KITESURFING: BASIC TECHNIQUES

The verity that kiteboarding is such a easy sport to understand and learn, is invigorating and allows you to have fun in anything from a breeze to near gale wind, which makes kiteboarding the ideal recreational activity. However, the risks associated with the sport are plentiful, and you have to understand the techniques and basic factors before getting suited up to take the dive.

CONDITIONS

Nearly all wind conditions other than offshore can work for kiting in the waves, as long as you have enough power to comfortably get to the outside. If you are new to the waves, you should start in small side-on to side-off conditions. You should never kite in waves that you wouldn’t feel comfortable surfing or swimming in.

Always remind yourself that you may have to swim in if your gear breaks. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so, don’t go out.

READING THE WAVE

Being able to read waves effectively comes from experience. Volumes of books could be written on the subject of reading waves, yet the information would not do you any good until you spent time in the ocean. Always take time to watch the conditions before you go out, especially if you are not familiar with the spot. Before you go out, you should know where the waves are consistently breaking, where the big sections are, where the channels are, the timing of the sets, currents that are present, and what the tide is doing. Going into the ocean without this information is ignorance.

GETTING OUT

When riding out in any wave conditions, you need to know the limits of what size whitewater you can ride over. The only way to learn this is through experience, so start small. Approach the whitewater at a moderate speed. As you ride over the wave, point your board upwind and absorb the wave with your knees. Once over the wave, point the board downwind to build speed for the next wave.

If a wave breaks in front of you and you doubt you can make it over the whitewater, chicken jibe and wait for the set to pass. Before you leave the beach, spend some time studying the waves. Look for channels where the waves tend not to break or where the waves are smaller when they break. If you choose the right spot and time to go out, it will be much easier for you to get out past the waves

RIDING WAVES

Finally, when you are out in the waves and ready to ride your first one, start practicing your bottom turn. It’s the foundation of wave riding. Let yourself travel downwind and concentrate on staying on the wave, not in front of it.

Entrust your bottom turn. Lean into the turn and look at the wave where you will want to hit the lip. As you ride up to the top of the wave, throw your weight into the tail of your board and turn back towards the beach. If you learn to do a good bottom turn, the top turn follows naturally, If you are kiting on the wave with a decent board, you will not have to worry about your kite, other than keeping it out of the water as the wave is providing the power to keep you moving. Remember that without doing turns on the wave, you are only kiting in the waves, not on them.

The only way to get it down is to practice, so get out there and go for it. Commit to nailing your bottom turn. As it improves, all the other key ingredients, including
timing and flow, will follow. The most important advice we can give you is to have respect for everyone around you.

Surfers and windsurfers have been in the ocean a lot longer than us, so please be respectful when sharing the waves. Persistence is the key in this respect.

Surfing is a very hard sport to learn and it may take you years to develop proper technique in the waves. Remind yourself that you aren’t trying to surf while kiteboarding – you are just holding onto a kite while surfing.