There are many common mistakes that can hold you back during kitesurf lessons.
I’m going to explain some of these to help you squeeze the most out of your lessons.
So many problems in kitesurfing are solved simply by pushing the bar away.
This depowers the kite. It’s the first safety step.
In this case the kite was steering up too quickly, and a fast moving kite will pull hard, so the
kiter pushed the bar away resolving the problem. If, in that same situation, the kiter had pulled
in the bar they would’ve powered up the kite, steered it more and got dragged by it.
This happens all the time, when panicked students pull in the bar instead of letting it go.
There are a few reasons this happens so much. Students that learn to pilot a kite
with a tight grip are far more likely to refuse to let go of the bar.
Whereas students that learn to pilot a kite with a light grip find it much
easier to release the bar when panicked or unsure of what’s happening with their kite.
Panic or nervousness itself is a common cause of holding onto the bar.
It’s natural to tense and bring in your arms when nervous.
A good instructor should help you overcome that easily.
They will hook you up with safety gear, help keep you calm, teach you in a safe
location and train you on undersized kite than can’t really pull you much anyway.
Some lessons start with a 2- or 3-line trainer kite like this instead.
Some people even practice with these outside of lessons.
If you learn to fly a trainer kite with arms tucked in and a tight grip, however,
then you are much more likely to keep that habit. You are then far more likely to bring
in the bar when panicked or confused. Whereas if you fly a trainer kite with
your arms out and a soft grip, this builds good habits and you are more likely to push the bar
away when needed. A kite
is steered by gently pulling a steering line towards you, or in away from the kite.
You are using the line to pull in the wing tip. Then to stop steering, that steering
line is pushed away to remove tension. You’re pushing out towards the kite’s wing tip.
So you pull in, away from the kite, to apply tension.
And you push out, towards the kite, to stop applying tension.
Many students, however, have other ideas.
Frequently you see students using a steering wheel motion.
This doesn’t help with controlling a kite, since you are not bringing the steering lines in or out.
You’re just rotating the bottom position of those steering lines.
In fact it’s possible to fully rotate the bar without affecting steering.
Another common steering mistake is trying to drag the whole bar to the side.
Some students think dragging the bar to the left might pull the kite to the left, and dragging the
bar to the right might pull the kite to the right. Yet again, this is not an effective way of
bringing steering lines in from the kite or out towards the kite.
Accidentally steering too hard is another common issue.
If you steer slowly a kite moves slowly and doesn’t pull much.
If you steer hard a kite typically moves quickly and pulls a lot.
When you steer firmly that turns the kite sharply and it can fly towards downwind.
When a kite gets closer to downwind it speeds up and pulls very hard.
This is known as the high power zone.
If steered gently, on the other hand, the kite stays far away from this downwind high power zone.
It flies in a wide arc, far from downwind. This is the low power zone.
Here you have the first building blocks of the wind window.
If you don’t understand how the wind window works check the links below.
To keep a kite in the low power zone, we use small gentle steering inputs.
Students often get this wrong, however,
because they don’t realise how little force is required to turn the kite.
The kite weighs so little it doesn’t take much tension in a steering line to turn it.
Something a bit more subtle that trips up students
is the delay you get when steering a kite, especially in light wind.
If you apply steering tension the leading edge turns or rotates
and then the kite repositions in the wind window. There can be a few seconds delay in light wind.
This delay sometimes catches students out. They apply some steering input.
They see the kite hasn’t moved yet, so they increase steering tension, and they do that
just as the kite was starting to move anyway. Rather, during slow low-power piloting of
your kite you can apply steering tension, then as soon as you see the kite moving and
responding to that steering tension, ease off a bit and let the kite move.
You can actually reposition the kite using a few small steering inputs.
This will make sure the kite creeps slowly through the low power zone.
An extremely common mistake, during lessons and after, is stalling a kite like this.
This happens a lot, for example, when raising or relaunching a kite in light to medium wind.
Let’s look at what leads to this mistake. A student might hold the bar fairly tightly.
They try to bring in the upper steering line, which should steer the kite upwards.
In this case to the left. However, because of their locked grip,
they also bring in the lower steering line a bit. Tension in the lower steering line,
plus the weight of the kite itself, prevent the kite from climbing.
Seeing the kite fail to respond, students often then bring in the bar further,
increasing steering line tension, thinking that that will give the kite the power to climb.
However, in light wind, or when the kite’s moving sluggishly,
applying too much steering tension will slow down the kite.
If you bring in the steering lines enough, you create so much drag the kite starts to drop
back with the wind. Known as backstalling.
Let’s look at a better method.
Here the pilot applies tension in the upper steering line
ONLY, making sure the lower steering line is slack so it’s not directing the kite downwards.
The pilot applies just enough tension to make the kite climb,
and by applying minimal tension the kite has less drag and can climb freely, even in light wind.
You often see students parking their kite around 45 degrees without too much difficulty.
They then attempt to bodydrag keeping the kite in that position.
A soon as they lay in the water, however, the kite moves.
Either dropping to the water or climbing up and across the other side of the window.
This is simply a case of the student being able to park the kite when watching it like a hawk
but not being able to park a kite while distracted.
The solution is to practice parking the kite, while distracted.
You should also be able to control the kite with obscured vision.
Since you can easily get a wave in the face while bodydragging.
It’s common to see the kite climb during a failed bodydrag.
Since the student holds the bar a bit more tightly when distracted
and forgets they can ease the bar out to let the kite drop with gravity.
There are many mistakes in kitesurfing lessons that stem from a student still
having to focus fully on the kite. In this waterstart for example,
the student might think they lack board skills,
but in reality it’s mainly a kite control issue. They dive the kite.
They are then meant to steer the kite back up to avoid it diving too low.
But because they start thinking about the board, they forget about kite control completely.
The kite dives low and pulls them over the edge of the board.
You are meant to dive the kite, and then steer the kite back up while also getting onto the board.
If you want any hope of controlling the kite’s power dive correctly,
while also thinking about getting on the board, your power dives must be almost second nature.
You need those power dives in the bag. You should be able to do them while
having a conversation, you should be able to do them without looking at the kite.
Only then can you really work on your board control.
Students often make mistakes with trying to stop.
It’s common to see students attempting to slow down like this.
The student throws their whole weight back, digs in their heels and pulls the bar.
It’s like they’re trying to pull the kite to a halt.
This makes things worse, as it powers up the fast moving kite, and then the board can
easily fly off and hit the student. There is no need for this at all.
Stopping is simple and is done with basic kite control.
You steer up slowly towards 12 then you ease the bar out.
This is a controlled way to stop.
Early on, after a few successful waterstarts,
it can be tempting to go on a huge glory run on your strong side like this and then crash.
Sometimes the students get up and they give a big woop to the instructor to celebrate.
A long run on your preferred side like this followed by a crash
might feel like an achievement but it’s poor use of your lesson time.
You have to relaunch the kite and then walk back the entire distance you rode, or sometimes
the kite gets tangled during the crash and you have to eject it and wait for the instructor.
This one long glory run on your preferred side can cost you 10 to 30 minutes.
Rather, you can learn a lot more in less time, and stay safer,
by doing lots of shorter runs of both sides. This means you can refine and improve
your waterstart, since you’re practising it lots of times.
You can learn to stop under control consistently.
A short run with a controlled stop is a bigger achievement than a long run and crash.
As learning to stop is one of the key skills that will keep you safe.
By riding left and right you’re also getting lots of practice
on your weaker side which is essential. Also, you can do several runs back and forth
with less walking required to return to your starting point.
Until you’re reliable at riding, I recommend lots of shorter runs rather than one big one.
Experienced kiters often ride with their kite low to the water.
This helps you ride faster and helps you ride further upwind.
But, when you see a beginner’s kite drop this low, they almost always crash.
A low kite can make it harder to slow down and control your speed.
Also if you catch a toeside edge, the low kite will propel you over that edge violently.
With the kite higher it’s easier to slow down, and more forgiving when you fall.
For beginners 45 degrees is a forgiving angle to park the kite when riding.
Launching a kite is the most dangerous skill for a new kiter.
There are many easy mistakes to make. You might have made a mistake during set up.
You might have misjudged the wind. There’s a long list of potential mistakes,
and because you will be doing this on land at some point,
there are also objects to hit or tangle your kite with.
Because launching is one of the most risky and complex skills for a beginner to learn,
focus on this a lot during lessons and try to become competent.
If you need to focus more on this than board skills.
Also learn to pilot with one hand, this will mean you can easily rest your other hand on the chicken
loop eject, which will enable you to knock out the kite if there’s an issue during launch.
Sometimes people think they can save money by learning to kitesurf with a friend.
Unless that friend is a really good kitesurfer and a good teacher,
this can actually cost you more money. You can easily break a kite during poorly
taught lessons which costs more than lessons. Also you can hurt yourself of course,
and during poorly taught lessons you can hurt other beach users which can end up
getting kitesurfing banned in your local area. You sometimes see new kiters having issues
handling a kite. Something a bit like this is common.
The student is trying to flip the kite over with force.
But they are actually just rotating the wing tips into the ground.
Remember a kite weighs very little so it’s always possible to handle it without much effort.
Here, for example, the kiter could lift the leading edge,
move to one wing tip and then the kite would easily flip over without pressing into the ground.
I hope this video helps you avoid some common mistakes.
For more theory to support you during lessons,
or fun tricks to learn after lessons, look at the links below.