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I have a waverunner and thought it might be good board practice to wakeboard with my kiteboard. I have never wakeboarded before and wondred how to you get up and is it possible to do with a kiteboard.

So how do I waterstart behind the ski and stand up?

KV

yes, possible.
I did it once, but not with a boat, only at a water ski lift.
Start was not so difficult, after a few splashes I had figured it out.
Not much difference to a real wakeboard, I believe.

Jo

I never wakeboarded before. Do you have any tips on watersterting, hand / board position).


Thanks
KV

i have done this before.with my Naish TT.to waterstart just push your toes forward bring your knees up to your chest,arms stretched out so nearly touching ur board with your knuckles.when the boat pulls you push which ever foot yor prefer forward hard.and that should do it..but it does`nt feel so safe on your ankles.with a wakeboard you have good ankle support.but not with the kiteboard

It will feel weird with your kiteboard because kiteboards were designed to be ridden on an edge, and wakeboards are designed to be ridden on edge, but also flat. When i use my kiteboard on my ski boat, i feel kinda vulnerable from just the straps, and when you edge to jump the wake, most of the times you just slice right through it, instead of jumping over it. Also, the ege can catch all of a sudden and send you flying, depending on your board´s edges. It´s good to practice, and get your board riding skills, but can get boring kinda quick.

Here is a small video, of a guy boatstarting, he is using something like a skimboard, but that does not matter, the important thing is how he starts, that is exactly what you have to do. Keep your back straight, arms slightly bent resting on your bent knees, and your preffered board riding side out of the water.

http://www.trickboardz.com/Video/Broadband/1_512k.htm

of course it is possible.... a wakeboard is of course better suited (more flex and wakeboard bindings) than a kiteboard. my kids love kitesurfing but if there is no wind they get a kick out of using their kiteboard for wakeboarding....


for the start one keeps first the board perpendicular, bends the knees and most important keep the arms straight.....
greetings from switzerland
andreas

If your new to kiteboarding, practice behind a waverunner is helpful. Trying to learn board riding behind a kite, your trying to learn how to control, can be tricky. Agree with other post that they generally dont make good wakeboards. For kite boarding practice youll want to ride as far out to the side as you can on both sides. Proper edging technique you should be able to spin out the back end of the waverunner. MARK

Tried to wakeboard recently on a windless day behind a motorboat on my AHD T-type 171 then switched to a real wakeboard. The kiteboard turned to be much easier, softer, smoother and pleasant to ride, doesn't matter if you ride it flat or on edges. The biggest dissadvantage is that your feet in straps are not fixed tightly and if you jump at speed you can easily loose the board after landing. Right after that I changes to a real wakeboard with bindings and these bindings turned to be the only advantage of it. After 15 minutes of riding both I fell 2 times with a kiteboard and 2 times with a wakeboard.
Two most important things in starting. 1st your boat has to be powerful enough to pull you out on the surface quickly. Tha faster you start the easier it is. 2nd position of your legs. At start you position your bent legs perpendicular to your course and after the power of the pull quickly increase you strighten your leading leg with the board's nose up and absolutely parallel to the course. Nothing is difficult I succeded with the 2nd attempt and riding is as easy as riding a bike.

as i do wakeboarding quite often these days, i obviously couldn't resist to trying out my kiteboards behind the wakeboat .

as was stated above, kiteboards are not really suited to be used as wakeboards. depending how agressively your kiteboard is shaped to hold an edge, it becomes more and more difficult to use for wakeboarding.

generally speaking, wakeboards have more rocker & a rounder shape. so they are much smoother behind the boat where drag power is no issue.
kiteboards are usually faster with a much better edging.

regards

mede

There are boards that do just that. For example RRD juice you can put straps or bindings and it works for freestyle kiteboarding and for wakeboarding.