Flying your Kite
Milk Every Last Ounce of Power Out of Your Kite and Control it
Flying your kite for maximum effect while riding a board is an art.
The power of the kite can increase or decrease based on how you fly it, so if you don’t know how it’s done, keep reading!
This page also covers :
1. Adjusting the Power of the Kite
2. Sineing Your Kite
3. Getting the Good Power Out of a Kite
Adjusting the Power of the Kite
Your kite’s power not only depends on where you fly it in the wind window, but also on how you fly it.
You can increase or decrease its power simply by positioning it differently in the wind window.
As you are riding, your kite will eventually ‘park’ in the wind window.
When this happens, the kite appears to stay stationary from your perspective.
It’s not actually stationary, it just seems that way because you are moving at the same speed as it.
This is great because it’s very easy for us to adjust the kite’s power.
Wind window
Power Zones
Decreasing the Power of a Parked Kite
Increasing the Power of a Parked Kite
If you need even more power, keep reading – there’s more we can do!
If you need more power, position your kite lower in the wind window.
Sine-ing Your Kite
Sineing (pronounced ‘signing’) your kite is another way to coax more power out of it. If the previous method doesn’t produce enough power for you, give this one a shot.
To sine your kite simply fly it up and down while riding. To you, your kite will just be moving up and down, but to an observer the kite will be creating a sine-wave (if you don’t know what this is, it’s a math thing – here is a good description). The images below show what this will look like.
Sine-ing the Kite
Aggressive Sine-in
Why does this work? A kite that is moving up and down moves faster than one that is just parked. The faster moving kite produces more lift than the other one, hence it pulls harder.
Getting the Maximum Power Out of a Kite
To get the most power out of your kite you need to fly a more aggressive sine pattern; this maximizes the speed of the kite, which maximizes its power. The image below shows what pattern to fly.
Agressive Sineing (Riders Perspective)
Sine-ing the Kite Relative To a Bystander
When you are doing this, make sure you don’t let the kite fly into the other side of the wind window.
– don’t let this happen! If you do, the kite can give you a severe jerk, and can even throw you. Keep it under control.If you try all of the above tactics and you still don’t have enough power, you are probably using a kite that is too small. If this is the case, take note of the conditions, rig a bigger kite, and remember what size of kite is required for those conditions.
