It is always better to meet up with an experienced kite boarder and for them to explain how to board with a kite, but if this is not possible, we suggest you follow this guide.

(Directions Of Travel)

Start with the kite up high at one side of the wind window with the board pointing about 35-40 degrees off downwind (Broad Reach) in the same direction as the kite, now step into the bindings and lower the kite down into the edge of the wind window in the direction you want to move and as you start moving turn the board back into the wind a bit until you are going across wind (Beam Reach), slowly raise and lower the kite at the same side to increase your speed and remember to brace against the pull of the kite or else you may do a front flip off the board!

(Working The Kite - Useful In Lighter Winds)Now that you know how to move, you'll probably want to know how to gain distance upwind, to do this you should get a bit of speed up then increase pressure on the heelside edge, this will point the board slightly more upwind, dont turn too far in this direction as you will slow down to a stop, if this happens turn or hop the board back round so your downwind slightly and start again. You may find crouching will help you keep a good close reach.

Often done accidentally by incorrect technique of being well over powered but getting downwind is a very useful skill to know. It enables you to get back to your kit easily, get out of the way of other fliers/members of public etc and can make for interesting flying. I find it is often easier to get to your broad reach (downwind run) from a beam reach (cross wind) run. The best way to get into a downwind run is to dive the kite down into the centre of the window and as you feel it power up lean hard on the toeside edge of your board and go with the power. Now that you are in the run you need to keep in it. This is often hard as you are effectively taking lowering the wind speed as you are catching up with the kite. This means that you need to work the kite from one side of the window to the other. Keeping it in the power zone as much as possible. If the kite starts to fall or lose air then you should go back in to a cross wind (beam reach) run and do the same thing again. This is best done using a small kite as they are quicker and can be worked harder to keep their air.

Now your speeding down the beach and suddenly - your board starts shaking/wobbling from side to side and you can't seem to control it! This is called speed wobble and is something that most boarders hate to start with until they can overcome it and get faster speeds. To stop speed wobble it maybe be you need to tighten your trucks (if skate style) or insert new eggshocks (if channel trucks) though a much simpler method is to lean further back and relax more.

If you've mastered all this you may want to start to ride Toeside! To do this you should start with your board positioned so you are looking upwind when standing on it, you should keep the kite high to start with, twist your body round so that you can see the kite and direction you want to go in, slowly lower the kite in this direction. Remember to lean forward, this may seem a bit strange, but it will stop you from getting yanked off the board a lot better. If you have a harness, once you've got a nice bit of speed, you may prefer to hook in and cruise with one hand dragging along the ground upwind of you, this often looks stylish. To turn round you can either hop the board around by jumping up and twisting the board 180degrees around to ride heelside again, you could slide it round (take great care) or you can slowly drift round in a graceful arc by slowing yourself down, keeping the kite high then putting pressure on the heelside edge to turn downwind and ride off in the opposite direction heelside.

(KiteATB.co.uk bare no responsibility for injurys sustained while following this guide)

This entry was posted on Friday, August 18th, 2006 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Basics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.