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Kiteboarding with boots - All you need to know guide

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 1:11 pm
by AP Kite Club
Hey guys we just published a new how to guide - Kiteboarding with boots

This time specially for riders who are looking to put boots on their kiteboards and focus on wakestyle and unhooked tricks.

Short excerpt from the guide:
When I’m ready to kite with boots?

We get this question a lot of the time. You have to know that riding boots has a lot of benefits but also has its own dangers, so definitely you need to have a really good level and kite control to make sure you’re safe when riding boots. It’s hard to tell the exact moment to switch your straps for boots but basically you have to tick the following boxes:

You have really good kite control so you can use both of your hands to tighten up your laces when you’re at the beach without letting the kite crash.
You should ideally do most of your tricks unhooked, as we don’t highly recommend them if your main focus is hooked in tricks and high jumps. The reason we don’t is because when you crash on boots, your board will get stuck on the water, so you should let go of your bar to avoid the catapult effect, when being hooked in, it’s hard to let go of you bar and crashes would be more painful, but if you’re unhooked and you let go of your bar when you crash, the impact shouldn’t be a problem.
Too read the full guide check it out here: https://shop.alexpastorkiteclub.com/blo ... with-boots

Let us know what you think!

Re: Kiteboarding with boots - All you need to know guide

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:35 pm
by jorg
i wish they would have explained the situation in the “recovering from crashes” section when the kite is in the water on its LE in front of you, pulling u constantly downwind, lets say in 20-25knts & up. how would u launch the kite or bring the board/legs in front of u while coping with constant pull from the kite? (you r hooked in)
\
if the kite is up you can keep your head above the water line and breathe easily. however if the kite is down, you can't stretch your upper body up that long to keep your head out of water. needs a lot of muscle power.
the only recovery solution in this instance I could thing of is release of CL so there would no pull from the kite and u could easily bring your legs in.

anything else?

Re: Kiteboarding with boots - All you need to know guide

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 6:21 pm
by slim_charles
jorg wrote:
Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:35 pm
i wish they would have explained the situation in the “recovering from crashes” section when the kite is in the water on its LE in front of you, pulling u constantly downwind, lets say in 20-25knts & up. how would u launch the kite or bring the board/legs in front of u while coping with constant pull from the kite?
\
if the kite is up you can keep your head above the water line and breathe easily. however if the kite is down, you can't stretch your upper body up that long to keep your head out of water. needs a lot of muscle power.
the only recovery solution in this instance I could thing of is release of CL so there would no pull from the kite and u could easily bring your legs in.

anything else?
I never realised people had an issue with this until a friend made the switch a few yrs back and struggled. The scenario you describe above is the one you'll will find yourself in 9/10 when crashing unhooked. Using the kite, get legs behind in scorpion position(easy to keep head out like this), pull yourself up the leash to the bar, hook in, launch kite, send to 12 hard and pull the bar in. Without kite, same process up to the bar... either force your board down and under yourself until it raises up in front of you(takes a fair bit of core strength, use bar to prop your body up) or as I prefer (if not using kite method) flip on to your back and then do what ever you can to spin yourself round.... use the kites pull to help you.

Re: Kiteboarding with boots - All you need to know guide

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 5:04 pm
by jorg
my scenario was mostly for what you would do when u are hooked in. I guess it would be same pull force when u r unhooked as the riders use it in suice-mode. the only difference would be the angle of the pull. when u r hooked in it would be a direct pull towards to the kite, when u r unhooked it would be more like a side pull.

I will try the "Flip on your back" method next time. no matter what method u would go for u have to bring your legs/board in front of you in order to be able to launch the kite.
Thanks for the tip...

Re: Kiteboarding with boots - All you need to know guide

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 5:52 pm
by jumptheshark
Not really, if its windy enough, and your kite is really easy to relaunch, you can usually relaunch it with your legs still behind you. Commit to one rear line and angle your board (tucked behind you) to facilitate you drifting to the opposite side. Once the kite is up, from scorpion you can send it a little keeping your knees bent behind you to superman yourself up onto your feet. Back spin or ab crunch also work fine but take more energy.

Re: Kiteboarding with boots - All you need to know guide

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:43 pm
by jorg
thanks dude, will try that