Boosting questions

[Travis Cook]

I am still a beginner at kiting and have some questions. I know enough of the mechanics to actually do a boost-- edge, pressure, send, pull, turn the kite again, land. Anyway, that has been working ok. But my problem is getting the right combination of edge, pressure, send and such to practice some SAFE, SMALL jumps. I find that either I don't actually leave the ground because of not enough speed, pressure or send (I guess) or I boost it way too high and I'm out of control. I can't seem to find the right combination of all that. Like I don't know how much my actual ground speed matters or is more about line pressure and edge? Or, how much does it matter to send the kite from way low to way high versus a faster, harder flick that starts and ends pretty high? Or is just ground speed missing when I boost really high but then swing under the kite and land on my back with no forward motion?

Also, I'm seeing some cool gliding going on but haven't figured out the mechanics of a small, safe glide either. How is it the same and/or different than a pure boost? It seems like I've seen people start their glide with very little speed.

Thanks! I've appreciated everyone's helpfulness as I've been picking brains and asking questions.

[Jacob Buzianis]

Asking me this question when you see me kiting.

[Jason Klein]

Well, I'm not the most accomplished jumper out there, but I'll share with you what I think about when setting up a straight jump and how I approached learning it. More accomplished kiters can feel free to correct me. Understand that some of your jump will come from your board "popping" off of the water and some will come from the pedulum effect of sending the kite. You can practice these separately and then try to combine them when you feel comfortable with both aspects. The more you edge, the more your jump will be up and down. The less you edge, the more your jump will be long and low. The right combination will give you a high and glidey jump. Wind strength and consistency play a big role in completing jumps. It's easiest to learn when you are well powered, but not overpowered, with nice smoothe wind.

The pop comes from edging hard and turning the board quickly into the wind with a lot of rear foot pressure so the board sinks down into the water a bit. If you do this while well powered, this will build up enough pressure from the kite that the board will pulled upward and towards the kite to release the pressure. As the board starts to come out of the water, don't jump, but just "release" the edge. You don't need to move the kite to do this. This is basically the same as what a wakeboarder does to initiate a jump. Hence the name, wakestyle tricks. You should be able to get maybe 1-2 feet off the water while learning this. Experienced kiters can probably get 5-10 feet up just doing this.

The part of the lift that comes from sending the kite is due to a pendulum effect. The following doesn't fully address your question but I think it helps to visualize what should be happening. Think of a trapeze artist that is at the bottom of the swing about to head up. He's got the speed he built up after jumping off the platform in the first part of the swing (just like you have from board speed). The other end of his lines are attached to a fixed point, so his forward speed is going to translate into a circular path around that fixed point along which he will travel upward. Your board speed gives you that same forward speed, but the other end of your lines are moving along at the same horizontal speed as you are. To intiate the same pendulum effect so that you will travel along the same circular path as the trapeze artist, you need to (roughly) stop the kite so the other end of your lines are fixed, just like the trapeze artist. You do this by turning the kite quickly back in the opposite direction. Now, where you differ from the trapeze artist is he is just going to swing back in the opposite direction when uses up his forward momentum. If you do nothing else with the kite, you will fall like a rock. You need to re-direct the kite a second time, back to it's original direction so that it stays roughly above you in the air and then moves in front of you again just before landing so that you have horizontal board speed to ride away after landing. To more directly answer the question your asked, the timing of all of this will determine how high you go and how much control you have. So, the sequence is:

1) Have good, medium, board speed.
2) Give a quick, hard pull with your back hand to turn the kite back in the opposite direction.
3) When you begin incorporating the edging, this is where you would edge hard into the wind, but start by just leaning back a little.
4) As soon as your board leaves the water (the kite should be roughly at noon at this point), pull hard with your front hand to turn the kite back to it's original direction. the sooner you do this after your board leaves the water, the smaller and more controlled your jump will be. As you get more comfortable with being in the air, you can pull in on the bar to gain more height and wait until you've gained some height to re-direct the kite forward (but generally, don't let the kite go past 1 -or 11- o'clock after passing noon).
5) point your board in the direction you are traveling (which will be more downwind than when you are just riding) to absorb the landing easier.
6) ride away and wink to the ladies….