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

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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 – The Wind Window

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The Wind Window

During your Kitesurfing Lessons you will hear a lot about the Wind Window. The wind window is the area where you can fly your kite, and is very important for two reasons:

Your kite generates different amounts of power and will pull in different directions depending on where it is positioned in the wind window. Safety – when you understand the wind window you know where to place your kite for maximum safety in windy or gusty situations. An unexpected gust of wind can carry dangerous consequences. The wind window is broken down into three main sections which are pictured in the diagrams below. These sections are:

• The Shoulder or Edge of the Wind Window -This area is the furthest the kite can fly into the wind and is the area that produces the least amount of power. You want to keep your kite here when you are taking a rest, distracted, or getting ready for a really cool move. This should be your default position for the kite as it is the safest.
• The Medium Power Zone or Intermediate Zone – This area is the transition area between the shoulder of the window and the power zone. The kite starts to build speed when flying through this zone and it “catches” more wind than in the shoulder. These two things give it more power. If your kite is in this zone pay attention. It is really easy to send it into the power zone and if you aren’t ready, you can easily be overpowered.
• The Power Zone -This zone is aptly named. Here your kite is moving fastest and catches the most wind, so it has the most power. You will use this zone to generate the power you will need for all of your kiteboarding moves. You don’t want your kite in the power zone unless you send it there, so pay attention and keep your kite under control.

Finding the Wind Window

Now that we know what the wind window is, how do we find it? Your Instructor will guide you through this in your kitesurfing lessons but for now you can follow these steps:

• Find the direction of the wind. Just look for the way the waves are moving (on a lake), the way the grass is bending, or just feel it. I use my ears…but then they are rather large flapping elephant type things sticking out the side of my head, by turning my back to the wind I turn my head until I can the wind on the back of both my ears at the same time.
• Turn and stand with your back to the wind (so that you are facing downwind).
• Extend your arms straight out on both sides and imagine lines drawn out in both directions.
• As in the pictures above, the wind window is the area downwind of you and it ends at the imaginary lines you drew out sideways, as well as directly overhead.
• Always find out the direction of the wind and get a picture of where the wind window is before you launch your kite. Also, keep in mind that if the wind changes direction, the wind window is going to move too; it is always downwind of you.

Navigating the Wind Window

The final thing we will go over about the wind window (right now) is the lingo. To describe where their kite is in the wind window, kiteboarders have broken it down into segments like a clock. To get an idea of the ‘coordinates’ of the wind window are, just:

• Stand with your back to the wind, so that you are facing downwind.
• Extend your arms out to both sides.
• Imagine that your arms are the arms of a clock. If your left arm is extended straight out it will be pointing to 9 o’clock position. Your right arm will be pointed at 3 o’clock. Directly above your head is 12 o’clock. Evenly spaced out between 9 and 12 are 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock. Between 3 and 12 are 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock. Take a look at the diagram below to make things clearer.

Now you should be able to describe the wind window in terms of power zones and you should be able to navigate it when someone says something like ‘Launch your kite at the shoulder of the wind window, then fly it up to the 12 o’clock position’.

All kitesurfers use this terminology and it will be used during your Kitesurfing Lessons so if you don’t understand, go back now and refresh until you do. From this point forward, I will be using these terms when I describe things.

Read on to learn about: Kitesurfing Lessons – Landing Your Kite

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Kitesurfing Lessons – Flying your Trainer Kite

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Basic Flying of the Trainer Kite (you can do this before taking your Kitesurfing Lessons)

First pick out a good field or beach to fly at. The bigger the area the better. Be aware that if there are trees or buildings between you and the wind, the kite will not fly properly. Beware of practising close to obstacles (trees, roads, lamp-posts etc) as they can all get tangled up with the kite, also avoid practising close to high buildings as these can create up-drafts and eddies which will adversely effect the kites performance. If you think of a river running over rocks, those white bits of swirling water just after the rocks are showing exactly the same effect that obstacles have on the wind, causing it to eddy, swirl and generally do nasty things. The bigger the open space you can find the better.

Launching a Trainer Kite

In general, you want to launch your trainer kite where you have enough power to get it off the ground, but not so much power that you get overwhelmed when it launches. This spot will change depending on how much wind you have. The picture below is a bird’s eye view of the flying area showing where you want to launch your trainer kite in different winds

Note: do not try and launch a Leading Edge Inflatable – LEI (any kite you have to blow up) kite like this under any circumstances. You will go through the correct launch technique for these types of kites in your kitesurfing lessons.

Take your trainer kite out of its bag and lay the trainer kite on the ground with the bridle lines facing up and the trailing edge facing the wind. Place sand, dirt or any other non-sharp and fairly weighty object on the trailing edge so the kite does not blow away, or have an assistant hold the back of the kite with both hands making sure the leading edge is facing up into the wind (make sure they do NOT let go). Unwind the lines from the bar, walking into the wind, and then walk between them to the kite to make sure there are no knots or twists prior to launch. Untangle the lines as needed. Go back to the bar and attach your safety leash. Pull firmly on the bar while the assistant lets go and the kite will launch. Flying a trainer kite is just like riding a bicycle; pull left and the kite will turn left, pull right and the kite will turn right. Wherever the leading edge is pointed (like the front wheel of your bike) is where the kite will go. Try to think of your arms as pistons, keep the bar level in front of you and just pull with one arm while pushing with the other. This will avoid twisting and turning with the bar which will lead to problems later on.

So to break it down into action points:

Do the following to launch your kite with a partner:

• Chose the spot you are going to launch from.
• Unpack your kite and have your partner secure it so it doesn’t blow away.
• Lay out your lines and position yourself so you and your kite are in the proper spot of the wind window for your launch (see diagram above).
• Attach your safety leash.
• Have your partner take your kite with both hands by the leading edge and hold it up between their fingers to catch the wind.
• When the kite has filled with wind, indicate to your partner to let go. At the same time pull gently but firmly on the control bar.
• Thats it! The kite should rise gracefully into the sky. If not, reset and try again, this time with the kite further downwind.
• Once up, navigate your kite to the edge of the wind window and you’re ready to start your exercises!

Self Launching

Self-launching is a bit more tricky. To pull this off you will need some loose sand, 4 or 5 smooth rocks, or some small sandbags. With these in hand, do the following:

• Choose the spot you are going to launch from.
• Unpack your kite and lay it on the ground so the underside of the kite faces upwards with the trailing edge into the wind (see the diagrams below).
• Place your rocks, sand, or sandbags on the trailing edge of the kite to hold it down. Make sure it’s secure.
• Is your kite secure? If it is, lay out your lines so you are in the proper location for the launch.
• Attach your safety leash.
• Gently pull on the control bar. The front lines of the kite should begin to pull the leading edge off the ground and into the wind. The kite should begin to fill with wind and get its shape.
• Once the kite has filled with wind, give a firm pull on the control bar to lift it off the ground and into the air. The weights you used slide off the trailing edge and let your kite go free.
• Navigate the kite to the edge of the wind window. You’re ready to rock!

The safety leash

Now that you have your kite in the air, it’s time to learn one of the most important things a beginner must know – how to use your safety system. Assuming that your kite has a safety leash (it should) and that you are wearing it (you absolutely should be) all you need to do is this:

LET GO OF THE BAR!

So why is this a difficult thing to do? It’s the opposite of your natural reaction.

Let’s think about it. You use the safety system when things get out of control; when you get overpowered and don’t have time to react. You’re getting jerked and pulled by the kite and you have more power than you can handle. What do most people do? They instinctively fight back. They flex their muscles, clench the bar, and fight with the kite (whilst thinking ‘oh sh*!’). What they need to do is let go! You cannot wrestle with the full power of these kites and win! You don’t even want to try – it’s a bad habit to get into.

Bottom line: If you get overpowered, don’t fight the kite. Get into the habit of letting go of the bar and using your safety leash.

So here is your task: Fly your kite around and let it catch some power. When you feel the kite begin to pull, let go of the bar. Do this until it feels natural, and keep practicing it so that it always feels natural. I practice letting go of the bar at least once every time I fly my trainer.

Your kite is in the air and you’re ready to go. Great! It’s time to learn about Kitesurfing Lessons – The Wind Window

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