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Ban Half Day Lessons III

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fokiten
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Postby fokiten » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:38 am

Trant wrote:
fokiten wrote: NO EXPERIENCE NECESARRY,,,we'll teach you how to rig launch and,,bla bla bla SAFE SAFE SAFE, the rest is up to you...
I hate to argue with Mr Fo, but
Kiteboarding Level One - 2 hours, $140 pp
Requirements: Previous experience or 'Intro to Kiteboarding' Essential
and
To become proficient at an IKO 'Kiteboarder Level One' standard - you might require more than one lesson.
So no guarantees, at least 2 lessons and the suggestion of having more.

Training method aside, this doesn't sound too bad to me. At least, I got by on 2 lessons (not Kitepower)
Don't worry,,

You're not arguing with me,,,

The no experience "come on" is for the intro lesson which is 2 hours,,

AND this no experience necessary 2 hours IS

the required previous experience for the ALL INCLUSIVE GOOD TO GO IT ALONE< as advertised> level one,,

or I guess you could just say Yeah,,I've watched a video...and skip the first two hours??

It don't matter BECAUSE

the level one,,,INCLUDES A REVEIW of the INTRO class,,Don't know how long that takes?

At any rate it's a total of four hours that reviews the first two hours...

Say,,,how sweet is that? BAM you're good to BUY,,,And (as advertised) good to go it alone...

SWEET

Like I say you 're not aruging with me

Regards
fokiten

PS. I'd post the link so you could see it for yourself, but Toby is editing my post's and taking out the actual links?

What can you do???
Toby wrote:good work!

Our sports needs things like this!

And hey, it is a quite expensive sport, so they should have the extra bucks to learn it right!

Thanks
Toby
Go Figure?

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Sea&Sun
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Postby Sea&Sun » Thu Jul 14, 2005 5:15 pm

Fo sorry to see Toby is deleting your links. If people could just get to the link they could see how bad this one is. What is really bad -- the school locations are in tourist areas. Makes newbie tourist believe "great we can take a lesson between meals on Monday then a lesson between lunch and dinner on Tuesday then buy our kites and go on our own after dinner Tuesday night!!! Won't that be a fun Holiday!!!!!"

ookpik
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Postby ookpik » Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:05 pm

I am also concerned that without high standards for training and certification we will see too many bad accidents. Kiteboarding seems to be reaching a point of public awareness such that a huge number of neophytes are keen to try the sport.

When I hear about anyone promoting a quick-learn program, I put this in perspective with historic sports training programs. For most of my life, I have been a sailing instructor / racing coach / windsurfer and now kiteboarder. The Canadian Yachting Association oversees 7 levels of sail training, and during a typical 3-week program a student might advance 1, 2 or 3 levels. Otherwise, the student would be kidding themselves about how much they didn't know - blissfully ignorant.

Accelerated programs remind me of scuba programs in certain resort destinations where you learn to scuba dive almost immediately. Hopefully you'll be ok under the watch of a dive instructor, but believing you're ready to venture out on your own and face the unknown would be a big mistake. Same with kiteboarding, but some beginners don't seem clear on that.

Most new kiteboarders will survive and do little more harm than damage some equipment or get into trouble with lifeguards or other beach users. But some fledgling kiteboarders are going to die, and some are going to put others in grave danger, including those that try to rescue them. Aside from immense personal tragedy, lack of foresight and too many bad accidents will eventually shut down large parts of the sport / industry.

fokiten
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Postby fokiten » Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:19 pm

Thanks for your reply,

You make a great point, It's not only bad for the student (to be hyped) but bad for every single one of us...

Kiteboarding suffers from the absolute ease of it.

It just looks so simple and easy to learn, it looks fun, it is fun, but there are GRAVE consequences if you lose control.

Learnig to respect the kite, the weather, the surroundings all of these come from actual experience ON THE WATER.

Charge BIG bucks for assisted deepwater training or what I would call A KITESURFING LESSON.

Charge very small bucks for trainner kite flying,,the ROTE of rigging etc.


MAKE THE PRICE REFLECT THE QUALTIY of their experience.

Assisted watertime is worth paying BIG bucks for,

The common knowlege stuff is WORTH NOTHING without the water skills.


Stop ripping people off,,,stop over charging for WORTHLESS instruction.

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Postby BWD » Thu Jul 14, 2005 11:52 pm

Hmmm. Big bucks is not so good. Why should it be cheaper to learn SCUBA or flying an airplane than kiting? To me this is really ridiculous.
I was lucky to get about 8 hours instruction for $300 a few years ago -and that was not cheap for one instructor and one beach boy... but it got the job done.

After taking time off I thought of getting another lesson to get back into it, with better skills, but found the price had basically doubled (or more..)
"Forget it" was my conclusion. Naturally I remembered how to kite, though I am not very skilled still. Practice makes skill....

Glad I got lessons before the rip-off machine known as kite instruction was fully wound up.
I still believe in lessons though esp. for beginners. I may take more when I am "rich."

I think the pricing is inexcusable though. What kind of costs have been built in to justify it? How much do they expect to profit teaching?

fokiten
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Postby fokiten » Fri Jul 15, 2005 12:43 am

Regards,,

Well I agree, big bucks was probably the wrong choice of words.


I think that BIG BUCKS is what drive some to offer bad (quick and dirty) worthless lessons; that kites on short lines were developed to protect the schools and enable the teaching of those who should never kite, the timid, the weak, the physically naive...And this NEW ALL INCLUSIVE market would seem to explain the scurilious pimping,,,

THAT no experience necessary thing,,,

JUST,

Take this one bragger; he boast of 3,000 graduates from his "school;" let's see?

that would be 3000 just plain folks, times 4 hours each, times $70 per hr.=

$840,000.00

That's close to one million bucks??

For what investment? couple dozen trainner kites and some sun block?

We've foxes in our hen house

fokiten
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Postby fokiten » Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:26 pm

For stoner

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Sea&Sun
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Postby Sea&Sun » Sat Jul 16, 2005 11:17 am

Anyone else find any of these half day pimp schools?

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kitefrog
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BA.....

Postby kitefrog » Sat Jul 16, 2005 12:41 pm

Everyone is different.

Anyone learning to kitesurf should have a friend teach them how to fly a kite before their lessons.

When your kite flying is effective then should do a lesson. Otherwise paying to fly a tiny kite is a waste of money. Any reasonable kiter can safely teach a friend to kite fly.

I taugh two friend to kite fly over two days, they did a two hour lesson in the water and by the end of it they were both doing water starts and almost getting the board over its bow wave.

Excellent result.

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Postby uncleneil » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:43 pm

Two hours in the water and now their water starting. You should be hanged from your testicles for letting them on the board in that short of time. Whats this world coming to. OK Fo and S&S, time for you guys to rip him a new ars-hole.


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