Hey I'm new to the sport... Wondering, does anyone launch and land their kite by them self? If so how do u do it ?? Cheers

Hey Joey - I have had plenty of brilliant solo sessions (no pun intended...)

There are plenty of topics on this in the Newbies forum. When I was learning to kite I could self launch and land before riding a board properly. Included in that is pulling the safety a couple of times as practice if things go wrong. It's all part of learning the safety aspects before you get out on the water which is something that the person who is giving you lessons should show you.

Hey Joeyy
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, but if you don't know how to self launch and land then you are probably not really ready to be kiting solo. Get a few hours up, learn how to self launch and land with others around and practice before going totally solo.

I live by the beach and have seen numous newbies launching their kites when the wind is just wrong and no one else is out, wrong size, wrong direction etc. too easy to make the mistake when your starting out and without other experienced kites about can get ugly real quick.

Good luck

PS. I self launch 95% of the time I go out because I live about 500m from the public beach my mates launch from. From time to time it still goes a bit pear shaped even after doing it 100s of times and scares the crap out of me.

Hey Joeyy

you sould definitley know how to self launch and land. I taught myself to kitesurf and always self launch/land and usually kite solo. Give yourself space and wait till tourists are well out of the way

one tip, never run if your kite takes off with speed, brace yourself and get dragged, it'll save you tearing muscles

Best method i've found for self launch is run your lines downwind from kite, hook in, walk to the side of wind window till lines are perpendicular to wind, walk backwards adn kite will lift into air. Works fine in big wind

Self land takes more practice. Best method i've found is to lower kite to about 45 degrees- maybe bit higher, grab your centres lines and pull them in hand over hand. Leading edge will drop out of sky. Needs practice to get it down, and is challenge in big wind

gordknot said...
Self land takes more practice. Best method i've found is to lower kite to about 45 degrees- maybe bit higher, grab your centres lines and pull them in hand over hand. Leading edge will drop out of sky. Needs practice to get it down, and is challenge in big wind

Agreed, and some kites self land better than others and some respond to different techniques differently.

Some respond to the front line trick... my last few kites have all had the safety line linked to the front line, so I moderately dive the kite towards the deck and pull the safety just before it touches down .. goes to the safety, which puts tension on only the front line (closest to you), which flags the kite sideways and it lands on the beach.