LAKE ERIE Kiteboarders soar above western Pa. water

Not yet a decade old, the sport is gaining popularity in Pennsylvania.
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- At first glance, the fluorescent arcs gliding over Lake Erie resemble motorboat-driven parasails. Then you notice the sails are attached to a person skimming across the water, a carefree joyrider who occasionally adjusts his kite's direction and soars to astonishing heights.
That's kiteboarding. And yes, it's in Pennsylvania.
For (mostly) landlocked Pennsylvania, the increasingly popular East Coast sport doesn't seem an obvious fit. But more people each summer have been using Erie's Presque Isle State Park as a launching pad for the wind-driven sport, also known as kitesurfing, that isn't yet a decade old.
On a recent balmy Saturday, as a dozen fishing boats drifted in the back bay, 29-year-old Chris Durante prepared his kite, an inflatable model, using a large air pump, before heading out into the water.
With a little help from fellow kiteboarder Tom Sarell, Durante got his kite airborne and was soon cutting across the water, moving his kite through the "power zone" where wind would propel him and his wakeboard the fastest.
Feels like flying
On days with good wind -- 15 mph or more -- kiteboarders can shoot themselves like a snapped rubber band into the air -- 30 feet or more -- in an arcing flight which ends in a soft landing.
"It's like flying, especially when you're jumping," said Durante, who drives to Erie from his Pittsburgh home several times a month. "I love it. I'm totally addicted. My wife says my kites are first, then her."
Moments later, Sarell kicks up a good wake behind his yellow surfboard-sized board, his lime green sail attracting attention from bystanders.
A windsurfer from Erie, John Orr, stops to watch. Though he hasn't yet tried kiteboarding, he seems intrigued.
"It is the sport that's in vogue now," Orr said. "It's a great attention-getter, low impact on environment, and you can kite in winds from 10 mph to 30 mph."
As Durante sees it, kiteboarding has only two problems: It's expensive (board and kite packages range from $400 to $2,000), and hard to learn.
Though the sport might appear to be extreme, kiteboarders say it's not, that most anyone can do it after some training.
"If you don't know how to do it, it's extremely extreme," said Sarell, 59, who lives in Ashtabula. "But for me it's about technique. Then it doesn't take very much strength at all."
One of the best-known places for learning the sport is Real Kiteboarding, located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The school taught 3,000 students last summer, and co-owner Trip Forman expects to double that this summer. Students ages 8 to 70 have taken the school's three-day "Zero to Hero" camp.
"Basically in the beginning the sport was for extreme athletes only," Forman said. "Now, because of the teaching methods and gear evolving, we teach people ... from every walk of life."
Along the coast
While the sport is wildly popular in places like North Carolina, the Jersey Shore and Cape Cod, Mass., kiteboarding is an infant of a sport in Pennsylvania.
With its wide, sandy beaches and marine-environment hiking trails, Presque Isle State Park pulls in 4 million visitors a year. But few of them kiteboard: Durante estimates that only a dozen people in all of western Pennsylvania practice the sport. And any kiteboarders in eastern Pennsylvania would likely travel to the Atlantic.
Kiteboarding first appeared in the United States in 1997, Forman said. The kites can also be used on snow (with snowboard replacing wakeboards). The sport attracts snowboarders, wakeboarders, and even people who just love kites.
Forman predicts rapid growth for the sport, and that kiteboarders will soon take to inland rivers and lakes.
And why not? It's a sport that allows you to rip across the water and soar into the air. Expect to see more of those fluorescent arcs gliding over a body of water near you.