![]() There are people that do lessons here as well, wind isn’t as consistent as it is in other well-known places. I’m located in Mobile, Al area and surprisingly the Gulf has some pretty good days and shallow conditions. South Padre in Texas gives strong wind and flat conditions.Ĭocoa Beach in FL has flat, but might be a more challenging spot to learn to launch. The Great Lakes are cold and EOS in Sheboygan, WI is a good shop. Think about if you want to learn in cold or warm water, salt or fresh. Your first couple of hours of lessons will be on the land. There are advantages to learning in perfect flat water conditions, but there’s an advantage to learning in a choppy water. ![]() Like many others, there’s so many spots to learn. I heard they're doing construction to take the spit out, which might mean the flat water becomes choppier. I've never kited it, but near Vancouver there's the Squamish Spit, which looks like a really fun place. Downside: some spots are tricky to launch and land kites. I have no knowledge of what their lessons are like. I haven't kited South Padre, but can attest to Corpus being a great place to kite, with good wind and a diversity of spots. Downside: beach gets busy with swimmers and kiters, can get choppy. Upside: huge beach for launching and landing kites, conditions can be amazing if tides and wind line up. Make sure you get a lesson that is jet ski supported, not all of them are. Trickier conditions because timing the tides will greatly influence how choppy the water is and whether the current is helping you or hurting you for staying upwind. Downside: remote, expensive, not a lot to do if it isn't windyĬharleston SC for ease of access (direct flight from most places) and fun stuff to do when you're not kiting. Upside: conditions, getting lessons from experienced professionals. (5 year old info now, so take with a grain of salt.) I also like the guys at Hatteras Island Sail Shop (Barton's Shop). That said, Real is expensive, but I know some instructors who have taught at other places before going to real, and they have said it's head and shoulders above the rest out there. Outer banks for best conditions and generally really high quality lessons no matter what shop you choose. The fastest way to get good in my experience was to go to SPI for a week and flail around all day. ![]() In summary, if you have flexibility on lesson dates and a car to get all over the Chicago-Indiana area, then learning it all in Chicago is viable. In fact, I’m heading down there tomorrow cause I like the group of guys that go (mix of beginners and veterans). The SPI trip was huge for becoming an independent kiteboarder and also fun. Mike does a trip to South Padre Island Texas twice a year for this exact reason- it is extremely safe (waist-high protected water for many miles) and has pretty consistent wind. Since my dad was from out of town, we had no flexibility with training session dates and needed to get very lucky to get good wind (strength and direction) in Chicagoland. Learned how to fly the kite but the winds were not strong enough to do much else except body drag. I took 3 lessons in the Chicago area, 2 in Miller Beach Indiana and 1 in Chicago. He’s an awesome teacher who focuses first on teaching you safety which is very important and is overall a great guy. I ended up getting lessons with Mike at Windy City for me and my dad. I was in your same position living in Chicago and wanted to learn as a complete beginner.
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