seaplus wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:34 pm
Hey good2go,
I'm in N. Texas as well and our wind season here has been quite limited the last few years. Driving down to Corpus is your best bet
for lessons and relatively consistent winds (as well as shallow, flat water to learn in).
Wait until you're through with lessons before buying gear and use the knowledge of your instructor and others when choosing gear.
In your 1st year, you will crash that kite a few times and prolly have it flop around a time or two in the grass/brush,; so getting
something 2nd hand (affordable yet good quality) would be an economical idea.
I also believe that a Wave kite is easiest to learn to fly. They fly very stable, handle gusts, and rarely Hindenberg. Then a year
down the road you'll know what type of kiting you'll be doing ie...freeride, freestyle, airstyle, foiling, etc... and then buy a
crispy new quiver of kites for the style of riding you'll be doing.
Tim
If you're going out in the near future, I would love to join you and simply observe. Let me know and I'll send you a PM with my cell phone number.
SO I TOOK MY FIRST LESSON this past Saturday. We flew the trainer kite and the instructor was very impressed the way that I was flying it, almost like a natural. I was very smooth and able to do complete spins to tangle the lines and then untangle, dives straight down from 12, etc. I was really excited, but at the same time I was very surprised by the power generated from the trainer kite, did not expect that initially. One of the things that I was doing incorrectly, which later caused some issues, was to have my elbows bent instead of straight, and I was controlling the kite with the bar very close to my body.
We moved onto a 6m kite. I started off very intimidated by the size of the kite. The instructor did everything right in going over the details of launch etc. Now came my time to control the kite. I get strapped in, get the kite up to 12, move it around from 1 to 11, but unlike the trainer kite, the rear lines had some slack in them, and in order for me to compensate this I would pull the bar in towards my body. As you all know, this powers up the kite. HOLY ****! Did not expect that. I panicked and next thing you know I'm crashing the kite and on my back holding the kite back. The instructor told me to move the bar away from me, but due to a combination of tunnel vision and panic, I did not listen and the bar stayed close to my body.
2nd attempt went a bit better but at this point I was a bit more tense. I already had a high respect for the power of the kite, but now I was a bit more cautious and somewhat intimidated by its power. I moved the kite around a bit and worked on pulling the bar in to provide tension to the rear lines and then moving the bar quickly away, which provided quite a lot of flight time. I crashed the shortly after.
I left the 2 hour lesson a bit intimidated by the kite. The amount of control that is necessary to keep the kite afloat over worked me mentally. That and looking up the entire time tired my neck.
I am also very excited to try again, however, and can't wait until I can start to get the wakeboard strapped to my feet. I now do see how my ability to wakeboard will not be that big of an advantage if I cannot keep the kite afloat.
I'm now looking for a trainer kite, or a small 4 line kite that I can practice on land further to develop more confidence. Next lessons are in water.