Kite Loops

[dt73775]

Whats a good way to practice kite loops. I kinda freak out every mid kite loop and wind up crashing the kite

[BCKiter123]

I'll assume you're not talking about kite loop with jumps as that may come later. This is what I did when getting started. Lighter winds, practice with simple downloops. Point board straight downwind and get used to the pull of the kite and when to anticipate the pull. Play with how much you sheet in the bar and how aggressively you turn your bar. You'll get a sense of how your kite responds.

From there, try downloop transition - it's kind of like half a downloop, only 180 degrees. Again start in light winds, lightly powered.

Then try kiteloop (send kite in opposite direction) when lightly powered. Initially send kite only once kite is at 12 oclock otherwise you may have unpleasant surprise. Point board straight downwind (this should become habit from when you did downloops)

Then progress from there. More powered. Try with jumps. For my the psychological barrier was the biggest thing to overcome. You have to gain the confidence by starting slowly and learning to commit.

Many others on here with way more experience than me so hopefully they'll chime in too. Best of luck!

[ShaveTheWhales]

A small kite and Commitment

https://vimeo.com/131190603

[FLandOBX]

Yes, a kite loop requires commitment, first and foremost. Practicing surface loops (e.g., in transitions) is a good first step. Make sure you practice really cranking the loop to make it fast and crisp. Commit, commit, commit. It's tempting to practice big, slow loops in surface transitions, because you can get away with it and it takes less nerve. But if you're building towards aerial loops (which I assume you are), you need to get used to committing and not be afraid of cranking your bar 90 degrees hard and fast.

Once you're not intimidated by looping a small kite hard and fast during surface transitions, then try them on the downward portion of your jumps. Once you're comfortable looping on the way down, then loop at the peak of your jump. If you loop on the way up, you'll get a nice powered loop (hold on!). But always commit and see the loop all the way through to the end. If you lose your nerve and back off midway through the loop, game's over and you're going down.

[knotwindy]

Close but I would say never try to loop at the peak of the jump. No line tension and things get ugly fast. Either just before or just after the peak is better.

[dylan*]

if youve never looped before and just want to get comfortable with how it works, you can try downloops first when you get close to landing. very little pull and actually softens your landing

for kiteloops id either go out with a big kite or a small kite
with a big kite (i learned on a 12m envy) in lighter wind, youre not going to get a huge pull no matter what you do, and you won't be able to go very high for your jump, so all the focus is just on pulling the kite around. falls are not bad because you're already close to the water. DONT do this unless youre pretty unpowered because a 12m loops too slow and you'll get wrecked if you jump high and try it

with a small kite, you can go out a little underpowered (like just barely able to go upwind) with a 7m and a big bar and start looping on the way down. similar to downloop, it wont pull you much, especially with a big bar to really crank the kite around in a tight circle.

either way you have to commit to pulling the loop at some point

[BernieTomic1]

This is a question where my experience might help, as I just learned it myself.

I started kiting two years ago, and have been going pretty conservatively. I felt that I should be able to loop, so I went at it a few weeks ago. Before that, I had done the odd waterstart loop, and tried a few downloops, but never any frequent and consistent looping.

Starting, I did surface downloops while transitioning using a Neo 9 in medium powered conditions. I am a lefty and did the downloop on the left side while transitioning from goofy, i.e. going right, reducing speed, change to going left and loop it.
That is not hard at all to do, even when starting out. In the beginning, I didn't really feel that I should loop with the right hand, as that felt strange. Then, I just did it, and the downloop on the right side was just as easy.

After that I started doing surface downloops, that is looping in the same direction you are going without a transition. Going goofy, you just loop it towards the right side. This gives medium pull but nothing major. After feeling comfortable with that in both directions, I did the same surface loop but as a kiteloop, i.e. going right you loop it left. The pull from a surface kiteloop can be quite strong and I did crash some of them.

The next step was looping when coming down in a jump. I started with downloops in transitionjumps in both directions. After that kiteloops on the way down. You will notice that looping is much easier in the air than on the surface because there is just more space.

The above was learned over 3-4 sessions. It is not hard, but it does feel weird and uneasy when starting.

[BernieTomic1]

if youve never looped before and just want to get comfortable with how it works, you can try downloops first when you get close to landing. very little pull and actually softens your landing

for kiteloops id either go out with a big kite or a small kite
with a big kite (i learned on a 12m envy) in lighter wind, youre not going to get a huge pull no matter what you do, and you won't be able to go very high for your jump, so all the focus is just on pulling the kite around. falls are not bad because you're already close to the water. DONT do this unless youre pretty unpowered because a 12m loops too slow and you'll get wrecked if you jump high and try it

I agree that a downloop on the way down from a jump does not pull, in my experience neither with a big nor a small kite.
However, a surface downloop on my 15 Core Free can sometimes get really powered!

[DWX]

This is a question where my experience might help, as I just learned it myself.

The next step was looping when coming down in a jump. I started with downloops in transitionjumps in both directions. After that kiteloops on the way down. You will notice that looping is much easier in the air than on the surface because there is just more space.

The above was learned over 3-4 sessions. It is not hard, but it does feel weird and uneasy when starting.

Did I read this correctly? You are trying to loop on your way down from a jump?????????? Honey, that defies physics on earth. Maybe on Jupiter. You must be tired of eating it. OK, this is painful.

[Bushflyr]

Did I read this correctly? You are trying to loop on your way down from a jump?????????? Honey, that defies physics on earth. Maybe on Jupiter. You must be tired of eating it. OK, this is painful.

Honey, maybe you need to go back and actually take physics. Looping on the way down is very common, often called a heli-loop. Pulled off several today.