Bar movement in jumping big

[Toby]

No love for North America; says your DVD won't play. Is the Vimeo setup downloadable so I can watch in the absence of an Internet connection?

Unfortunately not...you need internet for it.

[Toby]

I have the vimeo version and it was actually there when I noticed that you don't pull the bar to the max. Only than I watched the other riders like Dimitri on the video posted below and Tom Hebert. They all do it the same way. Maybe it's because the kite won't move faster after a certain way of pulling? If you could make your kite faster ad jump higher by simply pulling more everyone in the KOTA would use 2m bars like in the old days, right?
Whatever it is, it worked. Yesterday I tried to put into practice all of your suggestions and I jumped higher than ever before. At least the windsurfer under me looked pretty small, so I guess I made something right

Like I said, the more you move the bar the less control you will have.
But you send it "hard" back, but just a short movement.

[FLandOBX]

Try this:

Tie your lines on something that wont move, like a tree or something.

Hook in, get 5 of your buddies to lift you up and pull on you as hard as they can, and then let them release.

What do you think will happen?

Tension in itself does nothing. It's not stored energy when you don't have stretch.

Faxie, from a technical perspective, I'm sure you are correct. "Tension" may be scientifically incorrect terminology. But I'm not talking physics; I'm describing how the process of boosting feels to the rider. The more "tension" the rider can feel in the lines, the better the boost (if released efficiently). Maybe you'd prefer the term "resistance"???? Same idea. Creating the feeling of building and releasing more "resistance" in the lines (e.g., by riding faster, edging harder, hitting a bigger wave on takeoff) will improve the boost. Bottom line for me, as an instructor, is that riders learning to boost have more success focusing on that feeling of building/releasing line tension/resistance than they do focusing solely on kite or bar movement.

[edt]

You often read that jumping big is a function of board speed and kite sped. So for me the most natural thing to do is to send the kite the fast as possible to the zenith by pulling the bar almost to a 90 degree angle. I always did it that way and was happy with it. But people watch who know how to jump like Toby, Tom Hebert or Dimitri Maramenides move the bar so little that it's even hard to see when they begin to send their kite. Is all this bar movement useless effort on my part?

there are really only two components to a big jump.

1) kinetic energy. this is your apparent wind speed, not the board speed you take the vector sum of board and wind speed, that's why you can do a jump even if you are standing still

2) efficiency. this is where you convert your kinetic energy into height. while the amount of energy you start with is easy to figure out this one is much more difficult. there are a lot of ways to lose your energy, one way is if you move your kite too fast you will get a long low jump, you didn't convert your kinetic energy to height instead you rocket downwind. another problem is if you don't have an efficient pop you can lose the energy at takeoff. every kite will have different characteristics, different line lengths, so they will all behave different. It is also when you are turning your kite that it is the least efficient, so you need to know for you kite how tight of an arc you can put it into before the kite becomes less efficient and thus gives you less height.


kiters that have being doing huge jumps for years don't always make the best teachers. A lot of times what they do is entirely intuitive they might explain it one way but if you look at the video they might be doing it a different way. I am reminded a bit of yngwie malmsteen who put out a tutorial video quite a few years ago. All it consisted of was him saying "And then you do this exercise" and his fingers moved at blinding speed across the guitar. he couldn't actually explain how he did anything, all you could do is look at the tape slow it down rewind and watch it over and over.

dimitri maramenides has an excellent video called "How to Jump Big" and he doesn't really answer your question, that is how fast do you actually turn the kite. What you need to do is go back to that video or other videos rewind and watch again until you can figure out just how fast you need to send the kite for maxiumum height.

Sinthoras1 you need to trust your eyes when you set the video on rewind and watch it over and over like you have been doing. You are on the right track with that. I think it's the best way to figure out exactly what these big boosters are doing.

[Toby]

Yes, feeling is key!
That's why a kite with more bar pressure is better to feel the most pressure point.

[Faxie]

Try this:

Tie your lines on something that wont move, like a tree or something.

Hook in, get 5 of your buddies to lift you up and pull on you as hard as they can, and then let them release.

What do you think will happen?

Tension in itself does nothing. It's not stored energy when you don't have stretch.

Faxie, from a technical perspective, I'm sure you are correct. "Tension" may be scientifically incorrect terminology. But I'm not talking physics; I'm describing how the process of boosting feels to the rider. The more "tension" the rider can feel in the lines, the better the boost (if released efficiently). Maybe you'd prefer the term "resistance"???? Same idea. Creating the feeling of building and releasing more "resistance" in the lines (e.g., by riding faster, edging harder, hitting a bigger wave on takeoff) will improve the boost. Bottom line for me, as an instructor, is that riders learning to boost have more success focusing on that feeling of building/releasing line tension/resistance than they do focusing solely on kite or bar movement.

Agreed

But I think it's important that people have an idea about what is actually happening, so 'building line tension' would probably be misinterpreted imo. 'Resistance' is much better.

One other thing: It's not exactly like wakeboarding for instance, where you cannot slow down the boat/cable. You can slow down the kite, so the resistance should be high, but fast.

[Massimo]

I noticed that I jump much higher when I start edging a split second before to send the kite.

You should try it, just a split second and afterwards hardly send the kite. You should jump much before the kite is at its zenit and keep climbing until the kite passes the zenit.

afterwards redirect your kite for landing

Enjoy

[Sinthoras1]

Thanks for all the feedback, it really helped to get a deeper understanding for what is actually happening when jumping. And yes I will have to watch instructive videos over and over again and than obviously getting expirience on the water is the most important part.

[Toby]

Massimo: edging or pulling the bar?

[Massimo]

Edging, but since I start edging before to send the kite, the kite must be a quick one.... With my 10m I can jump higher with more hang time with this approach.
I never tried with the 14m since it is 1 year that I have been spoiled with strong wind.
Moreover by edging before sending the kite you can pull the bar a little more than usual since is easier to control the kite power.
However last time I was out with 35 knots with my 10m, ready for some serious jumps but the sea was so choppy that I was not able to jump higher than usual even with this tecnique since it was impossible to have a good grip while edging.