Windy Lake Lessons from Kevin Gratton - Kiteboarding Lake Winnebago, USA
Regardless of the season, strong winds blowing across the Lake Winnebago always provide sufficiently strong traction for all wind-power instruments. Thanks to its northern US location, the lake itself denies the theory of Windsurfing being simply a summer sport. You can ride, surf, skate, slide and fly Lake Winnebago all year round on variety of boards. And you can benefit from the advice of experienced local guides. Adrex.com gladly introduces Wind Power Windsurfing & Kiting Center, which is located on the South shore of Lake Winnebago, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA.
Lake Winnebago is a freshwater lake in eastern Wisconsin, United States. It is one of the largest inland lakes in the United States. Lake Winnebago and Roosevelt Park, which is across the street from Wind Power, is a superb lake for water sports. It is very large (about 30 by 10 miles - 48 by 16 km), shallow and has launch friendly sites around the lake. The sandy bottom at Roosevelt Park provide ideal learning conditions for beginners. It has become the base for one of the former top American windsurfer.
The world's best athletes from a wide variety of sports showcase windsurfing in powder snow, together with speed riding, snowboarding and snowkiting. It is a fascinating combination of a great variety of sports in the snow. The project is very unique in the world and embodies a combination of…
Kevin Gratton - 2006 Windsurfer of the Year, with over 25years experience as a sailor and shop owner, World One Design Racing Champion Certified Mistal Instructor. Over the years he has kited in the Gorge, Texas, Hatteras, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and in many locations in Wisconsin. He was not comfortable teaching kiting (because of all the accidents and close calls) until 2006 when Naish came out with the bridled SLE kites. These kites as well as other brands have significantly more depower which made them safer and easier to ride. He started teaching kiting then, preferring to teach in the winter because the learning curve is much shorter and easier.
Wind Power instructs Kiting safely. Small Trainer Kites are used first to get used to steering a kite with a bar. The student then moves up to a slightly larger 4-line kite with 100% depower, learning the skills needed to launch, depower, fly and park the kite. After one is confident and comfortable flying the kite on land they move on to the next step: flying a larger kite and doing body drags in the water. After one has learned the skills to do controlled body drags they are ready to progress to learning how to ride the Kiteboard.
Kevin prefers to teach KiteSurfing lessons in the winter because it’s so much easier and quicker to learn. In 2 – 3 hours of lessons a beginner will be kiting on skis or a snowboard. Skis are the easiest, if one is very comfortable on a snowboard that will work also. In the winter the same learning process is used, except the body drag portion is eliminated. Instead at that point one will start kiting.
Contacts: Wind Power Windsurfing & Kiting Center, N7351, Winnebago Drive, Fond du Lac, WI 54935, USA. Tel. 920-922-2550 , 920-251-1002 (mobile) To get additional information go to: www.windpowerwindsurfing.com
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