This is a post requested by Jenny. A while back I wrote a post on the differences I saw between windsurfing and kitesurfing. The time has come to compare them to regular surfing. I want to clarify first off that I have tried to be as objective about it as possible. In the end these are all amazing sports which all have their charm and each will attract people differently. I personally see them as complimentary to eachother and will choose one over the other depending on my mood, wind and wave conditions or current fancy. There are periods in which I will consistently choose to do one over the other and then switch.
The times that the wind sports conflict with surfers are not that common as surfing with windy and choppy conditions is not the most pleasant passtime in the world and windsurfing or kitesurfing with little wind is not that great either.
Ease to learn
In terms of speed to learn we have a hard time to define it properly. I will say this: the first few hours of surfing are going to be much more frustrating (in terms of attemps with no results) than in windsurfing or kitesurfing. The main difficulty lies in that you have to stand up on a narrow and wobbly board which will take a lot of attempts to get right. In windsurfing on the other hand you have success experiences pretty early on and in kitesurfing it’s just very technical at the beginning but you can see your progress.
Physical condition
In terns of fitness required, surfing is more challenging than both watersports. In the initial stages windsurfing may seem exhausting but after a few attempts we start to get the hang of using the wind to our advantage, we stop fighting the wind and start to substitute physical effort with applied technique. In surfing however there is no way past having to paddle both to catch the wave and to get back out to the peak. This will cost a lot of energy. In short, surfing is more physically challenging.
Transportation
Here the clear winner is surfing. To travel to go surfing is much less hassle than both windsurfing and kitesurfing. Windsurfing gear is pretty cumbersome to move around and although kitesurfing kit is much more comfortable, surfing consists of just the board rather than board and kite(s).
IMAGES (windsurf and kitesurf and surf board bag)
Equipment Fragility
Surfboards are very light as a heavy board requires more energy to paddle to catch a wave. This comes at the expense of the boards being more fragile than windsurf or kitesurf boards. The result is that we may be stuck on the shore having to look at others having fun on the water because we dinged our board on the reef or on the parking lot.
Cost
Again surfing wins. The price of a new surfboard will not usually be more than $750 and a second hand board will tend to be around $300. Add to this the nearly negligible additional cost of a leash and foot pad and the financial barrier to entry are much lower than in the windsports. The cost of the repairs that we have to make from time to time will still be lower than what we accumulate in windsurfing and kitesurfing as you also have to take into account the sails and kites.
Ammount of Accessories
The advantage surfing has over the other two is in the same proportion as running has over, say cycling. A runner just needs to pop on his shoes and go running whilst the cyclist needs to get a bike, helmet, shoes, etc. In the same sense a surfer “just” needs his board and off he goes rather than needing a board, sail, mast, boom and harness.
Apart from the cost of all the additional extra stuff mentioned before, there also is the factor of forgetting items at home. It is a little bit easier to have everything if all you need to remember is the board, a leash and wax rather than a board, sail, mast, boom, mast-foot, mast extension and harness (and I might be forgetting something.
Availability to practice
Depending on where you live you will get more out of one sport or another. If you want waves you have to be at or near the coast. Therefore, if you live inland and near a lake or river you will probably get more time on the water with wind sports. In this sense I would probably insist that these sports are comlimentary rather than exclusive as if there are waves but no wind we will go surfing, with waves and wind it’s more pleasant with windsurf or kitesurf, with no waves and wind it is the same and with no wind and no waves we have a beer on the beach.
Safety
This is a tricky one to analyse as it all depends. I would say however that if we are at a familiar spot it is safer in surfing as everything is more predictable. Here things only get hairy if we overestimate our abilities just like in any other sport. When we depend on the wind there is always a series of factors which can turn our fun session into a dangerous situation. The wind may drop, increase too much, change direction and other things which may be forseen by forecasts but there is still a degree of accuracy (or lack of it). The wave predictions on the other hand tend to be more accurate and the consequences of them being wrong are not so dire as we can paddle to where the waves are not so dangerous.
In the end it all comes down to being prepared. Knowing your entry and exit points, the forecast and your own limitations.
Thanks for the insight. You almost lost me when you wrote “There times” instead of “There’re” or ‘There are.” I am glad I kept on reading.
Thanks for the letting me know of the erroor 🙂 One misses these small mistakes after looking/working at the same text for a while. I read through it and found a couple more to correct.
It’s a subtle observation made by you on the small-small things during surfing and kite surfing. I found both of them difficult. And now I just sit and take a sun bath while my friends enjoy surfing.
I think you still have to try windsurfing 😉
Me too!You can have a sunbath while windsurfing!
Nice comparation, as today kite instructor, passionate long time surfer, Stand up Paddler, and just a bit of windsurf. I would like to add On the Difficult side of the sport, That Surfing is the most Difficult, because on windsurf, kitesurf and also adding stand up paddle you will always have something to grab or get a hold to balance or recover off balance, call it the boom, the kite bar or the paddle will help you balance on surfing you never have this balance point to hold to.
I agree. Surfing is a pure balance sport which is what makes it difficult. The whole idea of windsurfing is that you don’t rely on balance but substitute it with leaning back and trusting the sail to hold you up. The same goes for kitesurfing.
Sorry Arne, Surfing is not a pure balance sport, few are. I’m damn pedantic and I know it 🙂 Ever seen a dog surf? How about a Goat? Pure balance?
Slacklining/Longlining are pure balance sports.
(Should there be a Goat walking a slackline on YouTube I refuse to acknowledge it)
What makes surfing difficult is lack of waves, time and energy paddling about. If only there was a really dynamic way of being pulled around where the rider had control. Kitesurfing 🙂
Now, if only there was a way to have it windy every day!
Acrually i think you cant really compare difficulty
It took me 9 months until i was able to do decent cutbacks on a shortboard and 2 years of windsurfing to do cutbacks because one first has to learn jibes waterstarts…
Aeriels on the other hand are way easier windsurfing
Indeed, paddling around trying to catch waves is hard. It takes a huge amount of effort. The return can be nothing to a few seconds+. What a sail/tow of any kind gives you is the chance to surf more. Windsurfing is easy to do but takes years, big balls and skill to master. Kitesurfing as stated is very technical (more than any other sport in terms of inputs/outputs) but easy once you get it in terms of general riding. Big tricks however, they take at least as much balls as windsurfing tricks. Now, take kitesurfing to the strapless surfboard side of things and the technicalities are second to nothing else on the planet, you can surf all day, do freestyle, cruise about. If you aren’t strapless kitesurfing you are missing out! Get out there! Assuming there is some wind. All that being said, surfing a wave is pretty chilled, kitesurfing/windsurfing at top level is like a big wipeout at all times.
Hello Arne, i want to ask you about Kitesurf Risk and pains… is it true that after a Kite session your body is full of aches ? What about the neck and back pain in Kitesurfing?
Thank you!
Hey Natalia. It is just like any sport. If you haven’t done it in a while your body will be sore as you are using the muscles that you haven’t used in sone time. If you do it regularly though you will have no issues.
Later when you start jumping and crashing, the impact on the water will leave you sore also, but the same happens in windsurfing and wakeboarding 😉
So, I have a few weeks out 3-5 and there are 2 possibilities of learning from scratch:
– Go to Thailand and spend that at a Cable driven Wakeboard Park
– Go to Indonesia/ Sri Lanka and learn surfing
I will eventually want to take 1-2 months out someday – a long vacay to build a foundation for life; for Surfing (less gear & easier access) or Kite/Wind Surfing (less wave driven). I dont care so much for stunts, but to just have a physical discipline on the water where I can be solo.
Could you compare the learning curves for the above and share some thoughts/ recommendations based on my post/ questions? Thanks.
Surfing: you need to live by the sea. Solid 6 months 3-4 days a week to get the hang of it. 1 year to get comfortable. 2 years to be ok.
3 years you are having lots of fun
Kitesurfing: 1 week to learn in a windy spot – daily lessons
3 months you are riding
1 year you are comfortable
2 years you start strapless on the surf but being smashed
3 years you are good.
I once had sex on a longboard, cuz the sand was not so sexy –> but i think this does not add any value to the conversation but is true though..