Kite Surfing With Real Watersports

Waves, NC

Best in Business Case Study of Real Watersports.

I might live in the mountains, but I can spend a lot of time in the water. Surf, Paddle Surf, Sail, and fish. Shoot, I could live out my days trading between them. Kitesurfing is a somewhat recently developed tool to play in the water. One of these locations to learn to kitesurf is at the very appropriately named town of Waves, North Carolina. The whole of the outerbanks is one of the gathering places for all who kite regardless of ability.

There are more than a few different places set up to teach Kite Surfing. I asked my cousin who spends 6 months a year on the Outerbanks for a recommendation where to put my life in someone’s hands learning what can be a a potentially be a dangerous sport. Turns out one of the owners Matt Nuzzo of Real Watersports is a friend of my cousin. https://www.realwatersports.com. In no time, I was scheduled for a half day 3 hour lesson. Matt even sent me several learn to kite videos.

Well, I have several friends who have taken up Kite Surfing which is kind of like windsurfing except the kite provides more mobility for the rider plus a bigger more mobile wind capture zone to provide a more dynamic experience. Kite Surfing definitely has a learning curve, and for those who are thinking about learning there is a bit of financial entry from beginning lessons to the equipment itself. To be honest, I am not good about learning sports that require lessons and coaching. I refuse to pay someone to do something, I can figure out. Golf lesson? Nope. Surf lesson? Nope. Ski lesson? Nope. WindSurf lesson when I was a kid? Nope. Bike lesson? Well shit who gets one of those? and Nope. Maybe that’s why I suck at riding a Mountain Bike.

Kite Surfing requires lessons. No other way around becoming the Zen master of wind and board, unless you want to end up like the dudes on the videos who look like a crash test dummy tied to a kite who just get pummeled bouncing on the sand and then into buildings as the kite has a mind of its own. The kite owned the destiny of the person attached to the kite. Not the other way around.

Along my drive south on NC12 on the way to Real Watersports, I had the videos and stories of Kiting and near death experiences playing in my head. But usually, I am good with trying new things and pushing boundries. By good, I mean I haven’t died yet. Good also doesn’t mean that the adventure went as planned.

Arriving at Real Watersports, my initial reaction was sweet setup. The location has a large retail store, learning center, Waterman Bar and Grille, and a full huge room of rental gear on the left hand side of the parking lot. The building next to the retail building on the right is full of condos for visitors to rent right there on location. Everything was clean and well managed. Once I got into the retail store looking for the learning center, not much time passed before someone asked if I had been helped or if they could help me in some way. Telling the saleswomen my objective, they led me to the learning center and the registration desk. My lesson wasn’t until the next morning, but I wanted to be ready to go to make the morning easier. Jesse, I believe, helped me and got me all registered with the appropriate paperwork. The paperwork by the way outlined how potentially dangerous this sport could be and released Real Watersports from all liability. Uh oh…

Once I was squared away, I took a tour of the grounds. There were showers and changing rooms. Matt and his crew thought of everything, even a stage for live music! At the Waterman’s Grill and Bar where I ordered a nice cold beer was clean and well run. As I drank my Budlight, I checked out the perfectly put together yard where many kites were lined up ready to out in the water. The view was awesome looking out on the bay with many kiters getting after the perfect wind and some kiters learning a new endeavor. Every once and a while, a lift off happened as a kiter would leave water and earth and just float up in the air being controlled by the kite. I was super excited and more than a little bit nervous.

That night while camping, I popped open my phone to watch the recommended video so I could be an expert the next day and tell my coach how to coach me, and guess what? No service. Nope natta, None. So no video for me. No hockey playoffs either. No communication with anyone.

Pop tarts! This day is starting well. The next task was to watch the video of all knowing when learning kite surfing from Real Watersports. https://www.realwatersports.com/pages/z2h.. The video made it obvious that my learning of sailing when I was young was going to come in handy. Another bonus was I had flown a trainer kite before with my friend Patrick. A trainer kite is a smaller kite with a bar to hang on to that lets the learner get an idea of how the kite reacts to the wind. On a beach trip when the wind came up and the surf wasn’t good, we would spend time with the trainer kite. How much of that flying time would I remember? I was good to go. No problem. Just an old man taking up a fairly athletic young persons sport. What could possibly go wrong? And of course just then my good friend, Beau, sent me a recent video of some kiter bouncing down the beach like a ping pong ball just getting dragged by his pulling kite. Awesome. With friends like these…..

I got to Real Watersports and met my coach, Andrew. Andrew asked about my experience, and of course being a smart ass I replied, “I am an expert, I watched the video. All good to go.” I got a smile from him, but a good chuckle from a fellow coach. Andrew was awesome. He was born on Poland, raised in Texas. He returned to Poland where he learned Kite Surfing. He has that athletic outdoor sports build. Not big, not small. Built like a cat. Ready to land on his feet at all times. He was built kind of the opposite of me. We did a little give and take to try to figure out where I was on the potential learning curve. Uhh Zero?

So we started at the beginning. I had to learn what a donkey dick and chicken stick and chicken loop were. And really a chicken stick and a donkey dick were the same thing just that the chicken stick is a little more politically correct, I guess. The bridle works the interior of the kite just on a bigger scale of the kind you flew as a kid or maybe an adult. From the kite to the rigging, to the lines, to the bar, and to especially the three depower aspects to the kite which really are the life savers for when you are in the water. Once you have a harness on you and you put a chicken stick into the chicken loop you were then attached to the kite and all the kites power. The outside lines are the primary steerers of the kite left and right and the work in conjunction with the center lines to pull the kite through the wind window. The wind window was just like sailing and using the wind to drive a sail on a boat. The power slots are 9 to 11 o’clock and 1 to 3 o’clock.

My early years of my life had me on a path of sailing. My dad was excellent almost rising to be a part of the crew of the America’s Cup which is absolute pinnacle of sail racing. His trophy’s litter my house. There was pressure to be a good sailor. And really, I wasn’t very good. But I did understand sailing and have always been comfortable on a boat. This experience turned out to be very helpful as the day went on.

We went through the whole kite process while on land, and I am serious, the video? Very helpful. We then transitioned to the water via a Jet ski. I was driving as Andrew was flying the kite behind me on the jet ski. He was very specific about going 11-13 miles per hour as we drove to our learning location in the bay. Don’t think I didn’t have a thought of punching to sixty mph and seeing how high I could Andrew and that kite.

Ok water. Now this is real. We found a place that was basically waist deep. Time to learn how to fly the kite. No board. Not yet. The kite was in a constant state of pull unless the kite was set at 12 o’clock. Not unlike a sail on a boat when putting the sailboat directly into the wind thus stalling the boat. The wind sphere of kiting is pretty much like the wind sphere of sailing.

We spent two hours in the water with me going through all the drags. Up wind right and left. Downwind. All in the water. Not on the water. In the water. I was completely waterlogged. I learned how to control the kite in all conditions. The kite would really power up at certain times when the kite went through the different power zones.

I have been coach and a teacher. Some people have “it”, some don’t. Andrew has “it”. The quiet confidence of knowledge combined with the ability to convey that knowledge. Really the true ability to coach is a rare trait. The ability to just tell another person what you know is really not that hard. Saying the right words in the right manner to get the desired results is hard. The real coaching / teaching occurs when as a teacher you see what the student is learning, how they are learning and being able to adjust on the fly to say the right words to get desired results is an art form. As the day would go on, Andrew would be tested by me due to my athletic deficiencies from time to time.

For the coach, this has to be the one of the best moments or at least funniest. Your student is really mastering how to capture the wind.. just too much so, and with the power surge, I was literally ejected out of the water. I would just cover my head and cannonball into the water. The best part is I didn’t quite know when this power surge was going to send me sailing through the air. The idea is to really work your core to control your positioning and your kite. Later that day, I would feel this core work on my body.

Waves is really a great place to learn with the constant shallow water and having the ability to stand to take some of the pressure off and to catch your breath. Never mind that on the whole, water is way better to land on then say a beach or a pool or a building. The idea is to control these bursts of power. This is where the de-power the kite number one comes in to play. Let go of the bar. No really let go of the bar and the kite will fall to the water, so you can start the process over again.

After a while of dragging without the board and then with the board, the real attempt at flying the kite while being on with the board begins. Fly the Kite. Power and cycle the kite for more power. Get on the board. Keep the kite in the air. Remember the board. Forgot the kite. Kite crashes into the water. Dang it. Start over.

Then right when I wasn’t thinking about it any more. I was up and going! How did that happen? I have no idea. Then I choked the kite. Meaning I kept pulling the main lines in which at first had given the kite power but now was not letting the kite breathe and gather wind, therefore power to keep me going. Then I dug my heal in. Nope. Don’t do that. Too much drag. I was able to get up several more times.

Then we got black flagged. A huge storm cel is ripping up the coast and time was short to get out of the water. And Quick. Dad gummit. I just got teased. Half an hour left, and I am getting kicked out of the water.

Andrew jumped in the water, and we did the safety cord switch so now he was hooked up to the kite following a chicken loop hook up with a chicken stick placed in the chicken loop. And just like that he was gone with me following along in the jet ski. Even though I was jealous with the ease in which he was getting up, it was helpful to see him get up and going. The whole kite thing just isn’t that easy. I have a friend who has been trying for a year and hasn’t gotten it. Maybe he just smokes too much dope? Hmmmm…

We parked the ski and took the kite up into the yard and put it down and Andrew showed me how to put everything back away. I have to admit, I was gassed. I was also lost in thought trying to absorb everything Andrew had thrown at me. So many moving parts. We proceeded to get everything buttoned up and put away. And just then, the heavens descended upon us. Rain just poured down in buckets. And a gale force wind whipped up blowing everything that wasn’t nailed down. That is why the black flag. If you were out in that, you would have ended up in Virginia in no time, probably with limbs missing.

Andrew wanted me to take another lesson, he felt I was close. I ended up coming back the next Monday and worked with Andrew again. We worked through the whole learning process from land to water. I got to the point where I was getting to work with the board and the kite at the same time in a much shorter time. Many more opportunities to get the whole process pulled together.

Sailing the kite got easier and easier. The amount of time riding the board got longer and longer. Then my time ran out. I really felt I was close. Probably a couple more lessons and flying the kite while remembering to ride the board would be mine! By the way, I couldn’t imagine a full day 6 hour lesson. Maybe I’m too old for that, but no matter what the learning experience is a heck of a lot of time in the water.

Real Watersports Case Study in Business Success.

A huge retail center with an attentive and helpful staff
A extremely complete rental fleet for every type of watersport you can think of and you can set it up so you can change from sport to sport during the same trip or even the same day.
First Class Coaches. I saw repeat customers working with the same coach they had had the time before or new coaches to learn a new aspect of the sport. Everyone was excited to get in the water.
Waterman Condos for rent right there for visitors to stay and keep clients at the facility.
Waterman Restaurant and Grill where I had a buffalo chicken burrito that was outstanding. Beers were cold and the service was excellent.
Music Venue to provide entertainment for visitors and local alike.
Matt Nuzzo has housing for his employees which in a resort community is critical for success. Basically he has created a self contained business model with an excellent and extremely helpful staff. He is also hands on as he was working the whole time I was there.
The Stoke is off the charts. Passion. Brilliant. 1st class organization. All of this was so important because in a sport like this things can go wrong really wrong. But in this environment, safety was covered. Never felt one ounce of being out of control or in danger the whole time working with Andrew.