oh hi there :)
Long story short - newby to kiting its my first season and im give or take 92 kilos, on a 10mtr North Rebel 08 kite using the kitepower blue and white newby board :)
Yesterday at botany was awesomesauce and it was blowing anywhere around 20-25 Nor East.
From the beach, i found i could head the same direction as the guys who were much more experienced than me (it was essentially towards the 2 heads). But i had to really dig my heals in as the kite was pulling like a mofo - this was good :) it was flying at about 45-30degrees.
However turning around and coming back to land i found that as much as i wanted to point up i really had to work the kite hard. I know that this is part of the whole learning to not walk of shame but after doing the walk twice i decided to really start to think about what i was doing.
So i let the ktie run down wind a little to gain speed and then really pointed the shoulders to where i wanted to go and pulled the bar almost the whole way in, it seemed to make the kite point better??? However i was travelling slowly but at the same direction as the other guys but they were doing about 2x the speed.
Any help appreciated :)
One word -Practice
It's quite common to be better on one tack in the early stages of learning.
You may have had too much weight on the back heel or over sheeted the kite. Did you trim the kite appropriately?
I was kiting at Dolls and due to the gusty nature of the wind I was constantly adjusting my trim line (ie depower strap).
I've never been to this spot your talking about but have u considered ocean current? Currents can have an affect on planing and kite power in different directions or situations
Hey Dave
I was there too on Sunday and was having similar ish issues. It was a really funny wind day, gusty and swinging a bit so not surprising you had some issues.
I had the same to start with on my 11m but downsized to a 9m and found it loads easier to keep it in the sweet spot and stay upwind ont he return leg.
Depending on the time of day you were flying the tide may not have helped. The tide was incoming later in the day and i found it harder staying upwind on the way back to land.
With that amount of gusting you will always find it hard to trim correctly and leave it there.
As for the line length it is more that you make sure the paired lines are the same length as eash other, ie both back lines etc.
Regardless of any of this tho how good was it to have a strong Seabreeze for the first time in ages. I had a top session!
ya thats what i was doing with neck/shoulders (trying to point) similar to snowboarding.
everytime i did it tho, the kite was still flying but not generating any power to pull me thru / out of the water.
Just like being left or right handed everybody is either left (natural) or right (goofy) footed. yourl go better and find it easier with your good foot foward. just like snowboarding or skateboarding or surfing or or or or or or or.
coming back to the beach is simply your bad side.
practice and it will come. yourl get to a point where yourl forget whats your good and bad side..... until you want to learn to jump. then it starts all over again....
