staying up wind?

[stewzy]

does any one have tips n trick for staying upwind? all info will be appreciated. or is it just a case of keep trying......and one day it clicks?

[Gomas]

Go out on a dropping tide.

[Kite Kid]

try to look where you aim to be, and twist your body in that direction.

[russ_kent]

It's all about edging hard and constantly feathering the angle you're trying to go upwind at to take account of conditions. Also keep the kite as far across the window as it will go and power up if you can (the more you sheet your kite in the closer you can get into the wind - same principle as sailing). You'll find that smoother water will help too.

[carlos_climber]

a board with a long edge will help - spleene sessions and doors - difficult not to go up wind on them

[Andy-j]

take your front hand off the bar and look upwind.

point your toes on your front foot upwind. (sounds silly but helped me when learning)

Go out when it's windy.....

[peet]

(the more you sheet your kite in the closer you can get into the wind - same principle as sailing).

 

This is not true at all, you need to sheet out a little when going upwind, not in. Your kite will stall or at least be less efficient if you keep the bar pulled in.

On a dinghy the sail only looks sheeted in because the boat is turning into the wind underneath it.

[LABen2010]

When sailing a dinghy, the sail looks sheeted in because it should be as close in as you can get it to go upwind. Trust me, I used to race them! The pulleys at back of boom were block to block (as in you can't sheet in any more) with the boom locked as low as you can get it.

[paulie_amoose]

It should be easy to go upwind on modern kites, they depower massively and fly nice and forward in the window. You are most likely riding the board to flat. Best tips are to look over your shoulder up wind in the direction you want to go, also curl your big toe up on lead foot, this will help unload the front of the board and get your body twisted into the right position.

 

Deffo sheet out a bit, this allows the kite to fly forward and helps pull you upwind...

 

Believe.. it used to be ALOT harder to get up wind on old C kites!!

[Pike]

Next time your riding well powered, keep kite reasonably low and then take a look at the kite whilst you pull the bar in and then let the bar out - look what happens to the position of the kite relative to the wind.

 

The kite will take you upwind if you allow it, you need to be only powered up enough to plain on the water with the kite just powered enough. The bar will probably be an arms length away from you so let go with the front hand and turn your body towards the direction of travel.

 

Give it a try

[Mike Birt]

Steady speed - not too fast, not too slow.. regulate your speed.

Ideal condition are dead in the middle of your windrange - powered up and using a little of your depower.

Try and get the board to track on the rail, not crab sideways.

also, kit...

your weight and board size.

Board tpe helps a lot, but most peoples upwind woes are due to undersized boards - the width of your board is directly related to how you go upwind! the wider the easier.. (wide tips also help)

hth.

[plummet]

righto. the first mistake newbies make is not enough power. get out in more wind! if your well powered then upwind is easy.

 

next straight front leg and most of the weight on your rear leg.

 

point downwindish to begin with get some speed up then when your going fast carve upwind but don't loose too much speed. its a ballance between speed and upwind abilty. go to slow and your wont be going up wind that well.

 

once your up to speed and carving up wind park the kite lowish and regulate your power by pulling the bar in/out. yourl find a sweet spot thats probably bar in 3/4 of the way.

[stewzy]

wow thanks alot, sureley i have anuff tips to do it next time out.

kite and board to my size, if any one knows the maths......

08 atoms- 9m+12m

airush exile 135/47 (massive) but only tried it twice now, was on a wake board and had no chance

im 6'3" 15st5lb

thanks again for book of tips

[Andy-j]

12m upto about 25mph for someone your weight then down to the 9.

[kev1n]

a visual aid is your wake from your previouse tack, as ypu turn you,ll go downwind a bit then aim to cross your wake and try to stay parallel to it staying upwind of it, the longer the tack the more chance of gaining speed and edging harder thus going upwind.

hope this makes sense, it worked for me.

[bash1599968729]

If you are trying to go upwind and your speed starts to fall off you are trying to much and you will need to go back down wind to build speed again. The trick is the happy balance as the speed starts to fall come off the edge build speed and go again. Doesn't matter land or water it's the same principle.

 

Find the happy balance and you will be ripping it!

 

Or buy a race board although on second thoughts probably not a good idea but boy these babies rip it up wind

[mkratty]

its all about balance, speed and pull . if your going too slow then you need to head down wind to pick up speed . if your going too fast you need to edge upwind to slow down .once you get the balance right ,thinks click into place !

[russ_kent]

This is not true at all, you need to sheet out a little when going upwind, not in. Your kite will stall or at least be less efficient if you keep the bar pulled in.

On a dinghy the sail only looks sheeted in because the boat is turning into the wind underneath it.

 

You sure? I don't agree. I find that with the kite at the edge of the window powering it up brings the back edge closer into the wind and (providing I'm not consequently overpowered and scudding along on my arse) it does help get closer. It's EXACTLY what happens with a dinghy sail - the principle with sailing is that for a given trajectory into the wind you let the sail out as far as you can get away with - this makes it more efficient. However, to get closer into the wind you do need to sheet in - this makes the sail less efficient, but the trade off is that it allows you to get closer.

[sniels]

For me, when learning, the best thing to do was to take a certain point on the horizon which I at least wanted to get at. If you don't have a point of reference you'll undoubtedly won't keep your height for long. You won't notice it though, untill you're on your tack back, in which case it seems you gained no height compared to the last time you were there. Frustrating as hell...

 

Just pick a tree, pole, or even another kiter which you'd like to beat, and keep looking at it. You'll notice you'll do the things you need to do with your kite and board naturally. And from there on it becomes second nature.

[Phizz]

I used to have problems going upwind.

 

It seems that the primary technique which finally makes going upwind "click" is different for everybody, as testified to in this thread.

 

The core requirement is to have enough speed. After that, it's all technique. For some people, it clicks when they twist their body around, or take one hand off the bar, or look upwind, or curl up the front foot toes, or keep kite low, or work on stance / body angle, etc.

 

I tried all of that, and although it stopped me easing downwind all the time, I still had issues.

 

For me, the "click" technique was to push my back foot HEEL down. That's right - my heel. I had been pushing my back foot down in general, but I guess my board was still at too little an angle to edge properly. When I specifically concentrated on pushing my heel down as opposed to my whole foot (and found a comfortable balance of leaning back - avoiding poo stance of course), the next thing I knew I was flying upwind. It all clicked in one session.

 

Good luck.

[scut]

 

For me, the "click" technique was to push my back foot HEEL down. That's right - my heel. I had been pushing my back foot down in general, but I guess my board was still at too little an angle to edge properly. When I specifically concentrated on pushing my heel down as opposed to my whole foot (and found a comfortable balance of leaning back - avoiding poo stance of course), the next thing I knew I was flying upwind. It all clicked in one session.

 

Good luck.

 

yes this would be the key point i would point out on really pushing down hard on that back foot, depending on how powerd you are though if well powered you can get away with stamping the back heel harder, but in less winds if you stamp on the back heel too much you will kill all your speed and just stop, its all about finding that balance of pushing down on the back heel enough to drive you up wind but not so hard to kill your speed.

 

i found once this clicked for me at the end of the run if i was well powerd that by back calf would begin to burn with lactic acid witch lets me know i was working the back leg

 

 

 

one other thing that helped was to make sure that the kite is trimmed so that the kite was fully powered just at the point when fully sheeted in i.e when you pull the bar fully towards you that the kite is not flaring and this definitely causes it sit back in the window and loose your speed and power. this correct trimming alows you to pull the bar closer to the body and then lean your shoulders back keeping the body straight this helps in edging upwind because if you only sheet the bar in half way you bend from the hips ( loo stance ) and is alot harder to hold that edge

Edited March 23, 2011 by scut

[biscuitbloke]

Have a look at this video, I hope alwayswindy do not mind too much(so badly want to go here). Although this is about transition you can see the upwind technique perfectly and the application of back foot pressure.

 

I hope this helps

 

[video=youtube;lE-ahreablU]

 

their website

 

Alwayswindy.com - Kitesurfing in Gokova Turkey

[reecey]

I can go into the wind fairly well if the angle is not too much into the wind. I was at BRS on Saturday and was struggling to travel up wind. Other guys were running parallel with and going away from the beach where as i kept drifting to the beach as i couldn't get the extra few degrees to get out to deeper water. Ok the wind was fairly light but the other guys were doing it. M13 kite and 152cm board so no excuse.

[andrew pattullo]

does any one have tips n trick for staying upwind? all info will be appreciated. or is it just a case of keep trying......and one day it clicks?

 

 

 

same boat mate ,!!!! perstistance pays off , i hav been given advice where you have to twist your upper torso in the direction off travel, holding and steering with one arm your other arm bent round trying to to touch the water keeps your body twisted , in the direction of travel up wind ,

good lucky matey keep on trying

[plummet]

in light onshore wind you walk out as far as you can. some times you can body drag a better angle in light wind. get out back as far as you can before you start. usually inside the break there will be a current in one direction that makes it hard. once you get out past the breakers its generally easier. also there is a definate technique to popping over onshore white wash without loosing ground.

 

ps its all about practice its takes time to find the exact angle, power, speed combo. a slight change will make a huge difference in marginal conditions. The good guys have honed there upwind ability for years. i have good upwind ability now but there are a couple of locals that can squeeze a couple knots lower than me on a similar sized kite/board combo.