It’s easy for novice kiteboarders to focus entirely on the waterstart, seeing as getting up on the board is an essential first step. It’s what comes next that can be even more frustrating – bobbing in and out of the water unable to stay up on the board for a decent long first run. Thankfully we’re gonna tackle what we think is the most important aspect – keeping your kite moving!

Check out this excerpt from our Waterstart and First Runs premium video – it’s the full Key Elements: Kite and Bar section and should focus you in on this vital technique:

It’s surprising how many beginners get up on the board and then just stop flying the kite. Whether it’s because they believe they can park the kite, like they see the more experienced riders doing or the thrill and excitement of being up wipes their minds of any further thoughts, either way now is not the time to forgot about your kite!

You are going to need to keep flying the kite in a figure of 8 motion, at the side of the wind window in the direction you are going, to keep the power on. Once you learn to fine tune your board control and balance that against the kite, then you can park it.

Three areas that are worth focusing on:

  1. Start pulling the bar earlier than you think you need to, the kite will not respond immediately particularly in lighter winds or when you are less powered up.
  2. Go back to body dragging and practice flying the kite in this same figure of 8 motion at the side of the wind window so it becomes more automatic and you get the timing of pulling the bar and the kite turning.
  3. In the video above we say you may need to sheet in to keep the kite powered up and turning. It’s actually hard to make a hard and fast rule on this as the wind strength, your style of kite and the way in which you are flying the kite will affect how much you need to sheet in. Read our “Sheet out! Sheet out! SHEET OUT!” blog post for some further insight into when sheeting out will be really important!

blog-excerpt-first-runs-kite-movement-sheet-out

If you’ve found this helpful you might want to check out the Beginner Collection, available on the Progression Player App, that contains this full 26 minute Waterstart and First Runs video.

This early stage of kiteboarding can be very frustrating so please share this with any friends who are taking lessons this summer and could do with a hand to learn a little quicker.

If you are learning yourself and have any kiting questions, ask away in the comments…