Kites and Their Riders Fill the Skies Above Jamaica Bay

Home Brooklyn Life Kites and Their Riders Fill the Skies Above Jamaica Bay
Kiteboarder Lens Kol launches Carlos Cabrera's kite on a rainy day. (Photo: Robert Fieseler/The Brooklyn Ink)
Kiteboarder Lens Kol launches Carlos Cabrera's kite on a rainy day. (Photo: Robert Fieseler/The Brooklyn Ink)

Commuting to work from his Queens home one day in 2008, Carlos Cabrera felt the wind shake his car as he crossed a bridge. He gripped the wheel with both hands, guiding his Volkswagen safely across an empty stretch of the Belt Parkway in South Brooklyn.

As he headed west, the Brooklyn Marine Park gave way to the Plumb Beach Channel and then half a mile of dirty beach before Exit 9 and Sheepshead Bay. For some reason, he glanced to his left towards Jamaica Bay.

There they were, pitching and yawing above the tree line, gliding like giant bats—florescent kites of orange, green, purple and red. “Big, peaceful kites,” recalled Cabrera, “bobbing back and forth. Huge. I had to see what was going on.”

Cabrera pulled a U-turn on the highway median, crossed over traffic and parked at the Plum Beach rest stop. Walking to the shore, he noticed the kite lines dangling into the water. “Then I saw it was attached to a human being,” said Cabrera, “and I thought, ‘Wow, I have to do this!’”

Three years, one lesson and seven kite purchases later, Cabrera is a kiteboarder. Twice a week, Cabrera dons a wetsuit and harnesses himself to an 11-meter kite. He digs his feet into the grips of a wakeboard and lays back into the waves, awaiting the force of the kite to surge his body upward and then forward.

Kites fill the skies on a Saturday at Plum Beach. (Photo: Robert Fieseler/The Brooklyn Ink)
Kites crisscross the sky on a Saturday at Plum Beach. (Photo: Robert Fieseler/The Brooklyn Ink)

Cabrera kiteboards at Plum Beach five to 10 times a month. He’s not alone in his devotion to the sport. The 12-year-old pastime is touted by SBC Kiteboard magazine as one of the fastest growing sports in the world. A boom of recent beginners, guided by International Kiteboarding Organization-certified instructors and encouraged by safer kite technology, have supplanted the extreme, windsurfer origins of the sport and opened kiteboarding to all ages.

The International Kiteboarding Organization network now includes over 130 affiliated kiteboarding schools in 38 countries. Its 4,000 instructors have certified more than 410,000 kiteboarders worldwide.

Among the schools affiliated with the International Kiteboarding Organization is Plum Beach’s own New York City KiteClub (www.nyckiteclub.com). Founded in 2009 by instructors Mike Preis, 40, and Franz Kol, 28, the school teaches over 80 students a season, which lasts from April to October. Students range from pre-teenagers to 30-somethings to seniors. A 12-hour package of lessons costs $1,100, equipment provided. A beginner board, harness and kite cost an extra $2,000.

The steep price tag doesn’t stifle demand. Most days at Plum Beach, Preis and Kol are out flying three-meter training kites with first-timers. “Everyone wants to be that guy out there on the water,” said Kol. “Once they get the bug, you can’t shake them off. They’ll call you 10 times a week.”

Instructor Franz Kol walks the kite lines with a first time student. (Photo: Robert Fieseler/The Brooklyn Ink)
Kiteboarding instructor Franz Kol walks the kite lines with a first-time student. (Photo: Robert Fieseler/The Brooklyn Ink)

Most kiteboarders describe the sensation of kiting as a mixture of meditation and adrenaline. “You feel like you’re getting away with something huge,” said Cabrera. “You get away from reality, no phones, no stress, nothing,” said Angelo Theologias, 34, a third-year kiteboarder at Plum Beach. Kiteboarding attaches the rider to the kite through a safety line on a harness. The rider steers the kite, like a bicycle, through a control bar tied to the kite’s 20-meter lines.

Kiteboarding regulars credit New York City KiteClub with building the kiteboarding scene at Plum Beach. “When Franz started kiting here three years ago, it was five people,” said Lens Kol, 29, Franz’s brother. “Now, with good conditions, it’s 50 people.” Plum Beach is known for supporting a tight-knit community. “We all have each other’s numbers,” said Franz Kol, “so you’re never alone out there. Not even in the winter.”

Avid kiteboarders describe Plum Beach as the ideal location. Southerly thermal winds, cooled by the Atlantic Ocean and sucked inland towards the heat of Manhattan, frequently produce gusts of 15 to 25 mph. “You get thirsty for winds like that,” said Paul Glezer, 27, a five-year kiteboarding veteran. These winds, combined with the flat water of Jamaica Bay, create a playground in which riders can learn, do tricks and perform aerial jumps.

Unique wind conditions also make Plum Beach attractive to kiteboarders in the winter. “We ride until there’s ice on the bar and icicles on the lines,” said Lens Kol. Lens Kol and other diehards purchase specially designed wetsuits and dry suits that buffer the skin from cold, like seal blubber.

“The first thing I tell people is that this is more addictive than any drug you’ll ever try,” said Preis. “The second thing I tell people is be careful about divorces.” Many kiteboarders at Plum Beach have been known to choose favorable conditions over dates and anniversaries. When asked how much time he personally spends at Plum Beach, Preis joked, “Ask my wife how much time I spend here.”

Some local kiteboarders also find the sport usurping their work. They’ll scrutinize wind forecasts. They’ll watch the flutter of flags and trees from inside office buildings. “Some kiters just don’t go to work anymore,” said Peter Lee, a two-year veteran who owns over 30 kites. The kiting lifestyle often necessitates a career with flexible scheduling. Preis is a fashion photographer. Franz and Lens Kol do computer-graphics animation. Cabrera works as a freelance construction contractor.

Franz Kol lands a jump in cold weather. (Photo: Mike Preis/NYCKiteClub.com)
Franz Kol lands a jump in cold weather. (Photo: Mike Preis/New York City KiteClub)

Few authorities visit Plum Beach. It exists in what Preis calls a legal deadlock of overlapping city, state and federal agencies. To ride for the year, most kiteboarders purchase a $50 “Hand-Launched Boating Permit” at the Floyd Bennett Field Ranger Station of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Crowds often gather at Plum Beach to watch the kiteboarders jump 25 to 30 feet in the air. The process, called “powering up,” involves swinging the kite up- and down-wind in the shape of a figure eight, gathering energy until the final swing, when the kite takes over. The jump can last for 15 seconds and look like a video game maneuver, quickly up and slowly down, softly landing in the water.

When asked to describe a great jump, most kiteboarders search for the words to sum it all up. “You’re powering up the kite, edging on your board and getting set to change,” explained Glezer. “Then, you pivot. You pop off, floating into air, and it’s pure quiet. It’s that moment looking down where things are small. Then you crash back down into the waves.”

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