Yes. If the wind is not too light or too powerful, going upwind is quite easy.

Beginners should realise they are a burden on their fellow kiters if they chose to practice at crowded spots, their footprint, due to dropping the kite often and little control requires more space, keep in mind, your lines are 30m long. Once you are practiced enough to have good control of your kite, you can share the ocean with other users but always keep a fair distance. Please read the Safe Kiting Guidelines endorsed by AKSA.

Yes you can, but these are older style kites and will not give you the benefits of most modern hybrid and bow style kites when starting out, which are easy relaunch, when your kite hits the water, enough depower to be able to control the kite easier. Also many older C-kites did not have an adequate quick release system which is most important and essential to detach the kite from yourself when things go wrong.

Yes you can, but it will be hard to control a surf board in choppy conditions. Due to the thickness of the board rail it will have the tendancy to bounce, which you can control at a later stage, but will make your learning expirience less enjoyable. As a surf board is directional, you will also have to learn to turn the board around. Most schools will want to teach you on a twintip board and this is the practical choice for a beginner.

Wake boards and kite boards are fundamentaly very similar, and you can learn to kitesurf on a wake board. But it will slow your learning proccess down a lot. The main differance is, that the wake board has more rocker, which means its curve from tip to tip is more pronounced and harder to get on a plane, as in skim on the waters surface.

No! Even though kitesurfing is not a difficult sport, it requires specific knowledge that is best learnt in a school and under the guidance of an instructor. WAKSA recommends qualified, insured instructors for the fastest and safest learning curve.

Board leashes used to be widely used in kiteboarding before it was realised that they are highly dangerous. A board leash can cause your board to become anchored in the water when you fall off, yet you are still attached to it. It can then pop out of the water with a lot of energy and impact with your head. Many injuries have occurred this way over the years. It can also tangle around your control bar in the event of a crash and neutralise your safety systems, as well as effect the control of the kite. This situation has caused a fatality in Hong Kong in early 2008.

There is no license system in Australia. At some beaches you need to show your AKSA tag that proves to council rangers you hold public liability insurance. When learning kitesurfing it is a good idea to have an instructor teach you up until at least IKO level 1 and better to level 2. This will ensure you are kept safe when negotiating the potentially dangerous learning levels and gain the best knowledge and skills from the start.

No, you don’t need prior experience in any other water sport before starting. Obviously, already having good board or kite skills will accelerate your learning curve but the sport is relatively simple to learn and anyone can do it.

In order to jump, you need to have some speed. Start with your kite at about 60degrees and send it back hard to the top or even past the top. At the same time you need to edge harder and load up until the kite overpowers you. As you get overpowered and the kite starts to lift you, release you edge and extend you legs to jump. When in the air pull down on your front hand to bring the kite back over you head and make for a soft landing. As you are about to land, extend you legs to absorb the impact, find you edge again and get ready for the next one.