1st session on Water!

I'm going to fly my first session on water since taking a lesson over 9 months ago! Friday I will be headed out to Wildcat Beach, Corpus Christi to fly my 10m Havoc and ride my new Best Spark 140! I plan to spend Friday and Saturday in Corpus. Drop me a line if you're going to be in the area and we can meet up.

Thanks for the support, guys!
The day turned out to be a dismal failure.
I had multiple deflating issues with my Havoc.
At one point I almost got up and planing but wasn't pointed downwind enuf and went over my board. Then my kite superman'ed me and I tumbled head over heels into the shallow water scraping up my knee and jamming my middle knuckle. That may have been the same time I tore out my footstrap and lost the triangle bracket holding it in. Just as well, the way that day was going I probably would have been seriously injured if I kept riding. I must have cross-threaded the bolt when assembling my board.

I just get so excited and impatient that I sometimes throw caution to the wind.

Next time, I plan to take my time and play around with the kite more in the water before trying to get up on the board.
I still feel out of my element in the water. I don't have these kind of problems with my kite on land.

Planning a trip to the local cable park to get towed around and get the hang of board dynamics on water soon.

Saturday I did better. Went to the beach at Rockport and just did body dragging. That helped I think.

I almost forgot to mention that someone stole my little Wasp 1 trainer at Sunset Lake park. I had put it down still rolled up and went back to my car to get something. When I returned it was gone. At least my ATB wasn't stolen too!

I hope I have more luck next time I go to the coast. I'll try to be more patient too

You might be diving the kite too far into the eye of the powerzone, directly downwind ... the more wind there is, the less you have to dive - which you probably know!
Want to go to the right - start at 11 o'clock, make a shallow dive to the right. Dive deeper and deeper until it pulls you up.

Some things that helped me ...
Sit up before you stand up. Let the kite pull your upper body upright (like you're sitting up) then as it continues to pull, let it lift you onto your feet.
Point the board at the kite or just upwind of it when you start - that'll convert kite pull into board speed as soon as possible. Keep your shoulders square but push out your front foot.
Let the harness pull you. Hardest thing for me is NOT to hang on the bar like a trapeze artist ... damned foils on handles take the power of the kite through your harness (sometimes I have to concentrate on feeling it) and you'll be up and off. IMHO the best way to learn that is scudding with the kite or better yet jumping and hanging from the harness. Or you could just steer the kite by hooking your index finger over the bar ... probably safer :D

Sounds like you were nicely powered ... believe it or not, if you're supermanning, then you're (probably) powered up enough to be riding easily! Just a question of technique on the board. And you may have been pulling on the bar with your arms (see above).

Stick at it - it's all about getting the hours under your belt

I think once you're consistently getting up and onto the board, actually riding it is not much of a problem ... assuming you have some kind of experience eg. skateboarding, snowboarding, ATBing etc edging up is a different feeling to my previous board sports experience - maybe it's similar to surfing? I dunno ...

My biggest problem is getting up and moving. Fat ass, no wind