Backpaking with kitesurfgear

[kristalklear]

Hey,

I am going backpacking from beginning of oktober 2010 till late august 2011.
I would like to include a couple of months of kiting but I am not sure what to do yet, I just started a couple of months ago with kiting after being hooked on snowboarding. I see 2 options: I let my kitegear fly over to a place and do a 3 month trip of kitesurfing and fly back with my gear to my homeplace. Or I just take my gear and backpack and start travelling around and see how it goes...

Does anybody have experinces with this or has some pointers?
Thanks
Jelle

[BrianMaiden]

I travelled around south America for 6 months with 3 kites and two boards. It's by no means stress-free but it can be done. In South America the buses are cheap, fairly decent and i didn't have to worry too much about my stuff going missing. So i guess it depends a lot on where you're going - where are you going? Having been to India there's no way i'd consider backpacking there with kitegear.

Having windsurfed for twenty years, kitesurfing kit is BY FAR easier to travel with.

[antatack]

I was backpacking in Asia for about a year and I was carrying one board and 2 kite(10m & 7m) + all equipment

I had one of the NO-MAD board: http://www.kitesurf-ventdefolie.fr/
and everything was fitting in one big suitcase... pretty cool when you don't get hassle at all the airport and it doesn't look suspicious. I left my suitcase at a couple of hotel where I knew I was coming back at some point and I never had trouble with it.

[Ivel]

I have been backpacking since january of this year with kite gear. 2 kites (10 &6) and 4 boards (3 surfboards and a twintip). All of my boards go in a board bag with my 10m kite wrapped around them and wetsuit and towel for nose/tail protection. 6m, bars harness and clothes all fit in my backpack. I use a SS kitebag as it is BIG. It also happens to fit, just barely, in the overhead compartment on an airplane. bedroll and pump attach to outside of backpack. It is about a 100lbs of gear.
Paying extra for boards is unavoidable, though I never disclose that it is multiple boards.

Research ahead of time where you will be going as lugging unused gear sucks.
I think in the future I will travel with foil kites as repairing bladders can be rather difficult in places and carrying a pump always gets weird looks going thru security

[kristalklear]

Thanks for the info,
I made the decision that I will just take off with the necessary kitegear and see where I will end....
grts