Intro to Vancouver Kiteboarding

My roommate Ron has been talking about kiteboarding for a few weeks now and how cool it is. Neither of us have ever attempted kiteboarding nor do we have any friends that do it. Our only real exposure to the sport has been watching guys rip it up at Spanish Banks. We typically play volleyball every Sunday at Spanish Banks West and each year there seems to be a few more kiteboarders going into the water. This year has been different already. For the past few years there have been 1 or 2 kiteboarders on windy days but a couple of Sundays ago there were between 5 and 10 kiteboarders setting up their kites on the beach.

It is apparent that the sport is taking off and Ron is amped about it. What are we getting ourselves into?