Once you are back at the beach having mastered this, walk back up the beach with the kite at 45 degrees but this time try to use only one hand to control the kite.
If the kite is on the right hand side of you, you should fly it with your left hand, if the kite’s on your left, use your right. This way you have much more room to manoeuvre and don’t end up constricting yourself by having your elbow fighting for space with you hip. Your hand should be in the middle of the bar with your fingers being split between the index and 1st finger (or 1st and 2nd finger depending on what you find more comfortable). I like to have 3 knuckles on the ‘up’ side of the line with my index finger straight and my thumb opposing it underneath the bar. If at any point you feel yourself losing control of the kite go back to controlling it with 2 hands.
The idea of flying the kite 1 handed is that you do not have much leverage over the kite and so cannot move it too much. Whilst flying the kite with one hand we are attempting only to hold it in position, we do not want to move the kite too much with one hand and indeed if you find the kite moving quite a bit you will most likely have to go back to 2 hands to hold it in place or arrest its movement. For this reason make sure the kite is still at 45 degrees with 2 hands on the bar and then when you’re happy the kite is stable move to control it with just one hand.
NOTE: If at any point you lose control of the kite whilst flying it one handed immediately go back to control it with 2 hands.
OK so you’re happy steering using the kite whilst in the water and flying the kite 1 handed whilst on the beach. From here we can move on to combine the 2 in yup you guessed it, flying the kite 1 handed in the water.
The principle behind this is exactly the same as when we are flying one handed on the beach. With one hand on the kite you cannot move the kite too much (which actually helps in this exercise where we are trying to keep the kite still) This means if at any point you do lose control of the kite whilst in the water immediately go back to 2 hands to bring the kite back under control.
So back into the water and simply repeat the last exercise with one hand. Start to body drag and when you moving along in one direction with the kite stable at 45 degree move from 2 hands down to one hand with the same grip we had on the beach (ie kite on the left use your right hand and vice versa). When you want to change direction go back to 2 hands bring the kite through 12 o’clock onto the other side of the window, stabilise the kite and then move to one handed flying.
Again practice this exercise until you’re happy you can control the kite in both directions one handed.