Byline: George Diaz
Apr. 27--MELBOURNE -- A.J. Morgan's business attire is a T-shirt, shorts, sandals and a shark-tooth necklace wrapped around his neck. A sand-in-your-shoes bronze tan reflects his love for ocean breezes. His office is a yellow van -- filled with kites, boards and harnesses -- and for leisure time, a cooler of cold beverages. The unconventional salesmanship approach works for a world that unfolds once you get the equipment out of the van and into a river or ocean. Kiteboarding -- a hybrid mix of windsurfing, surfing and wakeboarding, with an added jolt of aerodynamic push -- remains a baby trying to gather momentum in the world of extreme sports. Originating more than a decade ago thanks to the innovative minds of brothers Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux of France, participants are attached to a kite using a waist harness, with their feet buckled onto a board. A bar about two feet long allows them to control the kite, which hovers about 90 feet above. Depending on the wind and surf conditions and expertise, they can be launched over the water anywhere from 15 to 50 feet and dangle upside down with the wind caressing their face. Morgan, who runs Kitetricity Kiteboarding in Melbourne, is one of the few folks in Central Florida qualified to teach the sport. It draws in a wide gamut of demographic appeal.
'It's not a physical sport, but it can be if you make it a physical sport,' Morgan said. 'I've taken a 280-pound man and made him cry, and at the same time, I can take an 18-year-old and make him smile. It's what you put into it.' Now 44, Morgan is a defector from his windsurfing days when two friends coaxed him to give it a try in 1999.
'These guys jumping 20-plus feet effortlessly,' Morgan said. 'I swore up and down just like any windsurfer who gets in the sport: 'I'm only going to go on a kite in light winds.' But the sad part about it is once you get the bug, you take it all the way to what your skill level is. 'I sold all my [windsurfing] gear within a week. I was gone. To this day, I've only been windsurfing once in eight years. I never looked back. I paid my dues, been in the hospital, had accidents, broken bones.' Morgan's learning curve was steeper because there weren't enough qualified instructors. Now he's among a certified group found along Florida's Eastern Seaboard, with higher numbers in South Florida. There are only 12 states where kiteboarding schools and shops are available, with a higher concentration in Hawaii. A beginner should start with a ground lesson, work their way into the water, to gauge their interest/ability level before getting into the sport seriously. Assuming you have the skills for it, kiteboarding can be one fun, wild ride. An experienced kiteboarder can control a kite by simply applying pressure on the bar with his or her fingers and can jump 30 feet in the air or catch hundreds of waves, assuming the conditions are good. Recent conditions have been poor in Central Florida because there needs to be 15-30-mph winds to get moving properly. 'It's up to me to take that fear factor out of your brain and go for it,' Morgan said.
Like anything in life, common sense is essential. Lines connecting the boarder to the kite can reach 800 pounds of pressure. People have been seriously injured -- losing an ear or a finger -- coming in contact with taut lines. A handful of people have tried to jump jetties and died. 'But they die because of stupidity,' Morgan said. 'And they get hurt because they've not taken lessons. It's like taking a scuba tank and diving 60 feet in the water.' This is Morgan's day job, but not what he does for a living. He works at Home Depot in outside receiving in the lumber department. He begins work at 9 p.m., punches out at 6 in the morning, comes home to sleep for a few hours and is working with students in the afternoon. 'I'm constantly busy, but at the same time, I'm not making a living off this,' he said. 'I'm doing it for the passion and the love, and to bring the sport to everybody around here. It's an untapped thing.' George Diaz can be reached at gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5668.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.),
(213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
TICKER SYMBOL(S): NYSE:HD
