BCKiter123 wrote:Thanks for your responses.
Quick clarification. I can already do downloop transitions consistently, so is the 'jump downloop transition' exactly the same thing except with a jump? Terminology sometimes confuses me. So if I'm left foot forward, once I'm in the air I'll pull on my left hand to make the kite go from about 11o'clock to 6 to 1. This will send me 'somewhat' in the opposite direction ( as the kite is moving through the power zone and going to pull me 'mostly' downwind), so I just have to spot my landing and switch my feet, aim downwind, then edge upwind again after I land?
I assume it's also possible to loop the kite on the other side (pull right hand), as I've seen in some videos, to complete a full loop instead of half loop. Just wondering which one you were referring to/suggesting for starting out.
Thanks again, I find that visualizing what I need to do beforehand helps!
Before you try make sure you can do a 6 feet jump with low speed going straight up and loosing almost no ground. I would probably avoid a 12m on high range at first, maybe try 10 on less medium power. Later you can do it on any kite size even 18m since timing of loop doesn't matter at all.
First step is to do some downloop transition without jump but with a jump it is slightly different because kite is back whereas with a transition kite is forward before you downloop it.
To learn downloop you go for a small jump like 3-5 feet, try to jump straight up. Right after take off kite should be back passed 12 so instead of pulling front hand to redirect kite forward slowly you pull hard. Kite will turn first to 12 then aggressively dive and complete the half loop, you need to make sure you land with board straight downwind and you can ride the other way since kite is heading the other way now.
As you get more comfortable you go higher.
It doesn't matter when and how high you are when you initiate downloop but it s better to do it at first when you are coming back down at 6 feet or so.
The important thing is to have the kite slightly back instead of at 12 when you pull front hand hard.
If kite is at 12 pointing up it will turn slowly and dive pretty deep. If the kite is back it will first turn toward 12 then dive which will make it loop above your head.
I say it doesn't matter when you initiate downloop because if it is late then the kite will just travel to 12 and you will land while kite start to head down which is exactly how you land a normal jump... then you can decide to finish downloop or not.
if you do it late the downloop will actually loop all the way with kite heading back to 12 before you hit water, you can keep pulling or pull other hand as you land. or do another loop!
Next step is to do a landing loop with back ("other"
) hand, it's exactly same thing. I usually do those when I go higher or if I want to continue riding the same way. Once you go up before reaching apex I like to send kite back forward aggressively to give you that floaty feel.
Key point is once kite is forward passed 12 then you can pull back hand hard. As kite starts to loop it will first go to 12 and loop overhead.
You can visualize easily that initial position of kite prior to trigger down or back kiteloop is important. For landing loop you want kite to be over head "heliloop" so kite needs to start a bit back or front depending on which hand you pull.
Because you jump straight up and land straight downwind it really doesn't matter if you loop left or right only thing that matter is position of kite and direction it's heading prior to pulling trigger.
You will really improve the way you fly kite once you can do those. It will also help you to recover from bad jump take off to slow down horizontal speed and recover from unwanted rotation.
As you jump higher with smaller kite it's the only way to land smoothly.