Walk into the water knee deep line up board in the direction you want to go keep kite at 12 then step on board to sink it, wriggle your feet into straps, then sit down in water to begin your start, also a small piece of rope or cord on your grab handle will help in.deeper water

Maybe your straps are a bit to tight!
Feet should slide straight in.

TheWolf said...

Hi,
I cannot for the life of me get my feet into the footstraps. I can't reach that far. I have tried at home, in the water without my kite and with my kite and I simply can't do it. By the time I wriggle and writhe into a position to get into the straps I have been spun around by the kite and cannot launch.
I am quite a tall guy and I don't have a gut. I must just may have either long legs, or short arms. I searched the net, but few places even mention the hight of the handle off the face of the board.

Surely I'm not the only person who as ever had this trouble?

Ah yes , this one is close to my heart
I asked my instructor why the water we were in was too deep to do that. His answer was . "if you get slammed, i dont want you hitting the bottom and breaking your arm or dislocating your shoulder", fair enough.

Also if i can do it in deeper water and when i finaly do get up and im out in deeper water i will be able to get back on and not have to drag myself back in.

I wrote this in the other post I mentioned above:


This gets easier, the most crucial time is while you have one foot in the strap and the other strap in your hand, this will cause you to rotate. It sounds like you carry the board in your right hand, get your left toes in the foot strap and immediately push the board away from you with your right hand to get your right foot on the board. It doesn't matter at this stage if your feet are all the way in, what is more important is that your board is "square" to the wind so you do not start rotating.

Once both feet are on the board, the pressure of the water pushing on the board as you drift downwind will allow you to wriggle both feet securely into the foot straps, you could also use a hand on the handle to help.

I found using Ian's method caused me to rotate (although one arm paddle turns you around again)
Many ways to skin a cat and not one solution or method works for everyone.
BTW I have also used Cauncy method of standing on the board and this worked well for me but you have to nail this water start if you ever want to kite in anything deeper than waist deep.
Persistance, you will get it

Hi,

Had a the same issue. But you will eventually do it with your eyes closed;

First , make sure footstraps are fairly loose around your feet. Looser the better. Once you master this task you can tighten them as you progress.

Second, kite should be at 12.00 above you & sheeted in a stable position. Make sure right hand is holding dead center of bar. Try & take your eye off the kite & concentrate on the board.

Third, do not use board handle at any stage. Just grab left footstrap (if right footed) with left hand , hold the board horizontally , line right footstrap up the right foot & just slide it straight in. Use this foot to stabilize board & slide left foot straight. May need to wriggle feet a bit to get feet comfortable in straps. Bring kite down a bit to put pressure on board to make sure feet feel good against pads.


This stage was very frustrating for me, but once I really loosened the footstraps & stopped holding handle everything just came together.