The QUESTION:
When I tell people that I have been kitesurfing since 2003 they start asking about this sport and one of the most popular questions is “HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN TO KITESURF?”. I have seen a wide spectrum of progressions among my students and fellow riders, so, let’s take a look at different scenarios here.
The ANSWER:
Most new kitesurfers/kiteboarders take 3 to 5 sessions to learn to kitesurf, get up on the board and start riding, which translates into 10 to 20 hours of coaching. Add another DAY or TWO if you want to become an independent rider, i.e., learning to kitesurf UPWIND and being able to ride back to the point you started from.
The CHALLENGE:
Can YOU learn to kitesurf IN JUST ONE DAY? TAKE A QUIZ to find out. We had ton of students who started kitesurfing on the DAY ONE of training on the water with a kitesurfing instructor. Will it be YOU? Let’s look at a few different scenarios.
In your opinion, at which point in your learning progression will you say “I HAVE LEARNED TO KITESURF”?
Here are several milestones of your learning journey. (This is a simplified list)
- Kite control and safety systems
- Water relaunch and self-rescue
- Body dragging and body dragging upwind
- Water-start
- Riding in preferred direction
- Water-start and riding in the opposite direction
- Riding upwind in one or in both directions
- Making U-turns
- Jumping with and without the kite
- Aerial transitions
- ...TBC...
So, when will YOU begin to see yourself as a kitesurfer? Many people start to celebrate when they are able to perform a WATER-START, get out of the water, get on the board and ride for a few seconds. Sure enough, this moment calls for a celebration, but do you fire your kitesurfing instructor here? Most likely not, and here is why.
Naturally, you will begin by riding in your PREFERRED direction and many people take some extra time to master the water-start and kitesurfing in the OPPOSITE way. This usually takes a few attempts, but when it finally clicks and you start cruising back and forth, you will find yourself drifted far DOWNWIND from your starting point. HOW DO YOU COME BACK? To be able to ride back to the point where you started from you will need to learn to kitesurf UPWIND, into the wind, against the wind. Otherwise, you will have to WALK BACK. Often times, riding upwind clicks almost instantly for some students, yet it may take a few sessions to master for others.
Most of our students feel safe to start riding on their own AFTER they learned how to kitesurf UPWIND. This is what we call “BECOMING AN INDEPENDENT KITESURFER”. This is a phase when a student does not really need an instructor and can elect to stop taking lessons for a while. Most of our students manage to get to this point in 2 … 5 sessions.
The aspect of CHANGING WIND
Variable WIND CONDITIONS can slow your progression considerably. Imagine that you had a few sessions with some light wind on a flat water and you learned to do a few things with your kite and your board. Now imagine that conditions change, wind picks up, and waves begin to roll in. This may throw you back a bit. You see, when wind gets stronger, we change our kites for smaller sizes. Smaller kites FLY FASTER, make FASTER TURNS, turn on a SMALLER RADIUS, and they react quicker to your input.
Naturally, wind brings WAVES, and waves will take your flat-water two-dimensional game to the next 3D level. This may feel like a completely NEW REALITY to you and it may seem as if you have to RE-LEARN everything. Especially if the wind became gusty with lulls you will have to spend some time ADJUSTING.
The SECRET of learning to kitesurf in ONE DAY
We had a great number of students who learned to kitesurf in one day. You maybe wondering, how is it possible and will it be YOU, starting on the DAY ONE? Well, let’s face it, we all are different, we have:
- Unequal skill sets
- Diverse learning abilities
- Various backgrounds
- Learn at different pace
- Different age
- Unique sense of balance
- Different physique
There are many variables that will affect YOUR learning curve, like your age, your sense of balance, you motor skills, and if you want to find out HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO LEARN TO KITESURF we’ve put together this SELF-ASSESSMENT TEST, just answer a few questions and we will tell you our approximation of your timeline. HERE IS THE LINK..
All our students who STARTED RIDING ON THE DAY 1 absolutely had several things in common. They all came prepared, also they all did their HOMEWORK, and they all learned everything about kitesurfing in advance. Most of them took our ONLINE COURSE and invested several hours into learning about gear, equipment, theory of the wind, and safety systems.
Interestingly enough, every student who showed up for their first kitesurfing session KNOWING NOTHING about this sport FAILED to start riding on the DAY 1. No exceptions! And they usually end up taking extra classes and paying more.WARNING!
The reality is, KITESURFING is NOT the easiest sport to learn. In fact, it’s two sports in one (2 in 1). Also, most of us did not grow up observing other people kitesurfing, this is why naturally it TAKES SOME TIME TO WRAP OUR BRAINS AROUND the paradigm of this beautiful and powerful sport of KITESURFING. And frankly, THERE IS LOT TO LEARN!
Kitesurfing is a very powerful sport. You see, there is a reason why we jump over 30 yards (meters) up in the air and you do not want to unleash this power unwillingly by accident. This is why the approach “JUST LET ME TRY IT” will likely lead to bruises, blemishes and damaged equipment.The SOLUTION
To be on the safe side, you should learn as much as you possibly can about kitesurfing before touching any gear. YouTube is your friend, spend time on the beach observing other kiteboarders, join our ONLINE COURSE with 10 hours of videos where we cover over 50 topics, and when you prepare yourself for your first kitesurfing session on the water it will not take long to learn to kitesurf for you.
Hands down, the most useful skill in learning to kitesurf is the ability to fly a stunt kite or a power kite. Do yourself a favor, get your hands on a kite with TWO LINES, the one you can steer, and spend as much time as you can with it practicing! You cannot overdo this step.
Also, work on your BALANCE. Interestingly enough, our sense of balance is like a muscle, you can make it stronger! Dust off your skateboard, go snowboarding, wakeboarding, ice skating, or walk the straight line (with your eyes closed). Yoga has plenty of postures that can help you with your balance.
Separately, work on your PHYSIQUE a bit. There are three (3) main ingredients you can focus on: endurance, quads and arm grip. Make these stronger doing some squads, run a mile or more, and hang on monkey bars.
Work on these aspects for some time and when you feel that YOU ARE READY, hire a kitesurfing coach, head out on the beach, and who knows, maybe your answer to the question "HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN TO KITESURF?" will be "IN JUST ONE DAY!"
G.O.
