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surfing!

This year I have been mostly doing kiteloops... Kiteloop backrolls are easiest, most fun, and my lines don't get twisted!

Try them in light winds first!

Here's how I do them:

  • Kite at 10 - 11 o'clock (start from higher with more wind..)
  • Both hands on one end of the bar, crank as hard as possible.
  • Edge hard until I'm about to be ripped off the water.
  • Pop upwind, keep cranking.
  • Spot my landing.
  • Land downwind - hope the board doesn't break.

I broke my RRD Martin Model 128 last week with one of these. George of Manta - Tech kiteboards fixed it for me.

Learning to Kitesurf

Kite surfing is much easier than windsurfing. For me anyway... I taught myself to surf in August '04 using my plywood board (see below) and the ZP15.

I estimate I went out about 10 times before I could get up on the board and go a couple of hundred metres.

Here is some advice I was given when I was learning:

When I was attending kite lessons (it took me 3 lessons to be able to go left and right and upwind as well) I had the same problem -it is not long ago.

You have to draw the board as close as possible to your buttocks, then you can easily got up on the board (if want to go to the left make at first small slow turn to the right and as you drive the kite through the window down to the left you got up on the board). Now you have to strech out the left (front) leg and bend the right one - it will point the board downwind a bit. You need firstly set the board and kite in motion (going slightly downwind - the kite will generate apparent wind as you are moving) and then you can start to go upwind.

This is how it works for me.

Martin

And a link from Zheon: http://kitesurfingschool.org/howto.htm

More advice: People are very helpful!

Another view on this is:

When you first start you put the board sideways and go sideways and the kite goes too far to the side and out of the power zone.

Instead try to go 45 degrees down wind. If you are going towards the left you will have to pull with your right leg to get the board to pivot around your left leg and go down wind. If you go too far down wind you will go faster than the kite. Next time edge away a little. (upwind if your lines go slack).

Another thing to try is to not let the kite go out of the side of the power zone. Turn it back sooner and start to sine it again. If you do not have enough power you can grab more power by turning the kite a little back towards the middle on the downward stroke.

P.S. A bigger board, home made or commercial, will let you coast longer as you take the kite back up again. It will also let you learn in less wind which makes it all safer and it will help you go up wind sooner. You can not go upwind until you build up a little board speed and then you start to carve upwind.

Good luck, George

I found that the following also helps: After diving the kite and starting to plane slightly downwind, you have to simultaneously head slightly upwind to put some tension back into the kite's lines, and start turning the kite back up to the top of the wind window. At this point you must also SHEET OUT to let the kite generate some forward speed. Sheeting out at this point is against my natural instinct but it works, and as the kite starts climbing back up it gives a second boost which will help you keep planing if you haven't sunk to the depths yet...

I had a go at surfing with my ZP85 and a plyboard in March 2004, in Rethymno, Crete. There is a huge wide sandy beach (with no-one on it!!) and I felt safe even with an onshore wind - the nearest hard object was nearly half a mile downwind... The kite was just a little too small for the 20kts or so of wind, and the breakers made it tricky for learning, but I got up on the board a few times. I'm hooked now!

There is one local kitesurfer in Rethymno, Stavros, and he was pleased to see another kiter on his beach.

Ply - Boards

These are great, but eventually they break. And they are heavier than epoxy / glass boards.

I made my board from a piece of 12mm exterior grade ply, it's about 140cm long and 40cm wide, and is warped because I left it outside. I improvised a cheap and cheerful rocker table using an aluminium ladder. I wet the bottom of the board and left it tied to the ladder for a couple of weeks, then varnished it. It has kept a bit of rocker but not much... Seems to be enough though.

Footstraps are from seatbelt webbing fastened with screws countersunk into the bottom of the board. I made some fins out of aluminium angle just to see what difference they make. They are very small and give very little grip on the water. When I used a friend's commercial board I could really feel the bite of the fins, which felt good, but the commercial board was hard to turn. My board feels really loose in comparison. I quite like that, but I think in a strong wind fins could help.

Plyboard now lost. Floating somewhere in the Argolic Gulf. Luckily I have made a second board, out of three pieces of 3mm marine ply stuck together with glue. Concave, flip tips, planing steps, finless asymmetric twintip. Probably a bit too stiff because of the concave - doesn't carve a turn as well as the old plyboard, but otherwise good.

kiteboard building links

http://www.members.aol.com/skristian/plykiteboard.html
http://planet.nana.co.il/p_k_b/plywood_kiteboard_building.html
http://web.media.mit.edu/~saul/zeroprestige/boardmake/
http://saucisseman.free.fr/planche_en.htm
http://students.washington.edu/~rainer/
http://kitesurfingschool.org/board.htm
http://rosebud.com/kite/board.html
http://elektron.et.tudelft.nl/~lmol/index.htm
http://www.flysurfing.com.br/entrada2001novembro.htm
http://www.clanb4e.com/kite_board_construction/bienvenue_eng.htm
http://www.teethgrinder.co.uk/kiteBuilding/plyBoard.php

Contact me! redhot@freeuk.com