As the name suggests, the Death Loop is a very dangerous situation that can happen to virtually anyone due to gear failure or a line getting wrapped around your bar or hooked through your harness in some way. Year after year many kiteboarders around the world get hurt or even die because of the so called “Death Loop”, and in many cases, releasing your safety system has no effect. It can even happen to highly experienced kitesurfers if caught off guard.

For this reason, Anton Chernyshov from Advakite.com put together a great video tutorial demonstrating a number of techniques to quickly and safely get your kite back under control without ever having to release your safety system.

We highly recommend you watch the entire video tutorial below, however we’ve also summarized the various techniques in case you can’t watch the video for some reason.

Surviving the Death Loop Video Tutorial

If you are reading this tutorial in an email or RSS feed, please click here to watch the video tutorial.

Examples of Situations that can cause the Death Loop

• Centre depower line (front lines) wrap around the bar
• One of the steering lines gets hook around the bar end or clip
• Steering line wraps around your harness hook

Activating your safety system may not help, as the depower system is locked around the bar or the steering line is hooked on your harness. It also makes the situation worse, because now the bar is out of your reach, making it impossible to rectify the situation. Your only option left is to cut away from the kite entirely.

How to Stop the Loop of Death

To stop the kite, simply grab the farthest steering line and pull it hard. That’s it… the kite will stall and fall out of the sky. If you are battling to pull this line, wait for the kite to hit the surface of the water, as it will be much easier to stall the kite while it has briefly stopped moving.

Securing the Kite Afterwards

Once you’ve stopped the kite, pull the steering line in even more to ensure your kite remains depowered. Then you have several options:

1. Untangle your lines and carefully relaunch your kite. Make sure the lines are completely free before attempting to relaunch the kite. You can untwist the lines once your kite is in the air.
2. If you are worried about your lines being tangled or there is a dangerous obstacle ahead of you, you can proceed straight to the self rescue. First wrap the steering line you already pulled in around the bar about 10 times to secure the kite in a depowered state. Then proceed with the self rescue as normal.
3. If you are in shallow water, you can just walk up the steering line towards the kite. Be sure not to get yourself entangled in any loose lines and don’t wrap the lines around your hands or fingers in case the kite does power up and relaunch accidently.

Practice

We don’t recommend practicing death loops on the beach or even in the water, as you could potentially hurt yourself or someone else. But you can practice preparing for the various scenarios using your bar and lines at home as demonstrated in the video. Repeat a few times with your eyes closed in case your bar is under the water when you’re in a tricky situation.

If you have questions or you’d like to share your own experiences, please post them in the comments below. And please share this information with others, as you might save someone from serious injury or death.

PS: A big thank you to Anton Chernyshov for taking the time to make this great video and for sharing his knowledge and experience with everyone.

Surviving the Death Loop was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

What You’ll Learn in this Wave Kite Series

This 5 part series of professionally produced wave riding tutorial videos will help you quickly master the art of Kitesurfing waves. The great news is that as an intermediate freeride kitesurfer, you’re only ten days of practice away from becoming a legit wave kitesurfer!

Over the next few weeks you will learn:

1. How to Start Wave Kitesurfing: Timing your Turns
2. Your first turns with timing and usage of the entire wind window
3. Riding your first waves backside
4. Top-turns and bottom-turns, performed both frontside and backside
5. How to gybe

How to Start Wave Kitesurfing: Timing your Turns

Watch the video tutorial above to learn how to perform carving transitions with the right timing, and then get out and practice, practice, practice… If you are reading this article in an email or RSS feed, watch the video here.

Getting Started

If you can ride upwind and toe-side, then you are ready to learn to ride waves with a kite.

If you don’t live near a kite spot with waves, you can start preparing to learn wave kitesurfing on flat or choppy water using your twin-tip board. This will allow you to get used to the fundamental moves before you take a trip to a good wave riding location.

Carving Transitions

Carving transitions are turns where you keep the same foot in front during your entire transition. Smoothly turning from and to toe-side and heel-side in both directions is essential for riding a wave board or directional board. This means you have four different turns to practice.

Timing the turn of your kite and board is crucial for a successful transition. Before pointing your board downwind, steer the kite sharply through the power zone in the opposite direction. Then shortly afterwards, follow your kite around by steering your board’s nose downwind and then into the opposite direction. If you get pulled over your board, steer your board downwind harder or faster. If you sink into the water you most likely moved the kite to 12 o’clock and didn’t steer the kite quickly enough through the power zone.

Important:  first turn the kite, and then turn the board. One strong pull on the bar with your back hand should do the trick. Watch the video above to learn the correct technique.

Don’t forget, if you want to wave kite in various conditions such as with the wind from the left and from the right, you need to be able to do your turns on your weak side as well. So practice both ways from the start.

Get on a Wave Board

After you’ve mastered all four turns while powered on your twin-tip board, start practicing the exercises on a directional wave board.

Switching to a wave board might take some getting used to, and you need to adjust your riding technique slightly. Make greater use of the fins to help you to ride upwind instead of riding the board on the edge like you would when riding a twin-tip board.

You’ll find that your wave board has less drag in the water. It will also speed up quicker so you should find it easier to move the kite through the power zone. Try this while carving downwind in a smooth slalom line and enjoy getting into the flow of things.

Important: Keep in mind that your wave board has large fins which are fragile, so avoid riding in shallow water where they might get caught in the sand and break off.

For now, don’t worry about switching your feet (gybing). You will learn to gyb later, as it’s a bit more difficult to learn than just riding the waves. In the meantime, if you do want to change your feet, simply slow down and drop yourself in the water, turn your board around manually and head back in the other direction.

Downwinders for Kitesurfing Waves

While cruising in slalom lines you will be heading downwind and losing a lot of ground. Kiting back upwind will take time, effort and energy. The same applies when you’re riding down the line on a wave. For this reason, most wave riders like to do downwind trips from one point to another. All you need to do is organise transport at the end of your downwinder to get you and your gear back to your starting point.

The advantage of doing a downwinder instead of kiting in one spot is that it will maximize your net practicing time on the water. It will help you reach your learning goal at this stage faster, which is steering the kite in a controlled manor through the power zone while turning the board in the other direction. It’s also just the most enjoyable way to wave kitesurf!

Lesson Summary

• Practice the four different types of carving transitions: from heel-side to toeside, from toeside to heel-side (goofy and regular stance)
• Timing: First turn the kite, then steer the board to follow the kite
• Steer the kite through the power zone while turning the board downwind
• Practice alternating between all 4 types of carving transitions in a slalom line downwind

If you enjoyed this tutorial, then keep an eye out for our next lesson in this wave riding series: “Your first turns with timing and usage of the entire wind window” by subscribing to our updates. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to post them in the comments below.

This wave kitesurfing video tutorial was brought to you by KITEKAHUNAS Kitesurfing School and KITEKAHUNAS Wave Camps.

KITEKAHUNAS is an advanced Kitesurfing School in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to their regular kiteboarding lessons, they also offer Wave Camps designed for wave kitesurfing beginners and experts. The camps include 2 weeks of pure wave riding pleasure, guidance, accommodation and transport from downwinders – all in all, an unforgettable experience.

Wave Kitesurfing Video Tutorial: Timing Your Turns (Lesson 1) was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

Before We Start

Unhooking for the first time should be done in the right conditions, meaning you slightly struggle to pull the bar in fully and ride without getting dragged downwind, or any lighter than this to the point where you can still generate good pop hooked in (without sending the kite). You’re best off learning on a 9-14m kite. Make sure you pull in some trim line on your kite to stop it backstalling and to reduce the power slightly, then attach your leash to suicide so the safety doesn’t pull each time you crash. Every bar has a different setup so check the manual that came with your kite. It’ll either be a loop you can hook onto, or hook straight onto the chicken loop.

Choose Your Trick

Choose either a back roll or a raley to land first. I think back rolls are probably easier but they don’t teach you the best technique. You could also learn flat 360s or unhooked kiteloops first but they don’t teach you powered trick technique.

Now Let’s Get Started

1. Prepare

Gain a comfortable speed and keep the kite quite high to start with (60-75 degrees). Keep your body compact and elbows tucked in, most importantly move your hands to the centre of the bar so the kite is less responsive to steering.

2. Unhook

Point your board downwind and keep pointing more downwind until you can unhook comfortably. The video below shows me pointing downwind. Because the water is so flat, unhooking is effortless. A beginner will want to point much further downwind for their first attempts.

Video: Bare Off Downwind

If you are viewing this tutorial in an email or RSS reader, click here to watch the videos.

3. POP

Raley

Edge hard against the kite and then slide the board out the water just as the kite gives you a big yank. Have more weight on the back foot but keep the distribution quite equal. If you pop hard enough it should almost be second nature to fly the board up behind your head.

This is a little hard to describe in words, so check out the video below. You’ll see that you need to slide the board out the water in the direction you’re travelling while pushing off with your feet and sweeping your heels back towards your bum with the board behind you. In other words, the board gets released in two directions as illustrated in the image above.

Video: Pop Into a Raley

Back Roll

This is a very different pop. You want to edge hard against the kite with more weight on the back foot, not releasing your edge until you’ve almost done half a back roll. Time this edge release with the maximum pull from the kite and you’ll get a nice rip off the water. With the back roll you only really slide the board out of the water where your feet are pointing and then push off with your back foot to help the rotation. Keep looking over your front shoulder and tuck your knees in until you want to stop the rotation.

Video: This is a back roll to toeside to emphasize the back roll edge release

4. Stabilise

You’ll want to pull the bar into your front hip as you come in to land. This usually comes naturally, and will keep you stable and ready to land.

5. Landing

Land with your board pointing downwind. This will take the power out of the kite, letting you focus on your balance to land the trick.

6. Hook Back In

Keep pointing downwind while you hook back in. If possible keep both hands on the bar or take one hand off to guide the chicken loop in. As a last resort grab the chicken loop with both hands to hook back in quickly.

That’s the theory complete. It’s the easiest part to understand; now all you need to do is keep putting this into practice and eliminate any common problems you’re having. You’ll feel uneasy unhooking with no depower to start with, but it’s a case of unhook more and you’ll get used to it.

Common Problems

Overpowered

Don’t unhook while overpowered in the beginning. Make sure you can land a raley or back roll before trying in more wind. Make sure you pull a bit more trim line in first. When overpowered bare off downwind more and make sure you are fully committed. Don’t go into the trick half hearted as you’re likely going to mess it up and progress slower. Here are more tips for Overpowered Unhooking.

Choppy Conditions

In choppy conditions, ride slower and pick your takeoff more carefully. Try to launch your trick off a piece of chop for a cleaner release.

Kite Drifts to 12 or to the Water

This is your hand balance. Make sure you counteract whichever side of the bar you naturally pull when unhooking. Eventually it’ll become second nature. If you’re sending the kite to 12 then try to get the kite flying slightly downward just before you unhook.

Over Rotation or Getting Twisted

Tense your core and pull the bar towards your front hip.

Being a Wuss!

You have to commit 100% to unhooking for it to work. My first raley I committed 100%, lost the kiteboard mid air and did a superman with perfect technique (minus the board). It didn’t take long to learn. When I learnt to land blind I spent months crashing kites and half committing, so it took me much longer than it should have to land.

You know you’re under committing in decent winds if you get a soft pop or let go of the bar each time you take off.

Board Comes Off

Release the board more to the side (the direction you’re travelling) rather than backwards, lock your feet and tighten your straps. Or just chuck on a pair of boots, they make unhooking feel great.

Don’t Practice This

In my opinion, don’t practice raleys hooked in, or doing small pops unhooked or just riding around unhooked. They don’t replicate much technique needed for a powered raley or backroll. You’ll learn much more by not putting it off and practicing unhooked raleys or backrolls straight away, I find raleys more comfortable than unhooked pops or riding around unhooked.

That’s all you need to know, now think less, practice more and start pushing your riding!!!

Let me know if this post helped you or if you have any questions in the comments below.

Charlie

Charlie is an aspiring professional kitesurfer, dedicated to progression and pushing himself on the water in every session. You can follow his progression at: blog-charlieprice.com, or on instagram/snapchat/twitter: charlieprices or facebook.com/charlieprices.

Learn To Unhook Effortlessly was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

Back Roll (Backloop)

The back roll, or backloop as it is also known, is another relatively easy trick to master. As with the jump, you want to have enough power and be riding upwind. Start to build up some decent speed and keep edging with your kite at 1 o’clock if you are riding right foot forward (11 o’clock if you have your left foot forward). Move your hands to the centre of the bar so that you don’t turn the kite while rotating. Stand up off your edge for a meter or two, then edge hard upwind to start the backward rotation and release the edge, throwing the nose of your board upwind and turning your head to look over your front shoulder (in this example your right shoulder).

Lift your knees towards your chest a little to help you stay balanced in the air and to make the rotation easier. Remember that your body will rotate around your head and shoulders so stay committed and keep looking over that shoulder until you come around and spot your landing. Spot your landing and straighten your legs for impact. Bend your knees slightly as you hit the water to absorb the impact and ride away. Your kite should have stayed pretty much in the same place throughout the move.

Back Roll Video Demonstration

Common Mistakes

• Once you’ve started the rotation backward you don’t throw your head around over your shoulder – this causes you to only turn half-way around and land backwards
  You must commit to the back roll and throw your head and shoulders around, and then your body will follow.
• You don’t pop off the water enough and turn too flat
  Try to pop a bit harder so you rotate with your body more vertical, not horizontal. You can also bring your kite back toward 12 to do a small jump as you go for the back roll – just remember to redirect your kite back down again so you don’t land with the kite behind you.
• You land with your kite going back toward or past 12 o’clock
  Keep your hands close to the centre of the bar, and when coming in to land, consciously pull a bit more on your front hand to bring kite down into the window again.

Back Roll | Image: kitesports.co.za

We love hearing from you, so if you have any questions, or back roll tips of your own, please share them in the comments below.

Written by

Calvin Da Silva (Kitesports)

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Then Subscribe to iMK, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Kitesurfing Progression: Back Roll was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

This tutorial continues from the first and second in our series of kitesurfing tutorials, Riding Upwind and learning How to Jump. If you missed these lessons, and you are learning to kitesurf, you might want to read them as well.

Board Grab

Now that you’ve mastered your jumps, start to throw a bit more style into it by getting a grab in. The easiest grabs to start with are the Tail Grab or Indy Grab.

Tail Grab

Keep your hands closer to the centre of the bar so that you don’t turn the kite once you take your one hand off. As soon as you are in the air and you have your kite in position above your head, take your back hand off the bar, bend your knees and grab the tail of your board. To start with just grab the part of the board that feels most comfortable to you.

Board Grab Sequence | Rider: Sinisa

Hold the grab for as long as you can and preferably through the highest point of your jump. Once you start coming down put both hands back on the bar, spot your landing and once you are close to the water, redirect your kite in the direction you want to ride away in.

Indy Grab

With the Indy Grab, you grab the board on the toeside edge (the side of your board your toes point to) directly between your feet.

Indy Grab | Rider: Stevo

Indy Grab Instructional Video

Once you master the Tail Grab and Indy Grab, start thinking about grabbing the board in other areas of your board (see diagram below), or extending one of your legs once you’ve grabbed the board to tweak it out and add more style.

Board Grab Positions

These grabs can be combined with any other aerial trick, taking your kitesurfing progression to new heights.

As always, we love hearing from you, so feel free to ask questions in the comments below and we will happily help you.

Written by

Calvin Da Silva (Kitesports)

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Subscribe to iMK, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Kitesurfing Progression: Board Grab was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

This tutorial continues from the first in our series of kitesurfing progression tutorials, Riding Upwind. If you missed that lesson, and you are learning to kitesurf, you might want to read it as well.

The Take Off

Firstly, you want to be powered and staying upwind. Keep the kite between 1 and 2 o’clock if you’re riding right foot forward, build up some decent speed and power, and keep edging hard.

Take Off | Edge Hard

Release Your Edge | Bend Your Knees

Throw the kite back quickly from 1 o’ clock to around 11 o’clock, pull in the bar and KEEP EDGING. You will get to the point where enough tension has been built up that you won’t be able to edge any more and the kite will launch you off the water. Bring your knees up toward your chest to help keep you stable and prevent you from swinging around under the kite.

Edging

Bring your Knees to your Chest

This is the key to getting your jumps sorted. If you release your edge too early you will get no height and land with speed downwind. Your goal is to go straight up and straight back down.

Landing your Jump

Once you are in the air, get the kite straight up above you (12 o’clock) and keep holding the bar in to get some good lift and hang time. Once you are on the way down, spot your landing and straighten your legs to absorb the impact on landing. It is important that you don’t lock your knees when landing, as you might hurt them on impact. Keep your knees slightly bent to help absorb the impact. About a meter above the water dive the kite back down toward 1 or 2 o’clock where it was before you initiated the jump. This will give you forward momentum to make your landing softer and get you riding away smoothly after the landing. Remember to point your front leg downwind toward your kite so you ride away in the direction your kite is pulling you.

Key Tip

Don’t release that edge too early at the start of your jump. Wait for the kite to pull you off your edge and up into the air.

Common Mistakes:

• Not getting much height or lift
  You need to be going faster and EDGE hard to build up tension in the lines between you and your kite to pull you off the water.
• Not getting much height or lift
  You aren’t bringing the kite back quickly enough past 12 o’ clock and you might also not be pulling the bar in to generate more power and lift as the kite is sweeping back past 12.
• Losing balance in the air or swinging around under the kite
  Lift up your knees toward your chest so your legs are bent. Also, don’t push off the water too hard with your back leg because that can initiate a spin (like a back roll).
• Landing hard or falling out of the sky with kite going behind you
  You need to bring the kite back from 11 to 12 so it is above you while floating through the air. Then just before landing redirect it toward 1 or 2 o’ clock to pull you sideways and downwind a bit.
• Your legs skid out underneath you on landing
  Point your front leg toward the kite so you land riding downwind, otherwise you land with both feet square to the kite and the board slides out from under you.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a full jump sequence demonstrating the main steps, or watch the slideshow.

Here’s a great instructional video on jumping from our friends at Progression:

As always, we would love to hear from you… if you are battling with your jumping, feel free to ask questions in the comments below and we will be happy to help you.

Written by

Calvin Da Silva (Kitesports)

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Subscribe to iMK, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Kitesurfing Progression: How to Jump was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

‘Riding Upwind’ is the first in our new series of progression tutorials brought to you by Calvin Da Silva from Kitesports, a reputable kiteboarding shop based near Durban, South Africa.

Calvin is a qualified IKO Instructor at Kitesports and one of their most accomplished team riders.

BTW: If you haven’t started kitesurfing yet, but you are thinking about learning, may we suggest our Beginners Guide to Kitesurfing: Getting Started.

How to Ride Upwind

So you’re up and riding and addicted to kiteboarding! All that’s left is to ride upwind so you can forget about that walk of shame back up the beach to have another go. The key to staying upwind is to have enough power in the kite so that you can keep it in one position and ride. Keep the kite at 11 o’clock if you’re riding left foot forward and open your head, hips and shoulders to face the direction you want to ride in. Lean your shoulders back away from the bar, which automatically puts weight on your heels and sinks your board edge into the water.

Dean Bottcher

Correct Riding Stance

Your stance is also a key element here. Keep your hips more forward, not back as if you are sitting on the toilet. There’s a well known saying for this, but I will spare you the details for the sake of our younger more innocent readers… Also, keep your front leg pretty straight and bend your back leg – this will shift your weight back and help you to apply more pressure on the back edge of the board which will shoot you upwind. The key is to get a balance between board speed and amount of edging against the kite so you continue to go forward without stopping or having to go downwind toward your kite.

Say goodbye to those irritating walks back upwind!

Correct Stance – Dean Bottcher

Common Mistakes

• You keep sinking back down into the water
  Ride slightly downwind first to pick up some speed before you start edging against the kite. Also don’t put too much pressure on your back foot – this will turn the board upwind too much, effectively putting a brake on your forward momentum. You might also be ‘parking’ the kite too soon. ‘Work’ the kite in a wave-motion down and up to build up some more speed before you park it at around 45 degrees.
• You get pulled downwind at speed
  Straighten your front leg and bend your back leg to get more weight over your back foot. Think of your front foot as an accelerator and your back foot as a brake – the more you push on your front foot the faster you go, the more you push on your back foot the slower you go. You might also be ‘working’ the kite too much. Just park it at around 45 degrees and edge harder.

As always, we would love to hear from you… if you are struggling to stay upwind, feel free to ask questions in the comments below and we will be happy to help you.

Written by

Calvin Da Silva (Kitesports)

To learn more about Kitesports, visit their website at: www.kitesports.co.za

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Subscribe to iMK, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Kitesurfing Progression: Riding Upwind was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.