In the shop it is regular comment from non kiters about to start out. As soon as lessons are mentioned you get this : "Yeah But - I'm not going to go anywhere near the water till I learn how to fly the kite". No.1 mistake and probably the most dangerous mistake you could ever make. If you do any beach flying in your lessons your instructor will be right there beside you (or should be) either hooked to you or holding your harness. There is almost nothing you can learn about flying your kite when you are on the beach. The exception being launch & land. And once shown this should also be practiced till its totally dialed - BUT NOT ON THE BEACH - unless you have that added person locked in. Practice it by dropping into the water out of everyone's way and raising & lowering to almost 9 & 3 both sides. Repeat until its as easy as pie every time. It is the most important skill to learn. WHY? Because you do it on the beach. And where is the most dangerous place to fly your kite ? ........ Repeat after me. The most dangerous place to fly my kite is ........... [}:)]
The correct statement should be "I am not going to try and use my board until I am a competent kite flier."
Too many newbs do a couple of body drags then try add the board into the mix. They have zero kite control skills then try to deal with the board and the kite and the waves and everything all at once.
You should do several hours of body dragging in a variety of conditions before you take the board into the water.
You should be able to body drag reliably without crashing the kite at all.
You should be able to drop the kite in the water and relaunch it reliably from a range of positions in a range of wind conditions.
You should be able to laze about in the water and keep the kite in the air without thinking about it.
Then you can add the board.
What you can do on the beach is practice your underpowered kite flying. What you are trying to do is to understand how your kite works in terms of the power zone and front and back stalling and air speed.
You should be able to hover the kite at the edge of the window in too light wind and recover it from any position.
I remember in the early days, some noob in NQ decided the safest way to learn would be to tie 30m of rope from a footie goal post to the back of harness. he went up 30m, down 30m, morgue.
Ditto to Gorgo Never ever underestimate the value of a body drag. For our newbies sitting in the car waiting for the wind is just wasting time. Get out there with your biggest kite & body drag till its blowing enough to get the board out. All the kite flying skills you need to kitesurf competently can be learnt & dialled & tuned & practiced by body dragging.
Agree with Gorgo, When i first started I spent at least 3 weeks body dragging up wind & left the board at home. In light winds you really learn how important it is to keep the kite moving up & down thus findjng a sweet spot which is needed to keep some power in the kite & keep you moving otherwise it just falls out the sky. I find i do this automatically when the wind suddenly dies in the arse & you're 400m off shore. Great body dragging skills also allow you to retrieve the board quicker. When ever I stack , the direction the kite falls is the direction I instantly start body dragging. I don't waste any time looking to see where my board is because I will spot it on the return body drag. I saw one guy the other week edging quite well, loose his board , had the kite comfortably above him, he then lets his kite go & starts swimming for his board with the kite powered up in the water behind him. He was about 300M out & he must of been physically f****d the time it took him to retrieve it. Good job it wasn't blowing 25knts, he'd be in a lot of trouble.
puppetonastring said... Ditto to Gorgo Never ever underestimate the value of a body drag. For our newbies sitting in the car waiting for the wind is just wasting time. Get out there with your biggest kite & body drag till its blowing enough to get the board out. All the kite flying skills you need to kitesurf competently can be learnt & dialled & tuned & practiced by body dragging.
