Costa Rica

[OliverG]

This sounds like a great location for a "kiting vacation"....
But, If you want to pay through the nose! Like get bitten by things so small that you'll NEVER see them! Can wait three hours for lunch then another two for the bill! Can then walk miles and miles and MILES of empty beaches, play tennis or golf, ALL while getting bitten by those un seeable little creatures! You really REALLY REALLY love tons of warm weather and sunshine! LOVE working out on a staircase to stay in shape for your next EXTREME KITING ADVENTURE!!! All while being absolutly along, Then have I got a place for you!!
Now, if you can survive months and months of the above described trials then you might, JUST MIGHT! have the most amazing kiting experance of your life....
I warn you!, this spot is truely NOT for the meek,
L.M.G.

Ah, so you're not talking about Costa Rica, but another spot in which one has to be able to bear your described hypothetical situations, right? Hmm, I might have to think twice about that one! :|

[Pablito]

I'll...bite. Kiting the Amazon while getting nipped by piranhas?

The no-sining thing is a no brainer, but I'm still trying to figure out how you go upwind without edging. I know you can go almost straight downwind while edging hard the whole time(scary!), and you can go straight downwind without edging at all, but how do you go upwind without edging?

[lmontejo]

Pablito, I used to think the same way. But a few days side by side with Jeff convinced me that I was doing something wrong. Don't get me wrong - you DO edge, but it is not edging while having your shoulders touch the water and a big spray in front of you.

Jeff kites much straighter than I what I had learned was the ideal kiter's position. Of course, the lower the wind, the straighter you should be. He also keeps his kite higher and does not pump it.

The traditional teaching of hard edging and a low kite was not what I saw that worked best. He would simply outkite me all the time if I practiced that technique. We were both using similar kites, and to make things worse, if I complained, we would simply switch them and he would prove me wrong once more...

All this related to how to best kite in a regatta, where speed to a given point is what one is after in order to win.

Perhaps we can entice Jeff into this forum so that he can enlighten us more on the subject.

As for what L.M.G wrote, I don't know what place he is talking about, but it certainly isn't Costa Rica... I came back with only two mosquito bites after one week. Mosquitoes and wind don't get along, so they were never an issue!