About Brian Brenner | Green Hat Kiteboarding
Meet Brian Brenner — Co-Owner, Green Hat Kiteboarding
15 years on the Jersey Shore. Captain's license. Raced foils up the East Coast. Still the person picking up the phone when you call.
Brian Brenner was brought onto the boat before he ever went home from the hospital. His father docked first. That detail sounds like a joke, but it is a true story, and it is probably the clearest way to explain why Brian has spent the last 15 years building a kiteboarding and foiling business on the shores of New Jersey instead of doing anything else.
He grew up on the canals of Forked River, NJ, what locals call lagoons off Barnegat Bay. Sailing school as a kid. Wakeboarding and water skiing once he wanted something faster. The wind off the Jersey coast made flat water hard to find, which turned out to be the best possible setup for what came next.
Brian is co-owner of Green Hat Kiteboarding and has been part of the business since 2012. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard Captain's license and spent close to a decade as an EMT before going full-time with Green Hat. His wife Kelly runs receiving, billing, and works the shop floor alongside him. Their two kids have been out kite foiling and wing foiling with him since they were a year old.
When you call Green Hat, there is a strong chance you are talking to someone who rode the sport you are asking about last week, in the same conditions you are dealing with, on the same stretch of New Jersey coast.
Brian Brenner — Co-Owner, Green Hat Kiteboarding
- Riding since 2009One of NJ's earliest kite-foil racers
- USCG Captain's LicensePlus ~10 years as a working EMT
- Co-owner since 2012Operations, staff, and gear curation
- Family on the waterWife Kelly runs the shop floor; both kids foil
How did Brian get into kiteboarding?
In 2009, Brian was in a park when he ran into a stranger photographing kites to sell them. He had never seen one up close. He bought them on the spot, a Cabrinha Prodigy and an Epic kite, and taught himself to ride. He is the first to admit that self-teaching was not the right approach. At the time it was more common than it should have been, and he learned some things the hard way.
By 2012 he was out at Kite Island, a go-to launch spot along the New Jersey coast, when he crossed paths with Vadim. Vadim was running a lesson school out there and needed help covering sessions when he was overbooked. Brian started filling in.
How did Brian go from teaching lessons to running Green Hat?
Alongside the lessons, Brian started working on the website. He had been building his own sites and studying SEO independently before Green Hat, so the fit was immediate. Product listings, site structure, content, that work kept expanding until by the end of 2013 he was full-time.
Before that transition, Brian was working as an EMT for close to a decade. That background shapes how he approaches customers now. Telling someone they need lessons before buying a kite is not a lost sale. It is the same instinct, get the fundamentals right before someone gets hurt.
In 2016, Green Hat opened a retail shop in Waretown, NJ. Brian's sister came on to manage it. Vadim and Brian ran the business side by side from there, phones, emails, customer calls, gear questions. In 2020, they moved into a larger location and built out a real team for the first time. Brian manages operations and staff. His sister is still part of the operation. Green Hat has always been a family business.
What water sports has Brian competed in or seriously trained for?
In 2014, Brian and Vadim got into hydrofoil racing. For the next five to six years they ran the East Coast kite foil circuit, events in New York, South Carolina, Charleston, St. Pete, and Canada. These were legitimate hosted races, tied to local shops and yacht clubs, structured on an annual calendar. Brian was training on the water weekly between events.
The circuit ran until around 2020. By then the field had split. Some competitors had moved to La Ventana full-time and were training seven days a week. Brian and Vadim were running a business. When COVID shut the races down, that separation had already happened. The circuit ended and wing foiling was just starting to take shape. They moved there.
Parawing came next. Each transition brought genuinely new mechanics, new conditions, new skill requirements. Brian has ridden through every shift in this sport as a practitioner — not watching from behind the counter, but on the water figuring it out. That is what 15 years of staying in the sport actually looks like.
What should a beginner know before buying kiteboarding gear in New Jersey?
Brian's first questions on any new customer call are not about gear. They are about the rider. How much do you weigh? Have you taken lessons? What is your board sport background — snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding? Where are you planning to ride?
Those answers change the recommendation significantly. A rider heading to Barnegat Bay gets different advice than someone riding open ocean off the Jersey Shore. Conditions, launch space, and wind consistency vary enough across New Jersey spots that gear selection without context is just guessing.
The other thing Brian will tell any new customer straight: lessons come before gear. Not as a sales pitch — as a safety call. Green Hat works with Kinetic Adventures, a lesson school operating out of a shallow, waist-deep sandbar about 1.5 miles offshore. Clean thermal wind, no deep water, one of the better learning setups in the Northeast.
Not sure what setup makes sense for your size and riding location? Call the shop — Brian's team has been fitting riders on Barnegat Bay for over a decade.
What gear does Brian actually ride right now?
Brian does not have a fixed setup. He calls himself an “opportunity water sports person”, the conditions that day determine what he rides. Flat, shallow water and he might twin-tip. Bigger swells and a tight beach launch and wing foiling makes more sense. Running a downwinder and he is on a parawing. He is on F1 foils most consistently, but even that changes depending on what he is testing.
The testing part is not optional. Right now, parawing is releasing meaningful new models every month or two, not minor updates, but gear that rides noticeably differently than what came before it. Brian needs to know what a wing actually does on the water before he can honestly tell a customer whether it is worth buying. That means getting on it, not just reading the spec sheet.
The same standard applies to how Green Hat makes inventory decisions. When Brian and Vadim disagree on a product, they both ride it independently and compare notes. If neither is convinced, they bring in less. If both are fired up about something, they go heavier on stock. They will carry gear a customer specifically wants even if they personally would not ride it, but they will not actively push gear they do not believe in.
Want the full breakdown of how to pick the right setup for your conditions? Start with our Complete Parawing Buying Guide.
Where does Brian ride when he is not on the Jersey Shore?
The last five winters have been split between Los Barriles and La Ventana in Baja, Mexico, anywhere from one to six months each year. The thermal winds in Baja are consistent and strong, the water is clean, and the downwind runs are the kind that simply do not exist on the East Coast. Most of the travel Brian and Vadim do is built around wind windows, not vacation schedules.
Back home, Barnegat Bay is the default. Sandy Hook on higher tides. The open Jersey coast when the conditions call for it. New Jersey winds enough, often enough, that there is rarely a shortage of water time.
“Brian recently sailed from Miami to New Jersey nearly non-stop. The trip ran about 150 miles offshore. At one point he rigged a parawing and rode in 6,000 feet of open Atlantic water. Nobody planned it. The wind was there, the gear was on the boat, and Brian rode it.”
— Megan Timmer, RYGO LABS Editorial
What is Brian's family life on the water like?
Kelly kiteboards, spent two years as an e-foil instructor, and is currently learning to parawing. She is not a background figure in the business, she runs receiving and billing and works the shop floor. The whole operation runs partly because she is in it.
Their two kids are six and eight. Both have been out on the water with Brian since they were a year old, kite foiling first, wing foiling downwinders now. His eight-year-old is heading into sailing school this summer with wing foiling as her goal for the season.
Brian's dad brought him onto the boat before taking him home from the hospital. He did not quite manage to replicate that with his own kids, the January baby made the timing difficult, but the pattern held. The water came first.
In winter, when the Jersey Shore winds down and the bay is not an option, Brian plays hockey.
What does Brian wish more customers knew before calling Green Hat?
A significant portion of Green Hat's customer base is between 40 and 60 years old. Not competitive athletes chasing progression. People who want to get on the water, have a good session, and get home without incident. The gear conversation looks different for that rider than most shops assume.
What Brian has noticed across every age group is that people consistently overestimate how quickly they will progress. Advanced gear feels like a smart investment at the time of purchase. On the water, it becomes a source of frustration. Equipment designed for experienced riders punishes the gaps in a beginner's technique, and those gaps take time to close regardless of how athletic someone is.
Green Hat exists for that rider. Not to close a sale on the most expensive rig in the shop, but to put the right gear in the right hands and have them come back because it worked.
The goal is a customer who is out on the water, improving, and calling back next season. Not one who bought the wrong thing and quit.
Ready to find the right setup? Talk to the team — we would rather get you on the right gear the first time than see you frustrated six months in.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kite did Brian learn on?
A Cabrinha Prodigy and an Epic kite, starting in 2009. He taught himself, which he is the first to say is not the right way to do it. He learned some things the hard way before eventually crossing paths with Vadim at Kite Island a few years later.
How does Brian decide what gear to ride on any given day?
He reads the conditions and picks whatever fits. Flat shallow water and he might twin-tip. Bigger swell and a tight launch and he will wing foil. Running a downwinder and he is on a parawing. He calls himself an “opportunity water sports person” — the water decides, not a preset quiver.
Has Brian ever competed in kiteboarding?
Yes. He and Vadim ran the East Coast kite foil racing circuit for five to six years — events in New York, South Carolina, Charleston, St. Pete, and Canada. He trained weekly between races. The circuit ended around 2020 when COVID shut things down and the competitive field had already separated into full-time training athletes.
What does Brian think is the biggest shift he has seen in the sport?
Hydrofoiling. Before foils, you needed 15 mph winds to have a good session. Foiling changed that to 8 to 10 mph, which effectively doubled the number of rideable days in New Jersey. He and Vadim got into it specifically because they were teaching lessons during every good wind day in summer and could not ride. Foiling let them get on the water when the wind was too light to run lessons.
Where does Brian spend his winters?
Los Barriles and La Ventana in Baja, Mexico. He has been going for the last five winters, anywhere from one to six months each year. The thermal winds are consistent and the downwind runs are a different experience entirely from anything available on the East Coast.
Talk to someone who has ridden it
Brian has been on this water since before he could walk. He has raced foils up and down the East Coast, tested more gear than most riders will ever see, and spent the last 15 years helping people figure out what actually works for where they ride and who they are as a rider. That track record is what you are calling when you call Green Hat.
Shop the gear Brian trusts, or reach out directly — he is still the one picking up the phone.
Ready to find the right setup?
Talk to the team that has been fitting riders on Barnegat Bay for over a decade.