I agree with Amber about getting up on the board. Not that its the easiest part, but that once you get up and can ride some that doesn't mean you're done with lessons. I was actually the opposite of you. I took an embarrassingly long time to get up on the board on a consistent basis and ride more than a couple of yards. I'm sure even if they don't realize that it was me, most of the people on this forum at one point in time saw one of my yard sales at the skyway(there were ALOT of them). I got too distracted by flying the kite, that I kept forgetting about the board. Regardless, I made the mistake of starting my lessons towards the end of the summer, and I was taking lessons in subpar winds, simply bcasue thats all my work schedule allowed(ie. it wasnt because my instructor was pushing me to take lessons on the wrong days). Because I took lessons at the wrong time, it ended up taking 14 to 16 hours of lessons(about 7 lessons) to get me where I am now, which is able to safely ride my board, but not quite able to stay upwind well; but I'm getting there very slowly. The point I'm eventually getting to, is that although I took way more lessons than most people do, I feel I'm way safer becasue I didnt get up on the board and then get sent on my way to do it alone. I had the extra time to be taught why my kite does certain things in certain winds, how to understand why I change the way I select my knots and depower strap setting. And most importantly, I got lots of chances to practice launching and landing, as well as self rescue due to crappy light winds make my kite unable to stay out of the water.
Basically, I wish I was able to get up and riding quickly like you, cause at times it was embarrassing, but at the same time I learned so many things from taking so many lessons, that I probably wouldn't have learned till either I looked like an idiot, hurt myself, or pissed somebody off.
Good riding/Richard
|