Need help with landing jumps (video)

[Indulang]

I just started jumping and been landing like a stone. Here are videos of my jumps.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tc5o28vaubogy ... 1.mov?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hiuwllgoaiopc ... 2.mov?dl=0

Is my mistake not steering the kite forward fast enough?

I was on a 5m kite and wind was around 30kt. I landed more jumps when I was riding my 8m in my previous session. I feel like I have no time to react with the 5m. Before I know what’s going on, I’m on my ass. One time I tried to steer the kite early and landed even harder lol. I must have steered too early.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

[Steve271]

Video 1:

correct, you steer to early forward, this accelerates you.
Wait until you almost hit the water...then steer forward. You are on a 5 sqm kite which is VERY quick, so steer it exactly when you need it, not before.

You could land the trick if you know how to land with speed...but for that you need to point the board downwind...you land on your edge, there is no grip.

Video 2:

you need to edge harder...learn how to pop off the water.
Then you will less likely get into the slight forward rotation.

Check out my tutorial on how to jump, land and crash:
https://strictlyhooked.com/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=2463

My biggest advice: take a bigger kite in lighter wind and practise. Less likely to get injured.

[apollo4000]

Video 1:

correct, you steer to early forward, this accelerates you.
Wait until you almost hit the water...then steer forward. You are on a 5 sqm kite which is VERY quick, so steer it exactly when you need it, not before.

You could land the trick if you know how to land with speed...but for that you need to point the board downwind...you land on your edge, there is no grip.

Video 2:

you need to edge harder...learn how to pop off the water.
Then you will less likely get into the slight forward rotation.

Check out my tutorial on how to jump, land and crash:
https://strictlyhooked.com/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=2463

My biggest advice: take a bigger kite in lighter wind and practise. Less likely to get injured.

Great vid. Thx

[RomeUtah]

Toby hit the nail on the head. there are 2 things that stand out to me:
Learn jumps on bigger kites. Something that helped me on much bigger jumps was remembering to keep the kite right above me on the way down, although its not a parachute, it is a canopy that slows your descent as long as you are directly under it. If your canopy is to the side, especially something as small as a 5m, its not slowing you down on the way down at all. Try load and pops, or rig a bit over powered and going slow "tea bag" jump by sheeting in with as little forward momentum as you can staying under the kite.
Your board is not directly under you and you end up slipping out onto your ass. No matter what, you will be coming down and forward with momentum, at least in the bigger wind conditions, if you are jumping and falling onto your butt everything will feel more jarring. If you try to do the same jump and not try to do a table top or swing your board half way railley and instead focus on landing and riding out, you wont feel as much of a hard landing. If you look at Toby's videos, his descent is pretty mellow, his forward momentum is still very apparent, when he crashes, it looks violent, when he rides out it looks like a he is in the palms of an angel setting him down on the surface of the water.

[edt]

Very good explanation by Toby remember that usually when you crash especially if you're falling backwards it's because you don't redirect the kite properly here your redirecting it in the first video but just getting the timing wrong. I wish everyone submitted videos when they asked for advice it makes it so much easier to see what's going wrong

[Havre]

That is probably the best video I have seen on jumping. Just don't try to learn everything in one go as that is a lot of information in 6 mins.

My two cents watching your jumps and Toby´s video would be to practice "popping" like Toby describes in the video. Two reasons why I think that is the best idea. You will go higher with more control and it also helps you practice how to land as you are basically doing small jumps. I believe you will get a much better feel for how the last part of the jump should be.

When I learned to "kick" my back foot jumping it just completely changed my jumps. It looks to me you are jumping very much like I used to. Without that "kick"/edging you are not going very high and you tend to just be "sitting" through out the jump. Which makes the landings really difficult.

I also think you are really close to becoming a much better jumper. Those are not bad jumps. Certainly not with a 5m - which is not easy for someone learning as the kite is just so "!%!% fast and drops you like a stone compared to a big kite.

[Herman]

Obviously all you have to do is follow Toby's excellent video and Bob's your uncle.

You asked is my mistake not steering the kite forward fast enough? Unfortunately I don't think there is any point in talking about timing until you have learnt to steer it properly. To do this you need to be on balance and so the first thing to do is sort out your take off. (As Havre inferred, you are a bloke so you can only sort one thing at a time!). Therefore practice popping off the water and turning the board in the air to point to a broad reach and land on the tail not the edge. Once you have got that down then go back to thinking about the kite.

Firstly the send, in both videos the kite is moving slowly and in the second video it comes from a long way down. At your stage you do not need a big send so don't start the kite low. Also don't sheet in for the send or it will pull you forward off edge. (You can revisit the the send later when you want to go higher.). Once the kite reaches just behind the zenith sheet in and of course time this with your pop off the water. With small kites and small jumps I like to check the kite behind the zenith because it allows the kite to be faster and developing more lift as it passes through the landing sweet spot.

Now the redirect! In the first video the kite moves slowly a little, might even be backstalling, and in the second video the kite never reappears and I think the lines remain vertical. And yet you ask if you are steering too early. Maybe you are but you are probably white knuckled trying to get the board back in front of you, bar pulled all the way in kite going nowhere because it is stalled, easily done with small kites. Ideally at the apex of the jump you should be prepositioning the kite ready to get it flying fast through the landing sweet spot but in early small jumps just settle for being able to sheet out to get the kite moving.

Can't guarantee that this is all correct from a quick look at a short video but I hope it is food for thought. Also everything above has to be timed correctly, your jumps were around 2 seconds long and so it is not surprising that you have to practice both the individual elements and stringing those elements together.

PS in the first video the kite was moving almost staggering along at the redirect. After you hit the water it speeded up at the very end of the video, was this when you released your white knuckled grip on the bar and finally sheeted out?? Also it is important to note that you are doing just fine for having just started. Don't rush to get high on small kites in strong wind, hone your technique in lighter winds with bigger kites first, there is less risk.

[SMJ]

If you're consistently landing on your butt, then you're probably not spotting your landing. I did this when first learning jumps - I was looking out at the horizon. Look down at the water at the exact spot your board is going to touch down. As mentioned above land flat (not on edge) and downwind for landing.

[Indulang]

Thanks, Toby and everyone else for your feedback.

I quickly skimmed through the replies and went out the next day with the same 5m kite & 30kt wind. Towards the end of that session, I was landing smaller jumps half the time but still crashing the ones where I had more than 2.5 sec airtime. Here are two of my landings and crashes (0.5x speed)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjlyizxq0ut7s ... d.mp4?dl=0

I watched your great video Toby and have more questions than answers

1) Why is popping helpful for me? Wouldn't popping make my jumps even higher and potentially cause even harder landings if I can't even manage my landings at the current heights?

2) You mentioned it's very dangerous when the kite starts to pull forward when you're up in the air and recommend sheeting out the bar and then sheeting back in (just before landing). This might be very applicable for me as I can feel I'm going downwind with quite some speed on some of my jumps. So when do I sheet out? At the peak? Won't I drop even faster when I keep the bar sheeted out while I'm coming down?

3) Also, you said it's easier to land softer if you have more speed. Just curious why this is the case. It seems the opposite in my case where I crash hard when I have speed

Lastly, you mentioned landing on the ass is safer. Unfortunately I proved you wrong.

Basically I ignored your biggest advice to practice during lighter winds with bigger kites and got my balls injured! It happened during the first 20min of the session and strangely I didn't feel any pain. When I came out for a break, I was adjusting my crotch a lot and joking with my girlfriend that my balls feel funny. And I continued the session and probably had 20+ crashes after that which was really stupid in hindsight. Only after I finished the session and took off the wetsuit I noticed my scrotum had become huge, 50% bigger than a tennis ball. I stupidly ignored it and went bouldering after that. While bouldering, although I still only had minor pain, I started feeling more awkward due to its size, and decided to go the emergency room. The doctor did an ultrasound and found that my testicles are ok but I had a testicular hematoma (rupture of some blood vessel in there) and it'll take 2-3 weeks to heal and drain that fluid and go back to the original size.

All said and done, I'm feeling lucky and thankful that there's no long-term damage. I'm curious if any of you have heard about kiters having testicle injuries. According to Woo and sessions apps, I went 3.8m and 3.3m. While that's not super high, perhaps that height combined with the high downwind speed might have caused the injury

Anyway, I learned the lesson not to ignore the safety advice given here . I won't practice any jumps on my 5m till I can master landings with my 8m with lighter winds. All your advice is much appreciated.

[Hugh2]

Thanks, Toby and everyone else for your feedback.

I quickly skimmed through the replies and went out the next day with the same 5m kite & 30kt wind. Towards the end of that session, I was landing smaller jumps half the time but still crashing the ones where I had more than 2.5 sec airtime. Here are two of my landings and crashes (0.5x speed)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjlyizxq0ut7s ... d.mp4?dl=0

I watched your great video Toby and have more questions than answers

1) Why is popping helpful for me? Wouldn't popping make my jumps even higher and potentially cause even harder landings if I can't even manage my landings at the current heights?

2) You mentioned it's very dangerous when the kite starts to pull forward when you're up in the air and recommend sheeting out the bar and then sheeting back in (just before landing). This might be very applicable for me as I can feel I'm going downwind with quite some speed on some of my jumps. So when do I sheet out? At the peak? Won't I drop even faster when I keep the bar sheeted out while I'm coming down?

3) Also, you said it's easier to land softer if you have more speed. Just curious why this is the case. It seems the opposite in my case where I crash hard when I have speed

Lastly, you mentioned landing on the ass is safer. Unfortunately I proved you wrong.

Basically I ignored your biggest advice to practice during lighter winds with bigger kites and got my balls injured! It happened during the first 20min of the session and strangely I didn't feel any pain. When I came out for a break, I was adjusting my crotch a lot and joking with my girlfriend that my balls feel funny. And I continued the session and probably had 20+ crashes after that which was really stupid in hindsight. Only after I finished the session and took off the wetsuit I noticed my scrotum had become huge, 50% bigger than a tennis ball. I stupidly ignored it and went bouldering after that. While bouldering, although I still only had minor pain, I started feeling more awkward due to its size, and decided to go the emergency room. The doctor did an ultrasound and found that my testicles are ok but I had a testicular hematoma (rupture of some blood vessel in there) and it'll take 2-3 weeks to heal and drain that fluid and go back to the original size.

All said and done, I'm feeling lucky and thankful that there's no long-term damage. I'm curious if any of you have heard about kiters having testicle injuries. According to Woo and sessions apps, I went 3.8m and 3.3m. While that's not super high, perhaps that height combined with the high downwind speed might have caused the injury

Anyway, I learned the lesson not to ignore the safety advice given here . I won't practice any jumps on my 5m till I can master landings with my 8m with lighter winds. All your advice is much appreciated.

YIKES, dude, you are making it really hard on yourself. Take some of the advice offered here. Wait for a day when you are nicely powered on a 9 or 12 m and try small jumps with simple landings. Landing a 5m in 30 knots with any altitude requires far more skill than you have.

The idea of working on pops is two-fold. Do it repeatedly like in Toby's video to learn to turn the board downwind on landing (which you did a few of). Then later it will also help you gain altitude when you do real jumps.

Crash landings also should follow Toby's advice, don't land square on the board, use the board to skip out of under you partially breaking your fall and then land on your butt.

BUT, you are close to getting it, just do small controlled jumps with larger kites in less hectic conditions and focus on the water where you will land. The point about pulling in the bar is that if you let the bar out as you come down you can crank it in at the last minute to soften your landing, but it does not help much with a 5m, mostly it helps with a larger kite.