BayAreaKiteboarding.com

I never thought I would ask about one of these but I dusted off my old Blade 4.0 today and got some skidding action on the beach. It occured to me that on a low tide day and onshore wind Alameda is doable. I have a trike that I used to ride before i got into kitesurfing but it is too big to keep in the house.

So my question is whats the best kind of board for sand? Do people use the brakes on them that use a kite? I tried a friends once at The Berkeley Marina and it scared the crap out of me. especially turning downwind! Is there a good place to get one around here for a decent price? Is there somewhere I can get the parts if I wanted to make the board myself? Thanks

Yuri

I have MBS comp 16, nice board. There are also good boards from other companies, like Flexifoil. Flexifoils are on the short side. Basically the bigger the board the easier it is to ride, but its like a beginner board for kiteboarding, after a while its in your way.

What you should avoid is kids mountain boards. They look the same but little smaller and much cheaper. Adult boards normally have 8" wheels.

No breaks. The MBS does come with breaks which are useful for downhill, easy to take off. You stop like a snowboard.

I use a Ground Industries board, it's pretty nice and solid. I have the Balistik Mak tires with Crossair hubs and they work fine on hard pack sand.

I wonder if putting slightly larger tires on would dramatically help on dry sand?

Dry sand is very hard to ride, even the three wheel buggies that have big wheels have a hard time.

I was looking once at a mountain board that had monster wheels, 10"x 3" with flat section. It had the wheels but it was a lame board and I was almost certain I would break the flimsy trucks. They were also way too soft on turning. Maybe its still a good option to get it and use the wheels on a regular mountain board. You will have to do some welding or machining, which I think for you will not be a big problem :)