Riding one handed doesn't last long, please help. I've got my back hand as close to the center of the bar a possible. Steering the kite seems difficult and often have to use my front arm again. As soon as I need to sheet in on the bar a little the kite wants to pull back to 12 o'clock and I need to then use my front hand to bring it back down.

Any suggestions...

The trick to riding one handed is understanding the two inputs you are giving the kite - power (sheeting in and out) and direction (turning left and right).

Assuming you are cruising, when you are sheeting in and out you generally to not want the kite to be turning. From you post it sounds like you are sheeting but by doing so you are also initiating a turn in the kite. The turning is caused by the force not being balanced on the bar when you sheet in.



When you ride with 2 hands, you sheet in and out by applying the same force to both sides of the bar. When riding with one hand you need to do the same thing.

There are a few ways to do this, either by putting fingers on both sides of the chicken loop and/or by twisting the bar in your hand.

When twisting the bar, if you have your right hand on the bar (back hand - like in the picture below) you want to twist the left side of the bar towards you.

Hopefully that makes sense... good luck and don't give up!

Depending on the wind strenght I can have 1 or 2 fingers over the centerline, so when you adjust the power-depower it doesen't affect the sterring of the kite

^^^^ what KIT33R said.

I have an old kite and I used to have the same problem and still do with that kite. I used to ask the same question on how everyone else could ride one handed. Couple of years ago now I got a new kite with lighter bar pressure and whola I was riding one handed straight away.

Cheers

Light bar pressure makes a big difference, so like others have said the kite itself is important.

I also suspect that if you need to use your front hand then you are using it to turn the kite back downwards.

In most kites (to varying degrees) to keep it heading parallel to the water you actually need to have slight pressure on the upper back line, as the natural tendancy is for the kite to slowly nosedive. Galah's photo shows the guys hand in an ideal position to do this and even provide some leverage with the thumb if needed. He can twist the bar clockwise easily but not so easily the other way - although can be done.

If you get it right all you need is to slightly adjust the pressure on the top steering line and shouldn't have to turn downwards at all.

It does take a little practice though as I distinctly recall that damn kite shooting to the sky all on it's own