I 've been powerkiting for around a year and have recently (rather optimistically) purchased a landboard. I'm keen to seriously improve my skill level (currently around zero) and am becoming increasingly frustrated at my lack of progress!

Any suggestions - i'm in the North Yorkshire area.

good day
and glad to have you on the forum

practice flying standing on the board

to ride point the board down wind get rollin' while passing the kite into power zone(controlled and slowly) then heelside carve to control speed.. go to zenith slowly to roll to a stop. be patient and keep at it

if your board skills are weak do some skate boarding

a balance board is good practice

pads, gloves, lid for brain and if you don't have a brain like me then don't worry about that

cheers

What type of surface are you trying to landboard on?

Use a big kite with a decent wind.

Start off with your board pointed down wind. How much depends on the wind. With less power you must run ( point the board ) more downwind until you have gained speed.

What do you have for winds and kites ?

I'm on a generally flat grassy area, which is an ideal surface for taking the impact of all my falls.

Quote:

Originally posted by bittyboy I'm on a generally flat grassy area, which is an ideal surface for taking the impact of all my falls.

But not an ideal surface to get rolling on a landboard. I've just picked up landboarding in the last year so I was in your shoes last spring.

For me the surface and the winds made all the difference. I have NEVER had a good landboarding session on grass. I think that a nice, hard surface with short cut grass, like a good athletic field might work okay. With softer ground or long grass, anything that will increase rolling resistance, it is so much harder to get going.

The hardest part is the "launch". You need to point downwind, dip the kite in the power window to get rolling, and then edge off so that you don't shoot downwind and luff the kite.

On grass I just couldn't get rolling and would get yanked over the board every time. Also the gustier inland winds were so much harder to learn with.

Once I found a good beach with nice hard packed sand and clean winds it clicked right away. All the frustration was gone and I was off riding immediately.

I've got an HQ Beamer 3 (3.0m) and have mainly been taking falls in moderate to gusty winds. I'm assuming a slower, more measured approach in lighter conditions is required, as oppose to the 'try to get as much speed as possible first time' approach i've been adopting??!

The trick is finding a balance.

You must go downwind a bit at 1st to gain speed. Then you carve that speed in to either a cross wind or slight upwind run. Keep tension on the lines ! You may need to fly the kite is a ~ sine pattern to do so.

It is probably hardest to learn ATB with a small kite and light winds. Better in high winds with less motion in the kite ! In High winds you can start off almost going cross wind from the start.

It kind of sounds like you are running too hard and fast downwind. Try carving / riding cross / upwind earlier ? Keeping the kite in the same side of the wind window as you are traveling. Do not take the kite back too far overhead or the direction of pull changes.

Cheers for that, i'll be out over the weekend (in between the rugby internationals) expecting to make some progress!

I've got handles at the minute - would a bar (and/or a harness) make things easier or is there little difference?

Stick with the handles. They give far better brake control.
The advantage of flying with a bar at 1st is you won't have to think about the kites as much. If you are used to the handles now " go with what you know " !