Hi Tonymsb,

It's great to see your enthusiasm to learn the sport and try to get as much preparation done before lessons.

Practicing flying trainer kites is great fun for you and the family as long as it's done in safe environment and in the right wind conditions.

I must tell you that as an instructor with many thousands hours of experience, the vast majority of newbies, even the ones with the best intentions, who over-fly trainer kites without any coaching/supervision develop some bad flying habits. Simply put, it's easier and much faster to teach you the good habits from scratch with zero prior flying experience than it is to try and correct the bad habits you developed while self-learning. Prior to teaching kitesurfing I was teaching snowboarding for 15 years and it was the same thing...all my students who tried to self-learn prior to lessons took much longer to break the bad habits and learn the right ones as opposed to my students who came with zero experience.

Here are my suggestions:

Option 1- Purchase a 2-line foil trainer kite ($200-300) and fly it for only a couple of minutes until you understand what turns left, what turns right, the wind window and power zones. Fly the kite steadily at all different clock positions with two, then one hand. It should take you no more than 30 minutes to figure that out. Then book your first lesson straight away. After this you can use the trainer kite for showing your family and have some harmless fun on *light* wind days on the beach.

Option 2 - Book your first lesson straight away and learn the basics about wind, safety, kite control, safety systems, launching and landing safely, etc. Then purchase a 4 line inflatable trainer kite and fly it on your own as long as you and your instructor mutually agree that you are ready for it. The only kite I can recommend for this is the Ozone Uno 4m. They are not cheap and you will have to purchase an Ozone bar for this (this will cost you a total of over $1200 + harness $300). This means later you will have to purchase a bigger Ozone kite to match this bar. Then book your lesson 2 and 3. If done safely without bad habits, the flying time you do after the first lesson will greatly accelerate your progression in the following lessons. If you look at the cost of the Uno (without bar), that money would easily buy you 6 hours of lessons...so you have think if it's really worth it.

Things I don't recommend:

-Learning to fly a 4 line kite on your own, especially if done on a busy beach and strong winds...not only you will develop bad habits but you will most likely crash the kite hard, risk damaging your gear and be a danger for yourself and everyone else around.

-Flying a 2-line trainer kite for many hours constantly driving it through the power zone.

-Teaching your family with a 4-line inflatable kite. Regardless of it's size it can be dangerous. Last week I convinced an adult who was trying to teach probably his own son with a 4m Ozone Uno in 25-30 knots with 24 meter lines. Not only he himself wasn't great at flying and crashed the kite hard and got dragged on the beach (90 kg), but the little guy was probably about 4-5 years old with a harness on weighing something like 25 KG...I cannot start to imagine how this would've turned out if I hadn't had a chat with him and convinced him not to hook the kite on to his son.

Think about it this way, would you lend your car to your nephews before they take some driving lessons so they can develop the ''safe and right muscle memory'' of driving? Take your time when shopping around for lessons as well. High quality instruction will easily outweigh any prior flying training you do on your own.

Self-learning the basic theoretical aspects about wind, terminology, safety systems, etc. by watching videos and training DVD's is the best thing you can do prior to lessons.

Christian

Hi Christian
Thanks for that detailed advice and info. The first videos I watch when learning anything are the ones of things that can go wrong so appreciate your highlighting the concerns of potential risks with going too far ahead with self learning. But I do a lot of research too as youtube now caters to any topic you want to learn for an inquisitive and persistent mind and I have already watched over 100 videos by playing them at double speed !

I will opt for your option 1. I pulled a muscle at my upper back a second time after recommencing my exercises prematurely so I will have rest it a couple of months before I can do anything strenuous so most likely that advice of not over self training may not be heeded in full :)

There's a fair bit of over thinking going on here with the trainer kite question. It's both simpler and more complex than it looks. It doesn't matter which kite you practice on as long as you practice. You're just trying to kick start the skills acquisition process.

There's no firm dividing line between the trainer kite and starting kitesurfing. You just do stuff and stuff happens. You sort stuff out and you learn things. There's no need to get a trainer that exactly mimics your kitesurfing kite. It's all experience and knowledge gained. When you start kiting everything is always the same every time, until something unusual happens. That is where your problem solving skills have to kick in and sort it almost immediately.

In the first instance you're just trying to learn to fly a kite. That truly takes only about 30 minutes.

You're also trying to develop the muscle memory and basic skills to have kite flying as a natural part of your body. That can take hours. The more you do the better.

You want to develop kite oriented problem solving skills. The kite is there. I am here. How do I get the kite to flip over and relaunch without me going there? Which combination of lines and tension can achieve the result I want? Can I do it without walking or running or whatever? What impossible situation can I get into then sort out with simple movements?

Finally you're learning basic line and kite management skills. How to wind and unwind lines without getting tangles. How to quickly and easily sort out tangles. How to pick a spot to set up and pack up a kite. The effect of turbulence and bushes and crap on the ground.