Kitesurfing Lessons – Landing Your Kite

Posted under Kitesurfing Lessons, Trainer Kite

Landing your kite

Anyone can crash a kite. When you first start flying your Trainer Kite or taking your kitesurfing lessons you probably will do it a lot and that’s OK! I used to crash my kite all the time. But don’t do it if you don’t have to – your kite will last much longer and you will look like a pro! To land your kite all you need to do is this:

 

• Fly the kite to the edge of the wind window. It doesn’t matter where; just get it to the edge.
• With slow, smooth movements, work the kite towards the ground either at the 3 or 9 o’clock positions.
• Bring your kite down and land it gently on the ground at the edge of the wind window.
• Move to your kite and secure it.
• Pack it up and away you go!
• Landing your kite is quite simple, and like I said, it will extend its life. When you are good at this you’ll look like you’re a pro!

A few top tips: (no doubt you’ll get many more in your kitesurfing lessons, but these will get you started

• Try to keep your arms extended and in front of you, do not twist the bar around the side of you, move your body to follow the kite in the sky so that your arms are always in front of you.
• Keep the bar flat, do not be tempted to use the bar like a steering wheel instead use it like the handlebars of a bike. Think of your arms as pistons when one goes out the other comes in.
• To start with be gentle, make tiny movements with the bar as you get more confident make the movements bigger.

Things to remember:

• You will crash your trainer kite! Just walk over and set it back up for re-launch. Try not to crash it directly down wind as it is possible to blow seams out of a kite if crashed directly into the ground at 50 miles per hour. Yes, they can move that fast.
• Wind is like a road; sometimes it’s bumpy and sometimes it’s smooth. Your kite may behave well one day and fly terribly the next. Most likely the wind is very different, do not let this get you down and disheartened you, learning to fly a kite in ALL conditions is part of the training.
• Be careful in high winds. Even small trainer kites develop a lot of power. in general a 3m trainer kite will allow a 200lb person to jump 6-10 feet forward when the winds are over 18mph. Always leave yourself room for evasive action (3-5 line lengths).
• If you have someone helping you launch the trainer kite, make sure they move immediately after launching. Also, be nice and share your kite with them.
• It takes most people anywhere from 30 mins to 3 hours to learn to fly a trainer kite proficiently. Don’t expect to be a great flier in 5 minutes.
• Twists in the lines. All kites will still fly exactly the same even with a twist in their lines. To untwist the lines, either fly a complete loop in the other direction, or spin your body quickly around. Most kites can fly with 2 or 3 loops before the lines begin to bind up.

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