and unhooking for inverts. Now, we're back in ATL and I choose not to kite on the lakes. I've picked up old windsurf gear and am enjoying learning a new sport. I choose not to kite because I have yet to see the stars align to make it possible for safe kiting. Whenever I go to Van Pugh with my windsurf gear, the kites are always in the car just in case. But, I've never pulled them out. I've had great sessions at Myrtle Beach and SSI. Haven't made the dream trip to Hatteras yet.

If I saw a good launch site on lake lanier where clean wind funneled through and after 10 minutes of monitoring the wind on my face the wind hadn't spiked or dipped 10mph, and there was shallow enough water to where when the kite inevitably crashes to the water and I can't get it relaunched I could walk out without having to cut my lines and swim for shore, or if I had a buddy on a jet ski at the ready for a rescue... then I'd pump it up and go out.

Great, now I'm really anxious for a kite session. I'm happy to share the excitement of kiting. Let me know if you'd like advice on gear. Or if you get your hands on a trainer I'd be happy to give you some pointers. I wish I could've gone to the kiter meeting the other day.

Its really better to take up a sport where no one gives lessons. That way no one will tell you to get lessons. I'm wanting to try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVDG2UyQVrk

I'm happy to hear you going to learn. It's an amazing sport. I'm not typically a nervous nelly, but I've taken friends on multiple occasions to the ER. Stitches... no big deal. Pneumothorax... life threatening. I've dislocated my shoulder and tried to tread water one-armed while getting tea-bagged from the kite and holding my breath long enough to sink while attempting to reduce the dislocation. We also had a tragic death from an experienced kiter on a Utah lake. Not only devastating for his wife and kids, but also terrible pr for the sport. It makes it really easy for officials to post "No Kiteboarding" signs in the wake of tragic events. Consequently, a lot of yuppies don't know a kite from a windsurfer or a hobie cat and they villify any sort of wind riding.

I've got a small 7M Waroo that I'd be happy to give you some pointers on. I don't have a trainer, but the 7M is small enough to not get you in too much trouble, but big enough to give you a good feel for flying while hooked in. I'm out of town til the 25th of this month, but afterward we could meet up somewhere close to Sugar Hill. Somewhere with a lot of grass preferably. At least 12 mph wind. You could also fly my 16M after learning with the 7M.

Your board and kite choice look great. Another mistake I made was trying to kite on a wakeboard. The rocker kills the ability to ride upwind. Thus, kiteboards are flat with razor sharp edges. What size kite are you looking at?

James,

Give me a call 404-735-4944.

Cabrinha (and Griffin) kites are available through WindSense and I actually saw the new 2014 Cabrinha Contra kite in action over Christmas, it's a new design for 2014 (3 struts instead of 5 to keep the weight down for ligter air). I do ride an 11 meter Cabrinha Switchblade, along with a 14 meter Best Waroo and a 9 meter Griffin (Monkey) Kite.

Also, I love my new flat, wide light air kiteboard which I recently pruchased (Progessive Manta.)

And, if you buy a wetsuit locally, make sure it's smooth skin which is a must for windsports, where you're above the water most of the time.

Gene

I'm committed to lessons in a few weeks in the Keys. :shock:

Let's wrangle Devon & Gene into coaching, and get out on Lanier with motor boat support. I have a willing driver and boat.

I know that beach on Lake Acworth and it is fairly wide and long. The problem there is the very limited fetch, making the wind really squirrely. The downwind landing spots aren't very friendly either (with any wind direction). Count on going downwind your first sessions.

Cold snap in the Keys this weekend!

A lot of people think this song by Pink is autobiographical. However, I have it on good authority that she actually dedicated to people who try to teach themselves to kitesurf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asaCQOZpqUQ

Well, Randy, what other selections from the Pink discography do you recommend for general listening and those not familiar with her body of work?

There is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJfFZqTlWrQ

So guys is this our once every 10 years chance to try snow - kiting? I'm thinking a sled or maybe a snowboard and a kite - I don't know much about kites and have never snowboarded, but what could possibly go wrong?

If we still have snow tomorrow, I am going to at least get my screamer out. It worked pretty well as a sled in Snowmageddon 2011.

Hoping for some of this in the Keys next week (except for the brutal overnight lows :shock: ):

U R so meeen