LEARNING CURVES
Within the sport of Kite Surfing there are two main learning curves that a new participant will move through. These can conveniently be broken down into power kite flying skills and board skills. Within each of the learning curves are a series of skill areas, that go to form the overall activity. It is unlikely that many people will be able to combine these two areas from the word go, without some prior experience in one or the other.
There will be short cuts for people who have either good board skills from a related sport or a high level of power kite fling skill.
 
Basic Kite Flying : Introduce yourself to the power kite scene by flying with small power kites (2 m² or less) in light wind conditions. If you are intending to fly two line then a sports kite will fit the bill for learning basic flying skills. If you are intending to try both quad and dual line flying and you are a beginner, start with the quad skills first. Regardless of whether you have had previous board skills, everyone should begin on a flying field, with all the common sense safety precautions that go alone with kite flying. 

Basic Power Kite Flying : When you have achieved a good level of basic flying and for many people with a reasonable hand to eye co-ordination this will be within the first couple of hours, allow them to progress to a kite with some power involved. The size of this kite will depend on the size of the sailor and the wind conditions, but on land you can aim to getting to fly around the 3m². area to start to understand the difference between kite flying and power kite flying. Ensure at this stage that the customer knows both how to put out and pack away their power kite. 

Advanced Power Flying : Move onto the more advanced techniques, this is of particular importance when flying a quad line kite on handles. You will need to learn all aspects of flying with and without brakes. Many of the kite skills that you will need when Kite Surfing can be practised as ground handling skills. Top turns, flat turns, bottoms turns, power and return strokes can all be learned before you get near the water. If you are learning to fly a re-launchable kite like the Wipika, then the water re-launch skills should also be practised before taking to the board. This should be done in shallow water or by still standing on the shore.

Directional Skills : Learning to use the wind while on the land can be achieved by using a snow board or a Parakart. This will give you an understanding of what they will be trying to achieve, in terms of reaching, beating and running. Using a snow board has some clear advantages when being linked with Kite Surfing.

Water Skills : You will need to become accustomed to flying the kite whilst in the water, both for water starting and self rescue. Practice both shallow and deep water re-launching if appropriate. Practice body surfing both downwind and crosswind. Practice kite retrieval from the water if the kite will not or can not re-launch.

Board Skills : In an idea situation a beginner to Kite Surfing would be able to learn water starting their board, balance, stance and board manoeuvring without the kite. This can be achieved from ideally a water ski training bar on a boat or from a tow behind a jet ski. This speeds things up greatly for those people with no previous board skills. The first step with kite and board is to learn how to get into the water by yourself and then how to water start. Initially the beginner will only be able to surf cross/downwind. They should be
encouraged to stop and turn around to surf the other direction, rather than surfing backhand in the early stages. The surfer will then progress onto surfing upwind, gybing, return to the start point, surfing a triangle course and of course begin to 'grab that air'.

 


   
 

 
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