Category: Kitesurfing Lessons

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Mastering the Waterstart

The Water Start

The Tantrum Kitesurf Show

Kitesurf insider secrets, tutorials, video feedback, and equipment advice all aimed at getting you riding better…faster

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Water starting is one of those make or break moments in learning to kitesurf. It can be incredibly frustrating as you try time and time again, avoiding the waves, getting the damn board on your feet, waiting for the perfect moment…and flying straight over the front of the board for the thousandth time! Luckily there are a few common errors most people make when trying to water start which prevent them from riding up, up and away. The first is not pushing the front foot far enough around to release the board onto the plane and the second, of course, is pulling the bar in as you rise out of the water.

By not pushing the front foot far enough away from you as you rise out of the water, you will find yourself coming up up with the board too horizontal to the wind. Incredible amounts of power are then required from the kite to keep you going, as the board is creating a huge amount of resistance directly against the pull of the kite. By simply pushing forward with the front leg and coming up at an angle of 45 degrees or more away from the direction of the wind (ie. with the board pointing further downwind) you’ll release the board onto the plane. With the board pointing downwind your direction of travel is the same as that of the kite and thus much less power is required as you are working with the pull from the kite rather than fighting against it. A good trick here is rather than thinking of pushing your front foot away from you instead, pull your back leg in towards your bum, this will have the same effect but will mean that its much easier for you to keep your legs bent and control the power as you rise up from the water.

The second mistake people make is to pull on the bar whilst rising out of the water. As human beings is our instinct to pull ourselves up using something close to hand while attempting to stand up, also we naturally want more power if we are not quite out of the water and so pulling the bar seems like the right thing to do to give us that last little burst and pull us onto the plane…nothing could be further from the truth and this instinct must be resisted as we learn to water start

By putting the bar in we momentarily power up the kite, however when the kite reaches the bottom of the window (and we want to send it back up to initiate our second power stroke) if the bar is fully pulled in it will simply stall the kite backwards leaving us bobbing back into the water teabag style. What you need to aim to do is put enough power through the kite so that you have no desire to pull the bar in further as you have plenty of power already. This done, once the kite reaches the bottom of the window a simple tweak in the right direction will return the kite back towards the top of the window and put it in a position to start our second power stroke.

Hope that you found this post useful and that it helps your progression down the road to learning to kitesurf smoother and less frustrating, if you want more like this then subscribe to our YouTube Channel where every week I release a new video giving you all the kitesurf insider secrets, tutorials, video feedback, and equipment advice all aimed at getting you riding better…faster.

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Kitesurfing Rules of the Road – Part 2

So you’re kitesurfing away from the shore, out of the white water and riding on the open ocean. From here on things start to get a little bit more complicated as there are several laws which overlap and it’s up to you, in each given situation, to work out which one to apply.

The most important law and the one which normally takes precedence over the others in kitesurfing is the law of the starboard rider. If you don’t know your port and your starboard, port is left and starboard right. This can be easily remembered with the saying “there’s no port left in the bottle.” Hence the starboard rider is the one with his right foot forward or who is looking over his right shoulder. This applies when you’re riding heel side so if you riding heel side you right foot is forward and you’re looking over your right shoulder you’re riding on starboard tack and so have right of way. Simply reverse this if riding toe side, so you’ll be kitesurfing with your left foot foot forward looking over your left shoulder.

You’ll often hear, especially sailor types, screaming starboard at you as they pass you. Up till now I imagine you’ve blithely smiled back and maybe waved, totally ignorant of what they’re talking about. By screaming starboard they’re indicating that they are on a starboard tack and thus have right-of-way. Roughly translated as get out my way before I wrap my lines around your head!

As I said, this is a rule that will apply when you’re riding in the open ocean, but it’s not the only rule. We will cover these other rules in more detail in a later post. For the moment however if you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments box below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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The 2 Errors People Make Whilst Learning to Waterstart When Kitesurfing

The Water Start
The Water Start

There are two common errors most people make when trying to water start during their kitesurfing lessons which prevent them from riding up, up and away. The first is not pushing the front foot far enough around to release the board onto the plane and the second, of course, is pulling the bar in as you rise out of the water.

The first of these, not pushing the front foot far enough away as you rise out of the water,  results in you coming up with the board too horizontal to the wind. Incredible amounts of power are then required from the kite to keep you going, as the board is offering a load of resistance directly against the pull of the kite. By simply pushing forward with the front leg and coming up at an angle of 45 degrees or more away from the direction of the wind you’ll release the board into the plane, accept the pull from the kite and require an awful lot less power to keep you riding.

The second mistake people make is to pull the bar in whilst rising out of the water. As human beings is our instinct to pull ourselves up using something close to hand while attempting to stand up, this instinct must be resisted as we learn to water start

By putting the bar in we momentarily power up the kite, however when the kite reaches the bottom of the window with the bar fully pulled in it will simply stall backwards leaving us bobbing back into the water teabag style. What we need to aim to do is put enough power through the kite so that the bar stays away from us, and we have no desire to pull it in further.  This done, once the kite reaches the bottom of the window a simple tweak in the right direction will return the kite back towards the top of the window and put it in a position to start our second power stroke.

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Kitesurfing – Rules of the Road Part 1

Kitesurfing - Rules of the Road
Kitesurfing - Rules of the Road

Kicking off a new series of posts on kitesurfing rules of the road, today we’re going to look at who has right of way when leaving the beach.

I was out kitesurfing the other day and after being cut up several times, having one guy ride up right behind me and basically force me onto the beach and then some other chump simply turn into me I thought I’d better do a few refreshers on basic kitesurfing etiquette and rules of the road as it seems very few people actually get it, or are ever taught it. Rules of the road are vital especially as spots get more crowded due to the increased popularity of kitesurfing. They help prevent collisions but also prevent too much stress appearing on the water, I really don’t want to see the day when kitesurfing becomes like surfing and there’s so much anger out there that people are literally fighting on the beach.

So this ones easy it simply states that the the kitesurfer leaving the beach has right of way over the kitesurfer coming into the beach. This rule is true as long as the rider leaving the beach it trying to get through the white water. As soon as they are ‘out back’ into the green un-breaking waves other rules will apply. But if your heading out from the beach and struggling with white water you have right of way.

The logic behind this rule is fairly obvious the rider trying to get over the white water is having a much harder time of it than any rider coming over the back of the waves and so should be given plenty of room to get themselves out of the impact zone in into the big blue.