Extreme Kiting in Puerto Vallarta

Kite surfing or kite boarding is a sport that involves navigation and consists of breaking through the waves on a board similar to a surfboard. The difference is that it is shorter and it's anchored to the feet. It is pulled by a traction kite attached to a person with a harness containing four or five ropes, two attached to the ends of the bar, which serves as a type of steering device and two or three more attached to the center of the bar.

One starts out on the sand while maintaining the kite in flight; the most important thing is to learn how to use air currents to your advantage to take you wherever you want.

This sport has become very popular recently because of improved equipment and technique, allowing kite-surfers to leap up to 13 meters and perform acrobatics on the water. The origins of this sport go back to China and Indonesia, where they used kites to move canoes through the ocean. However, it wasn't until 1977 that Gijsbertus Adrianus Panhuise patented a system of navigation on a surfboard by adding a parachute, becoming the father of this sport.

Here in our Banderas Bay, Airfish Kite School is headed by Vicente Cárdenas, who you can usually find on the beaches of Bucerías and its environs. Beginning this sport involves a nine-hour course, divided into three three-hour sessions with three hours of practice on the sand, three hours in the water without a board to learn how to coordinate the movement of the water and the kite, and three hours practicing with full gear.

Find out more about activities in Banderas Bay with Mexican Destinations