My biggest challenge was putting on a board with kite at 12. Don't overtighten your harness and wear it too low on your hips. The other thing would be not to learn on poor equipment. One of the ways to tell how good a school might be is by their equipment. Don't use cheapo ill fitting equipment. I was using a 9m kite throughout my early process and it was too small for me for most conditions I was learning in. I now use mostly 12m to 17m kites. It took me years to learn before I started going up wind. I got seriously injured as well in Maui on an updraft when I got yanked way up in the air. The sport is no joke.
At 49, It took me +20hours, probably 25 ish hours of lessons to get the IKO 3N. BUT I was getting 2-3h then a few weeks, month later another lesson... When I was making progress is when I went to a windy spot, booked 3-4 consecutive days of lessons. Need to build muscle memory! I'm a snowboarder on hard groomed trail, snowboarder reflex were having a negative impact on my progress.
I believe these 3 things would really help the learning process for kite surfing: 1.) Waterski/wakeboarding experience: because getting "pulled" by a powerboat and being able to go from floating to standing in all the turbulence is important. The kite is basically not unlike a wild uncontrolled powerboat, if your kiting skill is poor. 2.) Windsurfing experience: because you can't just kitesurf downwind you need to understand how to turn and zig-zag back to the beach. Also, having experience with gusts and choppy water is a plus. 3.) Get a trainer kite: because you will learn to respect the power of the wind, learn to control the kite, make mistakes, self launch, self land, spend two hours untangling the lines. You don't need to be at the beach. Just with a good size trainer(3-5 m) you can absolutely master kite flying and even do stuff like land boarding, kite skiing, or even kite jumping.
I have hundreds of hours of paragliding experience and nearly as much experience flying fixed bridle traction kites (3m-7m) on handles, hooked into a harness. I've also done many full seasons of snowboarding BUT I'm not a very strong swimmer and have virtually no surfing/windsurfing experience (I can swim but I'd need a rest after a couple of lengths of a swimming pool). Should I get into kitesurfing or stick to snowkiting and land/mountainboard kiting? (I haven't tried either yet but I have bought a second hand mountainboard which I plan to use with my 4-line traction kites in the next few weeks)
@@sandy_knight If you can handle a traction kite, then yes next step is just go "jumping" or get a landboard or ride on snow. I think going ocean will require a bit of travel, bigger equipment and just getting used to the water chopping/rocking and rolling. Probably, the biggest factor is geography where you live and what is local, because it's something you want to get to do over/over not just a once year two week vacation.
It took me a year and about 100 hours to put the basics into practice. Now when I go out in 15-20mph wind, I feel confident that I can go offshore and return safely. I can go upwind pretty well and transition without getting my butt wet 30% of the time. It probably took me longer than others but the whole experience has been worth the effort.
Super stoked! Went this last Sunday for the first time! Spent about 30 minutes on land with an instructor, and then straight to trying a water start (I was crunched for time). Pulled it off no problem! Super stoked with what’s to come! Little late to the game but better late than never. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hey mate, great topics! Happy to get to those, we've just got a new camera setup arriving in the mail then it's action time! thanks for the ideas & we'll cya in the next one ~Flukes Kitesurfing
.. and in your tack video you talked a lot of getting weightless. I think an instruction video of this topic could be nice 1 st step as well. Getting weight off the feets is s core skill - also for foot switch in jibes - I would think.
If you are staying at the Robinson Club yes! Everything is actually included & you can kite right out the front. Kiting, cold bevys, amazing food. It's Epic! Kite gear at the water centre is all the new Duotone range. ~Flukes Kitesurfing
Hey yeah for sure! You will love it with your own gear and get out there more. We have another video for some recommendations for buying if you want to check that out
Hi Fluke,what's up with those boys that the wind throws against the buildings against the trees?! Is it something they did wrong?! How did they find themselves in such a situation? Could you ever be in such an extreme situation?! What went wrong? Thanks
hi, those videos are normally old, back then they didn't have the safety release like we do have now. It would be very unusual to be thrown into a hard object theses days. if you have had lessons and know how to be safe you can always a. let go of the bar, b. fire the safety release, c. release the kite completing by ejecting your safety leash. Hope that helps and you can also checkout our online course if interested as it progresses from the very start, nice and slow, and is very comprehensive on the safety side of things.
@@FlukesKitesurfing sorry my English is ... well, thanks for your answer, but what I want to know is the kite has always the same size if there's a girl 47 kilos or a man with 85 kilos ?! Thanks
Oh, thanks! I appreciate the offer. I don't however do physical lessons anymore. You might be interested in our Online course though... that way you will get all the info from us, and then you can just also get lessons with any instructor but knowing you have all the theory in video format to back it up. And you can email us in questions too :) if that sounds like something that would suit you, all the info is on our site flukeskitesurfing.com/ Hope to see you there :)
