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How long did it take you to learn to kite?

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JakeFarley
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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby JakeFarley » Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:06 pm

In 2001 with a 2 line kite, no instructors, just Hung Vu's kitesurfingschool.org, I was up and riding in about 20 hours which spanned about 3 months over the summer and fall when winds are not that good in my location. Lots of body dragging in light wind, relaunching over and over again. But when the wind was good it was edging hard to keep from going down wind. Once I got a 4-line C kite it was easier, but still hard during light wind days to stay upwind. I was a lot younger then and if I had to learn now with the equipment I had back then, I might have given up.
20200310_113142.jpg
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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby bkkite » Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:35 pm

lightwind wrote:
Thu Oct 13, 2022 2:45 pm
Toby wrote:
Thu Oct 13, 2022 3:13 am
I agree, 6hrs is very optimistic!
I would say with 10 hrs people go back and forth, some very skilled ones already stay upwind. But mass maybe 20 hrs?
Also depending on location...for sure a warm water, consistent 20 knots daily, shallow and fat water lagoon like Brazil, things go faster...

Any instructor here who knows better?
6 hours only for the good swimmer already connected with wind and board sports. Otherwise I think minimum 10-15 hours to be able to ride (not upwind). Self rescue, weather theory, self landing, traffic rules and equipment selection included.

It's really different with every person. I think the big factor is swimming skill and how you feel in the deep water. (I don't talk about learning in the waist deep water you are not independent before you go in the deep water)
Lots of students are great on the beach with kite piloting but once they get in to the sea they are having a problem with all types of bodydraging and positioning their body against the pul of the kite.

For the average sporty person who has strong will to learn and good focus on the lesson I think 10-15 hours. Best will be 5-7 days in a row on the sandy beach with constant cross on shore winds and 15-20 knots speed.

When it comes to water start good solution is boat teaching because you don't have to walk back upwind and can practice for longer time in one take.
Yeah, this is a great point, I should have emphasized the deep water piece more in the video. Totally agree. I see riders who are intermediate but maybe have been riding a few years get uncomfortable if they really only ride in shallow spots, its interesting. Out of the group of people that learned to kite at my local spot at the same time as me, I'm the one that seems to have branched out the most to different locations and conditions.

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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby bkkite » Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:01 am

JakeFarley wrote:
Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:06 pm
In 2001 with a 2 line kite, no instructors, just Hung Vu's kitesurfingschool.org, I was up and riding in about 20 hours which spanned about 3 months over the summer and fall when winds are not that good in my location. Lots of body dragging in light wind, relaunching over and over again. But when the wind was good it was edging hard to keep from going down wind. Once I got a 4-line C kite it was easier, but still hard during light wind days to stay upwind. I was a lot younger then and if I had to learn now with the equipment I had back then, I might have given up.

20200310_113142.jpg
I can't even imagine how hard it was with that gear...

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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby Toby » Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:19 am

JakeFarley wrote:
Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:06 pm
In 2001 with a 2 line kite, no instructors, just Hung Vu's kitesurfingschool.org, I was up and riding in about 20 hours which spanned about 3 months over the summer and fall when winds are not that good in my location. Lots of body dragging in light wind, relaunching over and over again. But when the wind was good it was edging hard to keep from going down wind. Once I got a 4-line C kite it was easier, but still hard during light wind days to stay upwind. I was a lot younger then and if I had to learn now with the equipment I had back then, I might have given up.

20200310_113142.jpg

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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby Flyboy » Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:42 am

bkkite wrote:
Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:01 am
JakeFarley wrote:
Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:06 pm
In 2001 with a 2 line kite, no instructors, just Hung Vu's kitesurfingschool.org, I was up and riding in about 20 hours which spanned about 3 months over the summer and fall when winds are not that good in my location. Lots of body dragging in light wind, relaunching over and over again. But when the wind was good it was edging hard to keep from going down wind. Once I got a 4-line C kite it was easier, but still hard during light wind days to stay upwind. I was a lot younger then and if I had to learn now with the equipment I had back then, I might have given up.

20200310_113142.jpg
I can't even imagine how hard it was with that gear...
Very hard. Without any depower the only way to control speed was by putting the kite low and edging hard against the pull of the kite to force the board upwind to slow down. If you failed at that - which happened a lot of the time - you would find yourself losing the edge with the kite low, right in the middle of the power zone, resulting in the board accelerating uncontrollably downwind. At the same time, what the best kiters in the world were already doing with 2 line kites was amazing:



But there were a lot of ferocious wipeouts too:



The arrival of the 4 line kite gave you the ability to depower the kite somewhat making it much easier to edge the board upwind and control your speed. Bridled kites, which came along in 2006, completely changed the equation allowing you to control your speed by simply changing the AOA of the kite, making kiting accessible to anybody who was reasonably athletic and committed to the learning process.

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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby Tone » Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:31 pm

About 20 mins to be going upwind but I had been landboarding for years and also went wakeboarding quite at bit at the time. I was 21 years ago.

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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby flying doctor » Fri Oct 14, 2022 6:23 pm

Flyboy wrote:
Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:42 am
bkkite wrote:
Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:01 am
JakeFarley wrote:
Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:06 pm
In 2001 with a 2 line kite, no instructors, just Hung Vu's kitesurfingschool.org, I was up and riding in about 20 hours which spanned about 3 months over the summer and fall when winds are not that good in my location. Lots of body dragging in light wind, relaunching over and over again. But when the wind was good it was edging hard to keep from going down wind. Once I got a 4-line C kite it was easier, but still hard during light wind days to stay upwind. I was a lot younger then and if I had to learn now with the equipment I had back then, I might have given up.

20200310_113142.jpg
I can't even imagine how hard it was with that gear...
Very hard. Without any depower the only way to control speed was by putting the kite low and edging hard against the pull of the kite to force the board upwind to slow down. If you failed at that - which happened a lot of the time - you would find yourself losing the edge with the kite low, right in the middle of the power zone, resulting in the board accelerating uncontrollably downwind. At the same time, what the best kiters in the world were already doing with 2 line kites was amazing:



But there were a lot of ferocious wipeouts too:



The arrival of the 4 line kite gave you the ability to depower the kite somewhat making it much easier to edge the board upwind and control your speed. Bridled kites, which came along in 2006, completely changed the equation allowing you to control your speed by simply changing the AOA of the kite, making kiting accessible to anybody who was reasonably athletic and committed to the learning process.
I started out in 2001 as well, rough times and I'm amazed how quickly we were able to learn nonetheless.
Just for perspective: we used the term 'teabagging' for when you lost your edge and got taken downwind relentlessly by the kite like a teabag in and out of the water.
Haven't heard that term being used since 2006 😇

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Re: How long did it take you to learn to kite?

Postby Hugh2 » Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:55 am

The variability in learning time is so dependent on age, determination, situation, equipment, and teachers there can be no generalization. Those of us who learned a long time ago took a long time to get to the point of being able to stay upwind, which is what I consider to be the transition point from beginner to intermediate, especially if we were older. Like some above, my first kiting at age 50 was with a two-line kite, a 7m that in 20 knots was an amazing body-dragging experience, but it was exhilirating being hauled out of the water like a porpoise by a kite as it dived through the power zone. I went several miles downwind on my own at OBX and hitch-hiked back and I was hooked (after 25 years of windsurfing and 35 of sailing). And it was the most dramatic way to learn about where the power zone was. That was in 2005 and we then rode four-line C-kites for at least two years and took that long to get to intermediate status, with innumerable sessions that involved ending up way downwind and being picked up or hitchhiking back. Sometimes we even towed a little tin-can motorboat all the way from Illinois to OBX just to rescue each other, what the local teachers there now mostly do using jetskis. And of course bow kites made it all much easier and quicker to learn from 2007 onwards. We have taught younger athletic friends to kite in just a couple of months, and now they are much better than us. Teaching in the warm shallow water of OBX sound has to be the easiest, and we have taught many friends and family members during our regular trips there. I watch people learning at Kite Beach at Bloubergstrand in Cape Town and have to admire their determination to learn by body-dragging in cold water with waves, and when they try a board they get smashed all over the place. Presumably some of them persist enough to master our sport. Most end up at Langebaan doing endless upwind slogs for a short downwinder to the beach, which reminds me of our early struggles. But those who get it have a whole new future and some join the obsessed like us, and I will drive 1000 miles to OBX tomorrow for two weeks of fall kiting, let the wind gods be good to us please.


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