riding 10am-2pm 14-17kts sunny

He’s up! And he’s down… And he’s up! And he’s down… Well that’s the way it goes when you’re learning. Andrew has great kite control and bags and bags of determination so he’ll get it pretty soon.
Another happy kiter!

I want to learn to Kiteboard. Where should I go?

A good question! The world is your oyster these days – there are kite schools everywhere. But like any watersport, it’s nicer to learn in warm water with less people around. The ideal spot would have small or no waves and shallow rock free water, would be near your accommodation and would have good winds. To help you choose, here are some facts about learning to Kiteboard in Thailand:

1. The wind is great in Thailand – but not everywhere all the time!
   You have to choose where to go depending on which month we’re in. And if you want to kite in sunshine and clear water, don’t come here in rainy season – mid-June until mid-October.
2. The sea temperature is 20-30 in winter and 25-30 in summer. It’s pretty warm all year round!
3. Winter gets clouds and strong winds, summer clear skies and hot sunshine
   In November the North Easterlies switch on and run steady until mid January. Regular 15kts and often 20+ but all in the morning. February to June the South Westerly thermal winds create an almost perfect spot – 15-20kts, sunshine, wind in the afternoon so you can get up late!
4. It’s cheap to learn here, and cheap to buy equipment.
   But don’t choose your instructor based on price – talk to him/her first! A bad instructor will take twice as long to get you riding so ends up being twice the price. And cheap equipment will not be as good – so it will take you longer to learn and when you sell it you won’t get as much back for it. If you’re scared you might not like kitesurfing – don’t worry!
5. Thai food – mmmmmmm!!!!
6. Accommodation is cheap in Thailand.
   As everywhere, rooms overlooking the beach are expensive, those set back a bit are cheaper. Thailand has a massive tourist industry – there’s always plenty of choice!
7. You can be up and riding comfortably in a week.
   The Full Beginner’s course takes 3 days, and if you keep practising the rest of the week you’ll have it cracked.
8. Thailand is a hub for world flights – it’s easy to get here.
   Pranburi is 3hours from the airport – you could be on the water in 3hrs20mins!
9. There are plenty of no wind activities:
   Kayaks, Jetskis, Banana boat, ATV Tours, Mountain Biking, Sightseeing Tours, Shopping in Hua Hin. Or just relaxing on the beach!
10. Thailand is very much discovered – but Kiteboarding is not – yet!
    So instead of 300 kitesurfers crowding onto a beach we have 30. Perfect…

Airstylers Kite School is now open!

www.airstylerskiteschool.com

ok ok the website is not quite done yet – i’m making a ’super duper hero’ of a website. Well trying to…
But we have wind, and sun, and clear water, and still nobody on the beach!

So I got to play a little yesterday…

riding 11am-6pm 11-18kts

that’s the title and here it is again. beautiful days with light winds for practicing on the big kite late morning, a break for lunch, then on to the smaller kite (9/10m for me) early afternoon.
is it usually like this?
YES!!
every day…

riding 4pm-7pm 11-17kts

sorry i didn’t tell anyone – was having a bit too much fun!
it’s the start of the thermal season – but as it’s just starting the wind only comes in about 4pm. it’s fine for teaching at 3, and then riding is good at 4, and then if you stay out until 6 you get some great cold gusts coming at you! it’s quite eerie kiting with the sun behind the mountains – the water goes all grey and you get half the light of daytime. i like it!!

riding 11am-4pm 14-22kts

wind is never steady. if the forecast says 14kts average it will be 12kts about 50% of the time and 17kts about 50% of the time. on an average day there are 20-30 seconds between the changes, but then slight flickers around every 7 seconds.

what does that mean for kitesurfing? hold your wind meter up for more than 2 seconds!! and better still – look at other people on the water – and use your eyes.

today was on the wrong side of gusty – up to 22 and down to 14. that makes it hard to choose a kite size!! variations of ‘damm where’s the wind’ to ‘holy s$%#!!!!!!’

i think the wind’s about to change…

riding 10am-6pm avg 20 gusts 26.

As we teach we get a lot of people coming up to us asking ‘will you teach me too?’. Of course we will!
And pretty quickly we’re booked up to the 4th jan!

A nice steady 15/16kts today and not too sunny to hurt your eyes.
Perfect…

we’re firing up the oven (the wind)