Being a beginner myself, I thought I'd share a few tips I was given and helped me a lot:

1- Aim the nose of the board to the kite lines when getting up
2- Always use the bar paralel to the kite
3- It is way easier to get up on stronger winds (within reason, of course. To me, ~20 knots)
4- The more you do the "Walk of Shame" the better kite control you will get
5- Don't worry, it will "click". Sonner or later.

Hope it helps someone.

When I was learning, I found the kite control very difficult. My instructor never explained exactly, not sure if any do or if its too self explanatory and I just didn't get it, but the key is always keeping the lines taught, an ongoing process of small tweaks pulling the bar in slightly and letting it out slightly. If the lines go slack, the kite starts to fall and then it's a bigger task to keep it where you want it. So remember, when you're stood with you're kite in the air holding the bar for dear life and wondering what the trick is, it's tight lines, so damn simple eh?

not sure if the Vegas is the best option for a beginner but I could be wrong

Hey teamex
Sounds like you had your centre lines trimmed all the way in to full "depower"..... this will make steering sluggish on most kites. You need to let the cleat, trimming strap, out to lengthen the front lines a bit for better control. Also check your line lengths, might need adjusting and both sets of lines should be on the middle knot until you have more air time.
Do a search for puppets post on trimming the kite correctly
Cheers

Yeah 12 kts probably wont be enough for a normally trimmed 12m kite steering lines to stay taught. My 11m only starts to be correctly tensioned at about 17kts. Anything less and it steers like a bus.

OK, here's something I made a mistake on yesterday:
Very very light wind about 10-12kts but thought it would be OK with a larger tt (134x42) at only 62kgs on my 10m
I was doing fine the first couple runs and just managing to hold ground and not go down wind when I think the wind dropped a little more, during a turn I had the bar all the way in (depower strap was all the way out) and ended up stalling my kite.
Just fell out of the sky due to over sheeting. Took ages to relaunch due to marginal winds and then when up and riding I did it again! Over sheeted, kite fell too far back in the window and dropped again.

In retrospect, I would have been far better off with the bar further out and signing the kite more to create more apparent wind.
It would also have helped this noob out if I had pulled in the depower strap a bit (I know this sounds counter intuitive but work with me here) to help prevent me from over sheeting in the first place.

Sessions like this are great when you realise what you have done wrong and can reflect, learn and rectify next time you're in the same situation.

Hope this helps someone else out.

Here is a lesson I learnt today which scared me a bit. I thought I was all over self rescues but turns out I wasn't. I was about 250m offshore in nice wind when it just stopped to absolute nothing. I totally stuffed up the winding in of the lines and by the time I reached my kite I had lines tangled all over me. I guess I paniced a little and just wanted to get to the kite. I had a very long time swimming back in with lines everywhere (tangled in my feet/legs/whole body) to know that I never want to do that again. Def should have taken my time, relaxed and do it properly. I need to practice the self rescue a bit more before I go back to tryin the fun stuff.

When you fall, continue bodydrag a bit in the direction you felt. Then as soon as you start bodydrag in the other direction the board will "usually" be almost in front of you. Also when you change direction while bodydragging, NEVER pull the bar because the kite will move into the power zone and take you straight downwind. Finally, while bodydragging, keep the bar out of the water and parallel to the water.
Make sense?

Gateman said..[/
In retrospect, I would have been far better off with the bar further out and signing the kite more to create more apparent wind.
It would also have helped this noob out if I had pulled in the depower strap a bit (I know this sounds counter intuitive but work with me here) to help prevent me from over sheeting in the first place.

In my limited experience I've found in lighter wind it works well to pull hard on the bar and use the power as the kite is diving and as you turn it to the horizontal, then ease bar as its coming up to help prevent the stall and help it fly up quickly. You repeat this cycle as you sine the kite, it's like a slingshot of power then re-loading as the kite rises. Hard to explain in words but it's a feeling. I may be off track here, just a personal observation from my own feelings as I improve my kite skills.

savagebee said..

Gateman said..[/
In retrospect, I would have been far better off with the bar further out and signing the kite more to create more apparent wind.
It would also have helped this noob out if I had pulled in the depower strap a bit (I know this sounds counter intuitive but work with me here) to help prevent me from over sheeting in the first place.

In my limited experience I've found in lighter wind it works well to pull hard on the bar and use the power as the kite is diving and as you turn it to the horizontal, then ease bar as its coming up to help prevent the stall and help it fly up quickly. You repeat this cycle as you sine the kite, it's like a slingshot of power then re-loading as the kite rises. Hard to explain in words but it's a feeling. I may be off track here, just a personal observation from my own feelings as I improve my kite skills.

Thanks Savage, will try this next time it's very light.

@Puppet: thanks too, I have been trimming my kite exactly this way since you 1st posted this on a previous thread