hawks_eye

Jon and I took a lesson at the spit today. Good wind conditions (probably 15 knots). We flew a 10m naish four line kite, and a 143cm board. I immediately was able to ride upwind to the left, and surprisingly started riding to the right as well. Jon estimated that I was able to ride over half a kilometre before exploding/stopping, which is a big difference from last day!

Some thoughts on the water start: 

• Boards are 10x easier to put on without booties--if you can “bare” it! Just scrunch your toes and grip/wiggle your way up the straps.
• You're allowed to put the board on when the kite's on the water at the edge of the wind window. If the kite’s already in the sky, keep it flying at 12:30 or 11:30 instead while putting the board on.
• While putting on the board, steer the kite with your hand positioned at the centre of the bar, with the lines between middle and ring finger.
• Keep the board rising out of the water rather than dragging down. Press down on the edge nearest to you so that the board rises, and while doing so, put both feet against the plates. Make this one quick motion. It's all about practice. 

When it came to riding, everything Jason from VKS said the previous day about keeping the pelvis extended, shoulders back and looking upwind really worked well, particularly on my left tack. On my right tack I was mostly in survival mode still, but hey, better survival mode in motion than serene mode bobbing around in the water! My brain automatically worked out how to ride to the right today – there was nothing I consciously did other than thinking about bringing the rear foot toward my butt, and the keeping the lead foot extended. 

It seemed like sometimes the kite would ride into the power zone when I wanted it at the edge of the window, and I’d be flying way faster than I wanted. Other times I could barely get any pull at all regardless of where I put the kite. When I had too much power, I was like a stone skipping across skipping across the water… in order to slow down, in theory, one needs to drive hard onto the edge - which is easier said than done. These guys have given some good feedback on how to develop good slowdown technique. Dan from VKS kept telling me to edge hard; the problem is I wasn't confident I'd stay on the board in doing so, probably because my kite was fairly high in the sky. Next time out I'll try bringing the kite low and simultaneously try leaning back. 

Goals for next day out: 

• Start turning. Think about pivoting the board. Perhaps use snowboard pivot technique (twist the discs)
• Sail the kite lower and have faith in leaning farther back. 
• Cinch the waist harness tigheter so it stops riding up! (It shouldn't be a girdle!)
• Practice another self-rescue.
• Try a shorter board (it may be easier to edge?)

It was definitely a great day for us! Jon's also now able to water start (taking it easier with his back issues), so we're well on our way to becoming competent riders.

hawks_eye

Today I had a breakthrough within the first minute on the water! It was thanks to both the excellent coaching from Jason at Vancouver Kiteboarding School (and the earlier coaching from Pete/Marie at Elevation Kiteboarding), and a few good nights to “sleep on” water starts. I told Jason that I wasn’t quite sure how the theory worked, so he gave me a quick ground lesson using a tethered bar to get a feel for the water start.  

After a crazy launch (the spit is nuts on the weekend –two other kiters had tangled their lines in with ours, so Jason launched them to get them out of the way) we headed upwind where the river was basically empty. I put the board on and immediately managed a water start! I’d say my ratio of successful water starts heading left is about 85% now. In the span of two hours, I managed nearly six rides of more than 30 seconds, and a ton of shorter water starts that fizzled out. While that may sound unimpressive and a little sad, keep in mind that at least half of the lesson time was spent in a boat riding to/from the site and upwind.

The balance of the time was spent with Jason coaching me on how to improve my ride when heading left, and trying to water start (unsuccessfully) heading right. So here are the learnings:

• Drive the hips forward. (same as inline skating, skiing, snowboarding…)
• Extend more through the joints.
• You can’t just ride downwind or your kite will lose its apparent wind and stop pulling—then you sink! You need to edge the board to maintain some resistance.
• When it gets bumpy and hard to balance, you’re on the flat of the board. Think snowboarding/skiing. Engage the edge.
• If you're exhausted, that means you have lots of opportunities to become more efficient in your kiting ;)

I’m now thoroughly exhausted and expect to sleep tonight like a bear in hibernation. Jon and I have a lesson tomorrow, and I can hardly wait to get back out! 

By the way - I find it a real PITA sometimes to line up the kite in the sky and put the board on for a few reasons:

• the board submerges while I'm wrestling with it
• the kite starts moving through the wind window and I have to stop fiddling with the board (I should be able to steer the kite with one hand but sometimes it just doesn't respond)
• my lower body gets spun around so my feet are behind me and I have to restart (this one particularly sucks - it often happens when I'm not quick enough putting the second foot into the strap)

Hopefully these issues just sort themselves out over time.