Torey, you can use Photoshop Elements as well if you don't have full Photoshop. If you are planning on going into Art though, you better buy the full Photoshop. I asked all around how to do these shots, and if you do a thread search for sequence shots you'll probably see common methods...but it comes down to whether you have photoshop skills. If not, no 'here's how you do it' post will make life easy.
That being said, I'm a joker who taught myself photoshop and last week made this stitch in about 15 minutes. It was a matter of making layers of the photographs...and then the method I use is 'erasing' the areas that overlap to expose the rider/board/rope underneath. When all done, you say 'Flatten Image' and voila. I think that the big boys have better ways to do it, but this gets the job done for me.