Last year my brothers and I bought a couple of quivers of kitewings, Mountain Boards, Dirtsurfers and the surf board they brought out to use with the 7.5m Kitewing. Our first tests were up on a disused airfield in Tangmere, a large expanse of disused concrete with very little obstacles. If the wind were blowing in the right direction you could do runs of over a few hundred metres at a time, it wasn’t however which meant we had the quickly learn to tack and gybe the things across the width of the airfield. It didn’t take much, we were soon tacking, gybing, sailing upwind and downwind with no hastle. Luke even began to pop in a few cheeky jumps.

The next test was the dirtsurfer, we had seen most the videos online using the dirtsurfers on the hard sand when the tide had gone out so we went down to West Wittering to try this out. Having already mastered the Kitewing skills we could concentrate on the Dirtsurfer skills. Once you got going it was definitely the way to achieve straight line speed but turning around was an issue. We later took the dirtsurfer up to the top of Goodwood hill to throw ourselves in the deep end. Luke went first with a small push from myself and began dodging cow pats at quite a speed, fortunately the dirtsurfer is fitted with a disc brake so you can remain in control even on a stupidly steep hill.

On the water
I was down the beach one day and decided to get the Water wing and board out with Neal Gent, competitive UK kitesurfer. Even for the experts we we struggling, we were underpowered I think and fighting a ripping tide but we found it very difficult to make any progress. I have seen the online videos so know it’s easy in the right conditions so I’m guessing 7.5m weather on a Kitewing will be 5m or even less on a Windsurf.

Obviously this kit is widely used on the snow but we didn’t have a local piste to test it, check out YouTube and judge for yourself. I think they will be in their element here turning speed into height, despite the safety warning that comes with the kit.

Construction
Starting with the adapted surf board, I have to say Otis almost laughable that they have not learnt from the recent evolution off kitesurfing. Whacking some straps on a surfboard doesn’t constitute a custom designed board for the sport and in my opinion after trying it needs a lot more thought.
The 7.5 is designed to be light which it is but with that it has weak spots and at crucial positions on the sail, when learning it is inevitable that your board will connect with the sail and we managed to put a few holes in the weaker areas. The smaller sails 4.5 and Rage 55 are built more durable as the are for land use. On the concrete though we found that you often catch the tips of the wing and the concrete quickly wears the material, possibly a tougher construction over these areas would make the sale last longer.

Overall Kitewing are a very enjoyable and versatile toy to have in the van offering a light wind alternative that can be use on a multitude of terrains. It’s easy to learn especially if you have a windsports background. Have a look at the different packages and learn more at www.pickledshrimp.co.uk