Kitesurfing Waves | Tantrum Kitesurf

Posted on May 23, 2013February 29, 2016 by Tantrum — 1 Comment

How Are Waves Formed?

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They are formed by the friction generated as wind blows over the surface of the sea, the greater the strength of the wind and the longer it blows over the sea for the greater the energy in the wave and so the greater the size.

Something to clear up straight away is that as long as the wave is not in the process of breaking, the water does not move. Instead think of the water as simply the medium through which the energy (the wave) is transmitted. As we’ll explain in a minute it is only when the wave starts to break that the water itself actually moves.

As waves are formed they tend to be fairly chaotic things, however over long distances the larger waves swallow up the smaller waves, meaning there are fewer, larger waves as they travel further away from their place of birth. This same action also causes waves to separate themselves at fairly regular intervals.

Waves formed in this manner are what we refer to as swell (waves formed and ‘sorted out‘ over many hundreds of kms). This is very different to chop which are the messy type of waves we often experience on windy days at the beach. These waves are formed over a few hundred meters and are characterised by being messy, disorganised and possibly coming from several different directions, often leading to classic bump & jump type conditions for us kitesurfers.

Chop is how all swell originally starts, in that this is how all waves behave when they are initially born. They are still chaotic and haven’t had time or distance to swallow each other and arrange themselves into sets. Given time and distance chop would eventually become swell.

Titanic Syndrome

The captain of the Titanic made a monumental error in failing to appreciate just how far under the water an iceberg extends…the same is true of waves. Waves are not solely experienced at the surface of the water but continue under the water in a circular shape as shown in this diagram.

As the wave reaches the shore and the space underneath it gets less, the bottom of the wave starts to ‘catch’ on the bottom of the ocean floor. When this happens the top of the wave starts to ‘jack up’ in response. As this happens you’ll notice the wave starts to get steeper and “stand up” in a C type shape and then as the ground beneath the wave gets too shallow to support its mass, it crashes over in a froth of white water.

At the point where the wave starts to stand up but before it actually crashes, the potential energy of the wave converts to kinetic energy as the water containing the energy of the wave starts to move. At this point the wave becomes “catchable” by someone on a surf board…ie, you. The surface area of the board is propelled forward on this (now) moving mass of water and tends to cause girly type screams of excitement and impressive wipe outs for anyone fortunate enough to be on said board!

Posted on January 28, 2013April 3, 2018 by Tantrum — Leave a comment

Kitesurfing The North Coast Of Scotland

Armed with a battered map and their kite kit, local Scarborough surfer turned kitesurfer and the Big Cheese at Tantrum Kitesurf’s centre in the UK, Mike Andrew, and a couple of other intrepid souls headed to the wildest coast of the UK with the mission to chase the wind and waves wherever they may find them…

The Concept

So the concept of the trip was a hardcore exploratory kiting trip, exploring the far north of Scotland. We looked at the map and after a bit of chat in the pub (where all best plans are made) decided that it could actually work. It’s always windy up there and I knew from my surfing days that the waves were incredible and there are all these little forgotten bays miles from anywhere and anyone.

Originally we had thought we would just chase the wind but in the end we found this fantastic place where we actually based ourselves, the Poor House. It was fantastically located. Within an hours drive east or west we had four or five really great spots, right on the doorstep.

The actual trip was a combination of lessons for the beginners and hardcore kiting and surfing for the more experienced.

The Spots

We found some awesome spots. Not for the faint hearted or those that miss their creature comforts. You don’t wander onto the beach and set up in comfort in the warmth and then toddle on out. It was all a bit tense at times in that we were miles from support and civilisation, exposed to the elements and the north coast can be RAW.

Torresdale was good, we had a great session at the lagoon there. It was really funny. We went out and it was heavy winds, I was a 10 and Lawrence was on his 11. I was very impressed, I saw Lawrence about 20 or 30 feet up, what I didn’t realise is that it was completely unintentional. I was tearing back and forth because for me it was fantastic, because finally I had some power and I looked over and thought, “Jesus, he’s doing well. I have got to up my game here.” But he just got lifted, afterwards I just saw him standing there for about 20 minutes. I went over and said, “What’s wrong?” He said, “I am terrified, I want to go in and get my board, but I can’t land my kite.” So we brought his kite down and he was fine in the end. But we had to buy him a few beers for that.

One of the high points especially for the guys coming from abroad was the first night we went to the local pub. We didn’t know there was some local celebration, I’m not sure whether it was a funeral or a birthday. But the whole locality were out, all 20 of them! I roped the Dutch guys into some traditional Scottish dance. Unfortunately I got caught up too, no matter how much I hid, I could not get away.

Waves

We had tons of waves. Torresdale was actually scarily big the whole time. and this is in the context of not having any swell. At the Kyle of Tongue, you have got waves on the beach, similar in a way to Tarifa, but perhaps just breaking out just a bit further, a bit more solid. But within that you have got a massive sandbank with a right hand point break that breaks for about 300 yards. You have waves just breaking for miles and miles and miles. You just kite straight out into it.

Space

In the whole time we were there, we never saw another kite. The only kiters we saw were the people who joined us.

Balmichael has been kited before, although the local guy we met said he can’t remember when. But Balmichael is a very popular surfing beach. Apparently kiters have never ever been seen on the Kyle of Tongue before. No one has ever kited Torresdale before (as far as we know). So we were kiting places that, we think, we were the first on.

One place we had to visit was Torresdale. It has a good beach, a lagoon at the south end, one at the east end and another lagoon at the north end. But to get to the beach you had to either kite across a river or a lagoon or paddle across in a kayak, which we did. We also found a great beach where we could teach the beginners called Balmichael. You just drive up to the beach, go through a gate and you’re on the beach…perfect. It had a 180 degree direction reach and so can be kited in most conditions.

The Kyle of Tongue I think was probably one of the best kiting destinations I have ever seen, absolutely amazing. A massive inlet, into what is almost a loch, but with access to the sea. About five miles long and between one and two miles wide. But most importantly, about halfway up there’s a massive spit about 500 metres long, straight out into the middle of it. Wind direction wise it was phenomenal because it works in anything…360 degrees!

The seaward facing side of the spit had waves, the landward facing side, which was only about 50 to 100 yards wide, was effectively a lagoon. So you could kite from the lagoon into the sea and then from this section around the top of the spit, and into the flat section.

During the fortnight the winds were not the most favourable. The prevailing wind is strong west and south west and we got strong north and north eastern. So it made life a bit more difficult but still, the conditions were fantastic. So, if we had that south westerly wind, it would just be mind blowing. Absolutely mind blowing.

So we spoke to the guy who lives at the Kyle of Tongue and he had never seen kites before. We actually had some locals run down with cameras, one of them was a really good photographer and took some really great pics. They were really excited. So, I think two or three of the places have never been kited before and there were half a dozen others, that in the right conditions, you could kite all day.

Not For Pansies

This is not a trip for the faint hearted, some of the guys struggled, they were fine on the lagoons and stuff, but as soon as they got into the proper sea…well, when you see the waves, and the winds biting and there are seals and slamming surf, you feel exposed.

Next Trip

The same sort of time, late summer, 2018. I’m thinking of doing a couple of weeks in the same format, just hop on and off, in the Inner and Outer Hebrides. So it is a case of, “Where is the wind? Let’s go there.”

Interested in joining us on an epic adventure through the best kitesurfing this wild coast has to offer, we’ll be promoting this mainly through our Facebook group so Join us HERE >> and if we get enough interest we’ll make it happen

Posted on January 16, 2013January 9, 2016 by Tantrum — Leave a comment

Strapless Kitesurfing

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The latest craze hitting the beaches of Tarifa and kitesurfing beaches all over the world is riding surfboards without foot straps. People are either taking their old kite surf surfboards and removing the straps or dusting off their (often even older!) surfboards waxing them up and heading out. If you fancy giving this a try read on….

Riding strapless has many advantages. The first of which is that it gives you a reason to dig that old surfboard out of the garage and get some use out of it. There is no specific size that works best though something around 6’2″ is probably ideal. I use an old Mini Mal board which measures in at an impressive 7’8″ and means I can ride in almost no wind!

For those of you with knee problems the freedom of strapless riding may just give your kitesurfing a new lease of life. Due to the fact that your feet are now free to move around the board as much as you like, rather than being held in one constant position you can relieve the strain on any aching muscles much easier and save those knees from all the jarring they normally take in an average strapped session by being locked into one position.

The sense of freedom you get being able to walk to up and down your board in this fashion makes the actual feel of riding much more akin to windsurfing. As you get good you can even master jumps and all sorts of crazy tricks.

Most people look at strapless riding and wonder how the hell the board stays on your feet. To be honest as long as the waters not too choppy it’s fairly simple. The opposing forces of the kite and the water actually glue the board to your feet, just notice next time your simply riding your twin tip how little you rely on the straps to keep your feet in place when you’re actually riding (on flattish water) and you’ll see what I mean.

The trickiest part (at least until you start tackling waves) is the actual water start, because of the extra volume in front of your feet (as the nose of the surf board extends a lot further in front of you than it does behind) the board has a tendency to screw into wind as your attempting to waterstart, to couter act this you need to really curl your back leg under you while pushing away with your front. Added to this however is the fact that you’re going to lose the board every time a wave hits you while your setting your self up. For this reason you’re better off practicing this initially on calm days. This is made easier if you have a massive board that you can take out when the wind is light and the water pretty flat. Oh…and make sure you wax the board up well!

Posted on January 10, 2013March 28, 2018 by Tantrum — 2 Comments

Start Kitesurfing In Waves With A Surfboard

Nothing in the world quite compares to the feeling of catching your first wave. The surge of power through the board, the moment of silence when all that exists is you and the water, the thumping crash as you lean slightly too far and it all goes horribly wrong…or is that just me?

Wave riding requires a very different skill set to riding a twin tip board. Firstly there is the obvious difference between the shape of the board, which makes just riding up and down a very different experience. However wave riding also requires a different mentality – patience, aggression, harmony and sheer balls all have their place here. But the main feeling any long time wave rider experiences while surfing is a oneness with the wind and waves on a very spiritual level.

Surfing is damn hard

Surfing waves (in the traditional sense) is hard. Mainly because before you can actually get on the board and riding you need to learn how to ‘pop’ or stand up on the damn thing… which as you’ve probably guessed, isn’t that easy. One of the major advantages of kite surfing in waves is that you’re already stood up (most of the time) and so can forgo this painful process and just concentrate on having fun on the wave. Once on the wave the skill set required is so similar that many professional surfers are learning to kitesurf to give themselves more time riding thus improving their surfing performance. This means that if you do decide to take up (traditional) surfing, once you can get yourself stood up on the board the rest should be effortless.

Get out there

So now you’re all excited, how do you get started wave riding? While twin-tip boards can be used to sail on waves, they generally lack the volume to actually ‘catch’ a wave. This means that the easiest and probably the cheapest way to get started down the path of wave mastery is to simply dig out an old surfboard (or buy one cheap). You certainly do not need an expensive kite surfing surfboard to start having fun on the wave, any old surfboard will do. Personally I started an 8 foot mini-malibu board and I’ve seen guys taking out 10 foot Stand Up Paddle boards before. Of course you can invest in one of the specialist kite surfer surfboards and it will certainly make your ride more pleasant. But this is not a necessity for the beginner.

Getting on a bit?

Possibly the greatest advantage (at least to those getting on a bit) is that wave riding is not as physically demanding as freestyle. Now before we have an uprising, I’m not trying to say that you don’t have to be physically fit to wave surf…obviously you do, and the guys that ride big waves are amongst the fittest athletes on the planet. However surfing (on smaller waves) will not pull arms out of sockets as easily as handle passing will and is still a hell of a lot of fun. For this reason it’s not uncommon to see guys and girls of 60 + rocking up at the beach with their kite on their back and their surf board tucked under their arm, checking out the swell.

Adventure

Waves are generally shy creatures and like to stay out of the public eye, for this reason great wave spots have a tendency to be remote. Often just finding them requires a sense of adventure and a love for the wilderness. However the effort is nearly almost worth it, some of the most beautiful kite surfing spots in the world are wave destinations. Remote secluded bays with no one for miles, with just the surf and the wind (and occasionally your kite) pounding on the beach.

What…no Foot-straps?

One of the biggest concerns people have with wave riding especially when using an old surfboard, is the fact that they are often riding strapless (dedicated kite surfing surf boards do come with straps but many choose to remove them). This initially does take a little bit of getting used to. Once you’ve cracked it, it is a liberating and exhilarating feeling, which many claim is actually easier than riding with straps. The main difference comes when water starting. Given the extra volume and length of the surfboard it has a tendency to skew up wind whilst attempting to water start.

For this reason whilst water starting you need to pull in your back leg whilst pushing away with your front to force the board to point in a downward direction. I know, I know… this is exactly what you do on a twin tip, but believe me you have to really pull and push on a surf board, the longer the board the more exaggerated you have to make this.

Once you have mastered this technique actually riding is incredibly easy as the opposing forces of the wind and water actually glue you to the board (as I’m sure you’ll discover whilst you’re riding in very choppy conditions, this isn’t always 100% true, it is however, a well intentioned lie!).

Waves are big old boys…

There are no 2 ways about it, these guys can pack a punch. Under estimating the conditions or over estimating their own abilities are the biggest reasons for failure, embarrassment and injury amongst the newbie wave rider. The waves themselves have a tendency to sort the wheat from the chaff. As a simple rule if you can’t get out through the waves, you’re not good enough to be out there.

Many people new to wave riding may not have a clear idea of how powerful waves can be, even what would be classed as a small, 1m wave can have an incredible amount of power. Definitely enough to pick you up, dump you under and ditch you unceremoniously back on the beach with your kite wrapped around you. Definitely not a good look, and not one you need to experience, if you give the conditions the respect they deserve. Talk to locals, find out about local conditions, discover when high tide is, are there any rip tides or other hazards you need to be aware of? All this will boost your confidence and your ability to cope once you’re in the impact zone.

Making Friends With The Locals

Surfers are a territorial bunch but generally if they see you treating their spot with the respect it deserves…and a large part of this is taking the time to talk to them and garner some of their wisdom, they’ll help you out. If you just rock up at a spot, unfurl you kite and tear up the wave they’re waiting in the line up for, showing them no respect…expect pain.

Save Cash

Even if there are no waves having a surfboard in your quiver can give you other unexpected advantages. Because of a surf boards increased volume (floatiness), it will ride through lulls in the wind much more easily than a board of lesser volume and so can get you riding in much lighter winds. Thus armed with a surfboard and a twin tip board you can generally get away with less kites in your quiver than if you had just a twin tip, maybe needing only 2 kites to cover the same wind range as you would with just a twin tip and 3 kites. Boards cost less, get damaged less easily, and retain their value better than kites.

Posted on August 31, 2011January 21, 2013 by Tantrum — Leave a comment

How to Kitesurf on Waves

Interested in riding waves here’s 7 quick tips to get you up and surfing quicker and safer:

1. When you get rolled by a wave and you find yourself trapped under it you should let the bar out instead of trying to fly the kite while you are disoriented yourself. This simple action allows you to recover your orientation quicker (ie. work out which way is up!).

2. A common mistake amongst novice kitesurfers is that they try to steer with their boards. Kitesurfing however is largely about the kite. Hence, if you are changing directions then you should do so with the kite leading.

3. Once riding on the wave you should keep the kite as low as possible (to keep you on the wave!).

4. While learning the quick top and bottom turns common on waves beginner wave riders can steer to early too early with the board and so lose a lot of tension in the lines as the wave carries you fast towards your kite. Once you’ve lost tension you are effectively surfing, which can be great if that was what you intended of terrifying if you didn’t and you now have a 20ft monster breathing down your neck. Solve this by entering the turn with your kite first (see 2 above).

5. One of the best ways of mastering and conquering a wave is to pick it out early. Going for a wave once it’s already formed means you arrive to the party too late. Try to pick your waves early.

6. Getting the sense of a wave is important because it allows you to visualize its movements and antics. Spend time on the beach just watching the waves, once you start to understand how the wave is forming and breaking you can work out how to ride it more effectively.

7. When you start dropping into a wave it is wise to lower your center of gravity by bending your knees. A lower center of gravity means greater balance and even better control.

Thanks to the guys over at kiteworld.net for the basis of this post.

If you’ve got any questions relating to any of the techniques mentioned here why not let us know in the comments below.