Great to hear you are loving the strapless.
For some tips on tacking, gybing and much more check out my technique blog
http://www.leepasty.co.uk/technique-blog.html
cheers
lee
Yes, I would imagine that would make it pretty challenging to learn on. That is definitely not a user friendly ocean kite. If you would drop it in the surf, I would imagine it would be real scary hoping you could get it to relaunch. In the ocean you need a kite that pivots, relaunches easily, and drifts. About the opposite of the large Xbow. Not saying you cannot do it, but that is some added challenge. I would also recommend you learn on your TT first. Learning to ride in the ocean is much more about learning to fly your kite in the ocean and learning to navigate the waves such as timing getting out and getting over breaking waves. It is a lot easier to learn on a twin tip especially the fact that you can "run away" from a breaking wave on your way out. Once you feel comfortable controlling the kite in the ocean, then hop on your directional. I do not see any learning advantage of going from a strapped surfboard to a strapless surfboard. But it is easy to go from a TT to a strapless once comfortable on the TT. Not saying you cannot learn by going directly to a directional, but I would think the learning curve would be much steeper going from TT to directional.Part of the problem may have been that wind was light and I was flying an old Xbow 16m
TIP use a balance board on no wind days,you can also learn how to gibe on balance board,it will give you muscle memory,and help your strapless kitesurfing,TONYKYLakeKiter wrote:Yea, I didn't mention it because I was trying to talk about my directional learning curve. I am much more comfortable on a TT, so after I thrashed my self on the surfboard, I took a break and then jumped on my buddies Spleene. It was much easier to make quick sliding turns to stay in between the waves and pick and choose my points to ride outbound. Besides that, when I fell or dropped back in the water waiting on the kite to come around, the staps kept the board at my feet.
I also learned that when you fall in waves, forget the board and keep the kite out of the water at all costs. I had some real messes a couple of times when the wave caught the back side of the kite. Body dagging after the board in the waves was a whole new adventure as well.
Either way, learning to surf the waves like the cool guys is the goal, so I will keep at it even though I don't get to the coast that often. My thought about the staps was just to help keep better control of the board while negotiating the waves outbound. Probably just a crutch I shouldnt get used to. As always, thanks for all the tips.
Peter is correct...if straps are the correct width for stance and foot freedom in them..you have it allPeter_Frank wrote:
You will have more options and more freedom with straps
Peter
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