KW #77
U N L E AS H E D ! 2 0 1 6 F I R ST R E L E AS E S A N D A H Y D R O F O I L BU Y E R’ S G U I D E
M A G A Z I N E HANDS OFF MY WORLD TOUR (AGAIN) • 2016 HEADS-UP • MAURITIUS • BOOST TUNING • DEATH OF FORMULA
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AS RIDERS CONTINUE TO SMASH THE IMPOSSIBLE AND Q UA R R E L S E X P L O D E I N T H E C O M P E T I T I O N B AC K R O O M S , K I T E B O A R D I N G I S N ’ T Y E T R E A D Y T O B E B O X E D U P…
ISSUE#77>OCT–NOV’15 UK£4.90 OTHER COUNTRIES PLEASE AFFIX NEW BARCODES
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CAPTION > Lewis PHOTO > Craig Kolesky / Red Bull Content Pool
(ASK A PRO)
IMPROVING YOUR MAXIMUM BOOST POTENTIAL
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AND FEEDING YOUR WOO ADDICTION! INTRO > THE WOO IS A SMALL DEVICE THAT CLIPS ONTO YOUR BOARD AND, AMONG OTHER THINGS, MEASURES THE HEIGHT AND HANG-TIME OF YOUR JUMPS. SYNC THE DATA WITH THE APP ON YOUR PHONE AFTER YOUR SESSION AND YOU CAN IMMEDIATELY SEE WHERE YOU’RE RANKED, EITHER IN A LOCAL LEAGUE FOR YOUR HOME SPOT, OR ON A WORLDWIDE SCALE AGAINST THE LIKES OF RUBEN LENTEN, NICK JACOBSEN OR LEWIS CRATHERN. AS THE RISE OF THE WOO CONTINUES, WE HAVE BEEN RECEIVING AN UNUSUAL AMOUNT OF REQUESTS FROM READERS WANTING HELP WITH IMPROVING THEIR BOOSTS SO THEY CAN CLIMB THE RANKINGS. SO, WE ENLISTED LEWIS TO GIVE YOU SOME INSIGHT INTO SOME OF THE SUBTLETIES INVOLVED IN GETTING EXTRA HEIGHT AND AFFECTING YOUR MBP – MAXIMUM BOOST POTENTIAL WORDS > LEWIS CRATHERN
CAPTION > Lewis competing at the 2014 Red Bull King of the Air PHOTO > Ydwer van der Heide / Red Bull Content Pool
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EMAIL FROM KW READER, BEN MUGFORD, HAYLING ISLAND Hi Kiteworld, I was bought a Woo by my wife as a birthday gift and it has revolutionised my kiting sessions. I’ve been kiting for several years now and my sessions were starting to get a little stale but now I have the Woo I’m very focussed on improving my position on the spot leaderboards. It’s very apparent which kiters have invested in the Woo at my local beach as there are a number of people spending a large portion of their time in mid air with their boards above their heads to get the extra 50 centimetres in height. Sometimes it looks like all the kiters are on pogo sticks!
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It’s interesting to see the top ten spot leaderboards split by such a small margin, so every time I go out for a kite I just want to jump ten centimetres higher so that I can beat my friend’s maximum height, or to see if I can go 50 centimetres higher and skip several places up the table. It’s the potential that the next kiting session could be the one that makes the difference that makes me love the Woo so much. My target is to get over the ten metre mark and this is what I focus on every time I go out on the water. However, this addiction that I have for the Woo has also lead me to assess my jumping technique as I know I can go higher if I fine tune my timing. I’ve put 50mm fins on my board for a stronger edge, hoping that when I bring my kite up to 12 I can hold down the power before jumping off the water. However, this is where I need some fine-tuning as I know I’m getting my timing wrong because I can feel that I’m heading slightly downwind, losing my edge and the all important stretch in the lines just before take-off. I don’t know whether I’m riding too quickly or whether it’s just that I’m not stamping down on my back leg enough to hold the edge, or maybe I’m trying to hold an edge too long and missing the apex of power? CAPTION > Lewis Crathern’s Woo profile
CAPTION > Ben Mugford’s Woo profile Can you please offer any help? Thanks! Ben
TIP #01: BOARD CONTROL ‘Boosting’ is one of the most unique elements of our sport. To achieve a good controlled boost it’s really important to understand the many variables involved. We can control some variables, like kite size or line length, while others we have to react to, such as wind speed or the ocean surface, for example. One of the most important factors that dictates the quality of a boost is how well you have controlled your board prior to take-off. Before you can even think of boosting properly, a clear understanding of ‘edging’ (to ride the board upon the rail) is critical. If you think about it, this should be a natural progression from your first board starts as ‘riding upwind’ involves a good amount of edging skill. The real difference between edging while you ride along and edging for take-off is the amount of ‘load’ that is going through the body. Just imagine that you’re happily riding upwind with your kite parked at the side of the window. In order to adjust to any changes of wind, all we need to do is pull/push the bar in or out. As far as balance we should be shoulders back, front leg straight with the energy going through our back foot heel. The body merely finds the balance point through the harness. When loading up for a jump, however, there is a great deal more energy to deal with. This is because when we move a kite (especially fast and over our heads) the kite
tries to take us straight downwind and towards it. In order to ‘load up’ and ‘release’ off of the water when required, we need good contact with the ocean. To achieve your MBP, the perfect technique to loading up is this: RIDE ALONG COMFORTABLY IN CONTROL. • Start to send the kite from 45 degrees back against your direction of travel. • As the kite is moving, slowly increase your edge and head further upwind. • Crouch down just before take-off to further withstand the pull from the kite. • Release the edge. Increasing the edge is a difficult skill and there is a major difference between ‘sliding’ the board and ‘edging’. I have a great exercise that I like to practice with my students to help them improve this area without the use of the kite... While riding along, practice angling the board further upwind and applying more pressure through the heel of your back foot. The back leg should be extending and pushing through the water - displacing it. A great way to think of this is to imagine you’re trying to completely soak something just downwind of you. Experiment four or five times on each tack to improve your skills in both directions. Increase the edge / decrease the edge and repeat.
This is the same skill needed to slash a wave and, once you master it, the next step is to try to ‘pop’ off the water by releasing the edge and extending the back foot. Common mistakes with edging are to slide the board rather than edge. This often happens by applying equal pressure through both feet when angling the board further upwind. The distribution of weight should be at least 90% through the heel of the back foot. Also applying the edge too early can reduce your MBP as it dramatically slows you down and sometimes even stops your momentum. That’s why I like to focus on the first step being to move the kite, rather than to increase the edge. The most powerful yet simple tip that I could give regarding any sort of kiteboarding move is to plan where you take-off. Before any boost / transition / unhook / tack / gybe you must scan the ocean for the best possible area to gain good contact. KEYWORDS FOR BOARD CONTROL: EDGING: Applying pressure to the rail of the board. LOADING UP: Building the tension between you and the kite. CROUCH DOWN: Bringing your weight downwards just before take-off. RELEASE: Releasing the board from its rail.
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TIP #03: AIRBORNE POSITION
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CAPTION > To edge correctly work on placing 90% of the force through your back heel as you carve hard upwind just before take-off. Lewis demonstrating a good stance just before popping
TIP #02: THE CONTROL BAR ‘Send It’ - To achieve a Boost we must send the kite from around 45 degrees back against the direction of travel. The more aggressively you do this the higher you go. I believe there is a real sweet spot for where the bar should be as you do this. If you steer the kite up and over with the bar ‘sheeted in’ fully, it’s possible to place too much energy on the body, resulting in a loss of control. It is also possible (especially in lighter wind) to stall the kite. What we are aiming for more than anything is that the kite passes as high over head as possible. When the bar is ‘sheeted out’ it becomes impossible to engage the steering lines to turn the kite quickly so a happy medium between the two must be found. A very key element to boosting big is to sheet the bar in fully at the moment of take-off. At this point you’re about to be fired out of the canon and every possible bit of lift is needed. By sheeting the bar in here you present even more canopy to the wind. A common mistake once airborne is to sheet the bar out again. The bar should stay sheeted in all the time during a boost as this maximises hang-time. Sheeting out at any stage during a boost is to say to your boost, “I don’t want to be up here any more” and can result in a Hindenburg. The bar should stay sheeted in all the time during a boost as this maximises hang-time. BAR CONTROL SHOULD BE AS FOLLOWS: • Position the bar so rear lines are engaged enough to turn the kite quickly. • Send the kite aggressively back against your direction of travel. • Sheet in fully and level off the bar on take-off. • Keep the bar sheeted in throughout airborne flight. • Steer aggressively in the direction of travel for floaty landing.
Once you have a good idea of how to boost it’s very possible that you’re getting up there but then it’s all falling apart. One of the most common tips I give out is that once airborne the body must remain ‘at one with the kite’. Achieve this by bending the legs as this will provide a better centre of gravity. Stay straight and you can expect to find yourself more off-balance. It’s even possible for the wind to blow you further off balance when standing straight. With every jump small changes to the body position are necessary once airborne to react to the gusts, lulls or minor changes in the wind direction. It’s easier to make these changes when you’re in this tucked position using the stomach muscles to keep your balance. After a long big air session, it’s common to find your stomach muscles feel like they’re on fire. I am a big fan of the head and eyes focusing more in the direction of travel rather then straight on and through the bar. Not only can you start to build a picture of what your landing’s going to be like, but you also prevent the ‘slow accidental front roll’ from happening. The ‘slow accidental front roll’ is a common problem, occurring mostly on your least preferred tack. After take-off you can find yourself very slowly rotating into a front roll. Leaning further backwards towards your back foot is a good remedy to counter this. It’s good to imagine that you hang ‘underneath’ the kite when airborne rather then standing straight up with the bar in front of you. Once you rock back slightly, it’s also easier to take all the energy through the chicken-loop and into the harness... and get your board higher for those extra half metre Woo stats! KEYWORDS FOR AIRBORNE POSITION: MBP: Maximum Boost Potential ONE WITH A KITE: Complete control of the kite HINDENBURG: An overfly of the kite over your head and falling out of the sky
We will look at the effect that bigger fins, line length and kite size all have on your MBP in an upcoming issue. For now, none of these will have an effect if you don’t have control, so focus on that and improving your technique, then you’ll really start to see your Woo stats improve! See you on the leaderboard! Find more on the Woo at: www.woosports.com KW
CAPTION > Woo leaderboard – Lewis lies in 13th out of 1585 riders
Other problems can come from sending the kite too far over your head and way past 12. This can result in a heavy landing or ‘bomb out’ as there is no canopy above your head to give you the float. KEYWORDS FOR CONTROL BAR: SEND IT: Steer the kite aggressively back against the direction of travel. SHEETED IN: Bar pulled towards you. SHEETED OUT: Bar pushed away. HANG-TIME: Time spent in the air.
CAPTION > Focus on tightening your core, pulling your legs up and looking in the direction of travel during your boost