BayAreaKiteboarding.com

i'm a begining jumper and more often than i'd like, i launch (turn pull sail back to 12 or less, turn upwind, then pull down on bar, then try to tilt sail to 3 or 4), go up, and watch my sail fluff around as i drop like a stone -- or worse, fly at an angle and slam into the water as my kite fluffs above me. this has resulted in hard falls and some nasty line/sail entanglements. is there something i'm missing here? do i need to drop the kite back to 45 faster? make sure i'm pulling down on the bar at all times? thanks for any help.

Hard to say what's happening without watching you, but you're possibly not edging and popping when you jump. If you are jumping and you go downwind a lot, that is a symptom of this. You overfly the kite, lose tension, crash, and the kite then crashes. Edging and popping not only avoids this, but it will also add to your jump height and hangtime.
One idea is to watch a few tutorial videos, one is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poP5h-M7xrg

Leo

Difficult to say indeed.

But my 'guess' would be : most likely you pull too long with your back hand before jumping, and/or you pop too late.

Resulting in your kite staying behind you during the jump.

Make a quick and powerful pull but DO NOT MAINTAIN it. Release it before you POP. And pull the bar with both hands as the kite is above your head. Do not watch your kite in the air, feel the position of the kite through the harness and adapt your front hand pull to its feedback [keep the kite in front of you while in the air],contract your abs/pull your legs, and SPOT your landing downwind [to avoid rotations]

Just hope this might help .

Cheers,
Greg

btw: here is a good video how to get rid of a kite inversion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OOmk1ZPwO4

you can't keep your kite in the same spot once you're in the air, you need to send it forward right before the apex of your jump, otherwise it stalls out and you drop like a rock. Get that thing moving so it generates enough lift to keep tension in the lines and glide you down

Sounds to me like your mistake might be being too tentative and only putting the kite at 12.....you can send it all the way to the other side (ie 10 to 2) while edging hard, THEN put it at 12 to get the loft and send it back hard down to 10 to keep the tension in the line on your way down. Don't be dangly but be proactive with the kite while it's up there.

Riding a directional these days, I prefer to just launch off ramps without sending the kite at all to the other side of the window.....it'll loft up to 12 but usually I can just keep full tension on the lines and am hot all the way through the jump.

As mentioned by others, line tension is the key that initiates the jump, but keeping that line tension = control of the kite. Once you slack your lines, big trouble for moose and squirrel. Which is pretty much true for everything else in kiting, too. Keep the kite moving.

Send it!

BTW, what kites you are flying?
Some kites have tendency to overfly you easily, others would just sit deeper in the window (mostly wave oriented)
If it has bridal configuration you can play with that, also I prefered to go on fast turning settings all the time if I'm jumping (not wake style). Tho, Now I only have one setting on strutless and it is hyperfast :D

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

thanks for the replies!

I have an 11.5 big kahuna and a 14m slingshot rpm. i've had the problem with both kites although i'm finding that slowing down my approach a bit and carving upwind and then feathering while aloft has helped a lot. i also think i have been pulling to long with my backhand.

thanks so much for the tips and video links.

andrew

I'd say learn how to do a popped jump first. I think it's kinda backwards that most say to learn a sent jump first when a popped jump is simpler and is a building block for the sent jump.

I was having the same problem as you when I started, said fuck it, went and learned how to pop well. Now have no problem doing huge sent jumps. Hell I actually did unhooked back rolls before getting down sent jumps.

Hi!
I've come across this thread recently, and I have to say, that having a lot of tension in your lines is crucial for the high jump. Actually, I think that one should start learning the jump from spending some time on learning to accumulate tension in the lines, without trying to lift off from the surface.
If you're interested in building a solid foundation for your jump technique, you should definitely check out this video. Many people reported, that they found it useful, hope it works for you also! Check out the first Episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7qR1Bvo-D4[/video]