Hi All
Im looking for a board that is going to help me improve my board skills and riding quicker and help me get a bit more confident riding. Im definitely a beginner when it comes to board skills (i come from a snowboarding background and am having a lot of trouble transferring my skills to kiteboarding). As far as kite skills go i think i would be intermediate, i have flown foil kites for around 5 years and used to landboard, made the switch to the liquid stuff at the start of last summer.
Im currently riding an 2008 slingshot misfit 136. On flat water it seems to be fine, a bit shifty at speed, but find it hard to stay up wind and i struggle with it in the surf (getting over waves etc). I have rode my mates xenon rayo on the weekend and found it was much more buoyant, better at getting over waves and easier to stay up wind.
The question i guess i would like your opinion on is
- is there a better board out there that will make it easier for me to progress and give me a bit more confidence while riding?
- is there something i can do to my current board to help with my issues (binding stance, bigger fins etc) ?
- or should i suck it up, grow a set and just get out there and ride more?
It's hard to answer your question as you seem to have some ability but also some issues with your board. Do you just want a board that will sit better when going quicker? You mentioned it being a big shifty, bigger fins can help. If you have trouble staying upwind, time and technique will probably fix it, but if you've tried a mates and had better results, then your board may be a bit small for you or just a bit "dead in the water" if you get me?
In regard to getting over waves and chop, there are specific boards for this, a regular twin tip can't do everything. That said, some boards are more buoyant than others and this will also help with staying upwind. I find the Cardboard range nice and floaty, easy to slide turn in light wind without that sinking feeling. I tried a Cabrinha board early in my kiting and thought I would never get it until I jumped on a bigger more buoyant board and progressed like never before.
So buy your mates Rayo and stop with questions you already have the answer to.
So many beginners go the cheap option of buying the wrong type/size of first board. (as is the case here with your 2008 misfit)
Listen to a shop who knows their stuff and you will have the right board for 2-3 or more years.
It's just that people try and get away buying very cheap and it bites them on the bum in the long run.
I started in a Cab prodigy board and found it hard to progress. I then got a shinn monk and from the get go had a way better feeling for the board, stayed upwind, edged way better etc etc.
Now i absolutely love it and wouldn't really want anything else besides maybe the odd shinn monk upgrade
i was told 10% gear 90% pilot ;)
instructor could prolly watch you ride and suggest fix
trial and error:
take note of kite pos forward in window and your weight over board affects the upwinding edge you can hold, just right board works less hard to keep you up so can do more work upwind
my board has rocker so someone suggested try vary weight and twist hips on front foot helped me keep more edge rather than just back quarter of board, i noticed the waterline moved forward and seemed to help, also sorted footstraps after much trial error on board screw pos choices! allowed my weight over center of board as in between rails, helped find better edge too
all this helped now i'm happy enough to get upwind. other thing is picking a path thru sets of waves takes time to learn, i still get it wrong all the time, this costs heaps of ground upwind, more than you realise!
good luck! :) ask around, try a few things and let us know
Thanks for the replies, most were helpful.
i know there is a lot i need to improve on my board technique, so i guess i will just knuckle down and start riding more and try focus on board skills.
cheers all,
I was having the same issue as you however going from kiting to snowboarding. For the life of me I couldn't work it out etc etc.
The biggest thing I found once it all clicked is in snowboarding your weight is mostly on the front foot. It's the opposite in kiting. Keep your front leg straight and keep the weight on your back foot.
You are right Initially in snowboarding you will predominately have your weight on your front foot, and use your back foot to help carve, as you progress the weighs distribution becomes more even. In Powder riding it is a whole different story it is much more like riding a kiteboard, weight on the back so you can keep the nose out of the powder.
I think where i'm struggling to make the transition is not so much the weight distribution bit but where the power is coming from and my general stance on the board, i have found/be comment to by my mate, that i bend my knees alot, tend to get down low, and crouch over the board quite alot(which is what you do when snowboarding)
as i understand it you should have rear leg bent, be relatively straight through the torso, lean back against the pull of the kite and push your weight on your rear foot to get your edge into the water and achieve a solid carve.
is this correct ????
Yeah thats it. Like you said try to keep your weight on your back foot and keep your front leg straight. It feels like your front knee is going to buckle or jar when starting off but it becomes natural after awhile.
If your ever up in Sydney or South NSW give us a yell and you can have a go at my boards. Got an old underground and a new Cardboard.
Cheers snoopy much appreciated, yet to venture to kite in syd, tend to be down the south coast but if iam ever in your general area i would be more than keen to take you up on that offer.
Thanks again for everyone's help, much appreciated.