1. The position in which a kite lands on the water has a big effect on how it eventually flags out. If it lands on its leading edge with the nose of the kite facing you, you may not have a problem regardless of the safety system you have, because the kite is not in a position to regain any power. The kite can however quite easily spin itself around and in any case the true test of your de-power system is when the kite is in the “smiley” position in the middle of the window, it needs to roll over COMPLETELY on its back.

2. When you do flag out, ensure you keep tension in your safety line as you pull yourself toward the kite. Use the safety line to haul yourself towards your kite this way you have to keep tension in it. DON’T run or swim towards your kite because this will make your safety line loose, canceling the de-power effect of the safety line’s tension and possibly resulting in your kite taking off again… and again… Whichever safety line you are using, as you pull your way up the safety line(s), make sure that the other lines go completely loose. If the other lines are not completely loose the kite can re-power. Remember the idea here is to have your kite flying on 1 maybe 2 lines that way the kite will act like a flag. Sometimes lines will wrap around the kite tips and require that you wrap the safety line(s) a few extra times to make sure the kite is de-powered. Pulling yourself straight to the kite on your safety line, then wrapping the others after you get to the kite is the quickest way to get to the kite and is called for in some situations where time is of the essence, but those lines floating around can get tangled around your spreader bar hook, neck, or feet, not a pleasant experience. If you have the time, wrap all the other lines together once you’ve disabled the kite so that this doesn’t become a problem. This also makes it easier to sort out the spaghetti after you get to the beach.

3. Know your kitesurfing safety system and how to use it before going on the water. Practice your line-wrap on the beach on a very light or no-wind day, and line the kite up to check out how far your safety system allows the kite to tip over onto its back from the smiley position. Ensure that your kite tips right over, presenting only the LE profile to the wind without the panels catching any wind. In strong wind, even a small amount of panel exposed to the wind can produce enough pull to make it difficult or impossible to pull yourself to the kite.

Remember all, it’s better to have good knowledge of the self-rescue and not need it, than to need it and not have it! (paraphrase from some guy in a movie talking about carrying his gun)

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Don't try this at home kids!

Me and my girlfriend went to the cable park at the weekend…whilst not strictly on topic I thought this picture was simply too funny to be kept out of the public eye…enjoy!

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Kitesurfing Lessons - The Bodydrag

Kitesurfing is the latest water sports craze. With more and more people having kitesurfing lessons and taking up the sport every day. What is it that draws all these people, from all walks of life to this adrenaline packed, fun loving sport? What benefit will you get out of life by taking the plunge and taking your first tenuous steps in a new world and booking your first kitesurfing lessons?

The greatest danger associated with kite surfing is its ability to get under your skin and change your life forever. Such is the addiction that many people give up their 9 to 5 and head to find an alternative existence, an existence dominated by wind, water and an obsession with weather reports. Released from the pressures of the daily grind, life becomes a quest for ride time. These people are not the hippies and junkies that are stereotyped in films and novels but, instead, are people from all walks of life who have given it all up — exchanging flashy cars and expensive mortgages for quality of life, a beach, a board and often just enough money in their pocket to buy their next beer.

For a lot of people the greatest thing about kitesurfing is the fact that it draws you to lots of different and incredible locations all over the globe. Kitesurfing, being a relatively new sport, most of the top locations are still remote…or not even discovered yet! So you have some amazing opportunities to travel the world in search of your ultimate ride. The list of kitesurfing destinations reads like a Lonely Planet top ten list of places you must see before you die…Brazil, S Africa, Kenya, Thailand, Mauritius, Turkey, Ireland, Mexico….you get the picture!

So what are you waiting for get out there and book your first kitesurfing lessons…but be careful where this new lifestyle may take you!

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Kitesurfing - iPhone and iPad

There are a multitude of apps and games out there available for the iPhone or the iPad based on kitesurfing. There are simple games to instructional apps and others that are just for showing off to your friends (think the lightsaber app). Some of these apps have real value to the wannabe kitesurfer and I’m going to spend a bit of time and a couple of articles looking at some of the better ones. Today I’m looking at Kitesurf Instructor: Beginner. An app designed to help people just breaking in to the sport to progress helping to master first riding upwind, jumps, toe-side riding etc.

The app costs £1.19 in the iStore, it is rather large weighing in at just over 35Mb. Once installed the app opens quickly and is visually pleasing. The menu system is easy to navigate and the information is all available in just a few ‘clicks.’ I was pleasantly surprised by the actual contents of the app. While lacking a certain amount of depth, the tips and advise contained would be useful to anyone progressing through the stages of kitesurfing to which it refers. The app starts at upwind body dragging so assumes a certain level of competence and does recommend that you need kitesurfing lessons with a certified instructor before using the information contained therein. However as something to combine with your kitesurfing lessons or simply with your own development I believe this app would be very useful.

On the downside, as mentioned the app is necessarily a little shallow. It obviously cannot cover every single circumstance and if you’re looking for something to take you by the guide and teach you to kitesurf this is not it, but as an accompaniment to kitesurfing lessons with an instructor or as reference material once you’ve been let loose on your own its it great.

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During your kitesurfing lessons you may well find that you fly kites on a variety of different lengths of lines. Kite lines for learning can vary from 5m to 25m and even when your up and riding some people still prefer to ride on much shorter lines than is usual. As the lines on a kite get longer the power of a kite increases, this is due to 2 different reasons. The first of these is gradient wind, as the wind gets further away from the earth the turbulence caused by objects on the earths surface gets less and so the wind speed increases. In all honesty however the difference in the gradient wind over 25m is generally negligible and this is unlikely to have a huge effect on the power in the kite…notice I say generally, sometimes it can have a marked effect say if there a line of short trees just upwind of where you are flying your kite.

To discover the main reason that a kite with longer lines will generate more power we have to delve slightly into the mechanics of the wind:

Imagine you are sitting in a stationary car sticking your head out of the window and the wind is coming from an angle 90º to the front of the car (the wind is hitting the car side on) you feel the wind on your face in the exact same direction the wind is traveling…obviously! This wind is called the true wind. Now the car starts to move slowly, as the car cuts through the air it generates wind over the body of the car (and your face) in the opposite direction to the direction of travel. This wind is the induced wind. The problem here is that the wind cannot come from two different places at the same time so a third wind, the apparent wind is the actual wind you feel on your face, this will be somewhere in-between the induced wind and the true wind. As the car moves faster so the apparent wind will veer to an angle closer to the induced wind (the front of the car) and as the car slows down the apparent wind will veer around towards the true wind (as the airflow over the car becomes less). If this is unclear let me know and i’ll try to rephrase it or include a picture or two…you should cover this however in your kitesurfing lessons (where it gives your instructor a chance to show off how clever he/she is!!).

A kite flies on apparent wind so as it moves it generates airflow over the surfaces of the kite thus generating lift…or power. So the faster, and further a kite can move the more potential it has to generate lift. A kite on longer lines has a larger area to move through and thus can move faster and further than a kite on shorter lines and thus can generate more power. Or put in another way longer lines give a larger power zone which means quite clearly more power!

Shorter lines mean less transmission time from the bar to the kite, also any movement of the bar, due to the principles of leverage has a greater effect on the kite (as the bar is a greater percentage of the total length of the lines). So a kite on shorter lines will turn much more quickly than a kite on long lines.

For these reasons shorter lines tend to be favored by wave riders and people who like a quick responsive kite whereas longer lines would be more common in speed sailing or racing or just everyday cruising/freestyle.

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At the IKA website (International Kitesurfing Association) we are informed there are 5 main disciplines that make up kitesurfing at a competition level. Wave, Freestyle, Course Racing, Slalom and Speed each of these has various subcategories such as high jump and hang time.  Which of these various disciplines you care to pursue after your kitesurfing lessons is a matter of personal preference and physical ability. Lets break them down and look at each one in a bit more detail, examining what each discipline is and what it demands from the rider, so once you’ve completed your kitesurfing lessons you’ll be perfectly poised to pursue your chosen path.

Wave – Possibly the most spectacular of the disciplines, find a big wave..ride it! With the explosion of wave boards into kitesurfing this is a discipline that is becoming more and more popular and accessible. Many people are now using their old surfboards without footsteps to catch whatever waves they can find, I regularly take out my 7’8″ mini mal on the lighter days. At the top level its a quest, an obsession that sees riders traveling the globe in search of the perfect break (think point break…but with kites and less fighting!) but it can be enjoyed at any level. Take out a big surf board and a little kite and you can be messing around on even the smallest of waves while you brush up your technique. Pursuing this discipline requires a fair amount of patience as you now have to look for waves as-well as wind but if you’ve got a surf board in your quiver it gives you a great light wind option.  at a basic level it doesn’t require a great amount of fitness, but as the waves get bigger and the boards shorter you can find yourself really working and your courage being put to the test more than once! Unless you ride on a lake I would really recommend you getting a surf board and having a go at this, its a great light wind option and will add a whole new dimension to your riding, if the school your learning at has any surf boards you should ask to try one during your kitesurfing lessons so you can feel the difference first hand…believe me you’ll never look back! 

Freestyle – Probably the most popular of the disciplines and the one that people most readily associate with kitesurfing.  Take out a twin tip board and jump, twist, rotate (and crash!) to your hearts content! Almost everybody who kitesurfs will be into freestyle in one way or the other, whether its simply pulling off big jumps or getting into the more advanced rotation and wake style tricks. This is a discipline that can be enjoyed by everyone. Again at its most basic level it can be pretty straightforward, jumping for example requires very little in the way of physical fitness or finesse to achieve, the more advanced powered up moves however can take their pound of flesh so if your going to go for these I would recommend that your fairly fit and prepared to take a bit of a beating initially at least.  You’ll probably get an intro into freestyle during your kitesurfing lessons with all the (unintentional) jumps you pull off…go with it and enjoy its part of the process!!

Course racing and Slalom are both about racing against a load of other riders around a course of buoys. Competitions are held either with all the riders launching together or competing against each other one at a time in time trials. With large fleets of up to 100 riders competing at any one time all hustling for that no 1 spot this can be hugely entertaining for any spectators and quite an adrenaline buzz for the riders themselves! Race boards are becoming more and more common in kitesurfing and many people own one as they make great light wind boards.  Realistically it’ll most likely be a couple of months after your kitesurfing lessons before your ready for one of these disciplines but they can provide a lot of fun. They do however require some organizing and as such are quite difficult to find, if your really interested why not talk to your local club/shop about hosting one in your local spot.

Speed – put up an unrealistically large kite in nuclear winds and try to hold on! Not for the faint hearted or the physically sluggish. Riders can reach speeds of over 50 knots so wipe outs are spectacular and generally painful. Definitely leave this one a while after completing your kitesurfing lessons.  For those interested many companies now do GPS units that will track your speed over a session nod give you detailed reports when you get back off the water.

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Probably the most common question I get asked is after giving kitesurfing lessons to someone is, “How much will it cost me to get into kitesurfing?” Most people don’t want to spend hundreds of euros on new kit in a sport they haven’t even mastered yet. This is a fair concern as kitesurfing can get quite expensive quite quickly. So now I’m going to give you some tips on how much you should be spending and some tricks to cut down the entry cost. 

The first thing I would say on this subject is that if you don’t want to be one of those people that takes kitesurfing lessons and then never goes kitesurfing again make sure you buy your own kit when you’ve completed your kitesurfing lessons. The amount of people that I teach who I then see a year or so later and who tell me they haven’t been kiting since, when I ask them why not the answer is always the same…”no kit.” It may seem like a big expense at the time but it’s infinitely preferable to wasting all that money and effort you spent on taking kitesurfing lessons in the first place! Buying kit not only means you have the kit ready and available in your house, staring back up at you constantly saying “Use me…Use me,” it also means you’ve made a financial (and most likely emotional) investment in the sport and thus are that much more likely to force yourself to get up and hit the water.  Now the costs of doing a course and buying kit may push your budget to bursting point so lets look at a couple of options to make the whole process a bit more friendly on your wallet.

Learning with a friend is a great way to reduce your costs, that way once you’ve done your kitesurfing lessons you can buy some a kite and a board between you (I’d recommend you get your own harnesses) and practice together, this not only halves your costs but means that you have someone to look out for you down the beach when your learning (and someone to laugh at you back in the pub afterwards when you mess up!). 

Ask the school your learning with if they have any old school kit they’re looking to get rid of, most schools try to cycle out school kit as it offers a great, cheap way for beginners to get into the sport on great kit and also means that the school is constantly teaching on new kit, so everyone wins. this ultimately provides a great route for you to get into the sport on the cheap.

Hiring kit is generally not something I would recommend, because of the high chance of damage to the kit hire costs are usually very high and after a few sessions you can find yourself having spent more than it would have cost you to simply buy the kit in the first place. Buying second hand is a great way to reduce your costs and the kitesurf second hand market is booming at the moment.

Actual costs of kit will vary but in general for you first kite your looking for something round the 350 – 600 € mark, (thought this depends entirely on your budget, a new kite can cost upwards of 1400 €) this should ensure that the kite is in good enough condition that its not going to fall apart the first time you drop it on the beach and that it’ll be modern enough to fly well and safely. There are also many more inexpensive brands appearing on the market these days many with the express aim of getting more people into kitesurfing by offering low price entry level kites, brands such as Griffin, Faith and Kangaroo are some examples.  These kites tend to be very well built and perfectly functional, simply lacking the magazine coverage and marketing power of the bigger brands as these companies obviously spend a lot less on marketing as they are trying to keep their costs down.  The kites fly as well as any any other major brand and are a great option for beginners as a first kite that doesn’t break the bank and will last you through to becoming an intermediate rider. For a more detailed discussion of kites see the other articles on this blog.   

The board is a fairly straight forward bit of kit (as far as the beginner is concerned, though not if your a board shaper i’m sure!) and indeed it is possible to go kiting on a tea tray…though not advised!! For a beginner the size is the most important thing, aim for something between 135 cm and 150 depending on your size and weight, as you get bigger/heavier so does the board. But apart from that just go for the cheapest one you can find until your confident, at which point you can purchase yourself a nice, new, shiny, expensive one!!! With a board I would look to spend between 150 – 300 euros on your first one, but you may be able to pick up some real bargains for 50 quid or less. As long as it has footstraps and at least heel side fins it’ll get you going! 

Harnesses can be picked up very cheaply, from 25 €, many schools will have old harnesses they’re looking to get rid of, so just ask during your kitesurfing lessons, as with all the other kit this is a great place to start. I would recommend you spending a little more on your harness as a comfortable harness can make a huge difference to your enjoyment of the sport. The plastic moulded harnesses are often the most comfortable and it will make your day on the water that much enjoyable not having it up under your armpits all the time!!

Well I hope thats cleared up some issues, as always if you have any comments on this article please leave a comment, I love hearing from you and its your input that’s most important to me.

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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.

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There are several types of wind effects we need to be aware of when flying a kite anywhere but these become especially pertinent for those of you flying kites in built up areas or around obstacles.

Gradient Wind:

The wind will get slower the closer to the earth it is, this is because as the wind passes over the earth (or sea) it generates friction, slowing it down, the more uneven the earth (or sea) surface the greater the effect of this friction and the higher the difference between the wind at ground level and the wind higher up in the atmosphere. This effect is called Gradient wind. The earth generally causes more friction than the sea which is why often on beaches with an onshore wind there is a line of ‘dodgy’ wind at the shore line as the wind hits the beach and slows down due to the increased friction. For us kiters this means that what we feel on our face will almost definitely not be the wind that our kite is feeling 25m up in the air.

Wind Shadow

A wind shadow is created by an obstacle in the path of the wind, which is why we huddle behind walls to shelter from the wind sometimes.  The wind however does not simply stop when it hits this obstacle but attempts to get around it any way it can.  That is it will go over, under or around it, this creates a patch behind the obstacle where the wind is very turbulent as it is coming from potentially several different directions at once.  The best way to envisage this is to imagine rapids in a river, when the water hits a rock you get white water around and behind the rock as the water tumbles over the top and around of it in a struggle to carry on moving downstream.  This is exactly what we would see if we could ‘see’ the wind. An obstacle will cast a shadow (disrupt the wind) up to 7 times its height down wind.

Updraft

An obstacle in the path of the wind will not only create a disruption downwind of it (a wind shadow) it will also create a disruption upwind of it.  Think back to our example of the rapids, not only do you see white water behind the rock but also infront of it this is caused as water that cannot get out of the way hits the obstacle and is reflected back into the path of the oncoming river causing disruption and forcing the water behind it upwards and over the top of the reflected water, thus creating updraft. This is an extremely important effect to know about and it is for this reason that we should not kitesurf too close to large cliffs or practice kite flying in-front of large obstacles. The upwind disruption is equal to 3 times the height of the obstacle.

The Venturi Effect

This is particularly pertinent to me here in Tarifa as this is the reason why its so bloody windy here! The Venturi effect states that when wind passes between two obstacles the wind speed will increase as it is forced through the gap.  So here at Tarifa we have the straights of Gibraltar and on either side we have mountains, the Riff Mountains in Morocco and Gibraltar on the Spanish side, wind coming from any direction is forced through this gap and accelerated out the other end giving Tarifa its famously consistent Levante and Poniente winds.

Got it?!

Don’t worry, your Instructor will take you much deeper into wind and weather during your kitesurfing lessons but with these basics you should at least be able to stay safe and recognise the different effects taking place in any one area

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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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