Newbie - Lessons learned so far...

Well I finally got my own gear and had another lesson

Lessons learned for the day
1. You guys make this look way too easy and I hate you haha
2. QR is a freaking god send
3. ALWAYS keep you bar at your sweet spot, not too far in you are getting pulled but not too far out that you can't feel where the kite is at or have sufficient steering control. Learnt this the hard way during my lesson, we were on the beach talking and going through some things to try, i turn around to realise my kite had dropped backwards down the window because i had the bar out too far, next thing I know I'm getting very intimate with the sand. Which leads me to my next point.
4. QR is a freaking god send
5. The moment you get up and plane for the first time is seriously freaking awesome. Such an amazing feeling, which also vanishes just as quickly when you catch the front edge of your board and get your sinuses forcefully cleaned out haha.
6. I am completely unco going goofey, boarding out I could get up a few times only for short distances but trying to come back in going goofey I really struggled, kept trying to push my left foot forward out of instinct. Obviously that doesn't end well.
7. Don't be afraid to let go of the bar if you get into trouble, if the kite hits the water, relaunching is too easy
8. I am completely unco when it comes to getting the board on my feet. If it looked as bizarre as it felt it must have been a hilariously funny site seeing my floundering around trying to keep the kite at 12 while fumbling to get the board on in the (very small) swell.
9. Did I mention QR is a freaking god send
10. Pretty sure I'm addicted

I can't wait to get out for my next session.

So I joined! taken me a week in between tasks at work to read through all 15 pages and have to say, if it wasn't for this thread, i'd be miles back in my confidence and ultimate progression. Knowing you're not the only one making all the mistakes, taking a while to perfect the basics and feeling like you're too obsessed.. makes it normal, acceptable and gives you a boost.

Kudos to the crew in this thread particularly who are unbiased, fair and to be honest, bucking the forum trend of bickering I see across all other forums of interest. It's refreshing!

Having smashing out my lessons in October and braving the stupid cold water of a prolonged Melbourne winter meant I was better equipped with skill come the silly season (apparently I can expect 90+ kites on St Kilda beach in peak!) but the lack of peers this early on the beaches meant I was felt a bit sketchy trying new things.

Lessons I've learned and wanted to share for others like me on this forum:

1: gear counts! more than I thought. I'm the thriftiest bloke around but buying dated gear and struggling seriously just stopped my progression dead. invest wisely, don't go overboard and you'll be thanking yourself for shelling out every time you go out. It's one pursuit you can't really cut corners with.
2: don't ever feel crazy for not being able to think about anything else but getting out there again. I thought my friends at KR would be talking behind my back seeing me down there almost everyday after work. was I too obsessed? No, they were (like the rest of us kiters), super supportive and applauded my keen to learn attitude.
3: learning in the water is invaluable. Not to contradict anything on the forum, as this comes down to learning style, but sheer time in the water meant I just picked up stuff through trial and error. Theory is great, but muscle memory and "feeling" the combo of kite, bar, body, board, water and wind is the best and shouldn't be substituted. My mate who was afraid of the cold water but has watched every you tube video and progression DVD isn't quite where he thought he'd be. Get wet people!
4: Get into the culture of it. No wind? Go talk shop with your local shop, hang out with fellow kiters waiting for the wind on the beach, it's all good.
5: Do your bit for the sport. Fetching a board, landing and launching everyone on the beach, conducting yourself safely, will keep us self-regulated. As an ex-drifter I can tell you it's the few that ruin it for the masses. Looking after each other as well as respecting other beach users goes a long way.
6: Go out in everything you can (safely). choppy, wet, a bit gusty, whatever. I liken it to a Melbourne winter: a) surviving it makes the Summer so much sweeter! and b) kiting in it makes you a more adaptable rider if conditions go bad when you're out on your "perfect day" + you get to kiting more... perfect days are rare...
7: no one told me this but you can actually overtighten your harness! I went from a small to an extra small Ion thinking that was why my ribs bruised up and kept ending my sessions early. But after problems persisted, I tried it a bit looser (still firm) as a last resort and to ease some pain and it worked a treat. It didn't end up under my armpits as I feared (it sits where it should after I got my stance right). But no one told me that so I thought I'd share it here...

Sorry if that got a bit preachy, I'm still staggered by the amount of freedom we have here to pump and go almost anywhere, it's ace.

Thanks to the community on this forum, I'm no longer afraid to try a directional (Great Ocean Road this weekend - nervous), fixed a lot of my "what the hell am I doing wrong" persisting issues and already made some rad new mates.

Keep this thread going guys. I owe this 'always open browser tab' a lot!

Cheers,

Sketchy

Cheer guys I had a couple of good sessions last week and found that as long as I look where Im going I don't tend to lose it, riding right foot forward iv learnt to just edge harder to control my speed and line. As for hitting the water it hasn't happened since so I don't really know what Iv changed but its allgood !

I also had a kite at Leighton last weekend in the seaweed and big surf which was a first for me really in the big of a swell. Launched kite and started heading out, had the kite to low and it got swamped by a big wave which resulted in a seriously drowned kite and weed everywhere ! Cleared it and re launched this time keeping the kite high ! Managed to get going ok and made it over the first big set of white water but the 2nd one nailed me lucky I had the kite up high and could get going again. Cruised back n forth for awhile, up n over the big sets but when I decide to come back in I popped toe-side and tried a late carve in front of a 5ft wave and of course screwed it up. Now I surf a lot as well but having a kite attached is completely different !! anyway the wave smashed me, I crashed the kite which got swamped pretty quick and was obviously underwater. This is when it started pulling me down with it as the kite was lower than me so I pulled safety and swam back to shore whilst a nice man dragged my seaweed coated kite up the beach.

Lesson Learned: Keep Kite high when heading out, wait for sets to go past first, be confident in your turns (especially in front of waves), always be ready of your safety and enjoy the ride even if you look like a noob !

Does anyone else find it easier to back roll goofy stance rather than normal?

Lesson Learned, getting instruction from a qualified, skilled and professional educator was worth every single last cent

Bonus, great gear, awesome local crew to help the learning process was "Priceless" and they seemed happy to hear what you'd like to achieve and then provide sound qualified advice. Also have an awesome local council get rid of the power line risks to the other side of the road, PURE Genius.

Lesson needed to be learned: Become an Orangutan so I don't choke the kite and totally frustrate the living c**p out of myself by crashing it into the water or stalling and back sliding it into the power zone. Less time one the foil trainer, may have helped more, don't know, total noob

Oh and Easterlies / ENE S**K in Sydney, so bad with a 5 m LEI, but hey take any chance you can to get on the water safely.

And, make sure I read every page of this thread again and understand that being a total noob "can" be ok for a little while.

Not Pimping (even though I could think of a million reasons to do so), Alliance Gear.

True it was an off shore instructor, but as far as I'm concerned as a former assistant master board sailor back in the poley days. Hot damn, totally impressed and blown away by the "Teaching" ability. Can't wipe the smile from my face, literally

Ahhh reading this thread takes me back to my newb days... I remember thinking "why am I the only one getting dragged to the other end of the beach, dropping the kite and walking back". Everyone else seemed to have mastered it much quicker than me. But in reality we all probably went through the same process.

I still tell people who are considering getting into the sport. ... "even the learning stage is heaps of fun, but it helps if you're the sort of person who doesn't mind getting a face full of seawater, like when you get dumped by a big wave in the surf". (Salty's username sums it up perfectly).

Now a tip... If you find yourself overpowered and heading back to the beach in on-shore or cross-on conditions, not confident that you could hold your ground on the beach without getting dragged through the sand, bring the kite down low and activate the quick release while the kite is still over shallow water, just short of the shore line. The water will catch the kite and eliminate any possibly of getting lofted into solid objects once you hit the beach.

A little bit of a lesson learnt yesterday, not exactly a massive lesson but something that tweaked with me - never be worried about trying new kiting locations. I had gotten comfortable at my regular spot and by default had always just gone there. I had been wanting to try another local spot for a while and due to lack of winds at my regular yesterday I finally made my way to the new spot and as a result had the best session I have had so far to the point that I finally got up on the board and by the end of the session was actually getting some pretty good length runs in both regular and goofey side.

Massive stoke

I actually now like the new spot more that where I had been going, the wind seems a lot more consistent and the gusts are as bad (spoke with locals and thats the norm there) and the water is much flater as well, great for when I'm still learning.