10 Things You Need to Know to Learn How to Kiteboard

Our kiteboarding school in La Ventana, Playa Central Kiteboarding, is a great place to come and learn how to kiteboard. We hope you can make it! E-mail us for lessons. If you are not able to come to Baja for lessons, we wish you the best with your kiteboarding learning curve. As you are learning to kiteboard you will get lots of info and tips from your friends, online sources and your instructors. Just as a refference, we have made a simple check list of the ten things you should make sure you know how to do and understand about kiteboarding.

Use this as you check list for learning how to kiteboard:
Disclaimer: there are many more things that are very important when learning how to kiteboard and these are just 10 of the most important ones. For best and safest results make sure to take at least 9-15 hours of kiteboarding lessons before you try it on your own.


1.The Wind:
 Learning what the wind window is and where neutral and the power zones are and why. Understand how to generate power with the kite as well as how to depower it. You will need to know how to keep the kite stable and how to create power strokes with the kite. For this you will want to use a trainer kite.

The Kiteboarding Gear
It is important to know what gear is used in kiteboarding and the adjustments or options you have as a consumer. There are several types of harnesses, boards, kites and bars, as well as gadgets and accessories you might be interested in, some being waterproof headsets, to a GPS tracker, to safety vests with bells and whistles (popular for people who kiteboard under the Golden Gate Bridge), to Go Pro cameras, etc. Find the best gear for hometown conditions so you can enjoy kiteboarding to the fullest. Know how to put your gear up and and tips on keeping it in good conditions.

3. Learn How to Fly the Kite with Stability and Do One Handed Walking on the Beach.
You need to feel confident on the beach, so learn how to walk one-handed upwind on the beach while keeping your kite stable. Learning how to launch and land your kite is very important and is mainly about knowing how to keep you kite stable while you are standing on the beach lowering and elevating your kite. You also need to know how to launch and land other people's kites for them.

4. Re-launching Your Kite in the Water.
There are three ways a kite can land in the water and there are three ways to relaunch it. Make sure you know how to do this so that you can optimize your time while you are in the water. 

5. Self Rescue and Safety Release System
Make sure you know what a safety release system is and how to use it, know that different kite manufacturers use different safety release systems. Before entering the water alone you will want to know how to perform a self-rescue with your kite. A great way to learn this is to practice it on the beach before practicing in the water so you can ask your instructor questions and not lose time and energy practicing it for the first time in the water.

6. Body Dragging Skills.
Once you are in the water you want to continue to practice your kite stability, make sure you can keep your kite stable at 45° angles on both sides with one hand. Also make sure you can do fluid power strokes towards the same direction without letting the kite pass "12 o'clock" in between strokes. Start being aware of the traffic that surrounds you. After knowing the previous skills begin practicing the up-wind body dragging.

7. Handling Your Board and How To Get It Back
Practice body dragging with your board and handling it in the water switching it on and off your feet, side by side. In order to get your board back you need to know how to body drag up-wind. Some other tips include buying orange or yellow boards when learning because white and dark boards are not as visible in a windy sea of water and white caps. Make sure you have your ear on your shoulder, that helps you point upwind better. Do about 100 yard tacks because beginners tend do not do long enough tacks. Always wait for the board to be in front of you before you reach to grab it, if you are reaching behind to grab it you might hurt your shoulder or as you life it out of the water the wind may blow it toward you or in between your lines.

8. Water Starting Power Strokes
Once the board is on your feet you will need to know how much power you will need to generate with your kite in order for you to be able to be pulled up and begin riding. If you are still learning, try these two things: either start with an up-stroke before you do the down stroke (this way you will be pulled up and out of the water a little before you are pulled across the water), or just try to first learn how much down-stroke power you need to just stand up, not up and riding. These exercises will help you learn how much power you need and prevent you from face planting.

9. Riding Stance and Transitions
As soon as you can control the kite power you will have the ability to start riding. You progression at this stage depends on your board skills, but basically controlling the kite speed and using the kite as your speed leverage is the key to riding. Being able to stay upwind and travel upwind is important so you can return to the same beach. As a beginner it is common to end up downwind from where you started, so make sure you know where you will be coming into the shore downwind and have a plan of how to do it.

10. Kiteboarding Rule of Thumbs
There are lots of tips and rules of thumbs when learning how to kiteboard, and these are just a few of the most important ones: kite sizes depend on the wind speed and the kiter's weight; never kiteboard in offshore winds; before launching your kite go ahead and put your board by the shore so you can grab it as you are entering the water; do not stay on the beach with the kite in the air, the beach is for launching and landing; make sure someone knows you are kiteboarding; have a plan B of where you will might need to come off the water in case of light wind or not being able to ride upwind; be safe and aware of other people's safety.

Playa Central Kiteboarding is located in La Ventana, Baja California Sur, and is one of the best places in the world to learn how to kiteboard. For anybody who is able to learn how to kiteboard here, welcome! If you live far and are learning how to kiteboard in other countries or places, we hope our blog has helped you. For lessons email or call us at 918.398.0114.

Kiteracing Enduro Month in La Ventana, Baja: 28 days of #kiteracing.

The Playa Central staff is creating an opportunity for kiteracers and people who are getting into kiteracing, to go on a long term training vacation  to improve their skills, tune their gear set-up to go the fastest possible and network with pros, brand owners, and learn about upcoming races and events. We have learned that when pro racers, gear designers, and people who are getting into kiteracing are at the same beach sharing information and experiences it helps the kiteracing industry grow in a direction that is welcoming to beginners, interesting to spectators and promotes the pro racers of today. Playa Central´s Kiteracing Enduro Month will be a chance for optimized trainning, allow people to receive instruction for specific areas of their kiteracing, let the industry more familiar with the hands on experience that beginner racers face when getting started with the discipline, and it provide a real time testing ground for R&D with gear designers and their team riders all at the same beach.

The enduro month will be Feb 1st-28th, and will be twenty eight days of #kiteracing, clinics, yoga, racing drills, and fun. Racers can register for a month or week at a time, yet we will keep score of the total race points of the whole month and have an Enduro champion. Playa Central will run one evening race every day, and a regatta on Fridays with hopefully 5 starts, weather permitting. After the Friday races there will be a small awards ceremony for each week at the Playa Central wood oven restaurant bar and there will be soft goods as prizes for both men and women. Twice a week we will have a short clinic on gear, and another on tactics and skills, both which will be included with the enrollment, as wel as morning yoga classes for all racers. The idea is to be one stop kiteracing training center for international and national riders, covering all areas, including raceboard storage, at a low price.




This 2014 Kiteracing Enduro Month has been inspired by ASV Performance Kites, Rista Fins, Aguera Boards, Adam Withington, Adam Koch, to name a few companies and pro racers who have been using La Ventana as their training grounds and as R&D hot spot. The fact that lots of other pro racers, like John and Erika Heineken, Bryan Lake, Joey Pasquali, Jessica Sikinger, Brian Kender, Sean Farley Gomez, Cynthia Brown and Julien Kernuer have also spent weeks and months in and out of Baja for regattas, R&D and training has promoted La Ventana as a kiteracing spot, and made it a place where people can go and race and most likely be lining up next to the best in the world.



 We expect to see American and international teams of kiteracers come down for the whole month, and train here because it will be inexpensive living, valuable training, and fun networking. Beginner racers mainly from the West Coast, as well as other places will seek out one of two weeks of the Enduro Month and get the most concentrated practice time they can get, or if they can work it out, we would hope to see beginners commit to the whole month. We also would like to invite kite companies and their team riders to base out of Playa Central for the month, and really take advantage of the casual, yet high level of the kiteracing that will be going on.

During the enduro month we will have some options for kiteracers who would like one on one instruction, or who would like to work on specific areas like tacks, jibes, starts, etc, that can be purchased while in La Ventana. If there is a beginner racer who still needs to have the gear set up, we can order race kites and a race board for them before the Enduro Month, or they can demo some gear here and decide what works best.

The sponsors for the event will be kiteracing brands, sunglass and head wear, sports magazines, and will only be sponsoring with products and cross promotion though social media and websites. The sponsors´ logos will be on all official posters, bands, T-shirts, and will donate the prizes for the Friday regatta awards every week. We would like to thank our friends and sponsors who are already onboard, and invite other companies who are interested to jump on soon. Thank you to ASV Performance kites, Rista Fins, Kitesurfing Planet, Pacific Paddle, Weendy (wind app), Aguera Boards and our staff at Playa Central. To be involved as a sponsor please e-mail jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com. Thank you!

Adam Koch Riding ASV Kites after Testing Gear La Ventana, Baja

Adam Koch, an American pro kite racer makes his switch to the ASV Performance kiteboarding team after testing the kites with Paolo Rista and Simone Vanucci in La Ventana. In the past few years, La Ventana has become a place for pro kiters, kite designers, kite brand owners, magazine editors and people who are new to the sport to spend time testing gear, sharing and trying new kite tactics, and giving feedback to each other. Today, Adam Koch, an American pro-kiteracer and former world kiterboard racing champion, has endorsed ASV Performance kites by claiming them as his official kites after giving them a thorough test. During this season, Playa Central Kiteboarding in La Ventana became one of the R&D and networking centers for the kiteracing industry, attracting international kite racers and gear designers from Hawaii and U.S.A., Italy, Mexico, Canada and others.

The occasion of having Paolo Rista from Rista Fins, Simone Vanucci from ASV Performance, and Adam Koch, a pro-kite racer, kite racing together here in Baja lead to valuable time for their gear testing, tuning, and optimal riding for Adam Koch. Paolo Rista is owner/shaper of RistaFins, who works with Adam Koch to provide him with custom fins for his board and kite choices. Besides this trio of kiters, riders like Joey Pasquali (ASV), Brian Kender (Cabrinha), Johnny Heineken (Ozone), Bryan Lake (Cabrinha), Adam Withington (ASV), Catherine Darfur (Ozone), Nuria Goma (Ozone), Cynthia Brown (Ozone, Simone Vanuci (ASV), Alex Aguera (Aguera) and more top riders race at Playa Central and can test their performance in real time and with the right people. 

We interviewed Adam Koch about his decision to ride ASV Performance kites and what looks to be the main reason is that he can now work with a company that focuses all of their resources on kiteracing, and believes this approach already has lead to a quality performance kite that has helped Adam "go faster than he ever has before". Offering an easy platform for kiters who are just getting into kite racing will be a catalyst for riders who are on the edge of making a decision on buying the right gear from the right company. A one-stop place that can sell "race ready set up" to the average rider is the key to promoting the sport and also to putting all your R&D to making the gear the best it can be for ktieracing.

Watch when Adam Koch gets interviewed by Jessica Withington in La Ventana, 

at Playa Central, the place to race. 

Playa Central sells ASV Performance Kites and will have the ASV race boards and race kites available for demo in October 2013, to start out the next kiteboarding season. La Ventana is also a prime spot where people can try racing, as well as where new kite racers will vacation at for weeks or months at time to train and get better at kiteracing. For February 2014 Playa Central and ASV Performance will host  a one month kite race training schedule with races, clinics with pro riders including Adam Koch, morning and evening yoga, daily races, and an overall end of the month kiteracing tournament. If you are a racer or are going to get into kiteracing, make sure to be here in February. To keep updates with the latest on kiteracing in Baja, follow Playa Central´s blog. 

For information on racing, lodging, kite lessons or more, please visit our website. Playa Central is happy to see the kiteracing industry growing at such a great pace and are here to help new racers put on regattas, tournaments, and clincs. You can also book your kiteracing clinic with Adam Koch for February 2014, and more info on the enduro training month my e-mailing us directly. Thank you! 

Salsa Lessons at Playa Central in La Ventana, Baja!

Salsa is one of the most fun and popular dances people want to learn, and you can take free lessons in La Ventana every Tuesday at Playa Central.  Jessica from Playa Central and special instructor guests give a free lesson from 7:00- 8:00 PM on Tuesdays every week for beginners, and the class stays til after 9:00 PM dancing and practicing together. We´ve learned that having a margarita before the class seams to be a good idea to losen up and sometimes there is definitely a salsa party that gets started after the lesson.  

Here we have Jessica and Matt, dancing salsa in January 2013 as a promotion of their Tuesday Salsa Nights. 

You can come single or with a partner, we will have someone for you to dance with and people will often switch partners to improve on their salsa skills. 

A cool thing about the lesson is you can come alone and meet people; you can bring a partner and switch a few times during the lesson; or come with a group of friends. With just one lesson you can go from someone who has never danced salsa before and has no clue how to, to someone who can do the basics and be able to carry on a salsa dance next time. Sometimes really good salsa dancers who happen to be vacationing in La Ventana will come to the Tuesday class and share their time by teaching advanced steps to the class. After the one hour of lessons the class becomes a dance floor where people dance and help eachother improve their salsa moves. 

Jessica and Walid teaching variations of the basic salsa step to make sure first timers can start having fun immediately. 

Maybe this will help you dance salsa, this is Jessica´s best description of how to do the basic salsa dance, or you can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDODx6qVuRg

* Small step forward with left foot, slight heal lift in place with the right foot, then bring left back next to your right foot. (Count to this would be 1, 2, 3) .
* Now you step the right foot back, slight heal lift in place with the left foot, then bring the right foot back next to your left foot. (Count 5, 6, 7)
* Notice that the 4 and the 8 are not mentioned above, that is because it is just a slight pause.

Playa Central will bring big salsa orchestras to play live music for the town. Azucar!!

 Once everyone can do the basic steps and turns, then Jessica goes into practicing with music and switching partners. At the end of the lesson they always teach a semi-advanced move to teach the regulars who are ready for a new move. Nowadays you will notice that there are a lot more salsa dancers on the dance floor at parties in La Ventana. Another great thing is that this Tuesday Salsa class gives Jessica and Playa Central a good excuse to throw salsa parties a few times a year for all the salseros in town! 

Everybody is welcome to get up and dance to the live salsa music! 

Let us tell you, some live salsa music, margaritas, and a few salseros can transform any room! Now we now!

Hope you get to come to one of our free salsa lessons. We would like to also recognize the Secret Salsa Society (or Not So Secret Salsa Society) from White Salmon, W.A., as well as the Hood River, O.R. area for the way they have started cultivating a dancing community in their active town. Jessica never misses their Wednesday Salsa nights while she is in Hood River during summer vacations and would like to thank the society for inspiring this movement at Playa Central and La Ventana. Check them out if you are in the area too! For contact or more info you can visit www.playacentralkiteboarding.com or our facebook page www.facebook.com/PlayaCentralKiteboarding

Baja Yoga, the "Mejor Que Nada" kiteboarding stretches in La Ventana

If you walk or stand up paddle by Playa Central in the mornings this season you will see our "Mejor Que Nada" kiteboarding yoga stretches happening on our front lawn. There are anywhere from 5-25 people who are here to stretch out their bodies and get ready for another day on the water. The whole routine is 20 minutes of basic stretches that help people kite board safely and better that day. When you are in La Ventana next time, drop by Playa Central and ask about the "Mejor Que Nada" yoga in the mornings.

The "Mejor Que Nada" starts with the typical morning squat that in past decades we have pretty much stopped doing regularly every day and through out the day in the Western World. 

Joyus Avait and Achintya Miranda Seeton are kiteboarders who take care of their bodies by stretching every day, strengthening through yoga and eating well. A special thanks to both of them who have started the Mejor Que Nada this year. 

Lots of the stretches are soft and easy to remember so you can take it home with you! 

Scapula and shoulder stretches. If these kiters crash in the water and stick their arm out and have it pulled back by the water, they wil be happy they did the Mejor Que Nada that day!

Our friends and fellow kiters, Achintya and Joyous, who are from California and spend time kiteboarding in La Ventana decided to share their morning stretching with other kiters in the bay. They came up with this 20 minute basic routine that really gets you going and helps your circulation, flexibility, and may prevent injuries throughout one´s active watersport-filled Baja lives. For Achintya and Joyus´ 2013 New Year´s resolution they decided to promote their daily stretching as a way of better health and better kiteboarding Since January 1st we have gathered on Playa Central´s front lawn every morning for the "Mejor Que Nada" daily free yoga session.

The balance pose, ground your leg on the floor and grab the inside of the other foot. Kick out and then lean forward focusing on something that is not moving. 

I think pretty much everybody can manage to do a 30 second meditation after some heated stretching. 

If you watch closely you can see the wind line coming closer! 

This season Joyus and Achintya have been leading the morning session, but their goal is to get enough people into doing it every day so that it will get momentum of its own and eventually be able to be lead by other people who have learned it and might want to pay it forward. You can also do your own "Mejor Que Nada" by checking out Joyous´ video of the routine.  The stretch session is free for everyone and is short enough to be able to fit into your every day. We hope to see you here on your next visit to La Ventana.


 For more information you can contact us at Playa Central or just stop by. Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/PlayaCentralKiteboarding for the lattest updates or check out our website www.playacentralkiteboarding.com for more. Hope to see you at the Mejor Que Nada. Namaste!

Driving directions from Los Cabos to La Ventana? Airports, shuttles, car rentals, etc.

Flying into Los Cabos (SDJ) is usually cheaper than flying into La Paz (LAP) for your La Ventana vacation. Los Cabos is a two hour drive from La Ventana and La Paz is a short 40 minute drive. When you are booking your flight you might want to see what deals you can get on your car rental because some of the big airlines have 10-30 USD a day rentals if you pay for it when booking your flight. If you are not renting a car then you can reserve an airport shuttle through Playa Central. Prices are listed at the end of this blog post.

Driving directions to La Ventana from Los Cabos? 

As you take a right out of the airport to get on the highway (Mexico 1) follow signs to La Paz. All Baja roads are two lane roads and the only hazards are surprise por holes, cattle in the road and sharp curves, so keep an eye on the road especially at night.

Once you are out of the airport and on this road headed to La Paz you will only have to make 3 turns to get to La Ventana, and have 2 hours ahead of you:

• 1st Turn: Once on Mexico 1 you will drive about an hour and drive through Los Barriles, which is another windspot in the Baja. Keep straight, the next town you drive through is San Bartolo which is an oasis with lots of fruit trees and small shops on the road side that sell regional candy and fresh fruit. You will keep straight until you find yourself at a small town called San Antonio, another oasis, you will see a gas station (Pemex)to your left and see a sign to La Paz indicating to go straight, BUT this is where you will take your first right! (Toward Los Planes). 

• 2nd Turn: Now you will be driving through San Antonio, and you will wind through this small town and then be on a straight road that goes through some hills, please WATCH for pot holes as the summer rains will wash out part of the roads and there is not good signage. You will drive about 30 minutes and be surprised by a T section in the road, again, not good signage so keep your eyes open! Once you reach this T intersection you will take a left. 

• 3rd Turn: Drive for about 10 minutes until you reach another T intersection where you will take a right. The signs are marked toward "El Sargento", as soon as you trake this right you will see your first sign that says "La Ventana" (this is where you can pull over safely and take a photo of yourself under the La Ventana sign full of surf and kiteboarding stickers). Now you can cruise until you arrive to La Ventana. Playa Central will be on your right, we are the big yellow building on the beach with a sign that says "Playa Central". See you here!

Shuttle Prices from Los Cabos Airport:

One Way:

One Person: $95 usd

Two People: $ 150 usd

Three People: $ 180 usd

Four People: $ 220 usd

Five People: $ 250 usd

Six People: $ 280 usd

Seven- Nine People: $300 usd

Round Trip:

One Person: $170 usd

Two People: $ 280 usd

Three People: $ 300 usd

Four People: $ 220 usd

Five People: $ 250 usd

Six People: $ 280 usd

Seven- Nine People: $300 usd

To reserve your shuttle please e-mail jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com and send us your flight information. Fore more visit www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

La Ventana SUP Series

As you guys might know, most people who live or visit La Ventana are kiters, windsurfers, mountain bikers, fishermen, and overall active people who love the outdoors. Stand Up Paddleboarding has grown as a sport in the past years and every day you see more and more SUPers enjoying the beautiful bay of La Ventana.

 Group shot of the SUP racers and Jessica, from Playa Central. 

Warren Bruce on the right, thank you for sharing the stoke and encouraging everyone to
participate in this 1st SUP race at Playa Central. Cheers! 

One of our friends from La Paz, Brian Harker, from Harker Boards Co., hosts SUP races in La Paz and invited Warren Bruce and everyone at Playa Central to participate a SUP relay race last October. We had so much fun doing it that we decided it had to be done in La Ventana too. Warren Bruce is an all around athlete who likes to share his passion for sports, and together Playa Central and Warren put on the 1st race of the La Ventana SUP Series 2012-2013.

As you can see some people used race boards and other used fun boards.
All boards and levels of paddlers are bienvenidos! 

A special thanks to the five participants who raced today, here are their names in the order they finished, fouth place tied:
1. Doug Hopkins, from White Salmon, WA.
2. Warren Bruce, from La Ventana, Mexico.
3. Pablo Martinez, from Colima, Colima, Mexico.
4. Norm Beddows, from Calgary, Canada.
4. D. Larkman, from White Salmon, WA.

We had a beach start, and racers headed North to go around Captain Kirk´s buoy and back down to Playa Central, making the race 2.1 Km, or 1.3 miles. 

Una, dos, dos y medio, y TRESSSS!

Tired boys! Good job guys! Hugs, Jessica. 

This was a great start for the series.  We are excited to see how much it grows and hope to see more women in the race too. As more people participate, we will have a fun board and a race board category, and get some cool prizes. Today the only prize we gave to all racers were little SUP cookies made in Playa Central´s wood oven.

SUP cookies for everyone! Made by the best bakery in Baja! AKA, Playa Central :) 

Thanks to all of the racers that came out today for the 1st race and congradulations to Doug Hopkins for his 1st place. Playa Central likes to bring the town together for some healthy fun and we hope this will encourage more people to try out the sport! For SUP lessons or rentals please e-mail jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com 

When is the Best Time to Come to La Ventana?

The wind blows from Oct-April, the strongest months of wind being December, January and February. Home and business owners begin to arrive in September and most of the seasonal business open in October and you will see just a few kites and windsurfers on the water in October. Thanksgiving break is a great time to come since the wind is here, the water still warm, and people get time off school and work for the holidays.

For kite lessons, late Oct. and early Nov. are great times to come since there is lots of space 

on the beach and on the water (and in lesson bookings). 

If you want to stay for a long period of time and get through your learning curve over a few weeks or a month, November is when you want to come because lodging prices sometimes increase for December and January, so you are more likely to get a deal! November is also extra special because there are less kiters and windsurfers on the water than there are in the high season.

If you have been kiting for a while and have traveled a bit to other kitespots on the West Coast already, then December, January and February would be extra fun because there are lots of familiar faces in La Ventana you will see, fun networking, events and demos, and new friendships to be made. In December and early January La Ventana gets "Norte´s" which are cold fronts that create strong side shore winds for La Ventana, and often we get some swell right in front of Playa Central!

In the high season you can run into pros on the beach, take their kiteboarding clinics,

 network with kite companies, go to kite demos, and more! 

March is also very windy, there are less people in La Ventana and on the water and the weather warms up. Lots of people who come early season return in March for the same conditions. Spring break also allows people to get time off of work and school, so if you want to bring your kids this is a great time. In April and May the wind is lighter and consistent, most people on the water are home and business owners who are enjoying the peaceful and lightwind days of La Ventana, and some of the lodging prices drop.

Spring break is a good time to come with your family!

So, we can chart out the months like this:

October: Good for learning, cheaper lodging, bring 10 m, 12 m, 14m kites.
November: Great for learning, water is still warm, bring you 9m, 11m, and 13m kites.
December: Great wind and good for learning, lots of parties and Nortes; bring you 7m, 9m, and 11m kites.
January: Great wind and good for learning, lots of events and social parties, bring your 6m, 8m, and 10m kites.
February: Great wind and great for leaning, bring your 6m, 8m, and 10m kites.
March: Great wind, great for learning; bring your 7m, 9m, and 11m kites.
April: Good wind, good for learning, bring you 8m, 10m and 12m kites.
May: Good wind, good for learning, cheaper lodging, bring your 10m, 12m, and 14m kites.

If you want to learn to kiteboard, do it as soon as you can, but if you will have to plan your vacation ahead of time then go ahead and book your lessons for November or late Feb and March, since there will be less traffic on the water, less waiting for your food in restaurants, and possibly better lodging prices for you. To book your kiteboarding lessons please email jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com for the best instruction in La Ventana. Looking forward to your visit!

You can also visit our website: www.playacentralkiteboarding.com 

All the Kiteboarding Instruction You Can Handle for Only $199 a Day.

You can take a full day of kite instruction and take as many hours of lessons as you would like. Have you shopped around for lessons yet? You´ll find almost everybody has prices by the hour, and usually about a dollar a minute. At Playa Central we offer our "All Day" for $199 dollars and are happy to do so.

We want our students to use up all the wind of each day they are on vacation in La Ventana, and that´s a lot of hours. During lessons, we want our students to repeat drills and nail down kite skills at their own pace, and for the student to be able to ask us questions without feeling pressed for time. We have found that this "All Day" kite package has made our instructors and our
customers very satisfied. As instructors, we work better with a comfortable student who can take their time, let us be a bit more thorough, and also, have time to catch their breath before we repeat exercizes. After you have had a few hours of lessons with us, you can take a break if you wish, order some coffee and a sandwich, and then head back out for your second round. It´s as good as it gets!

Most of our students take 2-4 "All Day" lessons, depending on their sports background. For people who are staying for a week, three days of our "All Day" make for a great kite trip because we go all day, and you log in lots of hours a short time. In La Ventana the wind picks up at 10-11 AM and blows until about 5 PM, which means that there are about 6-7 hours of wind most days. We have our students check in at 10:15 AM who fill out paper work, fit their wet suit and meet their instructor.

For your first day of lessons bring a hat, bathing suit, sunglasses, sunscreen and jacket. The first two hours will be on the beach where you learn the basic theory of kiteboarding, how to sear and power the kite, safety tips, and launching and landing. Once you are more familiar with the kite and have kite skills, we change into our wet suits and you will learn to body drag with the kite in the water. After you acquire body dragging skills, then we introduce the board and you begin water starting and riding on the board. We will correct your stance and kite positions once you can ride for seconds at a time.

Playa Central´s Kiteschool in La Ventana opens from October - April. For more questions about your kite lesson, please visit www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

Kiteboarding Clinic with Nuria Goma and Jessica, courtesy of Liquid Force.

Several months ago a mutual friend, Adam Koch, introduced Nuria Goma and me on Facebook on the basis that we both ride Liquid Force, we were both going to be in La Ventana in January and February, and we love to promote the sport. Online we started talking about hosting a free kite boarding clinic with Liquid Force here at Playa Central Kiteboarding and we were both very happy with the turn out.

Watch the 1:30 minute candid video clip of Jessica explaining how to water start on a strapless.

Nuria and I decided we would focus on encouraging intermediate riders on strapless boards. We covered water starting, difference between tacks and jives, how to jive, hot to switch to toe side while heading the same direction, turning into toe side, etc. We also covered twin tip technique and how to turn, jump, ride toe side, do jump transitions, etc.

Nuria and Jessica helping Rosalie, a Bay Area kiter who visits La Ventana every year.

At sign up we gave everybody a piece of paper and had them write down 1-3 key skills they wanted to work on and had them drop it into a Liquid Force helmet. We drew out the questions and together covered them all. After the lesson Liquid Force provided kites and boards for demo and the clinic. People loved the Fish, a great beginner surf board.

Nuria handled most of the twin tip and freestyle questions while I gave the strapless tips and pointers. Once on the beach we decided to divide the group in two, and each one of us work with our area. While rigging the gear, La Ventana just started nooking. It went from 18-48 mph in about 90 minutes from when the clinic started. Only the more advanced riders decided to go out on 5m, 6m and 7ms. We were all overpowered and decided to just free ride. Although we would have liked to get close to the students and give instruction, it was still pretty fun to just have a session with them.

For lessons and more kite camps in La Ventana, we recommend Playa Central Kiteboarding.

La Ventana Race Series at Playa Central Kiteboarding

From November to March Playa Central hosts the La Ventana Race Series the third Monday of every month. Sponsors and cohosts include Pro Windsurf Ventana, Air Rush Kites, Captain Kirk´s, the Flying High Resort, Diamante Real Estate and Liquid Force Kites. It is a slalom course designed by Tyson Poor and the race is directed by Dave Tyburski. Windsurfers and kiters race a five buoy slalom course and we run 5 races a day. Playa Central serves lunch and drink specials and spectators come to enjoy an exciting day of racing.

Tyson Poor designs the slalom course for the La Ventana Race Series

Dave Tybursky from Airush directing the La Ventana Series at Playa Central.

In November there were 10 skippers who participated and the results were 1. Tyson Poor (windsurf), 2. Adam Withington Sanchez (kiteboard), 3. Lyn Preuitt (windsurf). By the second race the enrollment doubled to 20 skippers, and the results were 1. Tyson Poor (windsurf), 2. Adam Withington Sanchez (kiteboard) 3. Dan Koff and Gabor Vagi. There were also kiters who were racing for their first time and afterward said it was the best time they have ever had on the water.

This is the 1st race ever held of the La Ventana Race Series at Playa Central.

Dan Koff and Gabor Vagi tied, this picture captures their experience in the race pretty well, photo from the December Race.

The official La Ventana Race Series T-Shirt has the seires´ logo on the front, which has the tip of the Cerralvo Island in the background with kite and windsurf sillhouettes lined up at a start line. The long sleeves say La Ventana on the left one, and Race Series on the right one, and the back of the shirt has our sponsors. You can buy them at Playa Central for 20 usd.

What inspired the La Ventana Race Series?

Vivien and I (Jessica) from Playa Central went on a 10 week roadtrip to CA and OR over this 2011 summer and the events we enjoyed the most were the three Thursday Night Races we got to race in at the St Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. While there we found out that Captain Kirk´s, a great hotel in La Ventana owned by our friends Kitty and Kirk, were one of the sponsors of the race. It also happened that Tyson Poor and Wyatt Miller form Pro Windsurf Ventana had mentioned the idea of running races out of Playa Central a year ealier. But it took us actually being in races, experiencing the sportsmanship of the whole deal, being at the startline when that cornette blows, and the best part, making friends with new people in new places to get us excited about the idea of hosting races in La Ventana.

Our brother, Adam Withington, has been racing for a couple of years and is on Liquid Force´s International team. For 2012, Liquid Force has their new NRG kites designed for racing, so lets just say that was another great reason to put on a race series.

Wyatt Miller (Pro Windsurf Ventana), Cynbad Brown (Baja Boardriders), and Adam Withington (Liquid Force) getting ready to head out to the start line.

The first week of Novomber Tyson, Dave Tibursky and I got together a few mornings over coffee and talked about some ideas and from there on everything has fallen into place. We now have volunteers who help with the finish line and buoy set up, a special thanks to Padre David and Johnnie. We are also getting great feedback from all the participants and have gotten requests to make this a weekly or every other week event. We think we will keep in monthly for this year, and maybe run the race trwice a month starting next November.

By the 2nd race enrollment doubled, and we had 20 skippers.

Padre David and Jessica Withington getting the heats ready before the race.

The slalom course makes it pretty equal for windsurfers and kiters since we can cut around buoys quickly, which is our advantage, but windsurfers usually gain speed quicker than kiters do from buoy to buoy. Kiters have a hard time power strocking their kite since we have to be careful with the tall masts of the windsurfers in front of us. If a windsurfer is behind and just downwind of a kiter, the kiter probably has their kite low and w

indsurfers simply cannot get by if they want to speed up while keeping their line. All in all, we all feel like the slalom course is very fair for windsurfers and kiters to race in the same class.

As a spectator, it is also really fun to watch these guys commin´at you as fast as they can.

Here we have Adam Withington cutting around a buoy, you can see how much space windsurfers need and how Adam can zip around it.

Photo taken during the skippers meeting in December.

Jessica Withington and Tyson Poor leading the skippers meeting at Playa Central during the December race.

Chas Walter and Jessica Withington, both trying to get across that finish line first.

Chas said this was the most fun he has ever had on the water, and it was his first time racing!

Walk ins are welcome, and don´t worry if you have never raced before, look at Vivien and me, we never had raced up until recently and now we are running them! Beleive us, you might not do well your first time, but every race makes you a better kiter and after two or three you feel great and comfortable at the start line. And the best part before and after the race, when you hang out with everybody for race talk, beer talk, and more fun talk.

For more information you can email me at Jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com and you can see lots more Pictures of the race on our Facebook page.

Book your lodging and kite lessons in La Ventana with us www.playacentralkiteboarding.com