monkeyinshower

I've got the Matrix and am pretty pleased with it. It fits easily under the waist harness and actually stops a bit of the bar squashing up under your ribs thing as I don't have a spreader pad for my pyro. Float wise it is noticable the difference between this and my lifejacket I had before. you do still have to tread water, but it definately helps bouyancy. The main thing is that i've had some fairly massive wipeouts with it and had no pain at all. it has given me confidence to throw more moves, rather than throwing one, hurting yourself and then having to build confidence up again to do it again. - even if you do look like a member of SWAT when wearing it!

Fast tidal currents, possibly illegal, restricted space and probably hugely gusty winds. Doesn't really sound worth it to me. If you did it without a board leash, just image crashing & losing your board - it would zoom off down steam probably never to be seen again.

I agree that it is possible to learn Kitesurfing without lessons - after all all the riders at the beginning did this. However, lets just say that you get your mate to teach you how to get up on a board and get going - that's great. But what about when it all goes wrong? did your mate tell you how to do a deepwater packdown, how to make decisions about whether to deflate your kite or not? I had a leading edge blow out on me the other day and had to do a deep water packdown then swim back - it was the first time I'd done it since my lessons - It was a long old swim back and without knowing what to do it would have taken longer - maybe I would have lost some kit out there - or maybe worse. There is so much more to kite surfing than just the technique. I used to landboard for years before getting on the water - and I rate the lessons I had highly. So what I'm saying is lessons are definately not a waste of time, you can do without them - but the piece of mind that lessons give me - knowing I can tackle many (not all) situations, certainly helps me enjoy the sport more. Anyway - whatever you do - good luck mate and have a blast doing it

I put 12m, but I didn't have a 9m until recently. I reckon that I've missed so many sessions this year by not having one, so it would be about even. Oh well looks like Sunday is shaping up to try it out!!

I'm 6' and about 13.5 stone and have the 128x39.5 555. It's a wicked board and is my first smaller board - surprising me at how good the bottom end was but, when the wind does get low then I resort to my 145 litewave. So overall I think everyone is right and if this is gonna be your only board then go for the 135.

Friend of mine did the exact same thing to his winter RipCurl wetsuit (£200 ish) and all the stitching is guaranteed for life, so he just dropped it into the shop where he bought it and it was fixed free of charge. And they provided him with courtesy wetsuit while it was fixed. So I guess, if you can afford it it's worth going for a suit that offers this gaurantee. - But having said that I'd only bother paying more if it was a winter suit.

What - the first ever Sea Plane takes off near Marseilles? Think you might be after "March 20th"

I went with boardsure.com - about £25 for a week in France. Looks like a decent policy. Haven't had to claim though

Got sent this link by a mate.. on a foreign site. Check the picture out! - there's also a little video link as well. http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2005/05/03/430733.html How close?? Sorry if posted before/

I usually head up to Whitstable or Minnis bay if there's north in the wind. - Both gotta be low tide really. On a SW it's usually Shoreham, Lancing or somewhere along there. Good luck

Yep lessons are a good bet - then you can have your first few runs on a long board that they are bound to have. Then you can buy something something slightly smaller once you've done your first few waterstarts with the instuctor. I bought a Lightwave 145 x 43. Not super long but nice and wide. it did me fine for learning and continues to be a good board, even holding quite a bit of power down when the wind gets up. (by the way 87kgs so we're in a similar range i guess)

They're Brilliant lids - I've got one, use it for Kitesurfing and wakeboarding when hitting the kickers. The ear bits are for protecting your ears when you slap them hard into the water on a wipeout, which, can be pretty painful. Must admit I don't use my ear bits though.

I went out in September this year and thought it was a wicked place. I've been Kitesurfing for about a year and a half and while I was there I wished I was better! cos at times it can get Seriously windy. Our first day when we arrived was blowing about 45 Knots on the Levante wind- and that is just mad! only the very good kiters were out and everyone else stands on the beach and gets sandblasted! So all in all not the greatest place to learn - but if you get more gentle winds it would be pretty good! - Nightlife is pretty funny!

I'm not a Visual basic man, more C++ but check this out for your dec to bin conversion... http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;31789 MSDN has some good stuff on it. if that fails codeguru is worth a look. not sure about the radio button thing. Don't think you can have none selected (though may be wrong) - that's kind of the point of them. - anyway good luck

Think there's one being organised by StormRiders in Shoreham. check it out on their forum.... http://www.def-sta.com/cgi-bin/stormriders/yabb.pl/YaBB.cgi?board=kiteboarding-sessions;action=display;num=1131034152 Think it's a Goring/Lancing to Shoreham Downwinder. and £5 to the RNLI -Sounds fun!!

What an awesome Idea!!! do you think you'd need a quiver of three horses for different conditions? Or maybe a cow for begginners and work your way up through the animal kingdom, highlights including badgers, monkeys and chaffinches until finally you get to the horse.

Wakeboards tend to have more rocker for one, (how curved up the board is when flat on the ground). This means that they suck more power than a Kiteboard as they dip more into the water. So you have to be more powered up to ride one (like you are behind a boat). I've never used my wakeboard on a kite or my kiteboard on a boat, so can't comment on what the crossover is like.

Make sure the kite isn't too high aswell, if it is it pulls you off you edge and thus downwind

Can't remember how much I paid - about £35 for a week in Tarifa. I think you can choose gold/silver/bronze insurance and that changes the level of cover with regards to the equipment insurance etc. The main thing is that you are insured for medical stuff etc. Check out the site - it's all there. I'm sure there are plenty of other insurers - its just that these guys said "kitesurfing so I was suckered in Seems ok though! Where r u off 2 anyway?

I have just done mine through these guys.... http://www.sportscoverdirect.com/ventureguard/.

Yep getting the board on your feet can be a bit of mission, It gets better with practice but I guess at first it would be advisable to have the bindings on the looser side so you can slip into them a little easier. Things that I find help me are.. 1) Doing a little leg stretching before going out. That helps me bend down to the board a little easier. 2) pull on the grab handle and shove the board on your feet (you can practice this out of the water - to get it into your head) 3) If there is a bit of a shoredump then you could body drag past the break and put the board on without the hassle of waves breaking on you the whole time!

I have a 5th Element on my North Vegas - I really like it - good for upper wind range and great for relaunching. What Kite are you thinking of attaching it to? or are you thinking of buying a new kite with it on?

Sorry yes I meant to say Minnis bay rather than Herne bay before. Yep and definately don't want to be too near high tide - cos the sea comes right into the sea wall when high. Hope you get out good luck

I've been out at a few places around there. Whitstable (back of Whitstable Windsurfing) is good - I think low tide is best Herne bay - eastwards of Whitstable is good is beach isn't too crowded. Definately an around low tide job though. and watch out for muscle beds - nice place though Sandwich is good aswell - don't really wan't any westerly in it though otherwise its getting offshore - also probably best at low tide. There is a web site i looked at once, pretty good for the lowdown... http://www.kentkitesurfingclub.co.uk/good_spots.html As for the excuse hmmm... not sure - Whatever excuse I use always seems to go down badly. Maybe you could say you have been asked by the BBC to make a documentary about teaching Bill Oddie (from TV's popular 'Badgerwatch' or whatever it's called) to Kitesurf. - how could they not believe that? And who could deny the world to watch as the bearded wildlife fanatic pulls some huge air??

Well I have the 2005 145 and love it. Really great board. I weigh about 85Kg and find that is a lovely early planer and holds a fair amount of power. However I would still class myself as a beginner so it suits me, perhaps as an intermediate you might get more out of the 135 as I believe it is narrower than the 145 as well.