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How To Kitesurf Upwind.
This video explains in detail how to ride upwind
- looking at body position, kite control, common mistakes and angles.
Let's start with the basic body position.
You should already be confident waterstarting and stopping on both sides,
without crashing yourself or the kite.
Begin with a comfortable water start.
Riding mostly upright, with your front leg straight, to turn the board slightly downwind.
Heading a little downwind, will help you gain speed and start planing.
Once you're planing, gradually lean your shoulders back into the harness.
Leaning back will press your weight onto your heels.
The heelside rail press into the water, which carves the board upwind.
Let's have a look at that on the left side. Comfortable water start.
Left leg straight, pointing board downwind. Once planing, progressively drop shoulders back.
Leaning back further will carve the board more upwind.
Although, leaning too much will create drag and slow you down.
To be able to ride upwind, you must be able to maintain a medium board speed.
If you ride too slowly, the board sinks into the water and has too much drag.
If you ride too quickly, the board rises until it has little contact with the water.
You can see here the board is barely touching the water.
If you have a middle speed, however,
the board is sunk enough to cut into the water but high enough to not drag.
You should see about half of your board cutting in nicely like this.
Maintaining this medium speed, begins with kite control.
If you look closely you will see experienced kitesurfers making lots of adjustments on the bar.
If they're a little slow, they sheet in - they pull the bar.
If they're a little fast, they they sheet out - push the bar.
If they're very slow and nearly sinking, they steer the kite up and down to reposition it further into the power zone.
Aiming the board back downwind, for a while, also helps to regain speed.
Other Upwind Mistakes.
As well as board speed, there are several other easy mistakes to make when trying to ride upwind.
A very common mistake is trying to turn upwind too quickly.
Many people who are becoming impatient, try this.
They waterstart then forcefully turn the board upwind.
You can see that a lot of energy is wasted and the board never planes properly.
Rather think of turning upwind there's a smooth carve or arc.
Then your board will plane and cut into the water efficiently.
The poo stance is a very common and amusing mistake.
The poo stance originates when people try to lean back upwind using their waist rather than their shoulders.
Things then get worse, as this causes the harness to ride up towards your armpits.
You then have to lean your shoulders forwards to control the bar, and the poo stance gets even worse.
Stop for a second, pull your harness down, and make sure to lean upwind with your upper body and shoulders.
Now, we'll take a quick overview of the angles involved when you ride upwind.
At this location, the wind is blowing directly on shore,
but the rider is managing to head against the wind and away from the beach.
This is possible because the kite pulls in this direction, across from downwind.
If you did not edge the board, obviously you would start to head this way.
But with your heel edge cutting into the water, you can force yourself across from the kite's pull.
As you lean back further and turn the board away from the kite's pull,
you can head more upwind, but you will create a lot more resistance.
You can actually use this to help you slow down quicker.
On the other hand, if you want to speed up, you can turn the board towards the kite's pull.
There will be less resistance and this makes it much easier to regain your speed.
This is why we turn the board downwind, whenever you waterstart or need to speed up.
Good luck learning to ride upwind. It takes effort and determination,
but once you master it your kiting level will improve much more quickly.