Megan and Shannon

Obsession Kiting was founded in 2017 by Megan and Shannon du Plessis. Megan taught kitesurfing from 2012 and took several hundred people from never having held a kite to riding independently. Shannon came from Hobie cat sailing and the business side, which is why the logistics and the safety cover work the way they do.

These days they run the school rather than teach on it — but the standards they set are still the ones our instructors are held to, and the family is usually somewhere on the water.

Obsession Kiting is a women-owned business, which is still unusual in kitesurfing and worth saying plainly.

What we are trying to do

Three things, in order.

Safety

A rescue boat on the water and a radio in your helmet on every lesson. Not an upsell, not an optional extra — the baseline. Kitesurfing is a sport where the equipment can hurt you if it is taught badly, and we would rather be boring about it.

Independence

The goal of every course is a rider who does not need us. That means we teach self-rescue and upwind body dragging properly rather than rushing you onto a board for a photo. You should leave able to go kiting on your own, anywhere in the world.

Community

Kitesurfing has given us a way of life we would not trade, and most of our friendships came off the back of it. We would rather build a group of people who keep coming back than sell a maximum number of first lessons.

Why we teach in Langebaan

Because it is, for our money, close to the best water in the world to ride on. The lagoon is flat, protected from swell, and free of the reef and boat traffic that make so many other spots harder than they need to be. Forgiving enough for a first lesson, clean enough that experienced riders keep coming back.

Beyond the conditions, Langebaan sits inside a marine protected area, and the lagoon is genuinely beautiful — turquoise, clean and full of birdlife. It is a pleasant place to spend a week even on the days the wind does not play.

Being an IKO Pro Centre

The International Kiteboarding Organization is the largest kiteboarding training body in the world. Pro Centre status is the level that authorises a school to train and certify new instructors, not just teach students, and it comes with audits against the IKO curriculum and safety standards.

We run instructor training regularly, which has a useful side effect: teaching instructors forces you to keep your own standards sharp. When you take a lesson with us, you are being taught by someone who has been formally assessed and who is reassessed as the curriculum changes.

Your progression is recorded on an IKO card. If you get halfway through learning here and finish in Egypt, Brazil or Tarifa, the next school knows exactly where you are.

Languages

Our instructors teach in English and Afrikaans. If you would be more comfortable learning in a particular language, say so when you enquire and we will make sure you are paired with the right instructor.

The kit we ride

We teach and rent mostly on Duotone. It is what the school flies day to day, and what you will almost certainly learn on. We also stock Fipper, Reef, Back 2 Nature and Hobie.

Teaching gear gets replaced regularly — you will not be learning on someone's worn-out kite from four seasons ago.