This tutorial looks at the waterstart in detail.
There is more to the waterstart than meets the eye.
-Begin with the board downwind and kite around 12.
-Dive the kite in the direction you wish to go.
-As the kite pulls, roll forward to get on the board.
-Steer the kite back up, to end the dive and avoid crashing.
-Straighten the front leg AND
-Place slightly more weight on the back foot,
And all of that was in under 2 seconds.
Because you have so much to learn ...
it is best to break the waterstart into parts, and practice each seperately until it becomes
instinctive.
The first skill to master is the kite movement needed to start AND to stop again.
The idea is -to dive the kite close enough to the high
power zone, to start -then turn the kite back up, to end the dive
-then return to 12, steering slowly, with the bar our, to cut power.
Dive the kite.
Turn back up before 45 degrees to avoid crashing the kite.
Ease the bar out.
Move slowly to 12, to cut power.
A common mistake with the power dive, is to tense your arms.
Once you're pulling hard with both hands, you cannot steer or depower.
For beginners, gripping hard like this, during the waterstart, is a common cause of injuries
and kite damage.
Try to relax your arms, grip with fingertips only and focus on completing the start AND
stop movement.
To be ready for the waterstart, you must also learn to control the strength of your power
dive.
The slower you steer, the less the kite will dive into the power.
The quicker you steer, the further the kite can go into the power.
To dive the kite even further into the high power zone, we can begin with a run up in
the opposite direction – before diving the kite.
It is a good idea to start with less power.
If your power dive is too weak, you can always try again.
Once the kite control is easy, you can focus more on body position.
With correct body position, you can stand on the board with minimal power.
Start with your knees bent and stomach crunched, this brings your weight closer to the board.
In this­ postion, the kite doesn't need to do much work to get you standing.
As the kite pulls, roll your head and shoulders forward and you will be on the board easily.
Many people straighten their body as the kite dives.
This makes it much harder to get on the board.
Here, even with a dangerous amount of power, the kiter isn't lifted onto the board.
Once you can get on the board – you can work on turning it to ride smoothly.
Here you can see the kiter is up, but their board is dragging .
This is because the board is square (or perpendicular) to the pull from the kite.
To ride with with less resistance, simply turn the front of the board towards the kite.
As soon as you're lifted from the water, straighten your front leg and keep the back leg tucked
in.
NOTE: you also need to place slightly more weight on your back leg.
Too much weight on the front leg, would nosedive the board.
Be careful not to straighten too early, if you push the front leg out while still in
the water, it can cause you to rotate.
To be stable in the water, you need the kite at 12, and the board directly downwind.
After you can ride smoothly THEN you should find it easy to start putting together longer
runs.
To ride further, dive the kite into the power to start, steer back up to halt the dive around
45 degrees, and then hold the kite in position at 45 degrees.
As always Pull in the bar for more power, to speed up
Push out the bar for less power, to slow down.
If you loose so much speed you start to sink, you can steer the kite quickly to 12 and back
down to 45 degrees, which moves the kite further towards the high power zone.
Good luck with your waterstart lessons.
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