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Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 6:48 pm
by eree
my place average 40. at cold season may be 45 or more, as the young punks with only one 9m kite and only one 3-2mm wetsuit are disappearing from the beaches like the brown leaves from the trees.
usually all their money is spent on some previously owned bmw or audi, so no money for cold season gear...

i really like this time of the year!

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:44 pm
by longwhitecloud
" Those are the years you should be building your future." yep kitingl ol

Education is now super expensive and can take years and years to repay with maybe no motivation to repay or build a future at all. I say enjoy your time. Do what you enjoy and if you take every opportunity that comes your way you will do fine. Kiting can easily lead to a career in many varied areas. It has done for me and many of my friends.

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 9:13 pm
by eree
kiting is just a hobby, like every so called "extreme sports". so try to get a life instead of wasting your life trying to prove something to the people who don't give a rats behind if you are cool or not wearing those stupid boots...

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:10 pm
by william_rx7
In Ontario, I'd guess average age is 42 (seriously).

So where are the 20 somethings? Sure there are a couple here and there, but as a group, they are largely missing. Like many 40's somethings, I wonder where are all the kids.

Comparing today's twenty-somethings (age 20-30 born 83-93) to when forty-somethings (age 40-50 born 63-73) were in their twenties.

1) Lack of Disposable Income
Riders in their twenties today don't have nearly the same amount of disposable income that riders in their 40s did 20 years ago.

High housing costs, student debt, gas prices and low wages all contribute to keeping youth out of kiting.

20 years ago, the economy was starting one of the biggest booms ever seen created by the internet. Today's kids are faced with a terrible recession, and a "jobless" recovery, and very high housing costs. Unemployment among 18-24 year olds now approaches 50%! See http://business.time.com/2012/02/09/few ... have-jobs/

2) Lack of Fitness
20 somethings as a group are just not as athletic as they were 20 years ago. Sure there are some outstanding individual athletes in their 20s, but the big picture isn't as rosy. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24998497. Based on the 5% decline, people in their 40s ran 10% faster in their 20's that today's 20 year olds do.

Obesity rates have doubled, in 20 years. In the early 90's adult obesity rates were around 20%. Twenty years later it's approaching 40%. You can't kite if you can't get off the couch.

3) Lack of Independence
In the 70's kids had way more freedom. "Go out ride your bike, play in the woods, come home before the street lights come on". "Here's a couple packs of firecrackers, and an m-80 now go outside and don't hurt the dog". "You don't need a helmet to skateboard"

Enter cable TV, the internet and 30+ years of the media scaring every parent senseless with one news story more awful than the next. Now kids are under constant parental surveillance, have pre-scheduled play dates and only play a sport if they are on an organized team. The days of kids playing ball hockey / or basketball on their street for "fun" are long gone.

This has created a generation of kids that need to be hand held for nearly everything. If your parents are not involved in a sport, you won't be either. With fewer and fewer people involved in sports, kids opportunities are shrinking too.

We see this in kiting too. Without a parent, or close friend that kites, you never find this sport. Every young rider on PKRA tour comes from a kiting or sailing family, with a parent that is a kiter or windsurfer.

4) Lawsuits & Access
When someone sues a school board, ski resort, property owner or municipality for something, it results in more rules, paranoia and fat kids. There are so many rules that people expect there to be a rule for everything and when there isn't a rule, they assume you need permission.

I've always resented this ingrained attitude, and it takes work to free yourself from it. Frequently when I'm out riding, in the back of my mind I'm thinking that the cops are coming to harass me the minute I get back to the beach, cause anything that's this fun must be "against the rules", and I didn't get "permission".

The End?
Look, this is pretty grim when you look at all these negative factors at once. Being a kiter at any level requires a fat wallet, time for living, independent thinking, and some athletic ability. If today's 20 somethings can get off the couch and go to the beach, it'll just mean the beach is less crowded for me.

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:46 pm
by Jono 111
william-rx7,

I respect you for the articulate explanation you have provided, but you're missing one critical factor....kitesurfing isn't a cool sport for the kids anymore. It was, 10 years ago, the coolest, most aspirational sport of all.

Now, it's overall, an old man's equipment obsessed sport, full of old men turning up with all the gear but no idea. Kitesurfing is an easy easy sport to feel like a hero (dangly reasonably high jumps) compared with windsurfing, surfing, skateboarding or mountainbiking.

And all of that is great, I love it. But now, I am one of the old (42) men that I used to laugh at when windsurfing went through the same cycle..... and the kids aren't excited by watching a load of grey hairs playing with their strings....

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:51 pm
by matth
william_rx7 wrote:In Ontario, I'd guess average age is 42 (seriously).

So where are the 20 somethings? Sure there are a couple here and there, but as a group, they are largely missing. Like many 40's somethings, I wonder where are all the kids.

Comparing today's twenty-somethings (age 20-30 born 83-93) to when forty-somethings (age 40-50 born 63-73) were in their twenties.

1) Lack of Disposable Income
Riders in their twenties today don't have nearly the same amount of disposable income that riders in their 40s did 20 years ago.

High housing costs, student debt, gas prices and low wages all contribute to keeping youth out of kiting.

20 years ago, the economy was starting one of the biggest booms ever seen created by the internet. Today's kids are faced with a terrible recession, and a "jobless" recovery, and very high housing costs. Unemployment among 18-24 year olds now approaches 50%! See http://business.time.com/2012/02/09/few ... have-jobs/

2) Lack of Fitness
20 somethings as a group are just not as athletic as they were 20 years ago. Sure there are some outstanding individual athletes in their 20s, but the big picture isn't as rosy. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24998497. Based on the 5% decline, people in their 40s ran 10% faster in their 20's that today's 20 year olds do.

Obesity rates have doubled, in 20 years. In the early 90's adult obesity rates were around 20%. Twenty years later it's approaching 40%. You can't kite if you can't get off the couch.

3) Lack of Independence
In the 70's kids had way more freedom. "Go out ride your bike, play in the woods, come home before the street lights come on". "Here's a couple packs of firecrackers, and an m-80 now go outside and don't hurt the dog". "You don't need a helmet to skateboard"

Enter cable TV, the internet and 30+ years of the media scaring every parent senseless with one news story more awful than the next. Now kids are under constant parental surveillance, have pre-scheduled play dates and only play a sport if they are on an organized team. The days of kids playing ball hockey / or basketball on their street for "fun" are long gone.

This has created a generation of kids that need to be hand held for nearly everything. If your parents are not involved in a sport, you won't be either. With fewer and fewer people involved in sports, kids opportunities are shrinking too.

We see this in kiting too. Without a parent, or close friend that kites, you never find this sport. Every young rider on PKRA tour comes from a kiting or sailing family, with a parent that is a kiter or windsurfer.

4) Lawsuits & Access
When someone sues a school board, ski resort, property owner or municipality for something, it results in more rules, paranoia and fat kids. There are so many rules that people expect there to be a rule for everything and when there isn't a rule, they assume you need permission.

I've always resented this ingrained attitude, and it takes work to free yourself from it. Frequently when I'm out riding, in the back of my mind I'm thinking that the cops are coming to harass me the minute I get back to the beach, cause anything that's this fun must be "against the rules", and I didn't get "permission".

The End?
Look, this is pretty grim when you look at all these negative factors at once. Being a kiter at any level requires a fat wallet, time for living, independent thinking, and some athletic ability. If today's 20 somethings can get off the couch and go to the beach, it'll just mean the beach is less crowded for me.

But they have texting , facebook, iphones , and whole bunch of other useless things that are turning them into social midgets.
I love those Subaru Commercials that show the parents out biking , sking, etc , While their daughter sits in front of the computer bragging about how many friends she has. L
Not saying some of these new thing are not cool, just know when to put them down and get out and see people face to face.
We are also raising kids that do not have a clue how to build or fix things. When I was in school in the 70S, we had woodworking , sheet metal, small gas engines, drafting etc.
I have saved myself tons of money building basements , porches , etc all from the skills I learned as a kid.

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 2:02 am
by Okinawa Kiter
william_rx7 You are making us old farts look cool!
So it's official Kiteboarding is for old farts who are going through midlife crisis. Many of us ex BMXers looking for that fun factor again.
My favourite board sporting an 80s look.

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:25 am
by Kamikuza
Nice board :)

I loved snowboarding but got beat to shit jumping, and big air was what I was interested in. I can do that now, and the punishment is many times less severe that messing up a table top :D

Now I've tried "surfing" with the directionals, I'm getting interested recapturing the carving I loved so much from skiing/snowboarding too.

Midlife crisis? Maybe :D

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:51 am
by longwhitecloud
skyway TA or Haro Freestyler

kiteboarding is slowly consuming itself by producing kit that is too specialized and by marketing using technology that appeals to the older age group and costs more. Each year it gets worse, each year kiteboarding comes closer to sticking its head completely up its own arse trying to reinvent itself. Marketing needs more focus on riding and less on specialized kit and advanced technology. Even consumers that are complete kook punters are opinionated about what to ride and how to ride just cos that is what they read or heard from someone else - it is just getting ridiculous what i hear from some people nowdays -its like teh actual riding is secondary to the kit - no wonder there are less %age youth into kiting today than there were 10 years ago imo

Re: Average age of kiters in your area

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 1:49 pm
by Westozzy
Being in my 14th season now and at that average ish age of 40 now back when I started the sport tended to attract the more extreme type of dudes and with the kites as they were it could be argued it was more extreme. Especially when we were locking ourselves onto bigge and bigger kites in the name of bigger air with little safety and stuff all depower. Remember the old C kites guys before the bows come along!!

But the technology has come a long way and it is more accessible and much easier to learn and be safe (except the other side of this is when a kite goes wrong it can still be an extreme even that can kill you, a false sense of security maybe). I see a lot of older crew getting into the sport and a lot of them from a windsurfing and or surfing background on surfboards mainly. But not all.

The younger guys I know want to rip wakestyle but this sort of required a young nimble body (to learn at least) and in itself is a fairly small segment of the market.

I don't know if I share the negative stance on youth above as I'm a high school teacher and a lot of the guys are keen as to do the sport. But cost is a factor. Just to get a full set of lessons can cost near a grand.

But....I will share this with you guys. Don't know about you but when I went to high school we were consuming our food as we walked to the oval to resume whatever competitive sport we are doing. Honestly (and a lot of my friends in other schools confer) the ovals a fkn empty man. The boys are sitting around either talking gaming or even worse joining in the frivolous conversation of the young female mind. Gossiping talking others hair and all that crap.

So maybe there is some credence to what I have read above after all.