Riding unhooked tutorial

[kitenight11]

Hi,
can anybody give me a short and easy step to step explenation on how to learn to ride a kitefoil downwind unhooked? A video tutorial somewhere on youtube would also be welcome.
Are there any things to consider before trying this new adventure?
My foilskills are pretty average: I have transitions, footswitch and wave/swellriding (hooked) safe.
My goal would be something like this:





Thanks

[Cefirmeza]

First thing is to tune your kite so it doesnt backstall.

Go for the smaller sizes so you get minimal pull. Wave kites or single/no struts have more drift.

Hold the bar at the middle with central lines between your finger so you can have more leverage turning up and down but keep the kite low so you have more foward pull.

I will get more gopro footages trying to cover both board and kite. Hard to frame both with a mouth mount even on Superview mode.

[FLandOBX]

I agree with Cefirmeza. I'd add that, just like on your TT or directional, you don't want to ride directly downwind. Watch the rider's foilboard orientation and kite position in the video. When his lines get slack, he turns his board away from the kite. There is really more board movement than kite movement. Maintain your line tension by turning the board away from the kite, but only enough to regain control of the kite (not so much that you have to hook back in).

[jumptheshark]

The basic dynamic is the same as unhooked riding on other boards. Foil is just a lot more slippery (low drag) and you can't check speed with the board edge the same way, so its much easier to end up like this guy at the end of the video! I strongly advise learning the basics on another style of board. Long downwinders are the best way to start. I can't actually imagine what it would be like learning to unhook first on foil. Definitely not the easy way. Learning to ride really deep downwind, even hooked in can teach you a lot of the key concepts, so definitely do some of that on foil before unhooking.

Not all kites work well unhooked. C kites are great, C shaped kites like the RPM or the SST (above video) are pretty good. Lots of wave kites are pretty good, but flatter tube kites not so much. They drift poorly and either overpower you or you end up stalling em backward. Allrounders are a mixed bag. Some like the Pivot are ok, where the Rally is horrid. Lots of wind is also pretty helpful. With foil kites all I really know is that Peaks are amazing unhooked. I suspect any foil kite that drifts well would work i.e.. Firefly, concept wave etc. Not sure about other foil kites, but certainly nothing form the racy end of the spectrum. No matter the kite, as mentioned above, you will have to trim it in to avoid stall, and so you can edge out some power without getting overwhelmed.

As mentioned your going to head pretty deep off the wind. Totally forget about the concept of even holding your ground when learning to unhook. You have no depower at the bar so your going to play your edge against the kite to keep it in the right region of the window and maintain a manageable speed. Let the kite get too deep and its going to backstall (end of video), let it get too far forward and you lose power. Get going too fast and its hard to depower (death run speed like beginners), but your already committed to going downwind so you can dump power by heading deeper off the wind and more toward the kite, just make sure you don't kill all the kites speed by heading too much toward it especially while its low in the window.

In fact for the first few times, keep the kite relatively high. From there you learn how flying the kite high yields less power and you lower it to get more power (instead of sheeting). Once you can keep it all clean and simple by first learning to find that line deep off the wind where everything is relatively balanced and only gusts or lulls make you alter something, your ready to start messing around.

S turns on one tack are the next thing. Signing your line in sync with the kite sinusing in the sky. As you carve toward upwind, climb the kite to produce less power and allow your line. Carve toward downwind as the kite corners at the top so you are headed back downwind when the kite is in the dive phase. Carve back toward upwind as the kite bottom turns and begins to climb again as you once again are on your most upwind line of the S turn. I say upwind, but you are likely not really ever going to head further upwind than a reach. It's a rhythm thing much like chasing the kite through turns style of wave riding.

All the fun really starts when you get the basics and you can start throwing the kite across the window from one side to the other following it through the turn to end up back in balance (both power and speed) on the other tack. Stringing those unhooked jibes together, again, like follow the kite style wave riding. Where at first your just trying to find balance on a single line, once you learn to throw the kite around, it actually gets a bit easier, as throwing the kite through turns lends a certain predictability to pace and power that you can work your edge against.

In reality, most times my line unhooked looks like a few S turns off the wind (say heel side), kite sinusing along in time to my turns, send it across, follow it onto the other tack with a hard carve to begin S turning on the other tack (toe side), kite sinusing along in time. Transitioning back and forth to keep you S turning in the best swell. The amount you have to sign the kite is proportional to both how deep downwind your line and how much wind. The more cross wind your line and the more wind there is, the less you have to sign the kite. In enough wind, you can pretty much just park it high in the window only moving a bit when you change tacks.

Again, on foil its all the same just add the slippery dynamic of riding with super low friction on a rail without the ability to check speed with a sideways slide.

After you get all that, the goal is to sync both your turns and your kites turns to the swell. Easy peasy!

[kitenight11]

Thanks all for the detailed explenations. I am really looking forward to the next unhooked video from different angles - maybe from land would be good? How can I test, if my kite is trimmed not to backstall while completely depowered?
is it possible to to start on land to unhook or in waist deep water?
By the way Cefirmeza: What did happen when the video stopped, was the foil badly tangled in the lines and how did you solv this issue?
Thanks and kind regards.

[jumptheshark]

@kitenight11

Do you have any experience with unhooked riding on other boards?

[kitenight11]

...absolutely zero (only once when I accidentially ejected my safety - no good ending at all, but long time ago).

[Cefirmeza]

Thanks all for the detailed explenations. I am really looking forward to the next unhooked video from different angles - maybe from land would be good? How can I test, if my kite is trimmed not to backstall while completely depowered?
is it possible to to start on land to unhook or in waist deep water?
By the way Cefirmeza: What did happen when the video stopped, was the foil badly tangled in the lines and how did you solv this issue?
Thanks and kind regards.

There are a few youtube videos teaching how to trim the kite for unhooking. Basically on land you just pull the bar for a few seconds. If there is still backstall you reduce a little of the front lines by pulling the depower a few centimeters. Repeating until there is no more backstall.

You can safely unhook on land or waist deep wate. If you are not comportable you can grab the chicken loop with other hand pulling the bar to have more depower.

On the video posted was my first unhooked session so I was still figuring out how to ride it without crashing the kite. After that I just hooked back in and calmly cleared the lines wrapped on foil. It is essential to maintain the calm so things dont get worse. Also a small kite helps not dragging you. Luckily the wind was not very strong this day.

I will try to make the next video more clear and let you know when I post it.

[jumptheshark]

@ kitenight11

Are you spending time on boards other than the foil these days?

[Horst Sergio]

.. I am really looking forward to the next unhooked video from different angles - maybe from land would be good? How can I test, if my kite is trimmed not to backstall while completely depowered?
is it possible to to start on land to unhook or in waist deep water?

Hi, jumptheshark already named most.

At your level it sounds to me, that there is no other way to first learn unhooked on land, till you trim unhook, fly, rehook, retrim the kite blind and fast. Try sort of handle passes (not jumped) just to make sure you have always 100% kite control also when you crash unhooked as you will. Ride it on a skateboard, if you have a good place for this. Then you are ready for the water, and then I wouldn't worry to much if it is a twin tip or a foil, even if I agree with the problems jumptheshark has described. But on the positive side, with a good light kite: viewtopic.php?f=197&t=2401224
you will have nearly no pull on the hydrofoil downwind, instead of a twintip. And obviously don't start in waves, but in the flat and learn to handle situations as if you ride into your lines, which on a foil is anyway necessary and not connected to being unhooked.



On the other side, to me there is no better ride than on a foil unhooked on a wave. Being hooked on a wave to me feels competely wrong and nearly more difficult. At my level of winging after 20 month, but just one time in a small waves, with a suitable wing:
Foiling with a good kite (Peak on short lines) feels much more free when being unhooked compared to a also unhooked wing. Many may not agree as seen in an older topic (wing vs. kite), but very most may never have tried riding unhooked with a Peak on short lines ... so let's wait with more about this comparison until some good wave wingers will do, or till I find more times in waves with the wing.