Kindergarten Kiter

Published on February 5th, 2014

As the popularity of kiting grows, we now see parents sharing the activity with their children. But at 6 years old? That’s the age of one very young yet talented kiter and wakeboarder. His father Valentin gives some tips to other parents on how to encourage getting their kids into the sport…

Max started out with wakeboarding and he was already quite comfortable with the board when he started with the kite. Like this they can forget about the board and focus on kite handling.
The Flysurfer Viron is a very forgiving kite and it took only 10-15 minutes of beach and body dragging sessions to bring him to the point where he got on the board and then quickly went further and further.

We chose to follow Max with a boat in the deep water to make him feel secure and give him a lift upwind when needed. Tips for other parents:

Invest plenty of patience for the first steps and make it playful for the kid(s) with no pressure! They may start with just a few minutes of kite handling first and then try again another time. Get the special kids sizes for both wakeboarding and kiting. It makes a big difference! It appears kids can pick up wakeboarding from 3 or 4 years already, about the same age they can start to ski and swim. Once they can comprehend procedures like quick release they can start to play with a kite under supervision.