My first proper season and it has been great - went from barely able to get up to riding upwind and transitioning (well almost all of the time) in both directions. I'm making small jumps off the tops of waves and even managed to land a couple yesterday. The next logical progression seems to be towards getting load and pop happening reliably. Have watched all the You Tubes and am trying to get all the various parts working together.

For the past couple of sessions, I've been playing around with moving my board from the heel side edging, flattening it out and slaloming (bit like parallel turns in snow skiiing or being a a skateboard).

Sometimes, when the board is running flat over the water, it feels like I am almost ready to lift off. Is this the time to dig in the edge and let the load take place? What seems to happen when I try and turn the board hard and dig the edge in is I lose speed instead! I can get a little bit of lift by sending the kite up; but some people say that this is cheating as real load and pop is supposed to come from the board and the kite should stay at 10 or 2?

Yeah definitely playing around with slaloming can help you get a feel for how to generate that load and pop effect. Ride along on your heel edge with the kite fairly loaded with power and then just start with subtle slalom movements but you don't need much change in board direction if you are going fast enough. Of course its much easier the smoother the water. Also keep your legs and body stiff so the pop isn't absorbed by your knees and body bending. You'll get it soon enough :)

bfg said..
I can get a little bit of lift by sending the kite up; but some people say that this is cheating

next progression for you : www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/How-to-do-your-first-jump_3367282.aspx

learning to send the kite is the first step in learning to load and pop...

bfg said..

I can get a little bit of lift by sending the kite up; but some people say that this is cheating as real load and pop is supposed to come from the board and the kite should stay at 10 or 2?

What you are being told is correct 'bfg'

True load and pop involves board and body. The Kite stays at 10 or 2 as you were told.

A lot of people will try to tell you to send the kite etc. but that is a sent jump. Sending the kite is not, as someone said, "the first step in learning to load and pop".

Don't bear off the wind too much (slalom, as you put it). Just flatten your board off enough to slack your lines slightly. Your kite should settle back slightly but don't even worry about watching the kite, just keep it at a fixed height and it'll take care of itself. If it tends to drift up as it sounds like it is, keep your hands closer together on the bar. For the next steps, watch the video I will attach below.

Keep working with what you are doing though, you're on the right track.

Watch this video for a full breakdown and explanation.

Good luck

Rails said..

1. The next progression from landing chop hops and is not load and pop
2. A sent jump teaches you what you need to know about
A. Timing
B. Balance
C. Learning to load
D. Learning to pop
we all want to walk before we can run eh

If you press play and listen to the first 10 seconds of the video, you will hear this:

"In this instructional video, we will focus on the basis for any jump related kite move".

That basis, is load and pop. Or perhaps the likes of Shannon Best, and all the other pioneers had it wrong all along too?

The OP has correctly identified that they want to learn the correct way to load and pop, as a basis for their jumps. They have probably decided that they don't want their jumps to look like the jump at 15 seconds in the video..

I'm not going to waste my time saying anything else. I'm just posting this so that the OP has the correct information.

If you want to make any other smart assed comments, PM me, we can take it further.

"Progression" have a great smartphone app which covers this and much more in tremendous detail. I recommend using it. You can watch whatever progression you are aiming for go try it and then during your kiting breaks look at the video again on the beach to review where you are making mistakes. It's cheap and IMO worth every cent.