First time ìToe Sideî transitionÖ

[Proparoo]

Well itís nearing the end of my first season and as of today I have not hurt myself or damaged any equipment. =D>

In fact I havenít even dropped my kite in the water since May.

Ok, the fact is I really donít do anything but ìMow The Lawnî and basically go back and forth, so itís not like I am doing any tricks and other than getting slightly weightless I havenít even tried jumping at all.

I am going upwind with no problem and feel I have really good kite & board skills, but I still have yet to do a Toe Side transition and hope you fine people on Bay Area Kite can help me to the next level.

I really havenít tried to rotate my board yet and all my transitions are heel side (without a turn).

As I was watching a video today I get the feeling it would be best (for me) to go into my turn and come out toe side and then once I am going on my opposite tack then flip the board back to heel side.

Or do you feel it best to get the board on toe side and do my turn heel side, coming out of it already on heel side?

So what ya think?

[adamrod]

There was a time when I was proud of the fact that I never dropped the kite. Then I realized that all it meant was that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. It's about time you started dropping the kite again if you ask me.

The best way to learn transitions is to maintain your regular stance. So, if you're best at riding regular (left foot forward), do all your transitions so that you keep your left foot forward. So, on a port tack, do a toeside transition, and on a starboard tack, to a heelside transition.

IMO, heelside transitions are easiest. These involve doing an ollie to switch to toeside, and then carving around. Either way, you're going to have to learn to ride toeside, so practice riding toeside before you do either transition. Once you can ride toeside relatively comfortably, you should be able to learn any and all transitions in 1 session. To do an ollie, boost off a bit of chop and twist your legs so you're riding toeside. Try to get comfortable and learn how to edge and ride like that. It's really not that tough, at first, bear off downwind and as you get better you'll be able to ride more of a broad reach toeside and eventually even upwind. Riding toeside downwind isn't all that tough because it's not really that different than riding heelside downwind (you're not really edging either way).

so, in short, learn how to ride toeside and transitions will be a piece of cake.

[Bulldog]

Jumping was easier than toeside transitions for me.

Whether you go toeside before you initiate the turn and turn heelside, or the other way around, you are going to have to learn to fly your kite quickly all the way across the window. If you chicken out halfway, which is pretty common when learning, you are doing to get yanked off the board and do a face plant.

You need to get used the feeling of moving your kite quickly through the power zone. Jumping is doing this halfway, i.e., you move your kite up through the power zone, hold it briefly at the top, and then move it back down the direction it went up.

Carving turns you keep moving the kite all the way through the zone, except you're moving the kite more horizontally and less vertically. You generate lots of power when you do this, which is what pulls you through the turn. You control it by edging hard and then by aiming your board directly at the kite when it is the middle of the zone (i.e. directly downwind) and then edging again as it moves to the other side.

Anyway, it's easier to learn to swing your kite back and forth through the window jumping, I think, because you can start off slow and low and then get used to doing it faster and faster. Also, if you chicken out and stop halfway through, your kite is in neutral instead of fully powered. On carved turns, it's more of a do-or-die type of thing when you're first learning.

[windhorny]

My 2 cents is to gradually turn down wind until you are almost riding toeside, then come back to heel side. Keep doing this to you realize that you have already made the transition and didnt even know it. Basically transitioning from heel to toe in a turn is pretty easy if you are comfy making the turn part. make sure you have power as your brain has a way of making the kite lose power when you are subconsiously chickening out of new things-I do this all the time. If you have wind you at least can eliminate the "If only had more power" comment.

[K. Cliff]

What kind of harness do you have? I have noticed that with the "seat" harness I have limited toe side capability, so I have a small window of time to make the switch. BTW this is a rookie answer it's my 1st season too. I like to bring the kite up, flip to heel side, lay way back, power the kite through the window opposite direction and power up before my back hits the water. It's pretty cool to me. Do you guys get more range out of the belts compared to seats?

[windhorny]

I had a cabrinha waist and ride the new tabu now, even though I think the cabrinha is the most comfortable of em all. I would say waist harnesses have more flexibility but no that noticable. As far as riding toeside goes the wais harness will twist a bit but this is all miniscule in comparison. Wear what is most comfortable to you and you will figure out how to ride it.

[Bulldog]

Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you're wearing a waist harness. It sounds like you are getting pulled off edge because you don't have the toeside edging down, but that's just a guess really.

[K. Cliff]

Not to butt in on proparoo's question (what's proaroo stand for anyway?) but when I come around ta toeside the farthest I can make it is down wind or maybe a degree or two up wind. It just feels that it's pulling from my zipper compared to pulling from the rib cage (higher and to the side) I'll try diggin in a lot harder next time thanks...... Kev

[Proparoo]

Well boys,,,

When the internet started I needed a log in name and I came up with Proparoo...

Since I have been a prop master and asst. prop master working in the prop department on feature films, TV, Commercials & Music Videos for the past 30 years and many people know me from props and working in "The Biz", I just took the name and added "aroo" and there you have it Proparoo
It just kind of stuck after that...

Here is my IMDB film credits link so you can see some of the movies & TV shows I have worked on in the past http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0062125/

Also, My real name is Rich Adam Baum so I morphed it into Rich "ATOM" Baum to use as my musical stage name. Let me tell you it sucked growing up with the name Adam Baum...

[windhorny]

A) can you hook me up with salma hayek?

B)should i be changing my screen name to Heyyouaroo? Alot of people call me hey you in my line of work.

C) I have always wanted to get in touch with one of you guys to offer my services and vast useless mechanical knowledge to help fabricate odd set props. I.E. the crap they use on fear factor. My dad works at ILM from time to time but he cant do shite for me there.