Today I had my maiden voyage on the board. I got a whopping 30m across the beach before the kite lost its height. It was a tough ride as I was not certain which direction to point the board? The wind was not blowing off the beach but down it...I got confused.

My assumption was that I would point the board with the wind at my back and the kite would pull me that way. However, I actually had to angle it to the side and ride with kite pulling me on my left. Weird.

Also, the day nearly had a short start when my brake line got tangled and cause the kite to go into a spiraling corkscrew. Fortunately for me, I brought extra string and let the knotty mess go in the bag for later detangling.

SO...the learning curve on this sport is steep but I am progressing slowly. Thanks for any suggestions or help.

You should read through the tutorials here:

http://www.kiteatb.co.uk/category/basics/

and here
http://www.racekites.com/howto/howto.asp

Basically you want to start with the board angled about 45 degrees into the wind and as you get rolling lean back and start going cross wind. Cross wind will be your primary direction though you will travel down wind and when you get better you'll be going upwind as well but cross wind should be your goal.

You don't park the kite and have it pull you straight down wind like a sail, you move by moving the kite through the window and then following along with it on your board.

There is a large learning curve to boarding.

You are several steps ahead of me on this but I study something alot before I participate. If you let the wind drag you downwind you will have to walk back. Any speed you generate going downwind will be subtracted from the wind speed so eventually you won't have enough wind to fly the kite. You need to work from side to side with the wind so you would've needed to go from the water to the dunes and then back since the wind was blowing down the beach. You should be able to ride as long as you want and ride back to where you started. Watch some videos on youtube and you will see how the guys make it work. Also check out ACampbells site. He has some detailed how-to articles to help you understand how to get started. It is about buggying but the relationship to the wind is the same. http://www.coastalwindsports.com/BetterBuggyBasics.html
Hope this helps some.

I'm just getting it together on the board but here are a few tips that brought me through.

It is easier to learn with a larger kite that is well powered. That way you get supported by the lift + don't need to work the kite near as much to get rolling. Start with tiny movements and then make them bigger if needed. Too many people try to FLY the kite too much at 1st.

If you go downwind too fast you will lose the tension in your lines. You start off with a downwind run but slowly carve across wind to maintain the tension on the lines. Often having to fly the kite back up and down in a sine pattern.


Lean back. It's FAR better to fall back than get yanked over the top.

The way you ride the board differs if the kite is flying up or down. I found myself saying : UP on your toes, DOWN on your butt. When flying the kite up and riding on your toes you will go downwind. Down and on your butt you go upwind ( sort of )

Those things helped me ! Hope they help you !