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Kiteboarding is a new exciting water sport introduced to Thailand just recently. The west cost of the Gulf of Thailand is becoming well known for kiteboarding with strong northeasterly winds and clean offshore waters. The Kiteboarding is a great sport, as you can spend recreational time outdoors and on the water in an environmentally friendly way. While you can reap great rewards from kiteboarding it is also fraught with danger, which is why you need to learn in a safe way and practice safe methods and techniques for launching, landing, being aware of the public, and generally being a safe, responsible kiteboarder. There are number of kiteboarding schools in Hua Hin, Koh Samui and Phuket which will provide lessons for the biginners and advanced kiteboarding entusiasts.
The idea behind kitesurfing is very simple. A kitesurfer stands on a board with foot straps or bindings and use the power of a large controllable kite to propel him and the board across the water. This simplicity also makes kitesurfing challenging. Your body is the only connection between the kite and the board and you have to control them both at the same time: piloting the kite on the sky and steering the board on the water. When flying across the sky, a kite generates lift like an airplane wing. While a windsurfing sail is dependent on the wind to generate power, a kite is only dependent on the wind to fly. When a kite is flying across the sky, it creates its own wind (apparent wind) which is faster and therefore produces much more power than the actual wind can provide. Since lift is proportional to the square of the wind velocity, if the apparent wind of the kite is twice that of the actual wind you will get four times as much power from the kite. This simple fact is not easy to appreciate until you actually fly a traction kite. Numerous first-time traction kite flyers have been injured in the past for misjudging such power. |
