unhooked has the advantage of letting go of the bar when you are about to crash.
This way you will crash with less power. If you are hooked in, you will get the 100% power of the loop when you crash.
Important is, you have to commit to the loop...don't stop it half way...this way it will loop all the way and can catch you again.
If you want to do it with a bigger kite, stay low, don't go too high...
Fly the kite over the zenith, then loop it. If you loop it before the zenith, you will get more lift....
it depends on the kite a bit, i learned on a 12m envy, probably the worst kite possible for kiteloops but the best kite to learn on since they just pivot in a little circle. i just did a small jump and sent the kite all the way around and landed it first try, was amazed at how easy they are. with a bigger kite and not much power, the kite doesn't make it all the way around before you land, so you don't get much of a pull at all. just do a very small jump and pull the kite around as tight as possible
Landed my first good kiteloop this year, man-o-man it feels good to have finally nailed it. Took me a long time to realise that it was my crappy old pre 2010 kit that was holding me back.
I was quite powered on my 7m Obsession, did a nice big boost and just fuckin pulled the back bar, loop it's nutt off and as the kite came round to catch me I depowered, the kite flew to the top of the window and I cruised through the air with a big grin on my face and eventually landed.
That was the first time I managed to loop it and be 100% sure of what was going to happen. Done some monsters on other kites and had about 20% success rate.
Just set yourself a target. "I'm gunna do 10 kiteloops a session." and just do them, light wind, nuking, gusty, big kite, small kite. Big loops, little ones. Whatever. Just do 10. And then do another 10. And when you've done 100 you'll have done 1 good one. Next, do another 100 and get another good one. Get known as 'that guy never fucking quits.... look at him, he's still trying to loop that kite...'
Kjorn, while I respect and at times even share your mentalility, I think it's only responsible to mention to most non looping kiters here that learning the way you learned will come home to roost for most riders and create a lot of injury and or death. It isn't very hard to get knocked unconscious with your method. I had a friend; good kiter in good shape get knocked out cold trying a simple back roll kiteloop. He would have drowned if others weren't there to save him.
thanks for all the advice , I will keep the tips in mind.
I am not anywhere near ready to attempt it currently, but I just think this is the coolest thing I've seen in kiting and I definitely want to learn it down the road.
Landed my first good kiteloop this year, man-o-man it feels good to have finally nailed it. Took me a long time to realise that it was my crappy old pre 2010 kit that was holding me back.
Doubt it was the kit, people have been kite looping for years well before 2010
JaZone wrote:I would like to know how long it was before you tried doing a kiteloop.
I've watched a lot of videos online , and this is something I'd like to try eventually , but I want to make sure I don't get damaged trying to learn how to do it. Kiteloops are one of the more extreme tricks to this sport, which if done incorrectly could result in some serious injuries , so I thought I'd get some feedback on how others learned how to do it.
I've seen tutorials where guys do it unhooked, which seems a lot harder to me. But I was also thinking that if you are hooked in and it goes wrong , you might be in for a pretty hard landing as well.
What's the easiest way to go about learning how to perfect this ?
unhooked , or hooked in?
light wind with a small kite?
one tutorial I watched , the guy said to start looping the kite from lower in the window so you don't get as much height , so the crash won't be as hard , if you don't make it.
Start with 7m C kite (North Vegas or similar). Do a bunch of surface transitions back looping the kite with both hands on the bar. Push / pull leverage with your hands and hold through the loop. Do not sheet out during the loop no matter how awkward if feels. I think it's important to train the brain not to sheet out during the loop before trying one higher in the air. Good luck!