keen to get hold of other kiters in the manawatu.
i'm just learning and live at waiatrere beach.
i made a mountain board and nasawing and been practicing
on land. just bought a windtools booster 12 from anabatic
and plan to make a board.

it would be good to have a crew to go kitesurfing with.

marnis

ha ha - lee must have been stoked to sell you that beast!

the whole kit was $600 new. most of the neg. stuff
i read about the booster was more about workmanship
and the loop system. what else should I know? there
is still time to back out of the deal. :?: :?: :?:

whoever wrote that last was just stirring
If you have any worries about what you're doing email the administrator .

yep we all poke fun at the booster because it was the last straw for a co that went down the gurgla. sure wasn't the best kite of its era and there are much much betore new kites now.... but at 6 hundy I guess you could say you payed 4 or 5 for the bar and lines and 1 or 2 for the kite.
actually the so called local "team riders" who rode these kites may well have made them look worse than they were.

what's that - the burster?

8) $600 can't be a bad deal.
A new one was expensive

Saw Shane Hammeritin at Orewa on Sat with his one.
He was sailing up and down the bay ok.
Scared the shit out of everyone when he decided to see howmany time he could slam it hard on its nose at the end of the day. No shit he tried to beat this thing so hard guys actually went up to him and asked if he wanted a hand to land it. but he said nuh, an went on banging it.

Musta had a bad day, kept going at it for 15 mins I rekon.

He then went on to teach some poor bastard how to do the same with his Naish X2, tried to get him to kill that one too.

No kites were killed !! Amazing...
But it was the most interesting behaviour on a beach with 30 kites out.

The Booster lives to ride again!

yep you gotta wonder!!!

To guest:

Please do not abuse or insult anyone on my site - even if they deserve it.

The worst thing is I get blamed. Shaun Hammergen accosted me at the beach yesterday and accused me of writing something about him on some forum. I truthfully replied that I don't have time to even think about him - let alone write about his sorry ass.

Nevertheless I have edited your abusive post.

ohh please ... what are you the gastapo.
for once this generally boring lame ass forum had some interesting input and you go and edit it out.
when you started this you apparently had no idea what a forum was about.
lighten up or well have to start a new thred titled Shaan is an over zealous wanker

thanks for the replys its good to see one qusetion raises
such enthusiasim!

are there many people making there own boards in nz?

If you don't like the rules of the forum - go fly a kite!

To reiterate: you can't abuse or insult people, especially as an anonymous loser. Try growing some balls and sign your name to your posts so we can all politely offer you some free advice and make our own observations about your mental capacity.

No, Marnis, they're aren't that many people making their own boards in NZ. Besides Underground, the world's largest custom kiteboard manufacturer, there are a couple of little sprats around who most people ignore, and then a bunch of guys like yourself who look at a $1000 stick from overseas and say "shucks - they're can't be more than fifty dollars material in that - i could build me one myself out of plywood or some similarly agricultural material!" fortunately most of these geniuses soon realise that if God had wanted them to build kiteboards, he would have at least tuned them into the sport five years ago - better still equipped them with about 20 years shaping experience and buffed that out with a shitload of laminating time, plus a pre-disposition to toxic and hallucinogenic resin inhalation.

Give it up!

A couple of the sprats make some fairly decent boards though I think whats even more important to remember is the setup costs involed. I could pump out a very decent board for around $200 worth of materials excluding fins and straps but I've spent yet again probably twice as much on the tools for the process. However as I've built well over a dozen boards so far it's pretty much paid for itself even though I don't have any commercial interest.

If you are still serious have a wonder over to groups.yahoo.com/group/boardbuilding/ do some reading up. There are a couple of good NZ boardbuilders there who can provide you with the info and put you on the right track for materials like high density core foams and epoxy resins that won't put you in the hospital.

Otherwise Shaan take a small page out of your own book regarding your advice on abuse and insults etc.

Cheers,
The North shore boardbuilding sprat.

sorry north shore boardbuilding sprat. i certainly didn't abuse you and i am sorry if you were insulted to be included in my little fish of minor consequence bracket. i am sure you make a fine stick and probably thoroughly enjoy the process and good on you and long may it last! cats like you make the whole trip more interesting.

i'm sure you agree though - in the grand scheme of things, your efforts will go largely un-noticed by the rest of the planet - much the same as my website.

after hours of looking at a multitude of web sites, and trying to translate dutch diagrams on stuntkites i opted to go for a cedar core board.

i tried to find wood ($7/m in ak) but my friend who makes furniture gave me a piece of 20 x 360 x 1500 ! nice , came off an old hotel near new plymouth.

i spent all yesterday planing it, cedar is really nice to work with. i threwit in our water tank last night and plan to press it this morning at my friends work shop.
i don't give a shit if its not as good as a $1500 board the feeling of riding my own board is going to be awesome.

marnis

good on ya mate - god loves a trier...

Fair enough Shaan, as you say - "have more fun". That's pretty much the crux of it all. Nobody else really cares what I ride anyway and the rest of the world doesn't really matter when I'm slashing a wave or stacking the biggest trick of my life on my own stick. I might not have the funds or the sponsorships but I have the means and the skills to get me out there and smiling.

Marnis: It might be too late but if you'd like a few ideas on what to do with that piece of cedar have a look at www.addictionkiteboards.com
Good luck and enjoy the board.

Cheers,
The North shore boardbuilding sprat. :wink:

cheers north shore sprat,

I had looked there before, but a second look was worth it. do you carry your rail all the way through to the tip with a constant arc, or do you round it off at the end with a curve like the addiction boards?
i suppose the theory would be that with it rounded off it would be less inclined to grab and easier to carve?

I've left mine about 18-20mm in the middle third with the idea it would be more bouyant and get on the plane sooner. do you think I should take it to 12mm like the addiction boards?



marnis

Hey Marnis,
Peter makes his boards using a very light wooden core. Wakeboard manuf. have been doing it for years with great success and for kiteboards they just needed to be a little lighter.

Do you mean the rocker curve with the fliptips at the tips or are you enquiring about the rail outline? The fliptips allow you to have a flatter board that planes earlier etc. and can still ride chop and surf. If you do plan on using fliptips don't forget to add a release edge on the transition else the board wll be slow to plane and feel squirrelly.

Else if you're enquiring about the rail section over the length of the board that's pretty much up to you and your riding style. Some like soft rails some like them sharp and some like them soft in the middle on heelside, sharp in the tips on heelside and even soft for the whole toeside edge. I keep mine sharp all the way like wakeboard rails though my tips are thinner than the center third. Bouyancy has little effect on kitesurf boards and the biggest factor is planing surface area. However core thickness plays a large role in board stiffness. The only other reason to thin the wooden core would be to save weight. Otherwise join the boardbuilding group if you need more info on the pro's and cons of the board design specifics.

Hi marnis,
been in Palmy for about a year now. It gets lonely kiteboarding on my own. you will find me most good and some bad days out at the Foxton estury, its real safe there especially if your learning. I would always welcome someone else to kite with so either drop me a line or come down to the estury you wont be able to miss me. and good luck with the boards

Have you been riding at the Tangimoana mouth? That's a wicked spot with waves rolling into the river mouth and glass flatwater behing the spit. Camped there once, had a great nights sleep in my bivybag while Chrisb outside, had three hedgehogs trying to get in with him all night. We had no wind there:( But I did get a good go on lake Horowhenua once, then saw it on the telly news when I got home. They said there had just been discovered a deadly rare algae propagating in the lake and all people were to steer well clear of it.