Well the winds were up and the right direction to test my Airush Flow FT that I got last fall. Pumped up fine and got all set up to go. I didn't have a wind meter so I was going by feel. Launched the kite and up it went quite well. I think that I might have been in to little of wind though cause walking with it at the edge of the window it ended up slowly dropping to the ground and I had to launch it all over again. I was stubborn to believe that so I went out to the water anyway. Get into the water far enough and get the board on my feet. Dive the kite and it pulls me to my feet. I did it I thought, as I tried to sine the kite for more power. But the power wasn't there and I eventually sunk back in the water. The kite fell back down at the edge of the window and drifted straight down wind. By now I had drifted too close to shore so I got up and got ready to relaunch, so I could walk back into the water. I got it up again and started to walk away from shore. Again it sank down the edge onto the water. Tried to get it relaunched, but just as it started to climb my chicken loop fell off my hook and the kite released on safety, my DD had unhooked itself. Got set again, and when I relaunched the kite rolled over trialing edge down and took on water. Drifted back to shore purged the water and tried again, same thing happened. One more time I tried and again the chicken loop came unhooked and the kite fell out of the sky. When I went to recover the bar, my lines had tangled into a huge mess and I couldn't get it fixed without disconnecting from the kite. After all that I gave up for the day. I left it that there must have been too little wind, and somehow have to find a way from having my Chickenloop unhooking like that. The struggle continues.

WOW,

This sounds like a complete Deja Vue from 2004 ! Sounds exactly like many of my 1st outings , On an Airush , no less !

Admitt it, it was all worth it for those 2 seconds you were on the board ! :P

It was pretty funny cause I was quickly trying to run through what I had to do to keep going. I bet I was also choking the kite at that moment too. I caught myself several times holding the bar in tight. But you are right it was totally worth it to be out there. Brought some friends to this sorta secret lake so had good company too. Got scared one time though my two year old daughter snuck away from my wife up at our camp spot and had made her way down to where was. My boys saw her and came to get her, but also ended standing right downwind close to my kite. The kite was leading edge down on the water and I didn't move it till they had gotten out of the way. Nothing like that sort of situation to leave you feeling helpless trying to keep them out of harms way.

Yeah I've had days like that too!

Light wind tube flying is a bit of a black art - you have to really be on the ball cos they don't give any quarter and will make your life miserable.

Don't let it fly too close to the edge of the window - keep it sheeted and under control, and above 45 degrees so you've got height to trade for speed and control ...

more breeze and all will come together, waiting for good air was THE hardest to realize until . you get out in good air. keep at it you learned alot.

Yeah I definitely understand the need for more wind now. On land you can fudge it in low winds, but definitely gotta be powered or else I'll be sinking. Double checked the weather and it was around 11-13mph, on my 144x44 with 12m weighing 195 I'm gonna need more to get it right. Going again next weekend so hope the winds are up.

Such good advice from Kami and Phree. You almost need to be a little scared of the wind and then that's probably enough. At 230 lbs, I couldn't ride that board with my 19 Venom II in those winds.

What BB said ...

... my biggest problem when learning was thinking "Hey they can ride so I should be too" cos I'm fat, they're not; they have skills that I don't ... so you sorta have to go out over-powered until you have the finesse to ride in the "correct" wind.

Which creates the paradox of being a noob going out in stronger wind than you should be with the skill-set you have and that is dangerous. Make sure to leave lots of room downwind (ask my left wrist about that) and pay attention to conditions - if it's gusty, don't risk it and be super-quick to go to the safety.

Especially, if like most people new to kiting, you can't fly a kite at all. I think you're one step ahead of the game there!

This is great advice guys!!! I really do appreciate it. Kami's mention of almost overpowered brings me back to an article that pointed out that many ride in slightly overpowered than need be till they learn board work and correct positioning of kite to milk it in the lower end. Makes sense to cause in the begining of snowkiting I needed more wind to get a certain power out my kites. But I'm determined to make it happen soon. Once I realized that I wasn't going to ride I tried to body drag as that seems almost more important to perfect than actually riding on the water. But the winds weren't gonna co-operate enough for that either. Looks like SE winds frequent enough in the forecast that I will get more chances on a side onshore than in the past. I love it too much to let it beat me!!!

KK , definitely spot on with paradox beginner issues.

"i do not want to go out in high wind, its TOO MUCH and scary."

but high wind will give the the NO DOUBT POWER you need to cut skills YOU DON"T HAVE!

man up , let the kite run, let the board run, be sure you have enough space to let happen and figure it out.

Heading out tomorrow again gonna give it all I can hopefully report back with positive results. Taking all advice given here and gonna do my best to put it to use.

with trials, can come victory, keep at it man.

I'm still relatively new to the water.. thumbs up for getting out in the mid power winds for the kite. The amount of power needed on the water was a bit shocking for me at first coming from land riding, but it all makes sense with a few runs.
Sounds like you got the water start coming, but just a tip to let that board run downwind. Makes it so much easier to not only get up, but also dish extra power in the initial power stroke so you don't superman (as much. )

The best advice that got me up and riding: "Don't look at the kite!"

Learn to watch the kite in the corner of your eye while your forward vision looks to where you want to travel.

When I finally "got" this skill, all of my bad habits disappeared and I was riding like a champ.

-joedy