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Riding the board has very, very little to do with being an independent kiter and the least important part of your entire training.

Saw this after I posted, that's about right. I tell students that if they can reliably gauge conditions, rig the right size and get to the water safely, keep their kite from being damaged and then land the kite safely then most of the lesson is learned. The idea that you won't be out there flopping around for a while is wrong, much better athletes than us spent years going through the wringer before making an upwind tack.

Kite-4-Life wrote: pouting in his cubicle at work running one-liners.
worse than your kiting is at the moment, so don't feel bad about being a beginner, bro.

You are correct to call yourself a kook....my occupation is having fun kitesurfing since i don't need to work no more (retired 4 years)...traveling with GF who's been kiting since 2002
As far as being a newbie you are wrong again...started kiting 5 years before you and averaging for all those years 4 times a week year round
You need to relax and work on your sense of humor

And my first mane is Craig by the way

geopeck wrote:

Riding the board has very, very little to do with being an independent kiter and the least important part of your entire training.

Saw this after I posted, that's about right. I tell students that if they can reliably gauge conditions, rig the right size and get to the water safely, keep their kite from being damaged and then land the kite safely then most of the lesson is learned. The idea that you won't be out there flopping around for a while is wrong, much better athletes than us spent years going through the wringer before making an upwind tack.

Great advice, as well as your previous post. You're the kind of guy I wish I'd taken a lesson from in the beginning.

One of the issues might be that you need to point your board down wind when you dive the kite to get some speed. Beginners have a tendency to want to keep their board perpendicular to the wind which can cause supermans and make it much harder to get going.

I would prob just buy equipment at this point 1 kite and a larger board that is appropriate to your area.

For your weight you probably need a 12m from 16-22mph and a 10m 22mph-28 or even 30

A small board is around 132x40 a medium board is 145 and a large board is 160.

I have no use for medium, but use my small boards and large board (light wind) a lot.


I took about 9h of lessons in the beginning, until I could ride about like you described and launch/land/self rescue. Even though I couldnt consistently ride, it was enough to start practicing on my own.

All, some great advice.

I completely agree that there should some governance around schools. I'll tell you one more things and i'm interested in advice, the last lesson i had last week just before I posted. My safety released, the instructor came along jumped of the boat into the water and sorted it all out, told me I was ok to go but was now in what he referred to a "suicide not" or something to that effect - I'm assuming it meant the safety was out of the game. And i'm further assuming that this is not what you would call best practice?

Regarding pointing the board downwind at start - you are 100% right, I know I'm supposed to do it but i keep loosing focus as i dip the kite and end up square on. Another thing I know i do is choke the kite when i do get up and end up drowning the bored because instead of leaning back i'm trying to over correct my chocking of the bar.

A couple more questions - I spoke to a friend who advised me to have a look at the F1 Bandit 7 for 2014 - said it was pretty good beginner kite.

Also as i go through the forum i get very confused with the abbreviations being used - is there a tread or a recorce where i can learn about what some of these abrivations mean?

PullStrings wrote:

Kite-4-Life wrote: pouting in his cubicle at work running one-liners.
worse than your kiting is at the moment, so don't feel bad about being a beginner, bro.

You are correct to call yourself a kook....my occupation is having fun kitesurfing since i don't need to work no more (retired 4 years)...traveling with GF who's been kiting since 2002
As far as being a newbie you are wrong again...started kiting 5 years before you and averaging for all those years 4 times a week year round
You need to relax and work on your sense of humor

And my first mane is Craig by the way

He probably wouldn't have posted that ; unless you bin fucking with him.
So why would you do that ; because a lot of people don't share the same sense
of humor ?

Bille

Kiterookie wrote:I completely agree that there should some governance around schools. I'll tell you one more things and i'm interested in advice, the last lesson i had last week just before I posted. My safety released, the instructor came along jumped of the boat into the water and sorted it all out, told me I was ok to go but was now in what he referred to a "suicide not" or something to that effect - I'm assuming it meant the safety was out of the game. And i'm further assuming that this is not what you would call best practice?

There is an organisation that governs the way instructors should be teaching - IKO being the international one (we, for example, work only with IKO instructors) and a number of local ones. The main focus is really on safety and making sure that our students know exactly what do to when shit hits the fan. Learning upwind, board skills etc. is a bit secondary, safety is paramount. We always go through the self rescue (with all scenarios incl. deep water packdown), even though we mostly get onshore winds you really need to know how to do it. Not only in theory as some tend to do it.

Kiterookie wrote:Regarding pointing the board downwind at start - you are 100% right, I know I'm supposed to do it but i keep loosing focus as i dip the kite and end up square on. Another thing I know i do is choke the kite when i do get up and end up drowning the bored because instead of leaning back i'm trying to over correct my chocking of the bar.

Re choking - don't keep the bar pulled in, after the power stroke let the bar out a bit, otherwise you're killing the power in the kite. After the power stroke bring your kite up and dive it again to generate power. Board downwind and hips twisted in the way you want to ride - this will straighten your front leg. Or come to Scotland for 1 day coaching and we'll get you up and running

Kiterookie wrote:A couple more questions - I spoke to a friend who advised me to have a look at the F1 Bandit 7 for 2014 - said it was pretty good beginner kite.

Good kite, not sure about the size - it depends on how much do you weight and what's the wind like where you live. Bandits are awesome all-round kites but the safety system (2 line one) on their bars isn't ideal. If you could get an Ozone bar this would work best!

Hope this helps a bit

The best advice I have: so long as you are an arrogant nice person most folks will go out of their way to help you out if you simply ask. Make friends, it'll pay off. Everyone will immediately know that you are new, so just go shake some hands, help some folks launch and land, and get friendly with the folks that are always out there.