YOU KNOW YOU'RE ADDICTED TO KITESUFING WHEN:

1) You relpace broken shoelaces, hang hammoks and clothes with the extra lengths of
Qline you keep in the back of the car.

2) You develop a sudden affection for wind chimes and hang them strategically around
your house so the different tones alert you to wind direction and speed.

3) Above chimes awaken you at ungodly morning hours and you sprint to the beach
without so much as a kiss to your girl or your morning coffee.

4) For the first time in your life you have a "six pack" of abs and very defined quadriceps.

5) Stainless steel O-rings, snap shackles, and clam cleats are your idea of the "family jewels".

6) You can never have enough rope.

7) You carry a spare piece of leader line and, when bored at parties or on the plane or in
line at the bank you practice all kinds of intricate knots.

8) You have no less than 327 personal "wind meters" that you glance at every day on your
commute. These include but are not limited to flags, trees, peeling billboard ads, etc etc.

9) Every sunset session is a "religious experience".

10) Your local shoe-repair guy knows you on a first name basis and has operated on your
harness 7 times in that many months and you have pretty much convinced HIM to go buy a kite.

11) You have developed intricate "systems" for everything from loading the car to laying your l
ines to cinching the harness to pulling out bladders and you mentally time yourself every run
through so as to be a lean, mean, kiting machine and not lose one precious second of time on
the water.

12) You are absolutely sure that you will be able to kitesurf until you are 83...and you'll be
jumping higher each year.

13) You have recurring fantasies of somehow becoming one of those lucky bastards that gets
to ride all the prototype gear and go on all the photoshoots.

14) You find it VERY, VERY difficult to get psyched to go play raquetball or ride your bike or
go scuba diving..."I mean, what if it starts to blow and I'm far from my kite!!??"

15) You're convinced that the human race has finally begun to evolve again and that WE are
leading the pack!

16) Work functions are distracting you from constantly watching tree tops to see how much
wind there is even though you can't get to the beach.

17) Every sport you see is compared to kitesurfing.

18) You argue with non-kitesurfing friends that kitesurfing is better than everything.

19) You try so hard to get friends involved, but when it comes down to it, it costs so much and
they don't understand that spending $2000 bucks will re-define fun in their life...and you still
can't believe that a few, although are just as fit as you, have no interest whatsoever in
kitesurfing. They would rather spend all their money on junk.

20) When you have no wind or are bored, you will sit down and study kitesurfing movies. But
when non-kitesurfing friends come around they can't watch it for 5 seconds and you can't
understand why...maybe they are jealous?

21) Your living space is shrinking due to the pile of gear in the middle of your house where the
TV, VCR, dinner table and couch used to be before selling them to buy another kite.

22) Your control bar is used for hanging coats - when you're not hanging from it...

23) You have a massive stupid grin on your face whilst hosing the kite down with water in the
garden after an epic session.

24) Afterwards you think a clean kite sitting in your garden drying off is a beautiful sight, while
your girlfriend thinks you've lost your marbles and wished you treated everything else in the
house with the same care and attention - especially her.

25) Your kite buddies have replaced your lifelong high-school/college buddies.

26) You find yourself daydreaming about kitesurfing at all hours of the day.

27) You've only stayed at home for 3 weekends in a 5-month period, 2 of which were because
of weddings or birthday parties.

28) You are constantly trying to figure out the windspeed in anything you see: movies, magazines,
"wild on" shows in Belize, pictures. Saying, "look, there's wind when this was filmed". Your
girlfriend gives you weird looks.

29) You are constantly asking friends who went to beaches etc, who don't kitesurf, if it was windy
when you weren't there because you wanted desperately to know if you've missed any kitesurfing...

30) You have replaced dreaming of hot blondes to landing quadruple back rolls in Hawaii.

31) You add up what you have spent on kitegear over the years to find out you could have bought
a car already.

32) Everyone close to you reports how the wind was where they were automatically, you don't
even have to ask them anymore.

33) You have gotten at least 2 buddies on to the sport, your brother, parents or cousins...

34) Your grandma knows that scattered whitecaps begin to form at 8 knots.

35) You don't get along with pelicans anymore because they have an uncanny knack for pooping
on your kite...

36) You have an epic love/hate relationship with the god of wind and have considered making
sacrifices.

37) If the wind is blowing you can work miracles on broken equipment with chewing gum, duck
tape, extra 600 lb Q-line and zip ties.

38) You carry a 30 lb. bag of line and rope spools, rings, shackles, leader line, everywhere you go.

39) When you won't make plans to do ANYTHING else because it MIGHT be windy...!

40) When not at the beach you find yourself looking at windcharts--like ten of them - then when
you're done about five minutes later you're back in there just to see if the wind change a knot.

41) You constanly check 20+ websites and forums just to get the latest scoop on equipment, new
video downloads and pictures or just to hear some guy on the other side of the world flew into a
tree and broke his back. You reply to everything that gives you a kick and if not finding a reason
to reply even though you have no idea what's going on. Then when all else fails, making up posts
so when you return to check it in 5 minutes to see if someone has replied.

42) You dream about kitesurfing and wake up drooling.

43) When you're on a crowded beach on a hot sunny day and eveyone else is looking at half-naked
girls on the beach but you're too busy looking at the lovely white caps in the water...

44) Your girlfriend has to sit in the back seat when driving because your board is on the passenger
seat that's reclined - and they both can't fit in the front.

45) Every roadtrip you take you are spying for new kitesurf spots relatively close to home: lakes,
rivers, open fields for kitesnowboarding or mountainboarding in the winter.

46) You take your gear with you on every romantic vacation or getaway (if your girl hasn't left
you by now)

47) You have bought a couple of women's wetsuits so your girlfriend has no excuse not to try it.

48) You have asked all your friends to see if their grandma has a sewing machine.

49) You would rule if Jeopardy ever had a category for "sailmakers supply"

50) Your browser's "favorites" are filled with pages of endless windmeter links and kitesurfing
sites.

51) You've considered using your kite as a sleeping bag on the beach - because tomorrow is
supposed to be windy.

52) You have bandaged wounds with a 'Band-Aid' constructed out of ripstop nylon or sailtape.

53) You have hung glo-sticks to your rear pigtails to extend your riding time.

54) You don't use a pump to inflate your kite anymore - Foil *or* LEI...

55) Your choice in your latest motor vehicle was dictated by the amount of gear it could store...

56) Your child is named 'Wook', 'Toro', or 'Peter Lynn'.

57) Water doesn't seem to taste right at home or at a restaurant... It just doesn't seem, well...
salty enough...