Wakeskate advice for a kite...

Just wondering if anyone out there is riding a wakeskate much??

i currently using a gatorboards 42" wood construct wakeskate, but finding it sits to deep in the water and doesnt go up wind that easy.

has anyone used any others??? and had success??

cheers

i have the same problem.
i have a cabrinha skate that goes upwind okay but is a dog of a board to shuv or even olly.
my LF aaron reed 42 rides like a dream but doesn't go upwind unless i'm overpowered.

i reckon downwinders are the solution for the skate, that or start to revisit the walk of shame...

unless you're riding butter continuous is better for kiting

i have the airush skate - find it works well, ride it finless. i am not super good on it as far as shuvs etc. ollie no problems.

its a bit odd behind the boat compared to my old school Hyperlite skate. but they are very different boards. rocker outline construction etc.

i saw a piece of ply (3mm i think) in bunnings perth last year for about $10 which inspired having another go at kiteskating (used to kiteskate in the 00s) . I used a litre (or was it 500ml..) of the cheapest exterior wood glue available - was about $10. i scammed some paulownia offcuts (blocks) from a surf board shaper friend to make up some kicktails(you need them if u want to pop with a flatter rocker) which i glued on and shaped with an old electric plane (you could use pine - would end up a bit heavier - my board is real heavy - but that is awesome in the wind so it does not fly away - well until it smacks u in the face or more likely shins.) It is painted and sealed with sea water and gripped with an old mouldy bar 1990s surfwax. i still got it - still in one piece - it's still rocking.

once you unclamp it from your kiteboard deck - you will need to fill teh delams with glue and clamp them all up too - well it saves making a mould and all that crap...

i took an electric plane to teh base and eyeballed out a few dodgy channels about 2-4mm deep- any kind of channel will do - I dont like a flat base - too wobbly and i don't like fins - too catchy sometimes and one fin costs more that the whole board.. - so this was the compromise.

i have ridden the airush and cabrinha skates - both awesome fun, and the new naish looks real good - but i have not had a chance to ride one

if u make one let me know - i posted it a while ago but have only ever seen 4 riders on wakeskates in my whole life so far (2 up to last year)..

to learn wakeskate tricks you will need to try them over and over and over again.. the bonus is that you will not piss your ski or boat driver off and you can learn them dangling a bit and hooked in to start so you end up progressing faster, then if you want to (you will..) you can get into them with kite low/unhooked but big boost dangle grabs are also awesome fun off kickers

Kiteskating hasn't really had any momentum before, but all it will take is a handful of riders pushing for new tricks to make it interesting.

njoi

get an old Liquid force element 128 or similar, put griptape on it.
goes upwind and is light as so ollies ect are easy.

if its really flat there a bit harder to ollie cause there isnt as much rocker... but then everything is a trade off and at least your not walking upwind.

This is an awesome board. Lots of fin options & super cool look at the best price around (by a long way)
Sold the only 2 we could get in 2 days last season.
And guess what........ Nobile have decided to drop them from the 2012 range
WTF
Trying to get a production run just for Oz.
Will post back here if it comes off.