I believe it does.
Last year I had the good fortune to have Chase track me down and ask for lessons here in Alaska. He had equipment and was willing to submit to my instruction. We mostly had our sessions at Twenty Mile close to Girdwood at the end of Turnagain Arm. I’m proud to say that by the time fall ended and school started for Chase he was beginning to go upwind. We had several amusing experiences while he progressed. A memoriable one is we got “rescued” by the Alaska State Troopers. They were called on us by someone in a passing car who saw him floating in Turnagain Arm and assumed he was drowning – nope, just practicing water starts. But, they didn’t know that. I was on the edge of the mudflats and bellowing instructions when, fortunately, I was tapped on the shoulder by a trooper. I jumped about two feet and whirled around … and than I saw the four firetrucks and two police cars. Noooooooooo! I quickly told them there was no emergency BEFORE six beefy firemen finished launching their rescue RIB inflatable. Whew!
I almost always ask if students have prior sports experience like skateboarding, snow boarding, skiing, wakeboarding, and etc. Chase had experience in pretty much all of these activities and progressed very rapidly. But, board sports is only a small part of kiting. Its really 80% kite control and 20% board skills. And learning how to multi-task. There is a lot going on while one is kiting and being able to pay attention to the important bit at the right time is key. Chase also was a skilled juggler. And I think that played an important part in his being able to pick up kiting so quickly. Chase left to go back to the lower 48; to attend school and his ski patrol job soon after. I was sorry to see you go. Thank you Chase for tracking me down and being a friend. I enjoyed my time teaching you. Here is a nice video of him juggling.