Sorry to take so long to respond.... was zoned out...
Yes, you can kite skate on any skate really, but the TONA driftwood skate I designed for the kite pull.. Basically, it has to be more efficient than anything that is pulled behind a boat because behind a boat you have unlimited power.. So we played with lots of different rocker lines to maximize the efficiency and keep the looseness of a wake skate. If you use a standard wakeskate, you will find you will need lots of power to get going. Everything behind a boat is designed to have lots of drag, something we can not afford behind a kite. (same is true with our Wake style TONA boards too) .. so if you just try any skate, your first impression is that you need lots of wind... not true with a kite designed kiteskate...
The good thing about the kite skate is the range. Because of the freedom to place your feet anywhere, you have unlimited pressure you can put on the deck to handle light winds to heavy wind.. If you are totally lit and over powered on you twin tip, you can jump on a skate and have a blast!!! It can get going in lighter winds because the rocker is refined and again you can place your feet towards the middle of the board to continuously adjust the deck angle for maximum efficiency. You will be surprised that it does not take much to get going once you figure out the foot placement thing...
Another thing we did was pay attention to the rail shape.. behind a boat you can find flat water to ride in. Behind a kite you may encounter chop with the wind so we have shaped the rails for this. A little more rounded near the middle... You can also sand them rounder if you always ride in chop and make it easier to land rotation tricks.. Yes you will mess up the paint job on the rails if you sand it but just put your own color to seal the wood and you are good to go!!
Another consideration we paid attention to was the weight. Most of our prototypes were too light!! great problem to have as a board builder...! : ) we found it needs to have some weight to keep the board under control in the chop and wind when the board leaves the water..
I hope I answered the questions.. If you got anymore and i don't respond in good time, email me and I will pop back and answer any more questions...
dereck@tonaboards.comthanks,!
DC