Power Kite Forum

How long did it take you to get comfortable Kitesurfing

dylanj423 - 13-2-2009 at 09:46 AM

I have been reading a lot of posts lately that involve the poster mentioning difficulty with kitesurfing. Personally, I have had a hard time with the water stuff.

So this is kind of two polls in one... for those of us that are comfortable with kitesurfing... How many attempts did it take for you to get comfortable with kitesurfing? By comfortable, I mean the ability to go out, do your thing, and land back where you started. Not necessarily any tricks or anything, just extended riding.

For those of us that havent been succesful yet, how many attempts have you made? By attempts, I mean getting out into the water with the kite over your head, trying water start... whether you got up on the board or not.

Each time you go out (for an hour, or for a day) is one attempt, as far as the poll goes.

Sorry if this is confusing:puzzled:

burritobandit - 13-2-2009 at 10:06 AM

My first 2 sessions were intro and intermediate lessons. After that, I could get up ride for a little, then sink, or crash my kite. Then I was able to ride around but not keep upwind. It was on my 8th session in Corpus on flat water (@Packery Channel) when I was able to go ride around and upwind to make it back to our launch point. After that, more and more started clicking.

One thing I learned was that the power you feel in your kite on land isn't as powerful on water. You really need a good amt of power to get you up & planing and riding upwind, so don't be fearful because of what you feel on land. Just launch the kite and hop in the water asap.

I remember that one day at Lake Pflug where you helped my launch my 17m Cabrinha and later told me I was holding my line relative to my launch for my first few tacks... I felt pretty overpowered on land and was having probs holding my ground as I walked to the water, but when I was in the water I felt just fine and I was able to keep upwind (until the wind died and my kite fell :/ )

You're going to be moving to a great location for progressing quickly in a few weeks anyway :thumbup: (yeah, I'm jealous)


Edit: As far as board skills previous to kiteboarding, I guess I should also mention that I've skatedboarded since I was a kid, wakeboarded, and snowboarded as well.

USA_Eli_A - 13-2-2009 at 10:16 AM

I was 17yrs old during my first kitesurfing experience was with a C-2 built by quadrafoil, In st. Luis, Senagal Africa on a pair of water skis, downwinder in an east wind across the st. luis river. after that I went home and fueled the addiction. I have more sessions with open celled foils than lei kites, started on old surfboards. But growing up at Sunset Beach is ideal if you need to kite!

that was 12 years ago.

Honestly, back then there wasn't much to reference for learning. Now days I've got newbs riding same first day lesson.

AND...i've surfed most my life, so being comfortable in the ocean helps.

this is a super subjective poll. don't let it discourage you, even body dragging is fun! So if 20-30 sessions go by and it's not clicking, try another 20-30 sessionS

Bladerunner - 13-2-2009 at 10:17 AM

My problem from day 1 was a total lack of boarding background. I think a LOT of how you progress depends on the skills you come in with. :yes:
I'm up past 20 attempts. 6 broken up lessons and still not going. For the last 3 years I have only tried one or 2 days each year.
I'm far too happy on land for now. Good news is I can take care of myself out there even if I can't surf yet. I can body drag all over get in to my board CRASH and rarely drop a kite anymore ! The water and weather around here are TOO COLD for my skinny bones ! :thumbdown: I'll wait for a warm water vacation to get all serious about it.

Besides, I want to ride on the hard ground while my body can take the knocks. The nice , warm , soft water may have to wait until retirement ? :puzzled:

PHREERIDER - 13-2-2009 at 10:31 AM

alot had to do with really understanding wind/wind strength needed for board use and planning. i had really limited board skills.

but first , alot of body dragging maybe a good 10hours preceeded by about 10 hours with the kite junk on land. no instruction/instructor.

and up wind in about the next 20hrs so some walking was there at first

once i started hangin' at better wind spots it was like a bolt of lightening

but returning to light wind spots now has been really sweet esp with a "real" kite

and i did NOT give up

the "I should have list "

known more about boards, might have made it a single day event after kite mastery.

had more "models" to watch and follow

learn to work with less power earlier

the things that helped the most........................

just happens today is the 1 yr ann. of me joining PKF and ultra grateful for all that i have learned from this forum ...truly helped me become a freerider anywhere on the planet where there is wind

Tomasz - 13-2-2009 at 10:48 AM

I used to wakeboard in a lot before I moved to Alaska, so getting up & going didn't take long at all. Going upwind to get back to where I started, that's another story altogether. I'm still trying to figure that out, I do a lot of hiking up the beach. I ride on the wakeboard that I've had since my boating days & I'm pretty sure that it's part of the challenge for me. I've ridden my friends kiteboard a few times & I don't lose any ground with it, but my wakeboard is really hard to upwind with. Hopefully this summer I'll get it down. Either that or I'll have to sneak in another ebay purchase under the wife's radar....

carltb - 13-2-2009 at 12:23 PM

it took me about 5 sessions to get up and plaining and get back upwind. i already had the kite skills as im a compitant landboarder, plus what helped me is, the beach that i fly at, everybody knows each other. whether they are buggiers, landboarders or surfers, and once i was ready to dip my toes, they were all there to offer advice and encouagement. i never took any lessons but in my situation i felt i didnt need to. i still spend more time on the land then the water but thats only because it sooooooooooo cold over here in the winter!!!!!!!!

dylanj423 - 13-2-2009 at 01:11 PM

My progression has been...

First time getting dragged downwind across the lake...

Second time getting dragged at a slight angle downwind across the lake... (Lost my board irretrievably both times)...

Third time learned to body drag and hold my line with respect to the wind...

Fourth and fifth times getting yanked over the board over and over and over, but by now pretty good at body dragging...

Several attempts with no wind... learned how NOT to self rescue... and what kind of winds you can and cant fly in

Around the eighth or ninth time finally got up on the board and rode for a few seconds... just when I was ready to give up.

And thats been about it. I cant wait for the water to warm up, and for me to be closer to the beach. I love my land sports, too, but I can hardly wait to get back in the water. This summers going to be great.

nwsurfwakeskate - 13-2-2009 at 04:24 PM

probably about 5 trys for me.

my biggest problems were not having the right gear and being underpowered.

I learned on a pulse 2 12m and a wakeboard with foot straps. never really successfully started riding until I got an underground FLX 132 which made a HUGE difference. don't waste your time using a wakeboard, even one that looks like a kiteboard. there is just too much frustration along with using the wrong gear.

my background was wakeboarding for 6 years to the level of competing locally in novice/intermediate competitions ( I could do grabs and backflips mostly )

windsurfing for 6 years as well - went through instructor training when I was in college. definitely helped with developing good body position and form for efficient sailing and going up wind well as well as understanding wind and "the wind clock" or wind window much better.

snowboarding for 5 years as well


so far the biggest hurdle for me has been getting comfortable riding switch. I rarely practice switch when wakeboarding and snowboarding so it was like starting from scratch when I was on a kiteboard.

before I had my pulse 2 12m I had 3 big C-kites that I used to practice flying in soccer fields static for about a year. I definitely got my butt kicked a number of times by those but they were very useful for getting comfortable flying, jumping redirecting, launching, landing, pulling safetys, etc.

burritobandit - 13-2-2009 at 05:25 PM

Kitelandboarding helped me get over my skittishness of riding switch. Now I feel fine going either way. :cool:

lunchbox - 13-2-2009 at 08:32 PM

Well if I remember correctly my first try at kitesurfing was Sept 2006. I found a safety concious instructor in Malibu who sold 10 hr lesson plans and gave you a nice discount on kites.

My first 1/2 of the lesson was spent on flying a trainer kite. After that, we put up the Bomba 17m I think...wind was about 12 to 16mph if I remember correctly. Learned about the wind window and doing figure 8's in the right side of the window...learned how to scud, etc.

Seems like I spent the next series of lessons (1 hr lesson's each time) learning to rig the kite (PL Venom 2) and learning safety stuff and basically scudding my a$$ off.

After I think my 8th hour, he finally told me to get in the water and do some body dragging. That was fun...had a blast!

As my 10th and last hour approached, I was still body dragging or scudding on land. According to him, the wind wasn't strong enough for body dragging and I wasn't quite ready for the board.

...I know safety is key but according to me, he was taking a little too long to try to get me on the board. Heard from other students as well, that they hadn't even gotten in the water after 10 hours as well.

....so I thought I was ready and learned to get on the board myself. I had a surfing background and my kiteboard (Slingshot LFT) was a great beginner board. Fell down the first few times but then managed to get up and ride for about 15 feet. Whow...now that was awesome. I had posted something on Kiteforum about first time water starts and got some good tips...This really helped me.

After that first board stop, it got pretty easy to get up and ride. Still not the best at going upwind...current is wicked and I try to get out once a week but that doesn't always happen.

I do a lot of buggying now (more accessible) and some landboarding, but kitesurfing is definitely my favorite.

...What ever you do...don't give up ;-)

nwsurfwakeskate - 13-2-2009 at 11:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by burritobandit
Kitelandboarding helped me get over my skittishness of riding switch. Now I feel fine going either way. :cool:


yeah that's actually exactly what i did to get over it too.

learned to ride on the water before on a landboard though.

definitely refined the switch skills on the landboard though.

I'm still not totally comfortable jumping switch yet though. I did a few times but the landing scares me a bit still.

burritobandit - 13-2-2009 at 11:46 PM

On water, I can boost easy going left (I ride regular), and load & pop easy going to my right (switch), but for some reason I feel weird boosting to my right.. I'll get it though, I've practicing boosting/load&popping a lot lately :frog:

nwsurfwakeskate - 14-2-2009 at 01:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by burritobandit
On water, I can boost easy going left (I ride regular), and load & pop easy going to my right (switch), but for some reason I feel weird boosting to my right.. I'll get it though, I've practicing boosting/load&popping a lot lately :frog:


yeah same sort of deal is going on for me except I ride goofy.

my right is my strong side. I can boost and load and pop that direction but to the left i can only boost and I can't land plaining when i do. For some reason I end up slowly rotating when I boost left and landing on my back facing backwards. it doesn't always happen but it seems to be a problem that has developed over the end of last summer.

burritobandit - 14-2-2009 at 06:34 PM

I had that problem (unwanted rotation) when first boosting, then found that I really needed to focus on rotating my front foot away from the kite so that I'd cancel out the rotation in the air and land planing again.

Argh, now I'm fiending for a water session.. We're supposed to get usable winds tomorrow, and I'm overstokin right now :ticking: :roll:

I must calm down..... and take deep breaths...:wow:

kiteNH - 14-2-2009 at 07:00 PM

How much do you think that wake boarding experience and water starts on a wakeboard help when getting started kiteboarding?

dgkid78 - 14-2-2009 at 07:12 PM

I would love to try kiteboarding, I see some die hards out on the water sometimes. Call Me a sissy but this frigid New England water never sees my toes. Not even when i was a kid. LOL By the time the water warms up it's already September :shocked2: and by then temps are changing. Think i will stick to land.

nwsurfwakeskate - 14-2-2009 at 07:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by kiteNH
How much do you think that wake boarding experience and water starts on a wakeboard help when getting started kiteboarding?



it helped a huge amount!

with starts, balance, jumping and edging.

I wish everybody would learn how to wakeboard before attempting to kiteboard.

burritobandit - 14-2-2009 at 07:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by kiteNH
How much do you think that wake boarding experience and water starts on a wakeboard help when getting started kiteboarding?


Water starts are the same, but instead of getting up going straight towards the boat (which would be directly downwind), you keep going to the left or right, riding perpendicular to the wind direction.

Riding around feels pretty much the same. Riding heel or toeside feels the same. Keeping your edge, loading up tension on the lines, heel to heel and heel to toeside transitions work the same. You just have to know what to do with the kite to keep it powered.

Also, if you happen to catch an edge, it's nowhere near as violent as catching an edge behind a boat can be. Plus the tow-point is higher, so you usually get dragged across the water a little. You usually slip out of your board pretty easily if you're using straps+pads.

One way to look at kiteboarding is that you're 'driving the boat while riding behind it'. Meaning that you're in control of your speed and direction.

burritobandit - 14-2-2009 at 07:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by nwsurfwakeskate

it helped a huge amount!

with starts, balance, jumping and edging.

I wish everybody would learn how to wakeboard before attempting to kiteboard.


Word. If you've got a buddy with a boat, give him gas money and/or beer. If there's a cablepark in your area, go give it a try. Both of those are great ways to learn/work on boardskills for kiteboarding.

Protip: Taking your own lifejacket, wakeboard, and/or helmet usually gets you a slight discount :thumbup: Check your local cablepark to see which of those gets you a discount. Our local place gives us a discount for using our own lifejackets and wakeboards.

clintopher - 14-2-2009 at 08:20 PM

I got up and riding on my third try but I still don't feel what I would consider to be comfortable. I've been out probably 15 or so times and I can self launch, land, and rescue. I ride both directions and I'm getting to where I can do a slide transition, but getting upwind, or just maintaining ground for that matter, is eluding me. The last few times I went out I think I started to get it, but that's been a while ago and I'm sure I'll have to relearn everything I already have once the water warms up a bit. Who knows, that could be a good thing.

nwsurfwakeskate - 14-2-2009 at 11:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by clintopher
I got up and riding on my third try but I still don't feel what I would consider to be comfortable. I've been out probably 15 or so times and I can self launch, land, and rescue. I ride both directions and I'm getting to where I can do a slide transition, but getting upwind, or just maintaining ground for that matter, is eluding me. The last few times I went out I think I started to get it, but that's been a while ago and I'm sure I'll have to relearn everything I already have once the water warms up a bit. Who knows, that could be a good thing.


yeah getting up wind can be tricky.

the 2 biggest things that helped me were keeping the kite low in the window so that I didn't get pulled off of my edge and making long reaches so that any ground I lost on my jibe would be less then what I made on my reach.

it can be hard to go up wind if you are either underpowered or over powered too. usually the overpowered problem is that you can't get the kite low enough to hold a decent edge.

kitesurfing

bourck - 15-2-2009 at 10:18 PM

I started with about 2 months of just flying a trainer in a park. then I basically learned by teaching myself to kite on snow with a 7m Pulse1. Admittedly, the first two times i went out i probably only went like 15 feet on the snow. But after a winter of playing on the snow, went to corpus and for safety matters took a lesson, i was up and going upwind the first day. I really think that snowkiting is the easiest way to learn how to kite. You learn good kite skills, you can walk to your kite when you are having trouble. If you get dragged a bit on soft snow than no big deal. I did have a background in both snowboarding and wakeboarding that likely helped. Still so much to learn, but upwind with a pulse and a spleen session wasn't too bad.