Okay, so, personally speaking, I can't think of anything worse than the idea of being driven out on a boat kicked off, and be expected to kitesurf... but I know that there are some schools that teach people this way (and I'm sure they do it in a safe and controlled way)
Anyway, my question is, how would you set up your kite if you're going to launch from a boat. As in, when do you connect the lines? Do you inflate the kite, connect the lines, then write the lines back up? What about the inevitable tangle when you unwind?
I don't plan to do it, but just wondered!
Connect your lines at home, pull a canopy length of flagging line so your kite is depowered then wrap your lines up. Fold your kite in half so the lines dont tangle with the bridals and fold them carefully with your kite.
Pump kite up, connect safety to flagging line, put kite in the water, spool line off the bar as it floats away. let your flagging line feed through and water re-launch as normal.
Thanks Saffer, I can't see this video at the moment (work internet proxy is blocking it). Will see it at home.
In Sanur Bali the ripcurl kite school teaches this way. They launch the kite on the beach, then fly the kite as they drive up wind.
I think this is a fairly risky practice but didn't see anything bad happen over the 6 days I was there.
I also think this is a bad way to teach because they collect your board for you and don't teach you to body drag up wind to recover your board.
After only a few hours with a small kite with short lines on the beach they already take you on the boat to practice water starts with a board.
It just seems like a quick thrill for a day, rather than learning to be a safe, responsible, skillful kiter.
Launching like the first frame in that video is all well and good until a bit of chop hits the kite on a windy day. It will hot launch. It happened to me once though I was not in a boat. It was a dangerous launch spot that could only be done from the water. I always dreaded the launch there, but once the kite was up it is a sensational place to kite.
If I was doing a boat launch I would put the kite in backwards and roll the lines out to prevent a hot launch, and let the boat motor toward the kite because the kite will want to pull. Don't really know, never tried it, but logically it would work okay provided you had plenty of room to head downwind.
Nothing like a good beach with loads of sand, but you gotta kite were you live and not all places are ideal.
we made a couple instructional videos and just launched off our boat the whole way kiting from tonga to aus.
If you look at
Thanks for posting the videos guys... the more I think about it, the more scary it seems!
Still want to give it a go mind...
I learnt in Italy at Lake Garda. There are very limited opportunities to launch from the shoreline. And by limited I mean the wind is generally bad at the shoreline and very limited launch area (max 5m to the road) apart from it being illegal to launch from the shoreline.
The schools get you to prepare the kite on land, as in all lines connected and fully inflated. Then the leading edge is deflated and only the struts are left inflated. Lines are carefully wrapped and kite is folded into the middle so that the lines do not tangle.
On the boat the leading edge is inflated. On a lighter day around 15 knots they generally float the kite out and unwrap the lines. If there is any doubt in their mind about the conditions, they get someone to swim the kite out to the side of the window and the instructor launches whilst attached to the kite in the boat. It worked really well every time.
They were pretty thorough. Kite control and proficient body dragging were the first steps to be achieved before they even gave you a board. There you have about 5km of downwind learning. When they run out of room they fly the kites back upwind whilst driving the boat. It looked impressive, but at no point did my instructors look like they didn't have it under control and safety was their primary concern.
Great place to learn because it was 2 people to a kite, max 4 students to an instructor and only ever 2 in the water at the same and tons of room with no obstacles. Deep water from the get go so no fears about that afterwards and not having to continually walk the kite back upwind.
Mind you they were a good school.... there are tons of dodgy ones as well.
Sounds like fun to me! Especially getting someone else to do the risky stuff... actually, I wouldn't mind the risky stuff, just with someone else's gear!
