You need slightly more wind, or a bigger kite.

But above all, learn to sheet out and direct the kite back up as you get pulled downwind. You should have your kite powering back up the powerzone before you even edge the board. And lean back on the kite to tension the lines (but don't over do it).

In the end it comes down to practice.

Definately low wind or small kite, have you tried aiming more downwind before you get onto your edge? Try and get a little bit of board speed.

Rails said..

Kajo said..
I've been going out regularly, mostly at the Northern Beaches, so wind generally doesn't get much stronger than 15knots.
Maybe I have been a bit unlucky with the wind, but whenever I do my first power stroke to get out of the water, I go downwind for a few meters, try to edge the board and then always sink back into the water.

Sometimes I've been going for 20-50m that waybut eventually always sinking back in the water. Is there something I'm doing wrong or am I simply going out in too light a wind? I would estimate the wind to be 12-15 knots on my 12m BWS Noise kite with 140 TT board (me being 85kgs).

What you are looking to do when launching is generate enough power to get you up while keeping the kite powered until you have generated enough apparent wind to park the kite.
If you stroke to hard or too deep by the time you are up you have already run out of steam this happens to more people than you would think.

or could be the wind... I need a 14m to stay upwind at those wind speeds and I am 75kgs

get an old surfboard (not a kite surfboard as they are often too heavy) I can get going in 15 knots and 12m and upwind easily (85-90kg) and teach yourself strapless riding you will become well ahead in your game and makes mowing the lawn a lot more fun.

A bigger kite, or a bigger board, or more wind will help. But that's not the problem.

The problem is one of two things, and you're probably doing both because that's what newbies do.

You're letting the kite get too far around to the edge of the window and the kite is depowering. You need to turn the kite and keep it more in the middle of the window where the power is.

You think experienced kiters have dived the kite then parked it. What you're not noticing is that the board is moving fairly fast so that the parked position is actually much deeper in the apparent wind window than it looks.

You're probably pulling the bar in too hard and stalling the kite. You need to keep the bar out a little to give the kite airspeed so you can take the power from the kite being in the power zone.

Again, experienced kiters make it look like the kite is just parked in the window. But when you add the wind speed to the board speed, the kite actually has a fair amount of wind flowing over it.

PS. The bar is a control device. You steer with it and you control the pitch of the kite. All that combined controls the power of the kite.

The bar is not a handle. You don't haul on it to pull yourself out of the water. The power of the kite is transferred down the front lines into the harness hook. You do the right things with the kite and the position of the board and your legs and the power does all the work for you.

What you can do in lighter wind is to practice your water starts and add in a carving turn. You can do a series of them down the beach then walk back. It's really good fun swooshing your way down the beach and you are practicing basic movements which is the only way to acquire a skill.

yeh sure - but we won't be there at 12-15 knots

Kajo said..
I'm pretty good at staying out of ppl's way, I just wait with my waterstart for ppl to pass etc. Got enough control over what I'm doing to do that lol.

Hmmm so practicing carving turns - basically going downwind doing S curves from heel to toe side?

You can try toeside if you want. If you could ride toeside I suspect you wouldn't be asking these questions.

You can practice in two ways.

To start with just do a water start, ride for a second, carve to a halt and drop down into the water. Then water start in the opposite direction and continue.

Once you get that down, minimise the duration of the water start so that you're quickly and smoothly transitioning into the start.

Develop that until you can push your back foot through to the front and do the water start in a continuous motion and then you'll be doing heelside carve.

It's meant to be a fun thing. Think of it like being on a dirt bike and hanging the tail out in successive turns. Throw in some power slides and some slides to toeside if you want.

It's all just practice in conditions when it is too light to properly kite. Obviously don't do it on a crowded beach or where there are kiters riding ... unless you see a school where they don't actually teach people to kite. Then your task is to bonk the instructor on the head with each turn.

PS In the 80's I was windsurfing at Torquay and a 15 year old Jason Polakow was teaching his mates to do forward loops. They were just dicking around in the shallows and doing all sorts of freestyle stuff and face plants in the shallows and playing with little waves. This is the same thing. Practice. Play. Have fun. Learn to do it without thinking about it.

Might be not enough wind.

However, its also not uncommon to need to do more than one power stroke - especially when learning. As a beginner you will naturally be cautious about the kite size until you have learnt to edge hard against excessive power.

fingerbone said..
Yea ....not enough wind for the instruments you have..

12 knotts = 17mt kite and light wind board.

Everyone was a newbie once ( even if they don't admit it )

your 12 at your weight shouldnt even come out the bag til near 20 knotts especially in the warmer winds'

You are right Fingerbone. And I noticed this last weekend when I went out in 18-22 knots. Initially I had the same problem until I realised that I do not go downwind far enough to pickup speed before starting to edge the board.
Eventually I was so fast that I had a huge smile on my face. Bit scary too though.

I will probably need to get a larger kite if I want to take advantage of the slightly slower wind speeds at the Northern Beaches in order to get more kite days in...

weebitbreezy said..
Might be not enough wind.

However, its also not uncommon to need to do more than one power stroke - especially when learning. As a beginner you will naturally be cautious about the kite size until you have learnt to edge hard against excessive power.

Definitely true for me. Edging hard to control all that power needs to be learned correctly - for me that is still a very scary prospect without this skill.

noahsky said..
Kajo I spent 12 months wondering why I couldn't get up and keep going and then heading upwind was useless. The Northern Beaches and especially Fishermans is tough because the wind is light close to the shore but fine once you get out. All the good advice as above and practice a must but best thing I did was buy a a 15m kite and now I get out every time. It feels a bit overpowered at times when you get out there but because of its size it parks easy and lets you focus on how to position your legs and hips and try to get upwind. When the wind picks up I just go in and swap to my 12m. Most guys my size 85kg seem to be using 12m kites in the standard 12 -15 knots we get.
Good luck but when you have the right power and you've got the transition of power through the lines , body and stance its seems to click.

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes I think the 12m is underpowered for 12-15 knots at this sort of body weight. Unless you're on a lightwind board perhaps...
I might look into that as an alternative to buying another kite. Still at the beginning, so don't want to spend a whole lot more just yet.

Wilkothewiz said..
Kajo

Reading this post is making me think I'm exactly in the same situation. I can't get going in 15 knots on a 12mtr being 90 kgs

It is so frustrating. When the stronger winds come in I tend to bottle it or end up being way over powered.

Great tips from everybody. I wondered if it was my heavy steer Vector not being moved quick enough through the air.

Wilko

Again, don't be worried about using more than one power stroke. Learned this when watching my big (90kg) mate get going on my 9m in 12 knots of wind. It was a proper triumph of persistance whilst he built up the apparent wind and he was a long way downwind by the time he got going but it was still impressive. Took him about 7 or 8 powerstrokes.

Overpowered gusts aren't so bad. Just bring the kite to the edge of the window and head up wind. Drive your back foot in to control your speed (more speed = more apparent wind = more adrenalin!).

bigtone667 said..

Wilkothewiz said..
Kajo

Reading this post is making me think I'm exactly in the same situation. I can't get going in 15 knots on a 12mtr being 90 kgs

It is so frustrating. When the stronger winds come in I tend to bottle it or end up being way over powered.

Great tips from everybody. I wondered if it was my heavy steer Vector not being moved quick enough through the air.

Wilko

Hi Wilko,

A 12m should be enough in 15 knots if you have a sufficiently large board (like a fish style board, north nugget, slingshot glide, vector 60 etc etc).

I experimented with some very wide, flat bits of wood and ply and it is really surprising what you can do.

The board I have is 140 x 42. I'll check out the styles you are suggesting, Funny enough I did see somebody going out with a barn door who looked to be cruising around quite happily.

Thanks

Wilko