Re: New to forum, help please
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 11:49 pm
This is the kind of info I'm looking for. These I can definitely do. I understand exactly what your talking about. Maybe tomorrow I can get out and try again. Right now I don't find any of it boring actually very fascinated by it all. It's taken me a long time to get to this point(almost 2 1/2 years from the time I decided I wanted to learn) so I'm just excited to be able to just fly a trainer. This was the one aspect of kiteboarding that is very new to me. That's why this one aspect of flying the kite I want to learn very well then the rest should come together.Laughingman wrote:Figure 8s are good practice, now switch the direction so that when the kite is making the loop instead of going up at the edge of the window it is going down. We call this a down loop... It will give you a different perspective and give you skills to keep the kite flying in light winds....redman333 wrote:Okay I have some questions now. I finally got my method 3m trainer kite and I tried to fly it in an open field in its 2 line setup but didn't have a ton of wind but really wanted to try it anyway. I was able to get it in the air but couldn't keep her flying. So I went to the beach and they had about a 15mph wind there but it would die down to around 8mph or so every once in a while.
I was able to launch the kite pretty good. I did wreck it a couple of times before I got the hang of it. Once I figured it out I was able to fly it for about 2 hours straight never putting it down except once. I swooped it a little too low and it picked up some grass sticks in the bridle and was still flying but was a little weak so I landed it, removed the grass and put her back in the sky. It was a blast flying it. It has more poer than I had expected.
Now my question. When I watch the kiteboarding videos I see everyone just parking the kite in the sky and riding it there. They don't have to work the kite much. I was trying to fly my trainer that way since I'm wanting to use the trainer as close to the way I'd use my full size but it didn't want to be "parked". It would drift up to the 12'oclock position or over to the edge of the wind window and if I let it keep going without turning the kite it would eventually fall out of the sky. Is this normal for a trainer to do this or am I doing something wrong.
I have to fly the kite in figure 8s most of the time I can't just leave it. I tried flying the kite blind. I was able to do that based on feel alone pretty good but couldn't fly with one hand, it was too strong. I started off flying the kite with my hands at the edge of the bar and once I got the hang of it I moved my hands close to see if I could give myself a slower moving kite feel like a full size would be. It worked pretty good so far. I think I'm going to schedule lessons in mid may in the outer banks. Ill just practice at the beach everyday when I get off work for an hour or so until then.
Is there anything I should be practicing with the trainer also until I take my lessons. Once I'm a little better and we get some good wind I plan on hooking the kite up to my 4 line and trying it that way but based on what I've already experienced I will need a decent amount of wind for that.
Also I wanted to take video but since I had to go to the beach I didn't have someone able to come with to take video for me. I'm hoping next time I go ill be able to get some video.
Keep your hands close to center of the bar... Good habit to learn now.
Another thing you can do is practice a water launch... But on the beach... Sit down in the sand as if you had a board on... Bring the kite to 1 pm and dive it across the window and see if you can get the kite to pull you into a standing position... This is how you water start. Keep at it... Yes it will get boring but you are learning key skills and will be thankful once you take a lesson that you spend the time to do this.
Pete