Kite Shop and School - Quick Links
About Our Kite Shop and School
Demo Snowkite Sale
Demo Water Kite Sale
Demo Kiteboard Sale
New Kiteboard Sale
Why We Carry Ozone Kites
Why We Carry Xenon Boards
Why We Carry DaKine Harnesses and Board Bags
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 and teaching classes.
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.
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. Check our winter and summer kiting photo galleries.
If you're interested in learning, check our kite camp schedule, and look over our handouts and course materials page.
For gear, scroll down for kite gear on sale, and information on the brands we carry.
Above: Bill Glude kiteboards on Lake Bennett, Carcross, Yukon. Photo © Melora Gaber.
We have free coaching and gear at our kite demo events, do informal coaching here in Juneau, are teaching four and a half day weekend introductory-level snow and water kiting camps in Skagway through the University of Alaska Southeast, and are working on setup for our own kite camps next summer. Contact us for details.
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.
A note on pricing: we set our prices fairly based on what we have to pay, and do not dicker on pricing. Thank you.
You can buy kite gear from us online or at our office store; just call to set a time as we are in temporary quarters pending completion of our new office next summer. 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!
Our shop is small, so all orders receive personal attention. To order, just give us a call 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, and can usually get your gear to destinations in the US within a few days to a week.
Demo Snowkite Sale
We currently have a good but steadily diminishing stock of demo snowkites at great prices. All these kites are in very good "A grade" shape; some have only been flown three or fewer times:
2011 4m Ozone Pure, Snowkite in a Box, trainer, first snowkite, harness, and instructional DVD, Retail $499, Sale $399
2011 6m Ozone Access, Retail $870, Sale $689 - SOLD!
2011 9m Ozone Frenzy, Retail $1,260, Sale $989 - SOLD!
2009 10m Ozone Access, Retail $925, Sale $699
2011 10m Ozone Manta, Retail $1,275, Sale $1,059
2011 11m Ozone Frenzy, Retail $1,325, New, Sale $1,125 - SOLD!
2009 13m Ozone Frenzy, Retail $1,350, Sale $899 - SOLD!
2010 15m Ozone Manta, Retail $1,450, Sale $1,129 - SOLD!
Demo Water Kite Sale
Photo on right © Melora Gaber.
We currently have a good stock of demo water kites at great prices, too. All these kites are in good "A to B grade" shape; they have had some careful use and may have some beach mud or discoloration from algae, but are sound and still only lightly used. The Gin Zulu is in A shape; only kited with twice. Some may have minor repairs, all done professionally by Airtime in Hood River. The repairs are barely detectable, and all these kites fly perfectly:
2011 9m Ozone C4, Retail $1,690, Sale $929
2010 11m Ozone C4, Retail $1,650, Sale $749
2011 11m Ozone C4, Retail $1,650, Sale $959
2011 13m Ozone C4, Retail $1,825, Sale $999
2011 13m Gin Zulu 3, Retail $1,799, Sale $699
2011 17m Ozone Zephyr, Retail $1,895, Sale $1,049 - SOLD!
Demo Kiteboard Sale
Right now, we only have one demo board; the amazing light-wind Jimmy Lewis Flight Deck (bottom board above). It has some chips, scuffs, and scratches, but rides very well and has plenty of life left.
2008 147 Jimmy Lewis Flight Deck, Retail $800, Sale $250
New Kiteboard Sale
We can order these Xenon boards new at great prices; more information is in the Why We Carry Xenon Boards section below.
129, 132, 135 Xenon LaLuz (left above), Retail $760, Sale $570
130, 134, 138, 145 Xenon Rayo (right), Retail $695, Sale $530
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.
We stock the stable, forgiving, and lower-cost Access and the high performance Frenzy snowkites, and have one of the now-discontinued and much-coveted Mantas left.
Their water kites have the same quality construction and finely-tuned aerodynamic design as the foils, and are well-known and respected in Europe and elsewhere, but are not as well-known in the US, though their Edge kite's surpassing performance in course racing is making US water kiters start to take notice.
We stock the forgiving, lower-cost, all-around, easy-drifting, three-strut Catalyst bow kite (rated one of the top three all-around kites in the January 2012 issue of Kiteboarding Magazine!); the precise, high-jumping, super-stable freerider's favorite C4 bridled-C kite; and the incredibly rangy, maneuverable, light-wind five-strut 17m Zephyr bow kite. We can order the new REO three-strut hybrid delta C wave kite that is getting rave reviews, and the super-fast high aspect 5-strut Edge bow kite.
We stock the Imp foil trainers, with their three-line flag-out release. We also stock the Uno tube kite trainers, which fly off a regular lineset and harness, and which we find give our students a tremendous head start toward handling fullsize kites.
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 is not yet well-known in the US, but that builds quality high-performance gear. Designed in Poland and built in Austria, 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 tip flex to keep those big ends from catching in the chop and to give them an uncommonly smooth ride. The straps and pads are easy to adjust and very cushy.
We stock the lighter-weight LaLuz (135 above, on the iceberg), which comes in smaller sizes, with carbon for more-rapid rebound when flexed, and more rocker for maneuverability; and the Rayo (138 below, on the beach), which comes in mid to larger sizes, has less rocker for early planing, and the best performance in "holey," inconsistent wind.
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 and use it for teaching. Juneau kiters travel, and this harness saves enough weight to bring one more kite along in your bag. It is also designed to work well for both kiting and windsurfing.
Our favorite board-and-kite bag is the compact, flat, and wheeled SX Bag. The 140cm version easily carries a twin-tip board and two to three kites, and the 185 cm version fits kiting surfboards to 183cm (6') length. We like to balance our other bag on top of the SX as we wheel it through the airports. We can also order any of DaKine's other board bags.
All photos, text, and images on this website are © Bill Glude unless otherwise noted.