What is Kitesurfing?

Posted under Kite lesson, Trainer Kite

Before you even think about taking Kitesurfing Lessons you probably asked yourself this question. Is an obvious question but one that deserves a bit of attention to answer. Kitesurfing at its most simple is the art of attaching yourself to a high power kite and using a combination of the wind in the kite and the resistance generated by the board to ride across the water. There are many different names for the same sport and it can be referred to as kitesurfing, kiteboarding, fly surfing to name just a few. There are several different styles of kitesurfing mainly freestyle, wake style, wave surfing, and speed, generally different styles require different types of kit and work your body in very different ways. Kitesurfing is presently the fastest growing water-sport in the world and because of this many of the safety aspects of the sport are becoming better and better, led by the change to de-powerable bow style kites.

The idea of using a simple kite as a means of propulsion dates back to the 12th century when the Chinese used kites to pull their canoes across the water. This kitesailing as it was known was then re discovered in the 1800′s by George Pocock who took the basic kite design and by increasing the size was able to pull carts on land and ships on the water. His kites were built with 4 lines and the carts and baots they were pulling could travel upwind and the kites could generate enough power to lift them off the ground and power them for a period of time.

It wasn’t until the 1980′s when Wipika solved the problem suffered by all these earlier kite designs…how to launch it from the water. The Leading Edge inflatable (LEI) kite was born and the rest as they say is history.

Recommended Reading

Learn in Malaysia | – Are you ready Jimmy Jeng-goeess…!? When you’re ready to pick up the sport of kite surfing, we’ll head out with you to our tie-up partner in Leo’s.

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Kitesurfing Lessons – Advanced Trainer Kite Techniques To Improve Your Kitesurfing Skills

Posted under Kite lesson, Kitesurfing Lessons, Trainer Kite

Advanced Techniques to practice before taking your Kitesurfing Lessons

Parking the kite

Parking the kite simply means to keep your kite stationary. With your trainer kite, this spot will be in the edge of the wind window. You want to park your kite when you aren’t focused on your kite, you are preparing for a certain maneuver, or whenever you need your kite to be in the shoulder of the wind window (when you don’t want power, etc…).

Why is it Important?

Parking you kite is an important skill to learn before your kitesurfing lessons because your kite will be parked on the edge of the wind window where it has little power. When here, you will be able to focus elsewhere without worrying about what it’s doing. What to do – To park your kite, simply:

• Fly the kite to any spot at the edge of the wind window. As the kite approaches the edge it slows, eventually coming to a stop on the edge.
• Once the kite has come to a stop, your goal is to keep it in one spot. If the kite starts to drift in one direction, gently correct for the motion by steering it in the other direction. Make sure that you don’t overcorrect.
• Keep the kite in that spot until you know you have it under control and can keep it there for as long as you want.

Smooth motions

This skill is simple but often overlooked. Steering the kite in a smooth and controlled manner is very important when you start flying larger kites. If you steer a large kite in a jerky fashion, the kites pull will vary, and thus, cause it to jerk. Imagine being towed by a wakeboarding boat that speeds up, then slows down, then speeds up, then slows down, then speeds up, then slows down… It makes my arms sore just thinking about it. In short, you want to steer your kites smoothly so you might as well start practicing now. Here are some things you can do to help.

Pay attention when you are flying – if you ever feel a jerk and there was no gust of wind, you may be doing something to cause it. Try and figure out what it is and make it smoother.

Think about what you are going to do in advance – Often times a split second decision to do something results in a quick change in the kite’s movement; it’s this type of thing that causes the kite to jerk. E.g. You realize that you are about to crash your kite so you suddenly increase the tightness of its turn. This will cause it to pull harder, giving you a slight tug. (of course this is preferable to crashing the kite, but you get the picture.)

Practice flying your kite in circles without adjusting the tightness of the turn. The pull of the kite should still increase, which is natural, but it will do it in a smooth manner.

Flying figure eights will get you comfortable flying your kite all over the wind window, steering your kite, and will help you practice steering smoothly. In addition, the vertical figure eight is the basic movement to what kiters call ‘sine-ing’, which is a way to create more power while moving.

What to do – You will spend a lot of time doing this in your kitesurfing lessons so might as well get a bit of practice in now! Steer your kite in a figure eight pattern both vertically and horizontally across the wind window as illustrated below.

The Most Important Trainer Kite Practice Exercise on this Page!

Power strokes are where the rubber hits the road in you kitesurfing lessons and are the most important trainer kite practice exercise on this page – get good at them! You use them when you want to generate a lot of power with your kite, and are most often used when water-starting or getting up on your board. Depending on how much power you need, you can do a power stroke for low, medium, and high power. See the diagram below for a visual explanation:

Now that you can fly your trainer kite, here is a list of things to practice to allow your skills and muscle memory to develop more fully. The more time spent on these skills, the less time you will spend swimming and the more time you will spend riding.

Sliding during the power stroke

As you work on the power stroke, work to keep your centre of gravity behind your feet and not to get pulled forward into a running position. You should slide forward on your feet.

Practice your board starts.

This will develop your muscle memory for leg and hip positioning for getting up on your board. The goal of this practice is to make sure you point your board downwind when trying to get up and ride.

Riding to your right side: Put your kite in neutral (hovering straight above your head), sit down on the ground, extend your right leg forward and bend your left leg in a little bit. Now send the trainer kite into a power stroke toward your right side. You should stand up (if you have enough power) on your right foot with your body turned at about a 45 degree angle to the wind.

Now move your trainer kite to the 1 o’clock position for your power stroke; notice how your hips and body naturally point your leg more down wind. One of the number one problems for new kiteboarders is not keeping their kiteboards pointed down wind when attempting a water start. Now work on your left side. If you decide to learn to snow or land board, make sure to use the same technique of pointing the board downwind.

Moving with the trainer kite.

Run, ski, snowboard, buggy, land board or roller blade. Now that you are flying well, start running with the kite in the direction the kite is flying. You will notice different dynamics in the kite as you move. When you are kiteboarding, you are always moving with the kite and need to learn how to control the trainer kite during this movement and take advantage of the apparent wind you are generating. Use any of the vehicles listed above to help work on this. Remember to wear padding and a helmet.

Fly the trainer kite in high winds and very aggressively.

The more you get used to being pulled around, the better you will do when hanging on to a large power kite. Try spinning your body under your bar, fly while looking backwards (yes, this will happen to you in the water), fly with your eyes closed, and if it’s really windy do some little jumps as you send the kite up the middle of the power zone.

Fly one-handed.

If you can hold the bar in one hand and fly with one hand, this is a skill that will build your confidence and get you used to hanging onto the middle of the bar.

Add a harness and bar loop.

To get the full advantage of a trainer kite, get a harness and add a fixed loop to the bar, (you can buy one of these from your local windsurfing store or a bit of rope will do). Now you can begin to practice flying while being “hooked in” and work on kite control with one hand. This is a skill that is an absolute necessity for learning to kite in the water. You will need to fly one-handed while carrying your board to the water and trying to put it on your feet.  Another great thing about adding a loop and harness is that you can snow or land kite for hours once you get hooked in.

Thats it by mastering these skills proir to taking your kitesurfing lessons you will guarantee yourself that you fly through the course and be trying to get up on the board in no time. Remember, 80% of learning to kiteboard is learning to fly your kite! That said do not try these exercises with anything larger than a trainer kite and always adhere to the manufacturers recommendations regarding windspeed.

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Kitesurfing Lessons – kit and what to look for, buying your first kite.

Posted under Kite lesson, Kitesurfing Lessons

Buying kit is a notoriously sticky issue and something I would definately leave until after your kitesurfing lessons. Mainly because there are so many people and companies telling you completely different things, all claiming to know exactly what is good for you and which bit of kit is best. Unfortunately as a beginner you are especially susceptible to this kind of marketing as you don’t have the experience to know what is best for you, or even how you’d recognise it if it came up and clubbed you over the head. So many beginners end up buying a bit of kit because their mate told them to, or because it was the one that had the coolest design on it…sound familiar, that’s what I did and ended up taking a year to learn to go upwind because of it. However there are some simple bits of information which will allow you to navigate the minefield that is buying kit and if you follow them you’ll not only save money but also time and frustration. So we’ll start by talking about arguably the most important bit of kit…the kite.

Contrary to what manufacturers tell you a kite cannot be amazing at everything, it cannot have the most power, turn the fastest, be the most stable and the easiest to relaunch all at the same time.  Why? because a kite is a wing and wing design is based on compromise.  To divulge into a bit of aerodynamic theory, a wing at its most simple (and for all you physicists out there, I know, this is very simple!) can be either long and thin which will generate an awful lot of power or short and fat which will handle a lot easier. A wing cannot be both long and thin and short and fat at the same time, not on planet Earth anyway, it has to be built as a compromise between the two extremes. The same holds true of a kite.  Generally as a beginner you are better off aiming at the short, fat end of the spectrum, these kites will tend to be more forgiving and more responsive, also they are less likely to ping you 20m down the beach if you do something wrong, as they generate less pull. If you think that’s for wimps and your tough enough to handle a long thin one (kite that is!), be my guest, but I’m no slouch (if I do say so myself) and due to a long thin monster of a kite I spent the first year of my kitesurfing career in misery…you have been warned!

As to the whole C vs hybrid vs bow vs delta kite arguments (you probably won’t even know the difference but you’ll hear a lot about them over the coming months) it basically breaks down like this…hybrids, bows and deltas are all different types of bow kites that is they have some form of bridle and de-power a hell of a lot more than a C kite…get one of these, DO NOT…I repeat, DO NOT, buy a C kite, of course you’re your own person and who am I to tell you what to do but bear in mind C kites are much harder to control, kick like a shot of tequila and offer very little in the way of advantages to the beginner rider. In short the bow style kites are infinitely safer, easier and faster to get started on and will most likely be the kites your learning on during your kitesurfing lessons.

Next we look at how much you should be spending on your first set of kitesurfing equipment after taking your kitesurfing lessons.

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Kitesurfing Lessons – am I strong/fit/young/(insert your own excuse here!) enough to kitesurf?

Posted under Kite lesson, Kitesurfing Lessons

Many, many people ask me one of these questions before taking kitesurfing lessons and they are obvious and legitimate concerns. Kitesurfing looks like a sport that requires an awful lot of upper body strength, great levels of fitness and flexiblity to master. To let you in on a little secret (and one I never tell girls I’m chatting to in a bar!) you don’t. One of the true beauties of kitesurfing is that it can be enjoyed at a variety of different levels by almost everyone on the planet. I’ve seen 90 year olds kiting with their 9 year old grandsons or daughters, overweight men kiting with their Kate Moss thin girlfriends (money talks I suppose!) and all sorts of characters from all walks of life enjoying the exhilaration of being at one with the wind and the water. I was even lucky enough to teach one girl to kitesurf when she only had one arm, an incredible experience for both of us.

At its most basic level, simply cruising up and down will require very little in the way of Olympian fitness but still exposes you to that incredible feeling of being at one with the elements in a way few sports can.  If you want to push it then disciplines like freestyle and wave riding will work every muscle in your body, and, as the saying goes, plenty you didn’t know you had. As for the strength required to kitesurf, you are attached to the kite through your harness and as a result the weight is taken through your entire body and the pull on your arms is negligible, indeed their is a trend amongst kite manufacturers to make the ‘bar pressure’ (the pull you feel on you arms) as light as possible to a point where it is often possible to control the kite with 1 finger from each hand. Kitesurfing equipment these days is super safe and most kites can be 100% depowered by simply letting go of the bar.

Truth is you can push kitesurfing as much as you want, sure, if you want to be doing the latest crazy tricks and catching waves in Maui then you’ll need a level of dedication and a level of fitness to match. However for many the true thrill comes from being out on the water, in the elements, cruising up and down with your mates and kitesurfing at this level can be enjoyed by all. 

So now we’ve established that you are fit enough to kitesurf, what specific exercises can you do to ensure that you don’t pull or strain something during your kitesurfing lessons that will keep you off the water and bring your progress to a crashing halt? The main 3 areas you’ll want to focus on are:

Upper Body:
The main muscle group you need to work on here are the deltoids (shoulder muscles). These are responsible for a lot of the movements and are also stabilising muscles. You’ll also need to work on your upper back muscles and the ones that make up the chest.

Core Stability:
because the sport is largely about moving your body around under dynamic force conditions, you body should have well developed core stabilizing muscles. One very good way to improve your overall core strength abilities is to use a core-stability ball. You may also have to add extra weights to your core stability exercises in order to truly match the kind of forces you will face when in the water. Often the kite will want to pull you in a direction you do not want to go so it will be your developed core strength that will let you remain planted.

Aerobic Fitness:
Although you might not associate the sport with aerobic fitness, your lungs and heart will need to be in shape. Due to the fact that various muscles will be working hard, they will be demanding ever increasing volumes of oxygen and they will be churning out more and more CO2 and lactic acid. Without strong lung and heart function to get the oxygen around the body and take way the bi-products from the system, fatigue can kick in quickly. Running or swimming are great ways to work on your cardiovascular system.

Hang on wait a minute I thought you just said you don’t need to be fit and here you are giving us all these exercises to do! Well yes, I know I did say that and I stand by it, however, just like any sport, the fitter you are, the better your body will cope with the demands.  Kitesurfing is very much an endurance sport with a lot of people spending hours on the water at a time so rather than going out and picking up the biggest weights you can I would suggest doing higher reps at a lower weight to build up your muscle stamina. Some interval training (where you work the body hard for a period of time and then slow down for an equal period of time) would also be wise so you can cope in those moments where you need to suddenly push it.

While your taking you kitesurfing lessons I would also recommend you take care of your neck, the first few days of a course will see you staring up at the kite as it sits somewhere above you, this can lead to a bit of a stiff neck, some simple neck stretches can alleviate this and ensure it never becomes a problem. At Tantrum Kitesurf we incorporate a full stretching warm up and cool down as part of the course and encourage you to take regular breaks to ensure you remain fit and ‘up for it’ throughout.

The main thing to take away from this is that having a fit and healthy body when you arrive on course will only help you.  That said you do not need to be particularly fit to learn to kitesurf as the sport can be as demanding as you want it to be and your instructor should pace the course to your individual skill and fitness level. I have taught people who really did not classify themselves as fit, but were looking to get into kiting as an excuse to get off the sofa and do something. This is fine and no matter what your fitness level you shouldn’t let it stop you from getting into this amazing sport, believe me once your hooked kitesurfing really doesn’t feel like exercise!

So thats it no excuses! If you’ve got any question’s on anything on the site just drop us an email or leave a comment, We’re always happy to hear from you.

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