Kook’s Korner–Staying Upwind

[vant20]

6. when riding in chop, bend your knees to absorb it. don't let the chop slow you down.

Interesting, I would have thought you want to 'punch through' the chop to keep your body, board, kite as steady as possible. I guess if you stay too stiff you just take off? Clueless...

Marius

[adamrod]

if you're going over a bump and stay rigid, some of the momentum you have going forward will be translated into upward momentum. by floating over the chop instead of hitting it hard, you keep your forward momentum

of course, once you're going fast enough, you're really planing over the tops of the chop anyway, so it's kindof a non-issue

[G-man]

Haha...ok, thanks adam. Will do. Now I'm just praying for wind. :whistle:

[Greg]

When I started, I rode fast- faster I went the more down wind I was... But that was awhile back when foils looked and worked like a drag shoot.. Truth is, I hardly ever up-wind more then 6 inches for more then a year ;) ...
Funny part is: when I tried Ant's inflatable for the first time (I'd been kiting for about 1.5 years) I went up-wind like mad!! I was thinking, "Man- these guys have been cheating all this time!!" :doh: (I'd always been the joke of the "walk of shame") :oops: Funny part for me was while all those guys spent all there time trying to go or stay up-wind I was jumping and spinning and having a BLAST!! :D
Remember to: Enjoy-
Kiting is supposed to be fun, don't take it to serious. :roll:
L.M.G.

[glenn]

prior to bows and SLEs, for me it was always, "how do i slow this !@#$ thing down!?!?!"

haha....I feel you!! that was always my question!! if the kite was flyin, it was a good bet I was tearing downwind completely lit.