Newbie - Lessons learned so far...

@kiterkook, Yes I think it was Ian. Top bloke! :)

Jerk the centre lines, this will reverse the kite a couple of meters off the ground, then pull hard left (or right) to flip it up in the right direction again.

Don't you mean jerk the steering lines?

Tops session at Le'Sands 1st Carpark yesterday, a great crew frothing over 15kn fun.

Lessons learnt:

1. Tony shared a kitemare story explaining why I should always launch with the kite at the waters edge and me away from the waters edge.

2. A tip practiced from this thread .. when taking-off, drop the kite with agression, point the board down wind and let the harness pull you out of the water. Feels awesome when you get the hang feel of this, and every start'll be a confidence boost for the run out.

3. After hooting me while passing on my first 'trimming' run out, Craige from Liverpool (tops bloke) gave me this tip: when passing, the person up wind keeps their kite high and the person down wind keeps their kite low. Me? until yesterday I just ****e myself, put the kite high and dropped into the water when anyone came near me :P

Now I know the protocol and have no need to fear passing.

By the way .... if ur a SYD noob, check 'the hook up' threads, there's a few of us who are letting each other know when we're heading for kite.

Hey Gatey, yeah, I agree, they certainly should... but mine didn't!

I've reviewed them, and still trying to get them to sink in! Not hard I know, but when one's learning, all brain power is employed to keeping kite/board/balance correct to stay erect (so to speak... I just love the sport!).

Really do like this thread it's be massively helpful!!
Did a down winder today that gave me about an hour on the water....loved it..gives you so much more time to work on skills like edging and getting over waves without getting smashed
The advice on getting up via harness pressure instead of using your arms made a big difference and setting up your lines by connecting the centre 2 first then unrolling is a ripper!!! So much easier.
Thanks guys

Hmm. Why is that?

I actually found learning in direct onshore easier than in direct cross shore. I body drag out 100+m, then get up on my board and then do a few runs left and right until I get too close to shore, then stop & repeat. For the following reasons:

* Getting separated from your board means that you only need to come back to shore and wait for the thing to drift back to you, rather than body drag around frantically searching for it... (can be very hard to see if it's choppy and a long way out)
* If you end up in the situation where the kite lands in the water twisted around the lines and wont relaunch (happened to me once), you will end up back on the beach, rather than drifting out for miles & needing to self rescue.
* Body dragging out is far easier than walking back up the beach, dodging kids / sunbathers and pulling a kite upwind.

Awesome link Gateman, cheers for sharing.
I'm a career geek who R'sTFM ;)

And like Salty, the up/down wind convention wasn't shared during any of my lessons ... if there's any Kitepower folk following this thread, here's a simple rule that'll benefit kooks everywhere!

As much as I am annoyed by the less experienced downwind of me keeping the kite high, I believe it is courteous for the more experienced and capable to be more accommodating.

More often than not it's the more experienced that can be "gracious" - do an awesome boost downwind of the noob and go back upwind so that noob can carry on minding his/her own business

Now that's style.

Couldn't agree more MD (I worked in the marine industry for 8 years & can't go without sunnies)
Got a pair of the Seabreeze specs for Xmas and loving them, good strap to secure them and reasonably priced. I recommend polarised sunnies for water use, cuts the glare and allows you to see obstacles under the water better than non polarised.
Cheers

I used to use my arms to pull myself up as it felt natural. It made controlling the kite much harder as you've your body weight on the bar who's distance from the harness is determining the power you're being pulled out the water.

Took me a fair bit of practice, but now rely on the harness which is more comfortable. I'm not sure core strength is a big issue as I think the harness should be pulling you over the board so you essentially roll to the upright position (as if you're doing the final part of a forward roll on the ground...). I could be speaking rubbish though... I'm still new!

Learnt something the other day from my day job that I can transfer to kiting:

After coming off the board, count to your self while upwind body dragging and having the kite parked (if possible) sometimes it can be difficult to find exactly where the board is but if you count say 20 seconds in one direction and then come back another 20 seconds in the other direction you would be pretty unlucky to find your board anywhere but immediately downwind of your final position, works for me anyway.

Good tip, especially in choppy water. You can also use the kite to lift you out of the water to find the board... but risk ending up further away from it.

Hello, I'm struggling to get up wind. So I've set myself the following home work:

Read:
www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/How-to-go-upwind-on-your-kiteboard_3214258.aspx

and read:
kitesurfing-handbook.peterskiteboarding.com/progression/going-upwind

Note to self, get the board 45 degrees + off the water.

Hey all, I'm really enjoying this thread, some excellent stuff being passed around. I've recently been taking leaps and bounds in my ability, starting to head upwind in my natural direction (left). I'd been really struggling for a while so took a lesson while I was in Merimbula on holiday with the local school and Peter really ironed out some bad habits I'd developed, I couldn't believe how much kite control techniques I'd forgotten!

One that really helped me with getting rid of the tendency to pull the bar in while starting was to only ever pull the bar in momentarily to turn the kite and generally let it fly on its front lines. Obviously this isn't a universal rule, but when there's enough wind and you're only doing basic stuff it's super helpful.

Also, when trying to body drag upwind to your board (I've had plenty of practice) keep the kite really high, not low, otherwise it will drag you back down wind.

One question though... I was out at St.Kilda on Monday (soooo busy) and I caught up to a guy on the same tack, I'm not so sure how I could slow down so I just dropped and did a water start in the other direction. What's the deal if you're going faster than someone and want to pass?

Cheers.