At Girlzactive we love to see women learning new kitesurfing tricks.
With our trick guide we hope to help with your progression. After you have learned how to ride upwind and do your turns it is time for something new. But what? We will explain various tricks, step by step, by showing video’s, pictures and written tips. The first step of learning a new trick starts with visualizing the technique. After you get this, it is time to put it into practice :)
Second kiteboarding trick: jumping
Jumping is based on edging your board into the water and at the same time steering your kite to 12 o’clock as fast as you can. You will need to build up enough tension in your lines so your kite pulls you up in the air. We will explain you how to start jumping, or if you are already able to jump how you can improve your jumps.
A pop in kitesurfing is the basic for every aerial trick. With a pop you are literally edging yourself out of the water. One of the common mistakes in jumping is that people try to jump out of the water. With a good pop you have to use your entire body to press your heels into the water and edge your board upwind. With edging you create tension on the lines. The basic works the same as for example a hair-tie. When you pull the hair-tie and then let it go it jumps away, the more you stretch out the hair-tie the more tension it builds up and in the end the further it jumps away. Bringing this back to jumping the more you edge the higher you will jump.
Step 1: put your board flat
The first step of the pop is putting your board flat. With this you will build up more speed. Later on you can use the speed you builded up to create a more powerful pop. The pop starts with leaning backwards and pointing your board upwind. Start edging and finish the pop kick your heels into the water.
Step 2: pop and steer your kite
To jump higher you need to pop and steer your kite up to 12’o clock at the same time. Timing with edging and steering your kite is the key point for a nice jump. The better your timing is the higher you go :) You start steering your kite back to twelve as fast as you can, and by the time your kite reaches 12’o clock you pull the bar and edge your board into the water.
Step 3: control your jump and prepare for landing
After you take-off, it is time to start controlling your jump. Once you are in the air, steer your kite a bit more to the front (either to 11 o’clock for the left, or 13 o’clock for the right) so it is just in front of you. Keep your kite there for the biggest part of the jump. About 1m before you start landing you start steering your kite back down. While doing this, move your body downwind and spot your landing. When you look where you want to land, your body naturally follows this direction.
Step 4: keep on practicing :-)
And the fun thing about jumping is, there is always something to improve on!
Want to see the whole trick in one movement? Check out the video!
Written by: Vera Klabbers, Girlzactive
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