Kite-Trek Project

Kite-trekking is a new water sport that I have developed for myself. It is my personal revolution in kitesurfing. Finally, I am free. I don’t need a beach to launch or land my kite, I don’t mind if the wind dies on me in the middle of the lake, and I don’t have to worry about swimming if my kite goes down. I can embark on much more ambitious solo adventures and still enact a solid self-rescue contingency plan at any point of my trek. I can now kite freely almost anywhere I want, and I can solo-explore new horizons that I never thought possible before. Powered by wind and kite, I can roam the faraway deep blue waters and enjoy the elements of nature, just the way I like to.

My kite-trekking project started with a simple objective; I needed to develop an expedition board for my long-distance kitesurfing adventures that would be fun to ride and that could double as my own rescue vessel for those unpredictable situations when things don’t go as planned. Combining the two water sports I love the most, I was looking for a good kiteboard which could be used as a SUP when needed.

Designing the Board

I didn’t find anything on the internet suggesting that anyone else had already pioneered similar ideas and so I designed the board from scratch. Even though I hope to use the board for other activities such as SUP-foiling and Wing-foiling, I designed it with a performance ratio of 60% kitesurfing and 40% SUPing in mind. I researched SUP boards, surf boards, kite boards, I examined performance driven ideas behind various board shapes and features, I learned about volume distribution for buoyancy calculations, and I familiarized myself with many other aspects of board design. I consulted some of my ideas with Martin Gourdeau (ÎO KiteBoard), one of the best board shapers in Canada, who steered my ideas in the right direction and also agreed to accept the challenge to handcraft the final result. With all the knowledge acquired from the internet and with Martin’s support, I sketched the overall shape of the board with the features and parameters that I believed were needed to achieve the desired outcome. I made measurements and calculations of every detail to fully customize the board for my weight and gear, including the paddles and kites I intended to use. Then, finally, I modeled the whole board in Shape3D software and sent it to Martin so he could start his magic. The whole design process took over 100 hours and it was tremendous fun for me. The greatest challenge from designer’s point of view was to balance the size, volume, and stability of the board to hopefully craft a product that would be functional, maneuverable, and fun to use.

Building the Board

Martin Gourdeau has been making surf boards and kite boards for decades. Not for a living or for the money, but for the love of craftmanship and of water sports. Being a passionate and experienced kitesurfer himself gives him the edge of a professional who knows how to build outstanding boards and what a great board should “feel” like on your feet. I already have three Martin’s ÎO boards in my quiver, and I gratefully confirm the greatness of his products. Building my Kite-Trek board was not going to be an easy task, though. The greatest challenge from the craftsman’s point of view was to correctly balance the final weight with durability, stiffness and flexibility of the board. Intimate knowledge of materials, their properties and effects on performance and the final feel of the board is Martin’s specialty, and it proved invaluable for this project. The board was constructed from Kevlar, Carbon fiber, S-Glass, Corecell, EPS, and other light-weight materials sandwiched strategically for various parts of the board to achieve the desired parameters while keeping the weight at the minimum. The building process also took over 100 hours and Martin admits that some of the completely new challenges of this project made it a lot of fun for him as well.

About the Board

I am not promoting this board as a start of a new business nor do I have any desire to chase profits. As I stated above, I developed the board for myself and I am grateful that Martin agreed to build it for me. One has to remember that I customized the board so precisely that it would sink underneath a person heavier than 85kg or so (I weigh 75-77kg and the board rides about ½ inch above the water). Additionally, the building process is very labor intensive and it requires the best/lightest/most expensive materials available on the market. With those facts in mind together with the fact the board is hand crafted, you would have to expect a final price north of $4000 for just the board without straps and paddle.

Testing the Board (real time notes after each test)

Test Flight #1: May 5, 2020
Board configuration: small fins inserted, no hydrofoil, no leash installed yet.
Objective: To find out if it floats 😀

As expected, carrying the board without a handle was not a simple task even without the foil. [The board was designed without a handle on purpose as it would be useless with the center of gravity changing. More importantly, due to the foil, the handle would have to be installed at the bottom of the hull which would adversely affect the overall paddling performance.] For now, I have been using a webbing strap but a final solution has to be developed.

When I put the board in the water, it sat beautifully and evenly on the surface. The mass/volume distribution seemed to be spot on! I was very pleased to see that. When I tried to get on the board, though, I failed miserably and fell in the water immediately. The board felt extremely unstable and quite frankly, too small. When I finally managed to sit on the board, it was partially submerged. “Ouch! Did we make it too small?” When I adjusted my position on the board to be perfectly at its center, the deck finally came out of the water in its entire length. I estimated I had only about an inch above the calm surface but it was very hard to tell because I was constantly wobbling and fighting for balance. The most worrisome was the fact that I was barely floating and I wasn’t wearing the kitesurfing harness yet, I didn’t have the foil attached, and I didn’t have a paddle or a wet kite strapped on the front of the board either! A lot of additional weight still needed to be added. 😐 Paddling in a straight line also seemed impossible! The first five minutes were totally devastating for me as I thought I had screwed up my calculations and the whole design was flawed. However, I started to focus, I shifted my thoughts into positive territory, and I was eventually able to stand up and paddle. After 2 hours of paddling in flat water and many falls, I started to feel reasonably stable and I even paddled in a straight line with no major problems.

To conclude today’s first test, after I have allowed all of my findings to sink in, I do feel mostly positive, and I call it a success. In fact, there is still a chance that I nailed the board’s specs. Nobody said this was going to be easy. I just need to learn to SUP within these very tight parameters. Tomorrow, I will attach the foil and test the stability of the board. If it goes well and the board still floats 🤔, I will grab my 15m kite, make it wet, and strap it on! If I successfully pass both of these tests, it will be a major milestone in this project. Fingers crossed.

Test Flight #2: May 6, 2020
Board configuration: foil attached, no kite strapped on board, full kitesurfing attire including harness.
Objective: Overall board performance: can it function as my rescue vehicle?

When I started, there was a light chop on the water but no white caps. The wind was about 6kts. The foil made the board more stable as expected and to my huge relief, my paddling experience was quite okay from the very beginning. Yesterday’s painful practice paid off, I didn’t fall very often, and my balance was getting better. The buoyancy of the board seemed sufficient and I started to feel cautiously optimistic that the board, after all, could carry its intended load including a wet kite. When paddling, my feet were constantly in the water, and I estimated the deck was about a half inch above the surface.

With the board riding so low, nailing the angle of the front rocker and the unusual front “Porsche bumps” design became even more important than I had originally thought. I couldn’t have gone higher with the nose because the board would have had to be longer to keep the needed volume below the buoyancy line, and having less rocker would have been disastrous as the board would most definitely have pearled.

The water flow on top of the board; the kite-bed draining and overall deck draining works flawlessly as designed. The directional stability of the board is very low. Paddling in a straight line requires a very good technique but it is doable! I am convinced that the hull shape and the channels contribute heavily to make this possible on such a short board!

Every time I fell in the water, I practiced putting my feet in the straps for kite starts. I envisioned that it could be quite difficult considering the 27-inch board-width, but I developed a method to do so quite comfortably. Towards the end of my session, paddling became natural enough that I could look around and let my brain take care of my balance without focusing hard.

Overall, today’s test was a HUGE success. The board performs well for its size, the design seems to be working. Major relief for me! Most importantly, I am becoming reasonably confident that with additional practice, I will be able to rely on this board as my personal rescue vessel. This alone is a major breakthrough in my quest to “kitesurfing freedom”!

Before I try to actually kitesurf on this board, however, I need one more paddling session. I realized today that I am unable to take the board out of the water with one hand, pretending the other hand is occupied flying the kite. I need to come up with a technique first!

Test Flight #3: May 6, 2020
Board configuration: foil attached, no kite strapped on board, full kitesurfing attire including harness.
Objective: Paddle in a straight line to check the speed performance, develop out-of-the-water transportation method.

Wind less than 5kts, very light chop. I paddled confidently, minimal balance issues. The board performed well but I figured that a small front fin could considerably improve the paddling performance. It would save energy and it would make the board go forward a bit faster. Should there be Kite-Trek Board V2.0, I will consider this as a possible design improvement.

Based on my performance today, I believe I can safely calculate an average speed of my self-rescues at 4km/h. The board is slower than my iSUP but surprisingly, not by much! More testing and practice are needed.

Coming out of the water with the board in one hand will not be easy. I have worked out two methods so far. The key is to flip the board over and have the foil face up. Due to the 27-inch wide base, the board never turns back on its own unless it is in a pretty big shore break. Depending on conditions, I can either leave the board bobbing in the water while I land my kite or I can simply drag the board to the beach without worrying about damaging the foil.

Test Flight #4: May 13, 2020
Board configuration: foil attached, paddle strapped on, ready for the first kitesurfing trial.
Objective: Is the board kitable? If yes, I will get drunk later. 😉

Wind SSW 9-13kts, kite – 13m Sonic 2. I have to admit, I was scared of the board at first. Its size and weight called for respect. Additionally, the mast position was only theoretically calculated and never tried before.

I rehearsed handling the board with one hand and then I launched my kite. I got to the water with no problem, body-dragged a few meters from the shore, secured my board-handling webbing strap to its designed spot, and I was ready to try the beast. I put my feet in the straps as I had practiced during my previous test sessions and voila… I was gliding in a few seconds! Wow! What a completely unexpected feeling! My great relief that the position of the mast was calculated correctly was completely trumped by a new sensation of flight over the water, quite different from normal foiling. I was shocked. I didn’t have words to describe it. I wasn’t foiling but I was truly flying above the water. The weight and size of the board create inertia that translates into a feeling of solid, firm and stable response to my balance inputs. It was like I jumped from the seat of Boeing 737 (my regular board) to a seat on a B747 jumbo jet with all its majestic characteristics. A true WOW effect! No waves could destroy that feeling, I was cutting through them like an icebreaker. Simply incredible.

Of course, I quickly realized that I was unable to transition without falling. My timing was off, my tack transitions were nonexistent. Being in the water at every turn for the first 10 minutes made me realize that I will have to kite with a leash at all times when far from shore. After a separation from the board, it moves downwind so quickly that I have absolutely zero chance to get back to it without the help of the kite. Dropping the kite in the water in the middle of the lake and watching my board float away in a hurry will most likely be my new nightmare.

In the next 30 minutes, I learned to adjust for the “inertia” and I started to nail my tack transitions. My initial fear changed into joy and I finally felt “through” the board. By the end of my 3-hour session, I was tacking, jibing, I even successfully rode toe-side, and threw a few 360s. Unbelievable! I LOVED it! First session, and I rode over 100kms. 😀 The board’s performance totally exceeded my expectations. Moreover, I did not foil, I literally flew a B747 on the water. There is no other way to describe it.

I finished my session by deliberately dumping my kite in the water. I performed a self-rescue, strapped my wet kite on the board, assembled the paddle, and paddled 2km along the shore just for fun. SUPing on this board still seems very difficult and it will require a lot of practice. But what a day to celebrate!

Test Flight #5: May 19, 2020
Board configuration: foil attached, 6m Soul kite strapped on, ready to paddle out.
Objective: To test the board’s behavior in 20kt wind, and if possible, to try to launch the kite from my board.

The conditions were rough. E wind 18-25kts, disorganized waves at 2-3 feet. I knelt on the board and paddled with my short paddle into the wind to get outside the wind-sheltered public boat launch. It was super hard work but I was rather impressed that it was possible. With my standard iSUP, I would not have been able to do it! I would have been moving backwards. My Kite-Trek board however, sits very low and is “anchored” by the foil. In addition, its small size and greater lateral instability allow for quick corrections to battle the waves and wind. I paddled about 200m out straight into the wind, and it was quite a workout. After a short breather, I decided to launch my kite. I had prepared the kite for water launch before my session and I had thought the whole process through step by step. Long story short, I was successful! I launched my kite from my drifting board! This is unbelievable. Again, an absolute breakthrough in my kiting revolution. I was secretly hoping to be able to do this but I had sincere doubts about whether it would be even theoretically possible. My kiting freedom has just expanded to: “I don’t need a place to launch anymore, and I don’t even need a place to land. (Certain conditions apply) 😀”

To conclude today’s incredible test, I have achieved what I only dreamed about as the “cherry on top” of my whole project. While I was certainly lucky today, I have reason to believe that I can learn to repeat this feat with a reasonable rate of success. This is what I have learned so far:
1. While sitting on the board, I have to pre-inflate the foil kite as much as possible without getting anything tangled in the bridles. Balancing on the drifting board while strapping my paddle in and then taking the kite out in 20kt wind is quite an accomplishment on its own.
2. As soon as I throw the kite on the water, I need to get off the board and flip it upside down. This seems to be the only way for me to achieve a slower drift than the kite on the water. The upside-down board, to which I am leashed at all times during this procedure, bobs on the water and drifts downwind to tangle only minimally in the lines.
3. I have to be patient unwinding the lines. Rather than letting the kite drift away in a bundle, I have to take time and let the kite fill with air when the lines are still very short and I can visually check all the pullies and bridle entanglement.

When the kite finally flies at 12 o’clock, the joy of the huge victory is worth the effort on its own. Perhaps this has not been done before, maybe most people don’t even think it is possible to launch a kite in deep water from a kiteboard.

There is one more extremely valuable conclusion from today’s session; the board can serve as a relatively safe rescue vessel even in pretty wild conditions. I don’t plan to be far out there in this weather but in case I get caught, this is good to know. I can also safely say that I can out paddle 15kt wind for a short distance. This is important for off-shore kiting decisions.

Test Flight #6: June 11, 2020
Board configuration: foil attached, 9m Sonic Race kite strapped on, ready to paddle out.
Objective: First offshore kiting trial, first try to launch 9m kite from my board.

Well … This session turned into such a shitshow and a wild adventure that I wrote a short piece about the event here: Collision With a Sailboat.

Kite-Trek Project Conclusion

After two months of testing (37 sessions in total and 846km), it is time for me to say a few final words. Without the slightest doubt, this project has been a major success. I can’t say thanks enough to Martin Gourdeau whose expertise was absolutely critical in making this dream come true for me. The construction of the board is incredible; it is a true piece of art. I like the feel of the board on my feet and, strangely enough, I have become a big fan of its weight (11kg including the paddle) as well. The weight and the resulting inertia of the board brings a new feeling to foiling and I love it.

The size of the board (6’ 8” x 27” x 5.5”, about 130L) couldn’t be more perfect. It is the smallest possible board for my weight and size (75-77kg, 188cm) to perform as a reliable SUP board as well as a fun kite board. I use a Moses foil (Mast M101, Wing W790, stabilizer S450) together with my Kite-Trek board and just by luck, it seems to be a perfect marriage. Even though the W790 wing was constructed for slower speeds, I can comfortably ride it at an average speed of 35km/h over 5km segments. Such performance should impress even the Moses designers themselves. Even though the ride has a rather slow and majestic feel to it, the board is more agile than one would expect. The standard maneuvers such as tack and jibe transitions, 360s, toe-side riding, and other tricks feel fantastic. And to brag a little, I am even able to throw a backroll and then land it without a touchdown. Perhaps, one of the first backrolls with a SUP board in the world! 😊 In all honesty though, the Kite-Trek board is not a good platform for jumping, freestyle, or wave riding as common sense would dictate.

Still, I really wasn’t joking when I said that I have revolutionized kitesurfing for myself. I have added freedoms that I thought were impossible even 6 months ago. It is truly invigorating to be far out, kilometers from shore, without fear. On my typical local session these days, I race distant sailboats, I check out the various kite spots around the city, I crisscross Humber Bay at my whim on any kitable wind, I kite as far as 10 kilometers away from shore quite regularly. In fact, ending up my kiting day with a dry kite is not satisfying for me anymore; I want to paddle and I want to practice self-rescues for rainy days. Within these two months, I have already been stranded out on the lake with no wind a few times for real. It was a delight to paddle back home, because it felt like a triumph of my innovative approach and it brought the true joy of an explorer.  As there are no predators in Lake Ontario, all I had to focus on were my abilities and good judgement to not make the situation worse with rookie mistakes. Paddling back to shore is my contingency plan to avoid full-blown emergency and that needs to be taken seriously.

Heads-Up

This Kite-Trek board has a dangerous side which needs to be mentioned. Simply put, it literally lures a person into potentially very dangerous situations. This is not a board for most kiters. It requires rather a reserved, focused, professional, and level-headed approach. Like a pilot, a kite-trekker has to be prepared, briefed on the weather, disciplined to follow mental checklists, and must not take shortcuts. In addition to strong SUPing and kite-foiling skills, it is also the case that experience, intuition, and well-thought-out decisions have to win over assumptions, recklessness, impatience, and showoff-isms. The typical kitesurfer’s mindset is often much more radical than that and one needs to be constantly reminded of the grave danger just behind the curtain.

Further Expectations

I have a few more expectations for the board that require further testing and new skill development. For instance, I have already started to see some interesting results in super-light-wind conditions. Only the fact that I can stand up on the board without the kite’s support means that I don’t need the initial “kite loop” to get going. When the wind is so light that I can’t get the sufficient pull from the kite to start gliding, all I need to do is to get on the board while my kite is at 12 o’clock, stand up, and “pump” my kite gently to get some initial board speed. This, however, is extremely difficult to do and needs a lot of practice. I can’t wait to fully master this new technique.

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I hope you found my project interesting and new-thought provoking.
That’s what progress in sports is all about.
Now let’s go kiting.

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Edit Dec 15, 2022 (almost 3 years later):

I solo-crossed Lake Ontario by kite, I kite/SUPed over 1000 km from Toronto to Quebec City in 22 days, and I had so many other unthinkable adventures in these past 3 seasons! I am humbled, amazed, and super-stoked – all at the same time. This board works! I routinely launch my kite from the board, I kite in the lightest of wind conditions, I confidently SUP in high chop, and I even kite-trek long distances with some cargo onboard! Freedom. I love my new sport, a true revolution indeed.