How to Make Slider Ramps for Kiteboarding

Kiteboarding is an extreme sport. The athlete straps a small surfboard to his feet and gets into a harness that is attached to a kite the size of a small parasail. This allows the athlete to surf both waves and flat water. The great advantage of kiteboarding is that it allows the rider to do some extreme moves that would not be possible with any other surfboard -- like 50 foot leaps into the air off the crest of a wave. Acrobatic tricks are easier if you build your own slider ramps – also known as kickers.

Things You'll Need

  • 4 16-foot 2 x 4’s
  • 12 12-foot 2 x 4’s
  • 4 sheets plywood
  • 4 sheets fiberglass reinforced bath-board
  • 3 gallons liquid nails
  • 3 60-gallon drums or barrels
  • Carpenter tools
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Instructions

    • 1

      Build the base. This is a rectangle of 2 x 4’s that is six feet wide and 16 feet long, so you will need to cut one of the 12-foot boards in half. If you have the carpentry skills, it will help stabilize the base if you brace the corners with short pieces of 2 x 4’s. These four pieces should be one foot or less with the ends cut at a 45-degree angle. If you cut all four of these from a single board it will save time, energy and wood.

    • 2

      Attach a series of six uprights of different lengths to both of the 16-foot sides of the base frame. Lengths should be approximately six feet, five feet, four feet, three feet, two feet and one foot. It is very important that any two opposite uprights be exactly the same length – otherwise the surface of the kicker will be uneven. Attach one 16-foot board and one 12-foot board overlapping along the uprights as close to the tops as you can get.

    • 3

      Use the remaining boards to make cross braces between the uprights just above the tops of the floating drums. Fit two drums lengthwise at the rear of the frame and one barrel crosswise at the front of the frame. Place the plywood sheets on the tops of the uprights, and attach the length of backboard on top of the plywood sheets. The edge of the bath-board should be no more than an inch past the front edge of the longest upright. The low end of the bath-board should be an inch or more beneath the surface of the water.