5 Tips & 5 Common mistakes when launching your kite
Launching your kite for the first time after your kite course by yourself can be the most stressful and daunting thing as a beginner kitesurfer, but with some easy tricks and things to remember you will quickly loose your fear of it and become a master kite launcher.
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5 Tips for launching your kite perfectly every time
Set up your Kite and check that all lines are attached correctly and not tangled.
Walk to your bar, attach your safety leash and chicken loop. If the wind is quite strong, depower your bar for launching.
Reassure yourself where the wind is coming from and visualize your wind window. Stand downwind of the 90° line to the wind and wait for the other person to pick up and hold your kite.
Walk backwards to get tension on the lines. In this position your kite canopy will flap in the wind. Now slowly walk towards the 90° line to the wind until your kite stops flapping and the canopy fills with wind. With a bit of practise you will feel when the kite wants to start flying.
Once you reached this position, double check again that all lines are good and not caught anywhere. Then give the thumbs up and, with a little bit of pressure on your bar, slowly bring the kite up to 12 oclock.
5 Common Mistakes when launching your kite
Your lines are twisted or are caught on something on the ground. Check your bridles and all lines before launching.
Launching your kite while too far downwind. If your kite is flapping it is a sign you are standing too far downwind. Walk upwind a bit more.
Launching your kite while too far upwind. If you start to far upwind, the kite will push the person that picks up your kite backwards, especially in high winds there can be quite a lot of pressure on the kite and the person can get hurt. Make sure you always start downwind and slowly walk upwind to avoid this.
Not enough pressure on the bar while launching. For your kite to react to your launching impulse, you need some pressure on your bar, otherwise your kite will not launch off the ground.
Too much pressure on the bar while launching. On the other hand, if you apply to much pressure on the bar (eg. pull the bar in all the way while trying to launch) your kite will backstall and fall into the wind window. Especially in low wind, you need to play a bit with the amount of pressure you apply and release the pressure a bit if you feel your kite starts backstalling.
Watch our video on how to launch your kite
