Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Unsatisfied with commercial kitesurfing boards, I decided to make my own. I found the commercial boards to have too much rocker, too many fins, stupid graphics, and, worst of all, too high a price tag. With $50 worth of marine grade plywood you can build a board that will drop the jaws of all the board-shorts-on-the-outside-of-their-wetsuit types as you scream upwind.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Design your board
I learned to kitesurf on a rectangular board, 16 x 60 inches. Nearly anything of this same approximate surface area will work. My current favorite board (which has lasted more than two years now) is a perfect oval 62 x 16 inches. The holes for the footstraps are set 1 inch forward of the centerline. My feet naturally sit about 22 inches apart, so I set the 7.5 inch wide footstraps 22 inches apart. I also put in a hole for a leash.
In this files section are two CAD files (DXF and Corel Draw) of my favorite board.
I printed my design out on a large format printer. You can also just draw your design my hand on a large sheet of paper.
In this files section are two CAD files (DXF and Corel Draw) of my favorite board.
I printed my design out on a large format printer. You can also just draw your design my hand on a large sheet of paper.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
When I read your post, I felt like signing up just to answer this :
"With $50 worth of marine grade plywood you can build a board that will drop the jaws of all the board-shorts-on-the-outside-of-their-wetsuit types as you scream upwind."
I am part of what you call "board-shorts-on-the-outside-of-their-wetsuit types", and even if I agree with most of the things you say about the prices and making your own board being a clever way to save money, I find it sad to read such proofs of intolerance mixed in with your ideas.
I wear a board short on the outside of my wetsuit because :
- It protects my wetsuit when I sit in the sand, on the beaches or everywhere else I sit with or without the kite. Board short is 30$, wetsuit is 250$.
- I feel naked when I wear a wetsuit. Call it the swimsuit syndroma if your wish, but wearing a boardshort help me feel dressed.
- The boardshort is one more layer to stop the wind. Some parts of your body like it.
- It's adding style. I's a matter of taste of course. But freestyle is the biggest and most popular stream in kitesurfing at the moment, and freestylers likes to look good for pictures and videos.
So to make it short. It would be nice to be careful to what you say when you start being intolerant with other people sharing the same activity than you. I'm not sure you'd love reading about the "helmet-board-leash-integral-wetsuit-and-shoes-and-gloves-and-silly-looking-race-position-just-to-zip-up-and-down-the-water-all-day-long type" if you read through about kite on random site on the internet.
Sorry for my bad english.
Protect the wetsuit when you sit in the sand? What are you doing sitting in the sand? Hit the water!
Have you made any of your own kiting gear? I'd love to see how you've made your stuff.
I do things a bit different than you do but definitely enjoyed reading your method.
How much do your boards weigh? We figured out a way to make ours weigh 8 lbs with straps and fins. Pretty psyched haha
Thanks again for the info and the site.
Cheers
Thanks
I suspect these would be less likely to delaminate and leak as opposed to metal t-nuts. They may not be strong enough to hold foot straps but try it and see.
Also they may give your cool projects that pro look.
Theres also Lake Nockmixon and Lake Wallenpaupak not far. Wallenpaupak is the location of the ice boating speed record too, its a great snow kiting spot.
On top of that, there is an old air field that was converted into a community park in the suburbs. A quarter mile stretch of paved runway, littered with cement blockades to keep cars away. Makes for a fun weaving between them on a longboard and a tiny kite. Looks like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rybarnes/1373122316/in/set-72157601995718033/
Not the best water locations around Philly, so we will end up being a mostly land and snow kiting team, considering our school year runs through the winter.