Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated. I am fairly new to kiteboarding (approx 2 months) But have been spending a lot of time on the water, with a background in surfing and wakeboarding I am progressing fairly quickly ie: No problem going upwind, can ride toeside, and do small jumps maybe 2 - 2.5m ( approx 15 -18 knts )with small grabs ( basically just grab and let go. so pretty lame actually ) And this is where my problem lies I cant seem to get much higher than this other people seem to be going 2 -3 times higher in the same wind and same kite. My current method is to send the kite in the opposite direction then when I feel the tension I sheet in and away I go. Please advise is this the right method or should I implement something else.
Ps: I ride a 12m Switchblade and weigh approx 82kg.

Its all in the edge and pop and of course timing, get your hands an an instructional video and a little bit of chop or waves always give you extra height before you know it you will be doing 30 foot jumps good luck with it.

Although I am not an expert in this area it comes from a combination of pop and speed as well. Pop comes from learning to load and release properly, same kind of load and release (pop) as wakeboarding. The speed you are riding gives the kite more lift so that helps as well.

The short and sweet is learn to pop without sending the kite. I.e. keep the kite at 45-60 degrees and then learn how to load up the lines and pop the kite for small jumps without moving kite by steering downwind to pick up speed, progressing tensioning the lines and releasing to get height (similar to the way they get height on a cable). You should be able to get a metre or two of height like this without sending the kite back at all. When you get used to popping and releasing like this, its a case of combining this with sending the kite, so you pick up speed, send the kite back to 1 o clock and then load and release (instead of letting the kite pull you off the water) to get height, but the timing has to be spot on, i.e. you have to load and pop just as the kite pulls you off the water.

The harder you send the kite back the higher you will go. Timing and speed is important.

When i was first learning to jump i would use wind chop or waves to launch from cause it creates a natural ramp.

practice practice practice and youll be launching like a ledgend bow kites are excellent for big air.

oh man - funniest line have heard this week - nice

kitehard

404 man

Another trick with the bows, as you send them back, sheet them out slightly, it increases the profile of the kite and gives it more speed, as you boost, sheet in and it should give you nice height.

while NS may have never seen ppl jump as high on bows,
first time out on a bow for me was a 9, i weigh about 110, the wind was howling at woodies - I havent jumped as high before or after that day. have used a few c's before that - but wouldnt go out in those winds for fear of losing valuabe health points.


anyways - everything else NS says is spot on 8)

i have found it harder on bows to try to keep the edge, while loading and popping - I get lifted at a much earlier stage in take off on my bow than the C i used to ride. its a bit different to say the least.

robbo.

Yeah...lol...just stirring about the bows robbo.
Good advice sneaky... I find if you catch yourself a little higher than you ever anticipated, and encounter a moment of panic,then concentrate on just keeping the kite in the area over your head and the landing should be relatively uneventful.

loop ur kite and POP->>

High wind, fat board, fast kite....ramps help of course.

Thanks for all the helpfull advice. I have been putting it to good use. Still need to work on the timing a little and also landing on the edge with power. Once again many thanks to everyone for the help,

Hang-time and boosting are not the same thing.
Boosting is how high you go, regardless of jump duration.
Hang-time is how long you're in the air, regardless of how high you go.
Different kites deliver different kinds of jumps.

And Me! Even though it is apparantly not cool, its great fun and still reckon I get up as high as VB on occasions