About Our Kite Shop and School
We got into snowkiting because we were looking for things for our avalanche crew to do during their time off, found that it was great fun, and then we got into water kiteboarding in summer. Now we love kiting so much that we are providing gear, teaching classes, and setting up kiting adventures for visiting kiters and film crews.
Above: Nancy Pfeiffer snowkiting, Juneau Icefield, May.
Kiting is not hard to learn, and is a great sport that is very well-suited to our region. You can get out for a kite break any time you have two hours with a breeze, and come back refreshed and stoked.
Start with a look at all the details, photos, and information on gear, places to kite, online videos, and how to get started on our About Kiting page.
If you're interested in learning, check our kite lessons, and look over our handouts and course materials page.
For gear, scroll down.
Above: Bill Glude kiteboards on Lake Bennett, Carcross, Yukon. Photo © Melora Gaber.
We have free trainer kite coaching, and demo gear for experienced kiters at our kite demo events. We also teach regular kite lessons, by the hour or as a package, in Juneau, Haines, and Skagway. Our rates are lower than most in the 48 states, and you save on travel by learning here, too.
We are the Ozone kite dealer for our Southeast Alaska region. Being small, we focus on a limited but carefully chosen selection of our favorite kite gear: Ozone kites, Xenon boards, and Da Kine harnesses. We stock those brands, and have demo gear for people to try. We can also order gear from most other lines, including Airush, Cabrinha, DaKine, Gin, Naish, and Slingshot.
We set our prices fairly based on what we have to pay, and the freight cost to Alaska. We offer the best deals we can, including free shipment for new gear to anywhere in the US, and are not able to dicker further on pricing.
You can buy kite gear from us online or at our office store. Call to set a time to meet up, as we are still in temporary quarters. There's no penalty to ordering from an Alaskan supplier - our prices are the same as in the other states, and we offer free Priority Mail shipment on new kite gear to any US address!
We are a very small business, so all orders receive personal attention. To order, just give us a text or drop us an e-mail and let us know what you want. We can advise you on the best choices for your needs, quote you a price, check how soon we can get it to you, accept payment by credit card through Square, and can usually get your gear to destinations in the US within a few days to a week.
Why We Carry Ozone Kites
Above: Ozone C4 13m and Xenon Rayo 138cm; high tide slough-riding, Mendenhall Wetlands, Juneau.
Ozone is a rider-owned company. It was started in Great Britain by a group of paraglider pilots for the purpose of developing and producing the best possible wings, foils that would fly better than anything on the market.
From their development of high-performance paraglider foils came their foil kites for snow and land, which are well-known and widely regarded as the best-quality and highest-performing snowkites on the market.
Ozone keeps a constantly-updated lineup of snow and multi-terrain (land, snow and water) foil kites, including excellent kites to begin with, and a range of high-performance and ultralight foils. Check their website for the most-current lineup; we can order any of the kites and have them delivered quickly to you.
Their water kites have the same quality construction and finely-tuned aerodynamic design as the snowkites, and are very well-known and respected in Europe, and worldwide. They range from forgiving kites to learn on to both tube and multi-terrain foil designs for every specialty. They are regularly updated, and the lineup changed recently, so again their website is the best reference.
Two Ozone water kite lines have proven themselves over time: the Catalyst/Enduro line as highly versatile three-strut kites, and the Zephyr, still the best-flying, most-fun light wind tube kite.
The Catalyst has been split off now as the more-forgiving delta shape kite for easy relaunch and control; the Enduro carries on the open-C shape of the Catalyst of a few years ago, as the more performance-oriented but highly versatile of the two. One, or both, should be the basis of your quiver for Southeast Alaska, in 6m, 8m, and 12m sizes, depending on where you live.
We highly recommend the five-strut 17m Zephyr bow kite; the magic kite for our typically light but gusty Southeast Alaska winds. This kite gets you on the water when no one else is out. In Juneau, it doubles our days on the water. It is incredibly rangy and maneuverable, easily outperforming any other big kite we have flown. The original Zephyr was the first real performance light-wind kite, and the current models are even faster and quicker-turning; while retaining the Zephyr's low-end power and ability to handle strong gusts with ease.
Here's a review of the 2015 Zephyr. Current models just keep getting better as they fine-tune them.
We recommend the Go foil trainers, with their three-line flag-out release. Buy one, and when you buy your fullsize kite gear from us, we will take the price of your trainer off your first full price big kite
We can special order Ozone parafoils.
We recommend the Go foil trainers. Buy one, and when you buy your fullsize kite gear from us, we will take the price of your trainer off your first full price big kite.
We can special order Ozone parafoils.
The Ozone website is the best online source of information on current models and their features. We can advise you on kite choice as well.
Why We Carry Xenon Boards
Xenon boards come from another European company that has rapidly gained a reputation in the US for their great boards. They are light weight (good for travel!), wood-cored boards with full ends that promote early planing and good pop for jumping, combined with a soft-enough flex to keep those big ends from catching in the chop and to give them an uncommonly smooth, no-chatter ride. Most kiteboards are too stiff to give the ride the Xenons do. The straps and pads are easy to adjust and very cushy.
Why We Carry DaKine Harnesses and Board Bags
Above: Cedar and Lisa Miles and Josh Mitzell help carry the harnesses and gear after a fine session at Sandy Beach, Juneau.
DaKine has long been a leader in building the toughest and best-designed harnesses for windsurfing and kiting, and the best board bags for travel. We can order any of their wind sports gear, but we stock their lightweight Chameleon waist harness is our favorite. Juneau kiters travel, and this harness saves enough weight to bring one more kite along in your bag. If you want to mix your sports, it is also designed to work well for both kiting and windsurfing.
The lineup changes, but our favorite wheeled board-and-kite bag are DaKines. The 140cm bags easily carry a twin-tip board and two to three kites at 84" total dimensions, just over the 80" limit but close enough that Alaska Airlines often takes them without oversize charges. The 185 cm bags fit kiting surfboards to 183cm (6') length. We like to balance our other bag on top of the big wheeled bag as we wheel it through the airports.
All photos, text, and images on this website are © Bill Glude unless otherwise noted.