September 19, 2019

How many lessons do you need to learn kitesurfing?

How many lessons do you need to learn kitesurfing?

Alright, your mind is set on this new sport, but your wallet is a bit reluctant. Fair enough, mine would be too. So you are wondering how many lessons you should book. Knowing that most kitesurfing schools offer discounted prices if you purchase a package of lessons, you would like to know exactly how many hours you need before you can go on your own.

“Teaching quickly is not a badge of good quality instruction; it is just a sales pitch”

The expected learning time

The truth is, there is no straight answer. It is hard to predict how fast someone will learn. If a kitesurfing school promises you to be riding the board within X number of hours, you should walk away. Teaching quickly is not a badge of good quality instruction; it is just a sales pitch. Even worse, when they create this expectation and they cannot reach it, the instructor will be more likely to skip teaching you some very important skills in order to get you to ride within the promised time. Having this expectation may also cause frustration if you are not reaching the expected level in time, and you will think you are bad at the sport, and you may even give up. Hang in there, you are not bad, you just need more time, and someone made you believe there was a very short and unrealistic learning time frame you needed to fit in.

“Kitesurfing cannot be compared to any other sports”

The student’s background

How can you evaluate how many hours you will need then? As you can see in the chart at the bottom of this post, some indicators/predictors will help you make a decision. Are you fit? Do you practice other fast action sports requiring balance and coordination? Have you ever done any board sport? Any wind sport? Are you comfortable in the ocean? Are you used to learning challenging sports? Are you younger than 40 years sold?  If you answered YES to most of these questions, you are more likely to learn faster. You have to note as well that aging slows down the learning process. Very sadly, your brain records muscle memory much slower when you are more life-experienced, so if you are in your 50’S and up (yes, we have students even in their 70’s), then expect needing more lessons, no matter how fit and sporty you are.

Kitesurfing cannot be compared to any other sports. How many times do we hear “I am a surfer / windsurfer / wakeboarder, so I will learn quickly. I only need a single 2H of lesson”. That is great, you will possibly need fewer lessons than someone who doesn’t practice those sports, but you still need to learn to fly a kite, recover a board, self-rescue and all those skills specific to kitesurfing, and this will likely take more than a few hours. You may even have built habits from your previous sports that do not apply in kitesurfing, and breaking these habits may be harder than if you came without any background, so it can also be a disadvantage. 

You will often hear that kitesurfing is 80% kite control and 20% board skills which is true! Learning to control a kite is a skill in itself, which often requires hours of practice and repetition until it becomes second nature. This means that even if you already have great board skills (wakeboarding, surfing, snowboarding, etc.), it won’t help you to learn to control the kite and those board skills will only be useful when you get to the stage of learning to stand up and ride. Moreover, you need to coordinate your kite control skills with your board skills, which is usually the part that students find the most challenging. It’s best to think of kitesurfing like combining TWO sports: kite flying and board riding.

The minimum time for learning

There is a minimum time that you need to spend learning the basics. This minimum is 6 Hours of lessons. It takes on average 6 to 8 hours to cover all the beginner exercises before attempting your first water-starts (standing up on the board). Some people will nail the basics with a minimum of explanations/practice time and will be able to learn them within 4 hours, but that is the exception (less than 1% of students). If you need to repeat the exercises, you may end up needing more than 6 hours, and this is very common, so don’t be hard on yourself.

“Technically, you are not taking lessons to learn to kitesurf, you are taking lessons to learn to be safe for yourself and others. Learning to ride is a second priority.”

Basic independence

On average, students will reach a basic level of independence within 6 to 8 hours of private lessons but will not be able to ride over 50m consistently, and usually only in one direction. What does that mean? It means that you can go practice on your own, you don’t need to be supervised by an instructor anymore. You can choose a proper kitesurfing location, assess the conditions, setup and pack your gear safely, launch and land the kite safely, recover your board, self-rescue, etc. You also have good kite control, you understand your equipment, you have a safe behavior on the beach, and you know the right of way rules, so you can deal with other kitesurfers. Most importantly, you are able to confidently and self-sufficiently manage a variety of challenging and problematic scenarios. Technically, you are not taking lessons to learn to kitesurf, you are taking lessons to learn to be safe for yourself and others. Learning to ride is a second priority. So, when you reach the level of ”basic independence”, you may not be able to ride more than 50m or go upwind, you may even have a hard time just getting up on the board, but you are safe to go practice all of this on your own. From there, the best thing to do is to alternate between self-practice and lessons. If you are not feeling confident enough to go on your own, you can ask a kitesurfing friend to come with you or book more lessons. There is no shame in needing more support.

“It takes repetition to build muscle memory”

Full independence

As you can see from the chart below, the progression between basic independence (Standing up and ride 50m) and full independence (Ride upwind consistently in both directions and do transitions) is where you will spend the majority of your time and effort. Even if you are a fast learner (15% of students), you will have spent at least 60 hours (combination of lessons and self-practice) to reach that level. Average learners (60% of students) will require over 100 hours to reach that level while slower learners (25% of students) will need at least 150 hours to reach that level.

Practice time

Do you still need lessons after you reach the ”basic independence” level? If I tell my student that they are ready to practice on their own, it is because I have the confidence that they will not hurt themselves or hurt others. It is a huge responsibility, as an instructor, to make sure our student will be safe after they are done with their lessons. If you are tight on budget, from there, you can learn to ride and go upwind on your own. However, having an instructor watching you and giving you direct feedback and advice will help you figure out what you are doing wrong and how you can improve. Sometimes, a few more lessons can make a massive difference in how quickly you can go from learning to stand up to riding upwind in both directions. At this stage, it is quite easy to plateau and develop bad habits such as a poor stance, because you do not know what to do and how to improve. It can be a frustrating stage without help.

With a poor stance, it will be simply impossible to learn to ride upwind.

Either way, once you become comfortable and confident to go practice on your own, you will need to look into getting your own equipment. Kitesurfing schools will only hire equipment to experienced kitesurfers, so getting your own equipment is the only option if you want to practice on your own as a beginner.

Unless you want to be paying an instructor every time you go kitesurfing, you need to build up the confidence to go on your own – and by “on your own”, I mean without the support of an instructor, I do not mean that you have to be the only person in the water. It is always safer to kite with other kitesurfers. You can start with a simple body drag to gain confidence, before attempting water starts on your own. It takes repetition to build muscle memory, so if you can practice it, you will be ready to work on the next thing, and your lesson time will be more profitable.

In conclusion, how many lessons do you need to learn kitesurfing? A minimum of 6 hours is recommended, but it’s highly unlikely (less than 1% of students!) that you will be riding long distances (200m) comfortably and consistently within this time frame. To have a basic level of independence, it can take anywhere from 6 to 12+ hours. Passed the basic independence point, it is advised to go practice on your own and come back for more guidance, to make the best of your lesson time. How long it takes for you to learn is irrelevant, what is important is that you learn properly and enjoy your time on the water. It takes time and effort, and your limit is your determination and commitment. As long as you want to learn to kitesurf, you can do it!

 

 

 

How many lessons do you need to learn kitesurfing?