I've been landboarding with my pansh Adam4.5 and HQ Montanan 9.5 and have been getting the hang of things. Yesterday I wen't out with my snowboard and it was disastrous. Every time I would get up a gust would pull me off my heel edge and I would catch my toe edge and crash. How do you compensate for this? On my landboard I could always just jump off if things got a little out of control, on the board I dont have that option. Thinking skis are a good idea at this point. HELP!

I don't snowboard but think you may not be bending your knees / leaning back enough ?

Try and get small as the gust hits. Lean back against the power bend knees and push your feet out. You should sort of scud downwind and fall back on your butt rather than go over the top.

No doubt, easier said than done !

A quick question. Have you ever snowboarded before?

I'm a triple black under the ropes mogul bashing boarder.

Bladerunner's recommendation is the key...keep your knees bent. When you feel the wind gust on your neck/back, be prepared as the gust makes its way to the kite and you can adjust accordingly to deal with it. Also, sometimes I find heading downwind a little before setting the heal side edge helps me gain control in the right wind situations. Good luck and don't give up; sounds like you're an experienced shredder - you will see consistent improvements over time as you learn how to adjust your existing snowboard technique to kiting.

I feel for you I am having a similar difficulty on skis. I just have not gotten the feel for when the wind is going to gust and grab the kite to pre lean away from the kite. Instead I just do a nose dive face first and start all over again.

So it is called a depower kite is there something you can do with the bar to compensate for the gusts?

The more u edge the more power u get, ease up on the edge and follow the kite downwind in gusts while leaning low and back to absorb the acceleration

What kind of snow were you on - thin hard pack, or deep fluff?

On the thinner stuff, as g-force says, you can let the board slide downwind to absorb the gust. In the deep stuff, you may have to hop and get the board turned downwind a little to handle the gust.

Gusty wind just sucks period, you're going to have so much more fun on that rare day when you get some smooth wind.