Kitesurfing Sport Taps Wind, Waves at Mackinac Island
By Leslie Rott

Rob Kalmbach kitesurfs on the shores of Mackinac Island.

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a kite? That’s right, and the sport of kitesurfing is happening right here on Mackinac Island. Well, at least Rob Kalmbach is doing it, and he is quite possibly the first person on Mackinac to ever try the activity on Mackinac Island.

Mr. Kalmbach is the son of West Bluff cottager Melissa Croghan, and discovered kitesurfing in Los Angeles, where he has lived for four years.

Kitesurfing is a combination of windsurfing and wake boarding, which was started in Oregon in the early 1980s and became popular in Hawaii in the mid-1990s.

The activity is dependent solely on the wind, Mr. Kalmbach said, and is mainly a solo form or recreation. While another person is often needed to help with set up, he said, “the second you’re out on the water, you’re pretty much on your own.”

A kitesurfer uses a blow-up kite with a harness and holds on to a bar while standing on a board, similar to a surf or wake board. The kite allows the rider to catch waves, but float gently back to the water, rather than landing hard, like on a surf board.

Kitesurfing is a competitive sport, Mr. Kalmbach said, but he is only competing against himself and the wind, and his goal is to make it to Round Island and not get hit by any ferries along the way.

“Mackinac is this untapped spot for it,” he said, although the rocky beaches add challenge.

An avid skier, he said the most important thing a person can do is to take a lesson or two before going kitesurfing alone for the first time. The most dangerous part, he added, is launching the kite, and a kitesurfer should never go out farther than he can swim, in the event the wind dies.

Harnesses now are equipped with a small razor blade that can be used to cut the kitesurfer loose if lines get tangled.

He believes the best wind is 12 to 15 miles per hour. That way, he can just hop into his car and hit the beach.

“It is definitely a growing sport,” he said, adding that if John Kerry were president of the United States, the sport would be even bigger, as he was a kitesurfer in the early days of the activity.

Equipment for kitesurfing costs between $500 and $2,000, depending on how interested a person is in making kitesurfing an occasional hobby or a full blown obsession.

“It looks really complicated and expensive, but it’s totally doable,” Mr. Kalmbach said.

Originally from Philadelphia, Mr. Kalmbach was graduated from Indiana University in 2000, where he studied film. He now makes commercials for Direct TV.

For more information on kitesurfing, Mr. Kalmbach recommends ikitesurf.com, mackite.com/boarding, or the United States Kitesurfing Association at maui.net/~hotwind/uska. html.