so today for my lunch break I got to sneak out of the office and hit up a local spot that has nice flat water and good wind but its a pretty narrow bay. Probably only about 200-300yrds wide of useable area to ride so I was having a heck of a time trying to stay up wind, even with the tide helping push me up wind.

I think the problem I was having is that the amount of ground I gained on my reach was pretty minimal because its such a short reach and I always seem to lose ground on my turns so I guess I'm wondering if there is a way to turn upwind or at least minimize the amount of down wind drift during a turn/transition?

I was riding an 07 Rip 34 with a 15m P4 winds were variable between 14-18mph

more wind would help but totally doable 200-300yds. you become the pivot point for the kite as it comes around though the top and go right to the upwind line immediately. edge hard on the down stroke EVERYTIME to maintain speed and movement. controlled edge thru the transition with plenty power. OR quick, small air (really close to the water) up and down transition requires pretty quick kite speed to get it to the other side and in stable powered position. if you drag the turn out slowly it just drags you down wind. sometime a trim on the rig (in or out) will help once you determine up wind rate on a couple of runs.

Hey thanks Phree! I always appreciate any/all advice i can get on here. Besides that I'm dying to make this spot work. It seems to be the only spot that really gets the lunchtime thermal action so i want to be able to hit it during my lunch breaks during the week!

btw here's a picture of what I'm working with. wind comes from the North

nice, looks like one of my spots

always add in tides action

slack is the best, nice flat for an hour sometimes on either side of the change

i assume the N is coming down the pipe there, with solid 20+mph you could beat the flow but jumping and too much farting around you 'll lose some position
cool spot

yeah the tide was actually coming it so it should have been helping me get up wind. the wind was only blowing about 14mph with the occasional 18mph squall so it was just barely enough to get moving behind the 15m P4.

I think the light wind combined with a small board, medium kite, and beginner/intermediate skill level could have been the majority of my issues. I also did a little jumping which didn't help.

I think if I kill my board speed by going up wind instead of just sliding the board maybe I'll be able to hold my ground better next time. its definitely a pretty fun spot with flat water and the water temp is usually pretty decent since its a shallow bay. <10ft deep even at high tide. I'm looking at picking up a flexifoil omega 133x42 which might make getting up wind a bit easier as well. I'm going to try it side by side with my 07 Rip 34 and keep which ever one fits my riding style better.