The reason for the J move is to travel with the kite to prevent tripping, it will also allow the board to gain forward momentum rather than sideways, once your weight is over the board and the board is moving across the water in the correct direction,
At this stage the kite is towards the bottom of the stroke and turning to travel back upwards.
Changing your direction now to add tension to the lines as the kite travels back up to the top of the window. Continue edging untill pointing upwind. The rate at which the turn happens depends on the power stroke and wind strength.

If you don't travel downwind you will probably trip over the board and faceplant.
If you travel too long downwind you will lose pressure in the kite and loose steering and the kite won't come back up when you turn and you will sink, or have alot of speed and loose your balance.

It's a matter of enough downwind to get you out of the water and turn to gain an edge.
If you start with the board sideways all you will do is skid sideways without gaining an edge.

speller said...
I wonder why they don't teach people to start on the upstroke of the kite, rather than the downstroke? Starting on the upstroke pulls you up out of the water easier, plus avoids the chance of smacking the kite down and having to relaunch.

Couple of reasons,
It is harder to generate power from a standing still when kite is at 3 oclock
Pulling the kite up from 3 oclock will pull you up but it will also pull you back down twice as hard in the opposite direction possibly on sand.

Kitepower Australia said...

speller said...
I wonder why they don't teach people to start on the upstroke of the kite, rather than the downstroke? Starting on the upstroke pulls you up out of the water easier, plus avoids the chance of smacking the kite down and having to relaunch.

The J thing sounds complicated,

I agree I always say it should be like walking or riding a bike, keep doing it until it feels second nature, but then if you are a knuckle dragger like me its all in the feel, monkey see monkey do.... ;)

your coach was right. I've never heard of the J move, but i assume it's just another way to think about what your coach told you. my advice is don't over think it. Kite surfing is very muscle memory based so the only way to learn is to develop a feel for it by repetition and getting it wrong a few times. But as your coach said, start off with your board going down wind until you have enough speed to get an edge. You don't head down wind long, maybe one second or so. Watch a few tutorials on youtube such as the progression ones, get in the water and be prepared to just focus on getting up for a while and eventually it'll just click and you'll wonder what the big deal was

But if I don't quickly turn the board perpendicular to the wind, then I will simply be going down wind and loose power as the kite dives out of the powerzone. The way I have been practising is to point the board to the kite on the 1st downstroke into the powerzone and within 2 secs or less, turn the board in the direction I want to go (obviously the kite has been dived into the same direction). And then I try and backfoot heel edge (it's where I am at the moment practicing) and that creates tension in the lines allowing me to keep the kite (parked) in the powerzone. Otherwise how else do you keep going if it's not edging perpendicular to the wind on your back? Do you know what I mean? That's what I thought is meant as the "j move" (ie. by the time you are up and out of the water, the kite and you should be balanced enough with your board edged and heading in the direction you turn your head to and the kite is powered).

Cool thanks.

Nice sunny day at last in Melbourne, but no wind! :-(

Looks like Wed afternoon should be good, around 2pm? Any takers for Altona?

Yeah, I almost had it on my last trip out (Fri evening). I am just point it too much downwind for too long and not edging it to stabalise the kite on my "bottom turn". But thanks for the tip anyway. You reminded me of a wave I caught at Bells once (solid double overhead) and did one of those classis bottom turns that looked like I was skimming on the side of the board! Will nail it after I do 4 to 6 hrs solid in the water like Irish did! hehe