Body Dragging

Before proceeding with this section make sure you have mastered the safety guidelines and know how to launch, land and fly your kite correctly.

Launch the kite and get in the water (or get in the water and then launch your kite). By flying the kite in a figure 8 pattern use the kite's power to body drag yourself across the water.

When this is mastered we can then fly the kite in a sine wave pattern from 12 to 3 in the wind window. This s shape pattern will drag you on a diagonal tangent. This is the type of kite flying pattern we will be using for kitesurfing. The same should be practiced from 12 to 9 in the wind window.

Water Relaunching Inflatable

Flip the kite: With a very long leading edge and short "battens", an inflatable is likely to crash in a leading edge down position.  To get an inflatable to get into the vertical crescent moon position, the kiter first need to get it on its back by swimming toward it.  However, in strong wind, the pull of the kite is so strong that makes swimming toward the kite useless as the distance you swim toward the kite is easily absorbed by the pull of the kite.  In such case, it is necessary to pull on the middle leader line (which is connected to the front lines) of the kite while swimming toward it.  After you have pulled in around 2m of the middle leader line, suddenly release it and hold on to the control bar.  The kite will immediately get on to its back.  The other method is to pull the bar back over your head and suddenly push the bar rapidly in front of your body.

Fly one tip:  Select 1 tip of the kite as a top tip and try to fly it by pulling on the back line on the same tip.Pull the bottom tip: Once the top tip has caught the wind, keep pulling the bottom tip (or the line which is attached to the tip of the kite nearest to the water) until the kite slides toward the edge of the wind windowLaunch: Pull on the top line (the line attached to the tip of the kite farthest from the water) to launch the kite.

Launching Inflatable

Put the kite down on sand, leading edge toward the wind, one tip of the kite is on the sand the other tip is in the air.  The kite looks like a vertical "C" with the leading edge facing the wind.  

Hold the control bar and position yourself such that kite is at the wind window edge respective to your position (the kite is either 85 degrees to the left or the right of you with its leading edge facing the wind).

If you use a 4 line inflatable, adjust your trim strap to put the kite in a depowered mode.

Attach the safety leash to your wrist or harness.  Don't hook in or shackle in to your kite until after you have launched your kite and get into deep water.

Pull on the control bar and the line nearest to the ground to unfold the tip and release the kite from the sand.

Pull the top line (the line farthest from the ground) to move the kite up.

Water Relaunching Inflatable

Flip the kite: With a very long leading edge and short "battens", an inflatable is likely to crash in a leading edge down position.  To get an inflatable to get into the vertical crescent moon position, the kiter first need to get it on its back by swimming toward it.  However, in strong wind, the pull of the kite is so strong that makes swimming toward the kite useless as the distance you swim toward the kite is easily absorbed by the pull of the kite.  In such case, it is necessary to pull on the middle leader line (which is connected to the front lines) of the kite while swimming toward it.  After you have pulled in around 2m of the middle leader line, suddenly release it and hold on to the control bar.  The kite will immediately get on to its back.  The other method is to pull the bar back over your head and suddenly push the bar rapidly in front of your body.

Fly one tip:  Select 1 tip of the kite as a top tip and try to fly it by pulling on the back line on the same tip.Pull the bottom tip: Once the top tip has caught the wind, keep pulling the bottom tip (or the line which is attached to the tip of the kite nearest to the water) until the kite slides toward the edge of the wind windowLaunch: Pull on the top line (the line attached to the tip of the kite farthest from the water) to launch the kite.

Now you are in the water holding the control bar with the board leash attached to the right side of your harness.  The wind is blowing from your back. 

At this stage, you should have the control device hooked in to your harness; both of your feet are in the footstraps or bindings; the board is in front of you and the wind is blowing from your back.  Water start to get on your board using the following steps:

1. Release the control device from your harness (unhook).
2. Move the kite slightly backward.
3. Dive the kite forward (the depth of the dive is dependent on the wind and your weight – the deeper you dive the kite the more power it generates). At this stage it is better to be underpowered and fall backward than to be overpowered and fall forward. Once you fall forward, you have to start the Getting Ready stage all over again!
4. Try to get on the board when the kite is at the middle of the flight path. If not successful, repeat step 1 (this time, move the kite slightly more backward in step 2).
5. Once on the board, press slightly on the front foot and move the kite upward (it is best to move the kite up as soon as you start planning on the board).
6. If the board starts sinking, you are loosing the balance or the kite pulls too much upward, bend your knees to move the body more to the center of the board (this will lower your center of gravity to have more balance)
7. When the kite reaches a good height (75 degrees vertically), dive it down forward to generate pull. If you are loosing balance, dive the kite down sooner (once it reaches 60 to 65 degrees vertically).
8. When the kite starts pulling, lean the body backward.

If you are a windsurfer, this step should be fairly easy.  You should be able to get on your board after a couple of tries;  however, to stay on the board and keep it planning requires more practice.