Had my first lesson today , finally. :good:
Flew a trainer 1.2 Imp for ten minutes, Joel had to make sure i could actually fly a kite like i told him when we talked on the phone. No board work today , that's the next lesson.

Went through the rigging, holding and positioning the kite then assisting instructor to launch and what to look for both good and bad when helping others.
Then it was straight into the water and some kite control/safety system instruction. Pulling the release letting the kite hit the water , resetting the safety and relaunching the kite. Also some right of way stuff and where to hold the kite. The kite dropped from the sky a couple of times because of flukey wind early on and only once i wasn't able to keep it in the air.

Then onto body dragging up wind and down wind. It was funny trying to control the kite and concentrate on how you should position yourself in the water. All those new things you are trying to do at once make it a bit of a challenge at first but it was fun too. What i did notice was that it made more difference sheeting in and out the kite whilst dragging up wind to keep the kite powered and be able to turn it properly.
Dragging down wind giving the kite some power was good fun , i was told to give it some curry to be able to feel the power. Steering from 10 - 2 in small figure 8's for i guess 50 -100 mtrs, then drag up wind tacking back to the instructor.

Then right near the end was self rescue. The thing that surprised me about that was you can actually go across and at times slightly up wind whilst sailing the downed kite back in depending on how you hold onto it.

The lesson was at Point Henry Geelong and apart from two other people out the, the water was free of people. Instructor was Joel, great bloke and likes to have a bit of a laugh but obviously knows his stuff.
When someone like that says to you that there was no need for him to hang on whilst giving the kite power downwind because he was happy that you can control the kite is a huge boost. I wanted to keep going to Avalon

So apart from the obvious what did i learn.
FUN.... And that things arent as hard as they seem or look. But in saying that i also learned that things could go wrong if you're not taught properly. It was kinda more natural for me to depower the the kite than it was to pull on the bar when the wind picked up from time to time, was surprised that i didn't just try to hang on.
It wasn't as hard as i thought it would be but it wasn't as easy either, not sure that makes sense but that's how it felt. Kinda respect the power of the kite but not be overwhelmed by it.

Was a good day cant wait for the rest

Thanks , cant wait.