It's sooo hard

[janaeo]

im gonna assume your fairly new to kiting, i can not stress enough to increasing your kite control, i would stay body dragging for a while, up wind, down wind whatever makes it fun (being dragged out of the water with your feet skimming the water behind you when it is windy is great)

once you can lean back in your harness and control the kite with one hand in both directions you will not have a problem with getting your board on, as right now you'll be trying to concentrate on at least 4 different things,
what the kite is doing, the waves, holding on to the board and trying to get your feet up to the footpads, if you can eliminate one of these so it is natural (the kite control) getting the board on will become easier.

all that being said,
most of the strain when getting the board on goes through the abs. strengthen them as much as you can.

once you've got the board on, as like a few of the others have mentioned, you need to learn to balance everything for the waves, this is where i disagree with a couple of comments,
yes you can let go of the bar with one hand but this is a last resort,
lay back in the harness with kite at 12, and when you feel like your twisting one way you move the bar in the same direction (but keep it level, or the kite will dive) you will find that you will be able to push against the bar and kite and arrest the twist, the same in the other direction,
so when you are in the balanced position, everything square and relaxed, try moving the bar left and right slightly, you will feel yourself twisting in the water. practice that to get the feel.

this is the technique i use and its worked for me,

once your ready to get going on the board, DO NOT hold the edge, if you do all that will happen is you will get dragged a little up but no forward motion will be generated. and you'll act like a brake.

to get this you need to aim the fwd tip of the board almost at the kite while diving the kite to generate the pull.
this will mean that you are pushing the water underneath the board and you will get up on the plane.
but once you have got up this is when you MUST throw your weight in to your harness and get back on to the edge.
otherwise all that will happen is you WILL get pulled face first in to the water.

good luck dude and continue with the lessons

and yeah it is extremely worth it.

[dyyylan]

so many things being said here, but really just keep at it. it might help if you can drop a car down the beach a mile or so, so you can just keep trying it over and over without worrying about how far you're going downwind.

dont worry about flat water or any of that, it's definitely easier but it's not a big deal unless the waves are like 6 feet

[jaxchick]

I learned how to ride in waves, too. It's super frustrating but totally doable. Don't know if you use a seat or a waist harness, but one thing that I did that I haven't seen mentioned yet was that I switched from a seat harness to a waist harness. I felt like the seat harness was too cumbersome and didn't allow me to lift my knees quick enough. When you're in the waves, timing is everything and I felt I needed to be as quick as possible and that made a real difference for me.

Also, I think it's already been said, but once you get up, focus on just standing up on the board, don't try to edge. Once you get to the point where you pick up some speed, you'll edge naturally so don't force it. Good luck and have fun!

[Flight Time]

I learned how to ride in waves, too. It's super frustrating but totally doable. Don't know if you use a seat or a waist harness, but one thing that I did that I haven't seen mentioned yet was that I switched from a seat harness to a waist harness. I felt like the seat harness was too cumbersome and didn't allow me to lift my knees quick enough. When you're in the waves, timing is everything and I felt I needed to be as quick as possible and that made a real difference for me.

Yeah, I learned in waves too. The supposed "instructor" who gave me "lessons" left me hanging before I learned even how to body drag upwind on a trainer. Went and bought a 16m Cab SB new, and taught myself. Self launching, self landing... Youtube was a great help for technique. Once you get up on the board and can stay on it for stretches of 15 seconds or more, the rest of edging and staying upwind will take maybe one solid day of practice.

+1 on seat harnesses. Plus, they look like f-kin diapers.

[OzBungy]

More body dragging and kite flying practice. You should be able to fly the kite one handed without thinking about it.

[FICO90]

I learned how to ride in waves, too. It's super frustrating but totally doable. Don't know if you use a seat or a waist harness, but one thing that I did that I haven't seen mentioned yet was that I switched from a seat harness to a waist harness. I felt like the seat harness was too cumbersome and didn't allow me to lift my knees quick enough. When you're in the waves, timing is everything and I felt I needed to be as quick as possible and that made a real difference for me.

Yeah, I learned in waves too. The supposed "instructor" who gave me "lessons" left me hanging before I learned even how to body drag upwind on a trainer. Went and bought a 16m Cab SB new, and taught myself. Self launching, self landing... Youtube was a great help for technique. Once you get up on the board and can stay on it for stretches of 15 seconds or more, the rest of edging and staying upwind will take maybe one solid day of practice.

+1 on seat harnesses. Plus, they look like f-kin diapers.

Cool, I'll put all those things into practice. haha I do have a waist harness thankfully. Not to brag but I do have pretty good kite control because it took me a while to get money together to buy a board. I spent most of the summer body dragging and learning to fly the kite one handed and without looking at it etc. I know a lake that I'm gonna practice on for a bit then chance the sea again. thanks again for all the advice

[KYLakeKiter]

It is really good that you have done alot of body dragging and feel comfortable with the kite. Now that you are learning to get up on the board just think about a few general ideas that might keep you out of trouble.

Always start at least 2 line lengths upwind from anyone/anything (more if winds are higher)

When you fall, your kite will go to the worst possible place. Meaning that even if you believe you will just drop it one direction to open water, but there is a beach, trees, people ect the other direction... it will gravitate to the hard objects.

Just because the locals at a spot are launching right at the shoreline and immediately tracking upwind, don't try it yourself. Stick with a good safe distance from everything.

Be aware of subtle wind direction changes at your familiar spot. What will usually happen is that you will have good success one day with a nice side on shore wind, so you get confindent dropping in right from the shoreline. If the next day has a direct on shore wind, you will not have the same results and are likely to get pulled onto the beach.

Sorry to repeat something if you already heard this in your previous lesson, but this kind of thing is always good to think about and might save you some money and trouble damaging your kite.

Again, best of luck to you. You sound determined and I am sure you will get this.

[balugh]

Lots of what's been said above plus if you get an opportunity to do a little bit of wakeboarding (behind a boat or at a cable park) then do it as the board skills are very transferrable. However, do make sure that you practice starting both ways (i.e. to your left and right). Everyone has a better side...so work on the one that isn't as good.

[Flight Time]

Lots of what's been said above plus if you get an opportunity to do a little bit of wakeboarding (behind a boat or at a cable park) then do it as the board skills are very transferrable. However, do make sure that you practice starting both ways (i.e. to your left and right). Everyone has a better side...so work on the one that isn't as good.

Funniest thing about everyone having a good side and a bad side is that it's usually not the side you think. When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time on skateboards. It was my main transportation, I would skate ramps, street, miles at a time, for years. My left foot was always in front, which I suppose would be a port tack for us. In 2 days after getting up on a board kiteboarding, my favorite direction switched to right foot forward, or starboard tack, for general riding, and it remains that way 2 years later. It is by far my favorite side for jumping. For any tricks that involve rotation, however, its back to left foot forward.

[coleman]

Here is an important tip for when you get your board strapped and ready to dive the kite.

Most beginners dive the kite and the board starts skipping out on them as they are trying to edge too soon. You need to let your board tip aim downwind for a few seconds to get a little board speed and then sink your weight into the edge.