Kiting
Powerkiting
Although power kiting is the best place to start in kiting it doesn’t restrict you to very basic kiting, in fact some of the top kites only bother with his type of kiting. However if you are starting it is probably the best place to start as it will teach you the basics of controlling the kite and yourself.
This tutorial aims to teach you the basics of power kiting that you can then use in any of the other tutorials on this site. By the end of it you should be confident in launching and flying the kite and begging to get the basics of skudding(sliding along the ground) and jumping.
Bit of basics
First you need to know a bit of basics. To learn about buying a kite look at the equipment page. Whenever you fly a kite you are flying it in the wind window, this is an imaginary 3D semi circle around the kite. In the middle at the bottom (1) the wind is strongest and at the top above your head(5) it is at its weakest. As you move away from the centre the wind gets slowly weaker. By moving the kite over to the sides you will get a pull side ways.
Setting up the kite
Before you can fly a kite you need to set it up. If your starting out you’ve probably got a 2 line kite. This means that it should be easier to set up. First of all you need to attach the lines to the handle and to the kite itself. This is usually done with a simple slip knot. To do this pass the loop of the lines through the eye of the bridal on the kite and then loop it back though the whole line. Depending on the type of handle you’ve got you can use the same knot in reverse (looping it back through the handle instead).
Once you’ve done this you should open up the kite with the top of the kite facing down wind so the when you pull on the bridal it lifts into the air. The un ravel the lines to their full length upwind. If it is windy the kite might start flapping about. To stop this put sand or small stones on the upwind edge of the kite only.
Go to the handles of the kite and walk backwards. This should cause the kite to stand up off the ground, once it is vertical pull back hard on the lines to lift it into the air.
Flying the kite
Flying a kite is quite straight forward, you pull the left handle to make it go left and the right handle to make it go right. The first thing you need to do once you have launched the kite is to let it fly straight ton the upright position above your head. You can do this by doing nothing, as the kite will fly up. Once it is in this position you can dip the kite down into the wind window to get the power of the kite. If you pull hard on the left line it will rotate and fall down to the left, if you then let it fall past the vertical point so its moving right you can pull on the right line to bring it in a sweep across the window and give you a powerful pull. You can then bring it back up to the top for another go or to try something different.
Four line control
If you have a four line kite you will have a lot more control. You can fly the kite as normal but when you pull back on the 2 bottom(brake) lines it will cause the kite to fall. This means that you can raise and lower the kite vertically without worrying about turning it. It also allows you to do a tighter turn on the kite, you can do this by twisting the handle so that the brakes are put on one side but not the other at the same time as turning the kite normally. This should reverse one side of the kite making it do an “on the spot” turn. You can also use the brake lines to, believe it or not, brake. This means that when you pull these lines the power will drop from the kite causing it to fall to the ground.
Jumping and skudding
Once you have mastered flying the kite you can have a go at this. First of all try skudding. You have probably already experienced the power you need to do this. If you have flown the kite low and had a large pull that makes you run forward you know what to do with the kite, its all to do with what you do with your feet from then on. First of all when the kite starts pulling you need to lean ever so slightly back on your heels so that you don’t get pulled over, as the kite begins to pull you instead of running tip your feet slightly more level, you should then begin to slide forward. Your first go will probably be quite short, as you will dip the kite quickly. If you want a longer go try pulling the kite slowly from one side of the window to the other but turning it tightly before you lose any power. You can the continually do figure of 8s within the window and then keep skudding forever. My record at the moment is 200m, until I was rudely stopped by a cliff.
Jumping is a bit harder. When you get a large pull you need to move the kite so that it is higher up in the window, this will begin to give you lift, as you get the largest pull jump straight up in the air. At first you’ll probably get small horizontal jumps but as you practise you will be able to improve your upward lift and go higher.
Good luck top^^
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