Hey guys,
just a quickie - I've been kiting for a brief period now, I'm reasonably confident in getting up on my board, but I'm finding that staying up is a problem. I generally lose all my power and come to a slow sinking stop. I was figure8-ing pretty intensely yesterday at Pt Walter and sometimes that helped, but the better guys around me didn;t seem to need to do this.
I think part of the problem is that I'm not exactly sure where in the window my kite should be, once I'm up and going. Any tips would be appreciated!
FYI, I'm 85kgs (OK, OK 90) and use a Cabrinha Convert 12m.
PS Is this called stalling? Or is stalling the same as hindenburging? I ask because there seemed to be a similar thread but I wasn't exactly sure what stalling was....
Ta in advance,
Bucko
Hi buck,
Assuming you have had lessons, your instructor is the best person to ask.
If you have not had lessons and don't have an instructor, then a short single lesson will help you a lot.
What you are asking can be one of up to a dozen things and without seeing you trying to ride, and knowing your board, the way your kite is rigged, the weather and wind conditions, how your posture/foot weighting is, etc we can't really offer any real help.
This is the sort of thing an instructor helping you can correct in about 10 minutes.
Good winds,
When you first get up, are you traveling towards your kite?
Because if you are, you need to turn so that you are heading almost parralel to the kite, once your board is planing.
If you keep heading straight to the kite it will loose all its power and you will sink
i had similar issue on low wind days when i started. Here is what keeps me up on the board when the wind drops... although i don't know if this would work for everyone or for every type of kite... but maybe you find it helpful
1 - gettin up you are doing a v-dive with the kite - so as TheChad said ensure you are not pointing your board towards the kite but perpendicular to the lines. When getting out of the water, your body will be pulled forward/sideways - in the direction of travel.
2 - once your kite is half way through v-dive, you will stear it back up - and the kite will be pulling your body upward somewhat, so at this point (or just before it), ensure you lean backward, and sometimes you might need to flex your legs as well to relief too much resistance on the board so that you don't sink right down - kind of distributting the weight rather than just pushing the board at one point and all your bodyweight down with your feet. So when the kite is going up, your posture should be like this (and often leaning even more backwards).
0 )
\_
--
Then lean forward a bit when you are dropping the kite down again, and so forth.
Kitehard,
I did have 3 lessons with the guys from WA Surf, and when I see them out I do ask questions, but I tend not to bother them too much when they actually have students. I thought maybe if it was a simple "this happens to all noobies and the solution is xxxx" then I could defer the expense of my next lesson. However you might be right, maybe it is time for lesson #4.
TheChad - I'm pretty sure I'm moving perpendicular to my kite and not towards it. I've got some angulation with my heel edge in and I'm definitely travelling across the wind (although maybe this is something I could more actively focus on).
Superlizard - I might have a play around with your suggestion, although gut feel tells me my issue is how I'm flying my kite. Mostly because my problem is not restricted to low wind, even in 20 knots I can be struggling to find power.
Cheers for the feedback guys,
Bucko
I fly a sb3 12 & 90 kegs , I demo,d a revolver and found it very easy to over sheet and it would back stall and didn,t feel to powerfull . i.m.o
I also had a lend of a 7 metre for my daughter to learn on and we found it hard to keep it powered up in light winds
buckwheat, I think I experienced the same issue you are having. On days with decent wind others are sailing nicely without having to swing thier kites around, and I just kept sinking straight after getting up.
Now I find that I am usually over powered in those same winds. I think the trick is that you are pointing your board too far upwind and it effictively becomes a brake like snowboarding. Make sure you point the board downwind a little when the kite pulls you up, then turn back across the wind. When you feel like you are losing speed, turn the board back downwind a bit. Keep adjusting your board direction to suit your speed. All this time you should be swinging your kite up and down. When you have some nice speed and are going across the wind, play with your depower <insert disclaimer here>. Ideally you should be able to ride almost (3/4) fully sheeted in with the kite parked about 30 degrees above the water. On gusty days you sheet out to take the gusts.
The other thing is, have someone, ie your instructor look over your gear. You may not have it set up ideally for the conditions.
Yeah Glen, one thing I haven't been through in detail is the subtleties of when to pull my red knob and when to pull my black one. I'm sure there's a lot to learn in managing my depower that will help this problem. Basically at the moment if its really windy I pull the red one a couple of times, and if its not I pull the black one a couple of times. I don't really know how to use the performance of the kite to tell me when I should be sheeting in/out.
That board trick sounds like it might be useful, and makes complete sense. Because my next goal is to start riding upwind, I may be edging too hard too soon. I'll have a play around with it this weekend.
Cheers for the help!! 
Kitehard is right - it could be lots of things.
Probably a combination of a few & maybe different things at different times 
.
Two choices :
- perservere & it'll work itself out eventually.
- get some more instruction & fast track the cure.
Good to keep asking.
I used to fly a Convert as well, are you using the lines in 2:1 or 1:1? I had the same problem until I changed the line setup, it shouldn't really make a difference but it did...if you aren't confident changing the setup take it to the shop you bought it, they should show you.
Having said that I had a 9m Convert and went to a 12m SB3 which fixed everything
I had this problem for some time (one of many) as it turned out I was pulling on the bar too much during water start and diving the kite too far forward in the window. The result was a choked kite at the edge of the window and my ass sinking 
Get an hours lesson off your local instructor it will save you hours of frustration. So says the voice of bitter experience. 
Danos, I used to be 2:1 but changed to 1:1 with the help of my instructor. Seemed to make the kite a bit more responsive.
Junglist, this is also somehting I'm working on. At first I wasn't diving it far enough into the window, I was too gentle with the bar. Then I got that right by being quite aggressive with the bar, but then pulled it in too far and lost the sweet spot. I noticed on the weekend that diving the kite and then not pulling the bar in too far really helped with the launch. But then I struggled with the plane!
I'm enjoying the learning though!
Cheers guys
