jim,
where to start? remember first of all that all instruction makes perfect sense AFTER you have learned the specific skill. what we describe in words are really not properly suited to intellectual but rather neuromuscular discovery. only after you attemt and fail and attempt and fail and attempt and succeed-only after you DO will you really KNOW.
but we have to start somewhere. . .
some mistakes i made early on:
1. Problem
: i was a wakeboarder and found that the skillset learned behind the boat was not appropriate under the kite. wakeboarding makes us lazy from the perspective that you can position the board at nearly any angle, and if you are strong enough, achieve a water start. in kiting, you cannot start with the board quartered off into the wind to any large degree.
Solution:
point the board to a downwind angle.
2. Problem:
i did not know how to guage wind direction. not being sensitive to where the wind really was coming from. postioning yourself imporperly under the kite makes a waterstart unnecessarily difficult. one tends to spin under the kite, and you have trouble keeping the board on your feet, you may even spin arround backwards-its just exhausting.
Solution:
become a wind-reader. understand that the wind is never constant (if you have trouble with this, stop now and take up something exciting, like golf lol) while still onshore, orient yourself to the wind direction as you are trained in your instruction. pick a landmark directly downwind. when in the water, orient yourself to that downwind location. also, with kite up at neutral, watch the kite. in neutral without rider input, it will fly downwind, ie the kite, if properly tuned (all kitelines equal length and in the absence of major windshifts), will tend to fly downwind toward your landmark.
3. Problem:
i often was either launched "out the front door" or teabagged while trying to water start.
Solution:
in addition to wind direction, think about wind strength, relative to the size of kite you are sitting under. are you a bit under-powered, or a bit over-powered for the existing conditions. kite size relative to windspeed will determine how big a "bite" you need to get up on plane. think of it this way-if you are sitting on a piece of level ground in your aunt's ford pos, and you want to accelerate away without spinning your wheels you apply a certain amount of pressure to the gas peddle. would you apply the same pressure to the accelerator of a formula-one car? when the wind is nuking, and you are a bit overlit, take a small bite, ie: 11 to one. if you dont get up, try 10 to 2, and so on. if you are not getting up and going, take serially larger bites through the power zone. if you are still not getting up, point your board more downwind. if you dont get up with big sweeps through the zone and proper downwind perspective with the board, you likely need a bigger kite for present conditions. alternatively, if you are getting launched, your bite was too big, back off on the angle through the zone on your next attempt.
4. Problem:
i would start on plane with the first dive of the kite, ride a short distance and then sink back into the water.
Solution:
remember, kiting is a complex interplay of kiter mass, windspeed-kitesize interaction, wind quality and direction, board size and orientation, water surface characteristics incuding chop, current and salinity, and so on. what can make this sport frustrating for some beginners is that conditions are often different from day to day or even session to session. consistant board speed is your initial goal.
-dive the kite, which will begin the process of overcoming the drag of the water, but remember, one stroke of the kite ends on the UPSWEEP (as fokiten, bless him, used to stress on another forum). dive the kite, but be ready to immediately sweep it back upward; it is often this upsweep that gets you up and away.
once you are riding, the again complex interplay of board speed and available power will determine how much edge you can achieve on your board. ideally, you are sufficiently powered that you can park the kite at the edge of the window, lean back on your edge and back against your harness, and ride.
and that riding, grasshopper, can set you on the tack towards true freedom.
pay it forward,
jimmi