The wind window is a fundamental concept kitesurfing.
Understanding the wind window will help you a lot as you begin your lessons.
The window is the space in which your kite can fly.
It is located on your downwind side, never on your upwind side.
It is a half dome in shape.
The dome’s radius is the distance between the pilot and the kite.
Roughly equal to the length of the lines.
Your kite’s angle within in the window is described using clock numbers.
9 o’clock means the kite is to your left, near ground level; You then have 10 o’clock,
and then 11 o’clock on the left side of the window.
12 o’clock is the center of the window.
On the right side of the wind window, you have 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, and then 3
o’clock at ground level.
Also note, 1030 and 130 are often referred to simply as 45 degrees.
The window has different power zones.
With your back to the wind, the area in front of you, directly downwind,
is the high power zone.
The high power zone is marked in red.
If you fly a kite in this area, it moves very quickly and produces the greatest force.
As you move your kite away from this downwind area, either moving up or across the window,
you then reach medium power.
This is coloured in orange.
As you move the kite even further from downwind you reach the low power zone.
When facing downwind, this is above your head and to your sides.
The edge of the window is the furthest upwind your kite can fly.
Around the edge of the window, is the no power zone,
where your kite will be unable to support its own weight.
The leading edge of your kite will fly forwards very quickly in the power zones.
The kite then slows down as it reaches low power.
Generally speaking, if the kite is turned using gentle steering movements,
it should stay in low power.
These small steering movements, mean that the leading edge is always
pointing towards low power.
When you turn the kite more sharply, however,
the leading edge will aim deeper into the wind window.
Just by understanding the power zones, you should be able to see how steering more firmly
leads to the kite pulling harder,
These movements are known as power dives.
In this case they were power dives pulling to the left side of the window.
Here are some more power dives, this time pulling to the right.
Starting with weak dives and building to stronger dives.
Please note, these demonstrations were filmed on land with a relatively large kite.
This is purely so you can see what’s happening.
When learning, you typically start with a tiny trainer kite, and will have your instructor
by your side to make sure you don’t hurt yourself, or anyone else.
As well as the full wind window, you will also see our ground level window.
This shows the power zones for a kite at ground level.
Of course, high power is directly downwind.
Further from downwind, you have medium power, then low power
and eventually no power at all.
The ground level window is a useful concept when learning to launch your kite.
This may sound obvious, but when the wind direction changes,
so does the location of the window.
The power zones themselves are very predictable in clean wind.
In certain situations the power zones can change.
For example, if you have lots of low level objects nearby – perhaps mangroves, or sand-dunes,
or even waves – these create drag, and the wind will be weaker near ground level.
As a result, you can expect your window to act more like this.
Also, in stronger wind, you can expect the power zones to expand, and your kite can comfortably
sit on the edge of the window.
In light wind, the power zones retract, and your kite needs to sit deeper in the window
to support its own weight.
Gusty wind means the power zones are continually changing, which causes numerous problems.
To help you get a feeling for why the power zones are where they are, we will look at
the window from cross wind.
You can see that a kite positioned downwind, in high power,
cuts across the path of the wind.
Whereas a kite positioned near the edge of the window lines up with the wind.
Here the kite has less interaction with the airflow.
Another reason for high power being downwind is the kite’s flying speed.
The kite moves much quicker when downwind of you.
And, as the kite flies faster, there is a drastic increases in the airflow across it,
and the pull from it.
I hope this video gives you a feeling for the window and power zones.
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