Hi all.

Beginner
85-90kg
Flying a 10m Park


Hoping someone might be able to give me a pointer in where im going wrong,
I can pretty much consistantly get up and moving, but only for 10-20m, then down again. On the up side im not drinking as much water as i have been before, but im not getting a decent run yet.

So yea any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

yo what wind speed are you kiting in and how powered do you feel with your kite,sounds like youve not got enough power or your board position (ploughing) in the water,let the nose of the board follow your kite not parrallel to your kite when you stand up then start to dig in your edge,practice this in short runs in and out from the beach good luck

SamthePirate said...

Kites moving on its way down from 12 gathering power again, maybe im not doing it fast enough,

And boards angled so tips coming out and back ends pulled in tight, havent face planted for a while, its been as said before falling back on my arse,

Conditions have been so far bout 18-25kts, with gusts and still bits, rather choppy and patchy more often than not.

you could be pulling too hard on the bar... try pulling just enough to make it turn and then let the power of the kite pull you from the harness, not your arms (but be ready to pull it again so it turns back up )

Beginners make the same mistakes over and over again. It goes away with practice.

1. Over controlling. Zoom the kite up to 12. Keep it there too long. Zoom the kite to the edge of the window. Keep it there too long. You have to keep it moving gently in the middle part of the window. Turn it sooner and more gently.

2. Stalling/choking the kite. You haul on the bar and try to muscle yourself out of the water. The kite needs air speed to generate power. Let the bar out. In fact, the solution to almost every problem you encounter when kiting is to let the bar out.

3. Riding too slow. Similar to above. You dig the edge in and try to force your way up you're but not actually going anywhere. Point the board more downwind and ride faster. When you get a bit of speed then you can edge a little and progressively start to go upwind. Make sure you have plenty of room downwind. You're going to have some pretty fast crashes to start with.

A 10m Park is a pretty small kite for a big person. You are going to need about 18+ knots to be powered up. A biggish board would help.

Hey Sam. Gorgo's advice is pretty good, particularly concerning choking the kite. Don't be afraid to head downwind and gain speed. If the wind is good enough, try and find the kite's sweet spot rather than work the kite up and down. For your weight and if the wind is 18-25 as you say, 10m is fine. When you kite in lighter winds say 14-20, you may want to look at a 12m, though the size needed will depend on the kite itself. You're using a nice big board so that's not a problem.

SamthePirate said...

Hi all.

Beginner
85-90kg
Flying a 10m Park


Hoping someone might be able to give me a pointer in where im going wrong,
I can pretty much consistantly get up and moving, but only for 10-20m, then down again. On the up side im not drinking as much water as i have been before, but im not getting a decent run yet.

So yea any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

keep kite moving using the 'power strokes' but dont be yanking the bar all the way in.
point nose of board slightly downwind then adjust after a few meters of momentum
get bum down, shift weight over board and no pooh stance
keep generating power and edge to slow down.

To make it simpler, you could set the kite up using the trim adjustment strap so that when the kite is overhead, if you move the bar right down the kite will backup just slightly.

That way you almost cant oversheet the kite and you can hold the bar in and work the kite hard.

Further to Gorgo & others excellent advice, I would emphasize flattening the board when you do the water start and head downwind. Don't try and edge it until you have some good speed.

Whey you head downwind fast and the kite comes back up from your power stroke from the water start, you will also then find you then may "lose power" in the kite.

Two things you can do to correct this:

1. Keep flying (turning) the kite into the power zone and don't let it get to high (or low).

2. Edge the board so the kite pulls against it and moves forward in the wind window as you get going on the tack.

As per Gorgo, push the bar OUT if you have to much speed.

And look where you want to go, not at the kite.

Here are a couple of articles with more info:

Water start: kitesurfing-handbook.peterskiteboarding.com/progression/water-start

Going upwind: kitesurfing-handbook.peterskiteboarding.com/progression/going-upwind