kiteboarding

Which island? For STX http://www.kitestcroix.com/

for lessons on STX from a world-reknowned professional, call Bill Kraft at 340-643-5824

Bill is awesome! I took lessons from him and he's great. I think it's $500 for three 4 hour lessons. For safety reasons, you need professional lessons.

I hope you're comfortable with drinking sea water! 🙂 My sinus was clean for weeks!!!

Noah

STX is developing quite a regular group of kite-surfers who are out on northeast or southeast shores (wherever the wind is better) on any day windy enough to kitesurf. A couple years ago you'd see 1-3 people occasionally. Now it's 5-15 every day that there's enough wind. Everyone is good about helping each other and giving tips to new afficcionados still learning the basics. Even after your start-up lessons are done, Bill and others are usually around to offer help and keep you going. Lesson #1 is learning to fly the kite on the beach. Lesson #2 is body drags having the kite pull you through the water to go where you want to go. Lesson #3 is getting you up on the board and how to start and stop in the water. Once you develop more, there are advanced lessons you can take to learn the jumps and back rolls and other maneuvers. Bill reps a line of quality equipment and can help you figure out what kind of kite and harness would suit you best. Equipment use is provided during your lesson package, but is not available for rental outside of lessons. You will need to purchase your own equipment if you want to continue the sport. Most kiters wind up with 3-5 kites in varying sizes for different amounts of wind, so the total $$ outlay can be substantial. Quite a few of the kite surfers now get together socially, as well. We've made several trips to Anegada in Parrothead with 6-10 kite surfers aboard for some serious wind time over 3-5 night trips. Our next trip is May 22-26 and will include Anegada plus some time at the BVI music festival.

Alexandra - will you be at the Wooden Boat Race in JVD?

ExitZero - we're planning to pop into Jost at least one day, but I don't know exactly when. When is the race? I hadn't heard about that event. It sounds like at least half a dozen boats are going to the music festival from STX and will likely raft up. There are undoubtedly more going I haven't heard about.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
Kip.