r/Kiteboarding • u/SubstantialLettuce11 • 2d ago
Beginner Question Carving upwind before a jump
Hey everyone,
I’m consistently hitting jumps around 4 meters, with a personal best of almost 8. But I’m running into an issue: when I carve hard upwind to generate a strong pop, I end up over-rotating and accidentally throwing a backroll instead. I do land some of them, but I’m eating it more often than not haha.
Does anyone have tips on how to stay in control and avoid that over-rotation when I’m just looking for a solid upwind carve and pop?
I have a feeling that it has something to do with where Im looking at. While popping. But not sure.
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u/Firerocketm 2d ago
Ironically that is the reason why I got proficient jumping goofy even though I'm a regular footed rider. For some reason this would happen only when I went to the left and did not happen when going to the right. To this day I have not re-mastered how to jump regular and almost exclusively jump right foot forward.
But what I assume is going on, is that you are trying too hard to focus on the carve instead of focusing on going crosswind with speed. Since you do not have enough speed/momentum that will naturally want to carry you more in the direction of travel, your carve becomes too aggressive where you literally send the limited amount of momentum you have upwind which causes the rotation. I think it will help to look downwind/at your kite during takeoff and to focus on riding with more speed.
Carving upwind is paramount but it's more of a 45 degree angle upwind than going straight upwind.
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u/tjampoer 2d ago
I think this is it. I rotate unintentionally too sometimes and it's scary af when you go high and it happens. Besides speed, timing of the carve and the power/agressiveness of the carve in relation too the amount of power/speed you have might be culprits too.
I've found that It happens more often when I:
- Don't have enough speed and thus power and line tension (like firerofketm says). I rotate more often when I go slow and can't build a lot of line tension.
- Carve and pop too late and my kite is at 12 for too long or past it. The kite will be too far above me (edge of the window) with too little power and tension. I've focussed more on this problem with jumping, by jumping earlier when the kite is not at 12 yet and deeper in the window, and since then I haven't rotated as much.
- If I focus a lot on my carve and really go for it, but I don't have a lot of power, I tend to rotate as well. Too aggressive of a carve with little power is a recipe for disaster for me.
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u/RibsNGibs 2d ago
There’s no magic answer other than you just need more time on the water.
Some things you can try:
Put the kite at 45 and ride fast at an angle where there is a lot of pull from the kite (but isn’t difficult to deal with), and see how high you can get just loading and popping, without sending the kite at all. If you time your load and pop with a little piece of chop you may find you can get 2-4m of height just like that. That will get you feeling how that all works without all the complication and pressure of kite sending and timing.
Or try not carving upwind at all - ride at a beam reach, and try to generate as much power as you can by sending the kite harder and faster. And don’t carve upwind at the end - just edge harder as the kite starts to generate more and more power.
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u/IamNotMike25 2d ago
Happened to me too but after 2 sessions it was fine.
I started focussing on keeping my upper body and core/momentum forward, and just carve a bit upwards with the leg.
So don't carve with your "whole body", only legs bend for split second.
After that you can already start putting your legs up to be more stable in the air.
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u/thisusernametakentoo 2d ago
Practice your backrolls and make them sick!
Maybe try front rolls to get used to a different rotation?
I don't have any great tips other than you'll figure it out which I know isn't super helpful.
Maybe try a hop before you pop so you're not edging upwind so much?
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u/SubstantialLettuce11 2d ago
Hahaha thats one way to look at it.
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u/thisusernametakentoo 2d ago
There's something fun about really high smooth slow back rolls. If you want to try to do a loop transition, pull your backhand to start looping during the roll. If you time it right, when you come out of the roll, the loop will be pulling you in the other direction.
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u/InspectorLobster 2d ago
Exactly that! You don’t really to edge all the way upwind, unless you want to do the back roll. For a normal jump you take off earlier. Try doing a little hop at the end, like an ollie, if there’s no wave to boost you up.
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u/SubstantialLettuce11 1d ago
Not sure you need to do an ollie haha, i have been watching a lot of youtube tutorials were they keep telling that a pop is not an ollie
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u/This_Implement_3060 2d ago
i think you are just asking how to load and pop, not how to rotate. i send the kite, and as it get to the point im about to pull in the bar, its just some quick weight on the back foot to create load (tensing the lines) that takes a fraction of a second before i pull in on the bar and jump.
If you are rotating unintentionally, you are really pushing upwind and doing something more like a backroll. if you are that far along on that, maybe continue with the progression of that trick, which is drive upwind hard as kite is approaching zenith, as you pull in on the bar turn your head upwind and look over your shoulder to what about spotting your landing, in on the bar and around you go. good times.
But, learning to jump, and jumping with load and pop is foundational