THE SPORT
Kiteboarding is a new sport that enables you to harness the power of the wind as an individual and ride across terrain or water with a variety of board selections. The equipment consists of an inflatable 4-line power kite, control bar and lines, waist harness, floatation vest, helmet, and board. Kites are measured in sq. meters and come in a range of sizes from 3-16m. The size of your kite depends upon the strength of the wind and what you are learning at the time. The lengths of the lines on the control bar are typically 20m in length, but will also range depending on your lessons.
The most common kite board is called a twin tip, and it is similar to a wakeboard but has straps instead of boots, with a flatter overall design. You will learn with a twin tip, but once you become an independent rider there are many other board selections depending on your preferred riding style, and they include directional surfboards, wakeboards, skim boards, snowboards or land boards.
THE SCHOOL
Lake Erie Kiteboarding is a full service kite school offering lessons, rentals, repair, and gear sales. We service customers from all the surrounding cities including Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Rochester. Located in Grand View Bay, the popular summer vacation area only 30 minutes southwest of Buffalo, Lake Erie offers some of the best kiteboarding conditions of the Great Lakes region. All of our instructors are certified and insured by the International Kiteboarding Organization, and we teach using a PWC providing instant feedback to ensure the best learning experience possible. Come and learn with us!
THE SPOT
All lessons take place at the mouth of Big Sister Creek at Bennett Beach in Angola, NY. Bennett Beach is a great location because of the vast amount of space on the beach and the shallow, sandy bottom in the water. Launching, landing and practice take place downwind from the general public and swim zone. While further upwind, is some of the best wave riding Lake Erie has to offer, for independent kiteboarders who are looking to come and visit our spot.
The ideal wind conditions are at least a 12knot (15mph) wind speed in any of the following directions: SW, WSW, W or NW. Kiteboarding is only safe to practice if the wind is blowing onto the shoreline from over a large distance of water, also known as ‘fetch’. Any slight offshore wind direction, especially in our location, is no good for kiteboarding, and these directions include any: SSW, S, SE, E, or NE.
