Just a general technique question.

I'm finally getting some pretty mad speed on an edge and I find that probably because of the combination of my 100kilo body having a fairly big intertia and 14m kite that it can be very difficult to slow down. When I couldn't really edge well I always used to just fly the kite up high, but obviously that just makes it impossible to edge.

The only option I can think of is to edge even harder? But I don't really know how to do that, is this when you start putting your bum down toward the water?

The reason I wanted to know this is because I am trying to learn to do a clean reverse, I find that if I send my kite back to 12 to slow down before reversing one of two things happens

a) I lose my edge, my board hits some chop and I faceplant OR
b) I just get lifted into the air... although its fun, its a bit hard to land when trying to reverse in the air.

Is it more to do with the gradual movement of the kite back over 12 and to the other side?

Help much appreciated

u need to slow down before putting your kite up to 12 and back over the other side.
the best way to do that is put your kite lower, edge harder (push the back foot brake pedal on) and MAKE the kite go forward to the edge of the window. too much of that and you will stall the kite and drop in the water - so find somewhere in between and then as you put it "reverse". cooler kids would call it a transition

edit: doh too slow

Hi Jimmyz,

I think you and me are roughly the same experience level. I couldn't do transitions and then one day all of a sudden it just clicked and i found it piss easy.

My opinion: I agree with everyone about keeping the kite low and edging like ****, once you have controlled your speed to the point where you are about to drop into the water, bring the kite over to the other side not too quickly and not too slowly. but the main thing to do when you change your kite direction is bring your back foot forward to point the board directly downwind. Do this as the kite is moving to twelve as the lift helps you stay above the water. As the kite goes past twelve you will get pulled downwind, so quickly cut back in the direction you want to go.

That probably makes no sense (i find it hard to put mental thought processes into words) but it works for me.

Mattyjee is on the money....it is called a slide transition and it keeps you moving so that you avoid the deadspot as you change direction and the kite goes over 12 o'clock. Sure there has to be video's of it on the net somewhere.....

Initiate the turn with the kite before you start the slide, or the lines will go slack and you'll lose steering input. So the sequence (travelling on port tack L foot forward):

Slow down by edging hard as described previously

Bring the kite up to about 11 while leaning back to maintain the edge

Pull on your right hand firmly to initiate the kite turning back through the window

As soon as the kite is on its way back, flatten the board, start to move your weight onto your L foot, and bust out the tail of the board with your R foot

Slide the board around to anywhere from straight down wind (ie R foot downwind) to even a bit past that point (so halfway round to toeside)

Get your weight onto your L foot and carve the board around onto the new tack, following the kite.

Ride off with your arse dry.....

As a general rule, the faster you are going when you initiate the transition, the further around you have to slide the board so you don't trip a rail...at the extreme, pop right off the water, ollie to toeside, then start sending the kite and carving your arc. Also, try and aim for a little piece of chop or a wave to carve around onto.

One other thing generally I found helpful when I was at this level & learning this stuff - don't be afraid to fall in. Once I could ride and hold ground upwind I got into the habit of riding for hours without falling, which was good for learning kite control and edging (this was back in C-kite days), but I realised I had developed an aversion to falling in, getting dragged and having to relaunch. At that point I just decided to have a session where I was going to fall every tack, but I was going to try a slide transition or a toeside carve or a downloop transition every time. It worked a treat!

So get out there, gain a good few 100m upwind, and then go for some new stuff. With the modern kites and high depower, easy relaunch, etc it is not so daunting.

Andy

walk first, run later.....at 100kg on a 14m it would be messy!

ur a wombat mikey

As you are edging to slow down the board, do you purposelly depower at the same time to slow down or you use solely the drag from the board being edged in hard to slow down?
Do you depower at all sometimes while riding? It seems to do it naturally in the wind guts as the bar tries to go up and absorb the wind.

lol sorry,actually i do own a c kite, lol, got up and runing last session and got a few good runs but was surprised to find out that once i am going at pace depowering doesn't seem to make much difference and the face plant was my preffered braking method (after checking that no one is near by).
Might check with my IKO instructor and give me a few braking pointers.

dont try to just slow down and reverse... turn and gybe towards the kite.

as you bring the kite up start to turn onto your toes and follow your kite down wind, you will lose a heap of power as you turn further and further down wind... the slower and smoother you do this the longer and more cruisy the carve will be

this also helps with not running the same tack back into the guy that was following you

Buy a bow.

For a beginner would it be easier to do the gybe or the transition when first learning?... By gybe I mean switching the board so that you have the 'wrong' foot fowards and then slowly pulling the kite over 12 and carving towards it, and obviously transition being the other one.

I do have a bi-directional board if that makes a difference.

Thanks for all the help

Yeh I think you're right, might this also be the reason that my kite tends to love stalling backwards (ie high backline vs. frontline tension).

I'm guessing just to solve it by moving the attachment points. I'll give that a shot too.