oh hi there :)

Long story short - newby to kiting its my first season and im give or take 92 kilos, on a 10mtr North Rebel 08 kite using the kitepower blue and white newby board :)

Yesterday at botany was awesomesauce and it was blowing anywhere around 20-25 Nor East.

From the beach, i found i could head the same direction as the guys who were much more experienced than me (it was essentially towards the 2 heads). But i had to really dig my heals in as the kite was pulling like a mofo - this was good :) it was flying at about 45-30degrees.

However turning around and coming back to land i found that as much as i wanted to point up i really had to work the kite hard. I know that this is part of the whole learning to not walk of shame but after doing the walk twice i decided to really start to think about what i was doing.

So i let the ktie run down wind a little to gain speed and then really pointed the shoulders to where i wanted to go and pulled the bar almost the whole way in, it seemed to make the kite point better??? However i was travelling slowly but at the same direction as the other guys but they were doing about 2x the speed.

Any help appreciated :)

I've never been to this spot your talking about but have u considered ocean current? Currents can have an affect on planing and kite power in different directions or situations

check to make sure all your lines are of equal length.

the further you push the bar out the more the kite points upwind

prea said...

the further you push the bar out the more the kite points upwind

interesting, cause i found that the more i let the bar go out the more it wanted to pull me down wind... but i will def try that next time cheers. (big newby here so maybe i was jsut doing it wrong :P)

happypants44 said...
Hey Dave
I was there too on Sunday and was having similar ish issues. It was a really funny wind day, gusty and swinging a bit so not surprising you had some issues.
I had the same to start with on my 11m but downsized to a 9m and found it loads easier to keep it in the sweet spot and stay upwind ont he return leg.
Depending on the time of day you were flying the tide may not have helped. The tide was incoming later in the day and i found it harder staying upwind on the way back to land.
With that amount of gusting you will always find it hard to trim correctly and leave it there.
As for the line length it is more that you make sure the paired lines are the same length as eash other, ie both back lines etc.
Regardless of any of this tho how good was it to have a strong Seabreeze for the first time in ages. I had a top session!

mate i was out from (give or take( 12 to 1:30/2). I had to get back for the missus otherwise would have loved to have stayed there.

cheers for the pointer on the lines (will check that next time i get my gear rolled out.

And hell yeah it was good to have some mofo wind! fkn fantastic was my best day out i have had :P

ya thats what i was doing with neck/shoulders (trying to point) similar to snowboarding.

everytime i did it tho, the kite was still flying but not generating any power to pull me thru / out of the water.