The story of Boardoff Bar begins in New Zealand. 
With an idea.

Stoke levels are high

Our founder Kitesurf_Aaron, himself an addicted kitesurfer since 2001, landed his first boardoff in late 2021 and it completely changed his life. "Imagine wanting to land a trick for so long, looking up to those pros for years and then finally nailing it. It was the most incredible feeling I've ever experienced while kitesurfing."

But why did it take him 20 years to learn it?

Like many of us addicted kiters, he lived far from the beach and getting out on the water was not easy. Eventually, he moved from Switzerland to New Zealand with the hopes of finally being able to kite more. But working a 9–5 job in a bank meant he would still not get out as much as he wanted. "Every now and then I would try a boardoff, but gosh, was I far from landing this trick. I could never put the board back on, it felt so unachievable."

So what changed?

In 2021, after turning 33, he made the decision to learn the boardoff, no matter what it takes. He started going to the gym, trained boardoffs at home while sitting on the couch, started stretching daily, went to HIIT classes, lost weight and got real fit. "It took a lot of effort, but about 6 weeks into it I finally landed my first boardoff, it was incredible!"

But what about the Boardoff Bar?

Between 2022 and 2025, he went on to coaching others completely for free. "I love seeing the emotions of someone who just landed their first board-off, it's a very special moment." Over the years, he refined his land-training workouts and even launched a boardoff training app called KiteFit. But he realised that no matter which exercises you do in the gym, it is incredibly hard to mimic kiting and target the exact muscles needed to land your first boardoff. And that’s how the idea for the Boardoff Bar was born. 

Feedback from early testers

Students who tested the Boardoff Bar told us they would have never dared to try a boardoff on the water but training on land gave them the confidence to try it. Everyone was surprised by how demanding it was and could immediately see how it could help them build the strength needed. Riders enjoyed the fact that they could take their time learning the movement first without worrying about the steering of the kite. No crashing, no relaunching or getting dragged through the water. Instead, it lets you focus on practising the movement over and over again which builds your confidence and strength. 

The biggest problem — where and how to attach it

When designing the Boardoff Bar, we knew it had to be portable, adjustable and easy to install and remove by yourself. Most importantly, it had to be safe and work in different places, whether at home on a pull-up bar or outdoors on a tree. We spent months researching, testing and building different prototypes with different materials and mounting systems to find the right solution. Eventually, we found that climbing slings were the answer. They let you secure the Boardoff Bar around different structures without needing a ladder. Combined with the adjustable hook, we finally had a system that was simple, versatile and easy to use.

Mission

The goal with our product is to help Kitesurfers make consistent progress and get better without wind, regardless of whether they live at a kite spot or not. We want to see more people get hooked long-term on kitesurfing and experience the feeling of landing their first boardoff. Once you land the boardoff, it opens up a whole new world of tricks. We would also hope to be in every major kite school around the world and of course in your house :).