Hello and thank you for being here

[abarna21]

I would not do it, at Berkeley.............
i would go to see max at shellgate in Alameda
hes all full of kite love, and just might give you some

That would be grate!!!!
Any contact info?
Alameda is 10-15 min away. I wanted to go in Berkeley in Chavez Park on university ave. there is plenty of open space,grass and wind.

[abarna21]

Cheers to you for erring on the side of safety. =D>

They can be found cheap or used. There are always several around at our kite beaches and people will allow you to use, just show up and ask.
Enjoy the sport and be safe, your life is about to change.....

What beach? Where?

[funmilton]

There is a section on the forum with SF Bay Area locations and guidelines, this will give you the overview of our many kite beaches in Northern CA. Keep an eye on this site, you will get a feeling for where people are going. Delta, Coast, or Bay.

I am heading to Sherman Island tonight for the ebb tide. I would be happy to let you use my trainer and spend a few minutes with you tonight. PM me if interested, I will be in Toyota 4x4 Sunrader RV.

[windhorny]

I started kiting on flexifoil blades and buggies at the berk. marina about 9 years ago. It made the transition to water very second nature as the kite was a no brainer. But after buying my first kite, an 02 12m rhino, i asked this guy if he had any kitesurfing experience if he could fly it for me. I ended up riggin up over in the back behind that hill(the crappiest wind possible there). So I flew it first as he felt I would be fine. I had no problem, although nervous with this monstrous new thing attached to me. So i landed and let him try. He managed to pull the safety and the kite flew away as I for some stupid reason tried to grab onto the bar from his side. it almost yanked my arm out of its socket! Anyways, no names, but this guy is STILL learning to kite at alameda 9 years later.

So be careful a)flying your kite at the marina as the winds are only smooth up at the beach front and you dont want to be there with that kind of kite-bad bad news. b) be careful who you take advise from. Again, the money should not be a factor for lessons. Balance it out with the potential $25000+ hospital bill.

Beginners do stupid things. You just cant go out on a crowded beach and fly your kite around people in any winds and think you are going to be fine. these kites need to be launched/landed by someone else who kites! Dont ever ask joe/jane blow to help you. if you are standing in the water and dont want to get your kite wet so you just crash it on the beach trying to figure out how the hell everyone else self lands, you are going to end up on the JAck ass Listings! :)

Also, if you go out and fly the kite, you are no where as efficient as if you have direction in what you are trying to do. hand signals, etiquette, self-rescue, how to read your own kite, what NOT to do as well as what TO do. It is worth 100x what you will pay in the long run to do it right. And you wont piss people off in the proccess. As we have all seen one too many craigslist purchases go wrong.


Please dont take this all as negativity. You will get hooked and will make many great freinds. We just take newbies who think they can do it all on their own very seriously.

Yuri

[adamT]

Thank you all for your input. I will take some lessons next week. I see that it is very important and i realize why.
I did not want to go with a trainer kite ( $200 + ) to learn with because people told me the same thing when I learn to ride a motorcycle and I bought a " beginner's" bike ( $ 5000) and in 2 months I had to sell it to buy a real one and I lost 2500 on the deal.

I DO realize how dangerous it is and I know you all think I'm just another idiot out there but I want to try to make the best with what i have and cut some costs. I don't even want to go in the water until i learn well enough to control it on the grass.

You should be able to get a trainer for about 100$. I still play around with mine, and am even thinking about getting a new one because the one I have is pretty trashed from flying it so much..

Adam

[abarna21]

I will get the 2m sensei from http://kiteboard101.com/Home/?p=158
150 with 1 hour included. And in the evening i'll go to sherman island with the trainer kite.
I think is the best way to go after-all

[super_monkey]

Thank you all for your input. I will take some lessons next week. I see that it is very important and i realize why.
I did not want to go with a trainer kite ( $200 + ) to learn with because people told me the same thing when I learn to ride a motorcycle and I bought a " beginner's" bike ( $ 5000) and in 2 months I had to sell it to buy a real one and I lost 2500 on the deal.

I DO realize how dangerous it is and I know you all think I'm just another idiot out there but I want to try to make the best with what i have and cut some costs. I don't even want to go in the water until i learn well enough to control it on the grass.

I agree that buying a trainer kite is really a waste of money. What you could probably do is buy a regular 5m kite (I think fuels come in that size. Since you already have a fuel you might as well stick to what you have. Variety is not what you want in kites) and fly that around in reasonable amount of wind (this pretty much means that if it's below 15mph at Alameda according to iKite, you probably should not fly). Eventually, you will use that kite. The problem is that you will need a lot of help and attention in the beginning and generally people want to get their kiting on rather than having to babysit someone. So my suggestion is that if you have the time and want to avoid having to take lessons, befriend some people in Alameda, watch how they are doing it. DO NOT fly a kite that is too big for the conditions and stay below the shack since the beach below there is a lot larger. Please don't fly the kite if there are people around and you're prone to dropping it.

What kind of beginner bike did you get for $5K? Sounds like you either got ripped off or chose a bike against the advice of those who have been doing it for a while.

[abarna21]

What kind of beginner bike did you get for $5K? Sounds like you either got ripped off or chose a bike against the advice of those who have been doing it for a while.

2004 500 cc Suzuki GSXR from Chicago Cycle store. That is with taxes, license and other crap. And I had no-one to get advise from.....so....

[super_monkey]

What kind of beginner bike did you get for $5K? Sounds like you either got ripped off or chose a bike against the advice of those who have been doing it for a while.

2004 500 cc Suzuki GSXR from Chicago Cycle store. That is with taxes, license and other crap. And I had no-one to get advise from.....so....

lol, GSXR and beginner should not be used in the same sentence. I've never heard of a 500 GSXR so maybe you're thinking about the 600 which you would not have outgrown for years unless your last name was Rossi. Anyway, listen to these people here as this is the best advice you will get.

[abarna21]

GS 500F not gsxr my bad... :)