Phizz Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 Trying to work on a few things to improve my riding. My local spot has a lot of room, but depending on tides I can find myself heading straight towards rocks. Sometimes I am absolutely flying towards them at full speed, and I haven't figured out the smoothest way to stop. When I try edging hard I actually speed up and it's hard work on the back leg. I hesitate to quickly throw the kite to the other side of the window as at that speed I would rocket launch, which I'm not keen on doing as I approach rocks (when I get better I can maybe control this to go the other way but I just ain't there yet skill-wise). So what I usually end up doing is slowly bringing the kite up and past 12 while leaning the hell back in some sort of ungraceful controlled semi-wipeout. Any tips? Quote
Bigbud Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 Drop your back side in the water, ultimate brake Or Switch it round to toeside and carve round at full speed, great fun Quote
harry_a Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 Arse braking works wonders! if youre riding overpowered bringing the kite up to 12 is actually the worst thing you can do.. seems to be a lazy habit that high depower kites get you into. if you bring the kite up you have WAY less leverage over the power and you'll lose your edge almost immediately. the right way to handle power is to bring the kite REALLY low, as in a metre above the water and edge like fuck. you should be able to both go stupid high upwind and keep your speed nicely in check, almost to walking pace if you have hefty enough legs Quote
Phizz Posted May 14, 2010 Author Report Posted May 14, 2010 Drop your back side in the water, ultimate brake Arse braking works wonders! I suppose a bit of gentle arse braking might help if youre riding overpowered bringing the kite up to 12 is actually the worst thing you can do.. seems to be a lazy habit that high depower kites get you into. if you bring the kite up you have WAY less leverage over the power and you'll lose your edge almost immediately. the right way to handle power is to bring the kite REALLY low, as in a metre above the water and edge like fuck. you should be able to both go stupid high upwind and keep your speed nicely in check, almost to walking pace if you have hefty enough legs Yeah I do try that, as you say, with kite right at the water, edging like fupp. It works, but does kill the legs, which if I do too much shortens my session when they're too fatigued. More squats in between sessions I reckon Quote
Bigbud Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 I suppose a bit of gentle arse braking might help Yeah I do try that, as you say, with kite right at the water, edging like fupp. It works, but does kill the legs, which if I do too much shortens my session when they're too fatigued. More squats in between sessions I reckon It sounds like you maybe over powered to me if you having to edge that hard to slow down, just s thought. Quote
Phizz Posted May 14, 2010 Author Report Posted May 14, 2010 It sounds like you maybe over powered to me if you having to edge that hard to slow down, just s thought. Well it doesn't happen all the time - probably during a long gust when I'm overpowered as you say. Was out yesterday and it was up and down the whole session. Quote
Bigbud Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 You can point the board down wind which will increase your speed for a few secs but as you match the kite speed you soon start slowing down, just watch for the kite falling back into the window thou Quote
g3legacy Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 its all about the arse break haha. I've been powered to the point where there is no edging left, no depower left and a certain crash. Time to drop the arse! Quote
KiteItRight Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 Well i tend to get over powered quite easily with the setup i use, which has about 25cm of depower throw and a Fuel Imo its all about reading the water. you have to know when to edge and when not too.. if its choppy there is no way i can get an edge in if im over powered so i wait untill a nice bit of flat is coming up a head where you get a little decent of the crest of some chop and you can use your downward momentum and weight to reaslly dig your edge in hard. it only has to be for a split second so you can force the kite infront of you and dump its power outside of the wind window. once that has happend your back in charge! but if you try and edge at thew wrong time you will end up loosing control i can totally understand how intimidating it can be, and its not till you finally are able to beat the kite when you get in a situation like that that you start to gain cinfidence about it when it happens again worst thing you can do is bring your kite up as its like lifting off the accelerator pedal when you are going too fast around a corner in a car. it will release your edge and make it worse! Quote
g0nz01599968659 Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 First try all the above. Also try draggin a hand in the water, that makes a good break & it sets you far enuf back on your heals to edge fully. Good edge control is key, oh & you are sheeting right out yeah? Not pulling the bar in & hanging on?? lol seen that one before... Death run ---> Big Splash! An alternative method to control the death run (& this will seem counter intuitive) is to bear away completely downwind.... try to carve downwind onto the other tack whilst leaving the kite alone at the edge of the window. This just takes ALL the tension out of your lines & you slow down rapidly. Try this out in a non overpowered situation & you'll see what happens. Just commit to a dead downwind run - dont just go broad, go fully down wind & try to ride past your kite... Quote
Roland Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 Get your kite low (wing tip only a few feet off the water) and dig the rail of your board in really hard... If you don`t wuss out you`l come to a controlled stop!!! Quote
plummet Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 here's another idea. I don't know if it has an actual name or just something weird i do. you have to do it before you loose all edging control. you sense impending doom lean right back and lift the front of the board off the water. you end up skimming along with only the back tip of the board in the water. its quite a cool slide and it slows you down. i'm flying an ozone edge and in 25+ knots that puppy really wants to scream. any gust gets translated into insane speed which is fun i like speed. but you neeed to keep a handle on it or your going at warp factor 9. if i'm overpowered and don't want to go fast i choke it the speed down to start with by carving hard up wind and punching lots of those back tip slides i described. Also you can just keep punching jumps before you go too fast throw down another jump.... with the crazy justs coming through you will just glide for longer! hehehe. i had one of those sessions. 25 gusting to 30 super powered on the 11m jumping off and over the 3m swell. on one of the occasions a mass gust hit as i was re-directing to come in for a landing. wowa warp factor 9 through the air not even touching the sea. then i was just bouncings like a stone accross the ocean. no chance for edging at all. so i did as adviced above. the obligitory butt check until i can to a stop. good times. Quote
ady Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 The head brake works well. I use it all the time, 1,see rocks/beach 2,observe how they are getting bigger fast 3,panic a little 4,edge harder 5,panic a lot more 6,scream like a girl 7,crash !! Never seen anyone stop as quick as me using that technique. That probably won't help but good luck with the arse brake thing:D:D Quote
gazxtreme Posted May 14, 2010 Report Posted May 14, 2010 Hey phizz, why bother trying to slow down? just get a GPS, forget slowing down an get some speeds posted up on the speed sailing site. Just find a site without rocks. Quote
Jack1988 Posted May 16, 2010 Report Posted May 16, 2010 What andy said, chuck it over, pull the bar in and dont redirect Quote
g0nz01599968659 Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 What andy said, chuck it over, pull the bar in and dont redirect Do you kitesurf now then? Quote
Jack1988 Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 Do you kitesurf now then? nope not yet, was just larking about..hense the big grin, do i need to kitesurf to post in these forums now? Quote
markey Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 well being able to kitesurf is handy if your giving out advise on a kitesurfing forum lol Quote
Jack1988 Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 well being able to kitesurf is handy if your giving out advise on a kitesurfing forum lol sorry, im a theorist Quote
heres jonny Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 it would also be nice to know how people stop when riding in messy swell? my local is sort of 4 or 5 foot swell when the wind picks up, some breakers, mostly steep swell just off the shore line... upwind is hard enough, but ive sort of got that, but how the hell, when im storming back into shore lit up riding the front of a wave in, i think "oh shit, thats a beach..." thump.... or its erm, edge super hard with the kite low but then usually get swallowed by a wave just as i stop and direct the kite over to head back out... did once try carve out to toeside on the wave face, that didnt work...ran out fo power and sank and got bundled about...and tried hopping to toeside, but get the toeside rail taken away by the wave and faceplanted the wave is it all about the edging hard thing but with perfect timing to not get swallowed by the waves? need to figure it out or im going to look like a noob being swallowed by waves all the time for my entire kitesurf sessions Quote
LABen2010 Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 Any thoughts on best way to do this with landboard? Or should I create a new thread on landboarding section and change the word "rocks" for "goal posts"? I assume arse breaking isn't the way to go there?! Quote
heres jonny Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 lean back hard on the heelside edge and powersilde on land...simples Quote
Andy-j Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 it would also be nice to know how people stop when riding in messy swell? my local is sort of 4 or 5 foot swell when the wind picks up, some breakers, mostly steep swell just off the shore line... upwind is hard enough, but ive sort of got that, but how the hell, when im storming back into shore lit up riding the front of a wave in, i think "oh shit, thats a beach..." thump.... or its erm, edge super hard with the kite low but then usually get swallowed by a wave just as i stop and direct the kite over to head back out... did once try carve out to toeside on the wave face, that didnt work...ran out fo power and sank and got bundled about...and tried hopping to toeside, but get the toeside rail taken away by the wave and faceplanted the wave is it all about the edging hard thing but with perfect timing to not get swallowed by the waves? need to figure it out or im going to look like a noob being swallowed by waves all the time for my entire kitesurf sessions downloop and carve to toeside and nail it away fi the beach! then pop back to heel edge and tackle the swell. Quote
heres jonny Posted May 17, 2010 Report Posted May 17, 2010 yeah last time i tried i didnt downloop, ran out fo power and sank.... will give it a go next time im out... needs to warm up, my 2mm summer wetsuit isnt exactly warm this time of year Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.