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Learnt how to self launch, thankfully had two experienced guys guiding me through it so perfect time to learn.
Now i just need to learn how to self land without requiring to ditch the kite ;)
^^^
Dougal (the dong) will make it your next lesson grasshopper!
He taught me and as you saw the other day his technique is pretty sound. Good kiting with you again Sam, your coming along well! Before you know it you'll be having those good runs every time.
Should I be afraid if "The Dong" stands behind me to demonstrate, puts his hands on my waist, swings left to right and sings "Its all in the hips.... its all in the hips...." :D :D
And yes, always good kiting with you Dan. Think I owe you a slab or two by now.
Also, those boots you wear, got any recommendations?, my feet are getting torn up the last few times out. I'm now limping around and its not a good look when i mentioned I've just been kiting with "The Dong" ;)
Haha!
Don't worry about the slab, it's all in the name of fun!
Boots, I couldn't tell you what brand mine are, I honestly don't remember. Just drop into mordy surf or shq and they'll have a few brands. I don't rekon there'd be much difference between brands for what we do, as long as they fit ya hoofs.
Hi all,
after a frustrating session after work today i have stumbled upon this forum looking for inspiration.
i have been kiting very on and off for 3 years so i know its hard to improve when I'm not going that much, i have been trying to string a few days together but I'm getting very annoyed with my lack of ability of riding up wind.
Will definitely have a read through of all your past posts to see what advice i can get. i seem to do a lot of reading but once on the water to practice it all goes out the window.
Maybe its the fact that i feel I'm racing against time with my wife about to give birth and every time I'm on the water in the last 2 weeks I'm freaking out that she is going to go into labour with me still being an hour and a half away from home.
I have never been so **** at something in my whole life and struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel. Upon my arrival home after nearly losing my board my wife suggested "maybe its time to find another sport".
Its a weird concept for me as I'm usually a natural at most ball sports but guess with the board I'm out of my league.
thanks, see you down wind!
How about paying an instructor for a one one 2 or 3 hr lesson, he/she will check your technique and advise you on the spot, pretty sure it will sort you out. Once you have upwind sorted your learning curve will go through the roof, have fun
First session out for this season yesterday and so much frustration!!! I totally get what you're saying Jack!!
I can only water start on natural side and usually choke the kite pretty quickly, but yesterday I did manage to get up, edge and park the kite in the window for around 20 seconds before someone came too close to me and I freaked out and crashed aaha.. It felt SO GOOD though!!!
It was the only good run I had in 2.5 hours or fairly crappy water starts interspersed with grueling walks of shame..... But I'll take it.. Every little step is one step closer..
Juts gotta get more water time....
By the way, has anyone got any tips for judging the distance of your lines when landing?
I keep dropping my kite into the dunes when pilotting downwards for a landing.. I know the obvious answer is just to start further away in the water as you when landing, but do you guys use the shadow or your kite or anything else to help judge where your kite is gonna come down?
The important thing is to bring the kite down really slow so you can make adjustments if it's not going to land where you expected. It also gives the person catching it half a chance to be in the right spot as well. Slowness is your friend!
Thanks Dusta,
I've never been so ****e at something before :/
Looking forward to all of this becoming second nature.
Thanks heaps to all for the advise. I've been leaning back and pointing my dick at the kite. It's making a massive differance,when I do all those pointers it's a totally different feeling from how I was kiting a few weeks ago! brilliant !
I was out today on my 12 but only 13-14knots in Frankston.. Once I got moving I could just hold my line but not really.. I'm 102kg tho... what's the min wind I would need for my weight ? I need a larger kite asap.
Cheers people .
went to Melville waters on the weekend and saw a kite smash right into the middle of the road then some dude getting his missus to launch and he was about 5m off the beach and nearly took another guy out.Im only learning but at least i know whats not cool.be safe and look out for others.i do love the suppport of kiters.YEW!
I hate kiting at melville as without fail every time I go there I see people doing amazingly stupid and sometimes really dangerous stuff. mates teaching mates, hot launches, poor landings, turns well inside the yellow markers, kites over the road.
it's no wonder the locals want it banned there.
it's a shame cause when it's on, it's a nice flat water spot :/
I was always under the impression at Melville that competent riders are up the southern end closest to the windsurfers an the beginners the other end, makes things flow a little easier if there was some unity to the skill level location..but I guess the answer il get is competant kiters should be on the ocean 
For those familiar with Sydney/Central coast. Yesterday I went to Salts bay where it's very flat and suddenly everything clicked on, I kited for 3h3o non stop, managed to edge upwind and do a carve turn for the first time :)
Today at Botany Bay (first car park), it was very choppy with the NE seabreeze and I kept crashing in the chop. Any tips on how to deal with chop ?
Cheers
I've been catching up with this awesome thread, and noticed a lot of beginners are self-harming themselves by saying "I've never been so **** at this... etc".
Guys! It take practice, practice, practice. Above all don't give up!
I remember back in 2008/09 when I first started, I gave up after about a month into every season. It wasn't until I decided - stuff this - I am getting lessons and new gear. So I just got those lessons in 2011 and never look back.
Lessons are worth their cost in gold!
But above all that, I just had to practice. It clicked for me when I realised that I had to "train" my muscles to know the posture and direction of the board with the kite. There are so many things you need to do in a split second, that the only way to do them really is to have them done automatically by muscle memory. And muscle memory can only happen by persistence and practice.
You WILL get there, and never look back.
This past weeks exciting beginner news is:
I got my arse dragged up a beach with a botched self launch (I was the only one there)........
First pic is where I started ....
Second pic is first pole that stopped my acceleration and broke two ribs ... (I snapped pole off just under the surface)
Somehow I made it up the left hand channel of the entrance and I grabbed the following steel pole and ripped it out of the sand ...
The final shot is the fence I stopped at ...... and I only stopped here because my line slipped into the crack of the upright and left hand horizontal kopper logs. This cause the kite to fly into the first pine tree across the road and stop there!!!!!!!! But only after hitting the ten KV lines and lighting up the place.
A lady driving past rushed down to find the dead body after all the arcing!!!! But I smiled and cracked a joke about a suntan or some such stuff. Another dude helped me cut down the kite and a fire struck dove past happy they were not picking up a body.
Only one little tear in the kite, a bruised ego and busted ribs. I was very very lucky....
Drove myself to the hospital, they confirmed the breaks and then sent me home with some pain killers and advice to breath deeply (but avoid coffing, sneazing, running, thinking out loud etc etc).
Pretty pleased to get away with it.
After appropriate self examination and previous advice ..... I am not pumping the kite up hard enough!!!
When I self launched and kite came up on it's edge, the kite folded a little in the middle allowing the front bridle to catch the outside of the wing tip.
This caused the kite to death roll 540 degrees all up (should have pulled the safety on the first death roll, I had plenty of time but thought I could catch it). The kite finally rested on it's back in the power zone, and hallelujah, it took off. As did I.
My lessons are: pull the safety if anything catches while self launching, pump up your kite hard enough, respect advice from the more learned
And the pic taken by the dude who helped me:
