Hey Geeza,
You're right, I do have a few tips of boosting bigger and better. I have attached below, (a single page from the more than 40 in the manual) an exert from the Girls Riding Clinic Manual. To really get it happening, join in on the next course and REALLY dial it in!
Hope this helps you out.
best winds,
Darren Marshall
Australian Kiteboarding School
PS. This material is copyright protected, so please use it but don't abuse it by selling it onwards or putting it into print somewheres other than here.
Jumping theory – Better jumping techniques to go bigger and float longer.Girls can’t boost big right???? Wrong! Girls
can go big. Problem is, big jumps take a combination of timing, technique, loading, a little strength and speed, all at the same time. The single thing that killed off big jumps was the advent of the chicken loop.
The chicken loop suddenly allowed us to dump power making it easier to ride upwind without having to “out edge” gusts. The subsequent effect was to remove our need to learn good solid edging skills and holding power. Edging hard is about loading the kite or tensioning the lines. Keeping tension on the lines and loading the kite at the point of take off from the water will let you go big.
Maintaining bar pressure whilst in the air will keep you up there longer.
A few tips to jumping bigger
1. Riding along at 90 degrees to the wind, gather speed and power and noting your position in the water with a buoy or some such, send the kite back for a normal jump. Now look back and note the distance you traveled forward from the point of pulling on the bar to the time you took off from the water. It will probably be around 30 feet or 10 metres. This shows you your distance for timing a wave for take off.
2. With your new found distance, next line up a wave or piece of chop you wish to jump off and turn the kite the appropriate distance from the wave so that you will leave the water from the wave face.
3. In the short distance between pulling the bar and taking off, you should alter your course with the board to point higher upwind especially in the last 3metres before the wave. Turning sharply to windward on take off, “loads” the lines and gives you more lift by accelerating the kite.
4. Your kite should be between 11.30 and 1 o’clock for take off. Only turn the kite back to as far as around 1.30 before swinging it forward again and into the wind. This will give you nice float or hangtime.
5. As you begin to descend from the apex of the jump, steer the kite sharply back to your direction of travel and look for where you expect to land. Turning your kite well before you land gives you speed for planning so you land without butt checking in and stalling off the plane. Bend your knees to absorb the impact of landing and point the board in the direction of travel so your fins bite in and you can regain control.
Different types of jumps are accomplished by changing the position in the wind window of where you send the kite from. Higher towards 12 o’clock gives lofty high jumps where you will land near the take off point and jumps initiated from below 10.30 result in a low and long jump with a fast landing. Both types of jumps can be used to achieve different objectives.
Most common problems with jumping are :-
1. Swinging beneath your kite resulting in a luff and plonk landing. This happens due to lack of edging or loading upon takoff and also from not redirecting the kite forward before landing.
2. Lack of height comes from being tentative about the take off and not loading or not sheeting in keeping the power on.
3. Lack of float or Hangtime This is generally caused by not keeping the bar pulled in to maximum power whilst in the air or not turning the kite to face the wind in mid jump.
