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Old 11-08-2015, 06:35 PM
tanre tanre is offline
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Default Boosting high question

Hey all, I was wondering if I could pick the brain of the collective kite gods. I have been jumping a bit higher and noticed that I have a few problems landing. In order to figure out what I am doing wrong, I was wondering if those of you who frequently boost (over 20 feet), can chime in. My specific question is at what angle above the surface of the water is the kite, upon actually touching down on the water? Will that angle change with kite size?

I ask because I crash pretty hard sometimes and all things being equal, I don’t believe I have the right timing down (bringing the kite back to the water). It works well with larger kites, but with smaller kites, I seem to crash more. So, should the kite be coming down and upon landing be about 30 degrees above the surface? Do you shoot for a range 20-45 degrees?

The common knowledge of either bringing it down when you start to descend or a few meters above the water doesnt seem to make sense because it doesn’t take into consideration variables like descent speed or height.

The idea of slowly always putting pressure on your front hand also seems to put you in an odd body position on higher jumps.

Someone also gave me some good advice in regards to body position. Stated that looping (either front or back hand), or making the kite form an “S” on the way down may pull your body into a better position if it wasn’t exactly right. Tried it; seemed to work when my timing is off, but would rather be able to do high jumps without needing corrections for poor boy position and timing.

The idea of moving it back and forth above your head seems to work, but only with good timing can I land it...more often than not, I need to loop it to get back to a normal body position when I move it back and forth.



Do any of you uses these techniques?

Thanks all.
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Old 11-10-2015, 12:41 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Just before and during touching down your kite should be moving forward from the vertical to around 60 degrees off the surface. I have found dialing in nice floaty landings harder with small kites due to a couple of good reasons. One, the canopy area is smaller given you less drag on descent to work with as compared to larger, readily floating kites. Two, given our normal lighter winds in SE Florida, small kites get rare use in my case. The timing can vary with kites of significantly different size if only that they may move at different speeds. The only way to dial in lighter landings with smaller kites is practice which unfortunately necessitates stronger winds. You are asking the right questions and working intelligently at things. I would say to keep at it and it will come together.
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Old 11-11-2015, 03:23 PM
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Jake Jake is offline
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To add to Rick's comment, with higher wind conditions using smaller kites the wind is usually gusty. I try to time my jump with the beginning of a gust to get a good boost that is sustained throughout the jump. If the gust is not that good or my timing the gust was off, it results in a harder landing. I have had a few jumps where I started coming down and the gust hit sending me up again. Timing is everything when it comes to jumping.
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