Postby Herman » Wed Oct 19, 2022 9:54 am
Only read this if you don’t mind a bit of a ramble………..
Arguably if you are trying for a tight loop you don’t actually need the down loop, but of course it is good fun and you actually need to be able to do a tight loop to moderate the power when required - part of the skill set if that makes sense. Also, arguably, the most effective downloop is actually done after you have carved accross the lines as this gives you the most acceleration onto the new tack. Once you consider all this you can see there are loads of factors involved, plus one of the most useful/powerful downloops is not much of a loop at all….. kite medium height sheeted in, sheet out with slight dive to run the kite to the very edge of the window, before kite stops sheet in and fishpole to get the kite to 180 so that it is now low and facing the new tack, level the bar and sheet out to get the kite moving and sheet in as it rips accross the window. Half tight, half open loop and not even a full loop!!!
Sometimes downloops are almost essential, for example if you’re kite is high and you need to turn in front of a wave that is jacking up in front of you the only way to get the kite to react fast enough is to pull an immediate down loop. In this case most of the power comes almost immediately from the kite diving straight into the power zone.
I am not deliberately trying to complicate things, it is just that there is no one answer, it is a whole skill set that has to be developed. One thing for sure is that you will not get a tight loop by pulling and carving towards the kite as you will lose line tension as you ride towards the kite. In practice the only time you want all the loop to be tight is when you want to kill the power - then do the loop high in the front of the window, fishpole and only carve towards the kite enough to control excessive line tension.
Just got to get out there and play with, initial window position, radius of carve, timing, degree of fishpole, speed of entry ( head up to slow entry and develop more line tension for tight loop if required)……………..
PS Fishpoling is not just about pulling, pushing with the slack hand can be very useful!!
Do you really want a complete tight loop, probably not??
I agree with IWantToFly’s beach practice suggestion but using a landboard and/or a bug can take your ability to analyse the downloop etc to an even higher level, if you have that facility, imho!