Hood River Kiteboard Lessons Gorge Kiteboarding SchoolThe 2011 Kiteboard Season, April 15th - November 1st | |
From Portland Oregon
Go east on I84 to exit 63, Hood River City Center (63 miles east of Portland) Turn left toward the river at the top of the freeway exit ramp. Turn right at the first T-intersection. For the Event Site location turn left at the T-intersection For the Spit Location turn right the T-intersection. Turn right a third time just before the 76 gas station. Follow small access road between gas station and freeway and past big green building. Follow road as it changes to a dirt road and turns left toward the river. The School is the red building with the big yellow triangle on the north east corner of the parking lot (to the right as you drive up) From Eastern Oregon Go west on I84 to exit 63, Hood River City Center (63 miles east of Portland) Turn Right toward the river at the top of the freeway exit ramp. Turn right at the first intersection. For the Event Site location turn left at the T-intersection For the Spit Location turn right the T-intersection. Turn right a third time just before the 76 gas station. Follow small access road between gas station and freeway and past big green building. Follow road as it changes to a dirt road and turns left toward the river. The School is the red building with the big yellow triangle on the north east corner of the parking lot (to the right as you drive up) Gear for kiteboarding in The Gorge You should bring a wetsuit, and booties. Heavyweight wetsuit for May, June and October. Lightweight wetsuit for July, August and September. I have some wetsuits and booties available for students. Please let me know in advance if you will need one. (Hood River is a great place to get a wetsuit because there are more styles, sizes and shapes for sale here than anywhere else in North America. Heavyweight wetsuits are available for rent in town.) I have a harness, flotation jacket and helmet you can use, but you might be more comfortable if you can bring your own. Hood River Wind ForecastThe wind is reliable (9 out of 10 days) from mid-April through the end of September with the strongest winds around the first of June. Outside of these dates the wind tends to blow two out every four days. The last half of April the water will be about 52 deg. It is comfortable with a warm wetsuit if the sun is shining, but 2 and 1/2 hours is about as long as you want to be in the water. May 1st the water hits 57 deg. and it is ok in a warm wetsuit for the full three hours. May 15th the water hits 62 deg. and a warm wetsuit keeps you warm for the full three hours. The first of June the water temp is around 68 deg. and no longer an issue with a wetsuit with short arms. The first of September the water will be near 78 deg. The first of October the water will be near 70 deg. How many lessons should you reserve? The number of lessons you will want depends on what Skill Level you want to achieve before heading out to kiteboard on your own and your Learning Speed. For most students one 3-hour lesson per day is enough kiteboarding and they prefer a less strenuous activity for the remainder of the day. Skill Level Confident and prepared to kiteboard in challenging locations. This kiteboarder can go to challenging locations like The Gorge and safely kitesurf out and come back to the same spot without difficulty. Confident and prepared to kiteboard in less challenging locations. This kiteboarder can go to easer locations like Cape Hatteras or the Caribbean and safely kitesurf out and come back to the same spot without difficulty. Prepared to continue learning on your own in challenging locations. This kiteboarder has the knowledge and skills to continue learning in a challenging location like The Gorge with a reasonable expectation of avoiding injury and equipment damage. Prepared to continue learning on your own in less challenging locations. This kiteboarder has the knowledge and skills to continue learning in easer locations like Cape Hatteras or the Caribbean with a reasonable expectation of avoiding injury and equipment damage. Beginner level 4-line kite flying skills. This student has only a limited ability to control a 4-line kite. If they continue to learn on their own without additional instruction, they need to use extra caution to avoid injury and equipment damage. Basic understanding of the safety concepts and rudimentary flying skills. This student has limited ability to control a 2-line kite. If this student continues to learn on their own without additional instruction, they will need to use extreme caution to avoid injury and should expect significant damage to their equipment. Learning Speed 
If you are an exceptional athlete with lots of kite flying or sailing experience and wake boarding or water-ski experience you will be in the extremely fast or fast range. If you have reached expert levels in other sports easily and have some sailing or flying experience you will be in the fast or quick range. People with serious gymnastics or dance training will be in the fast or quick range. Young people under the age of 14 are generally in the quick range. If are not a great athlete but have lots of flying or sailing experience you could be in the quick or the average range. Those in the slower range are often overcoming some fear or difficulty and just need a little more instruction time to reach their goals safely. The rest of you are probably in the average range (consider yourself normal). How old / young do you need to be? It’s not the student’s age, but the students weight and decision making capability. It’s hard to control a kite if your body weight is less then 70 pounds, so that tends to be the minimum weight. Young people learn fast so that is not an issue. The main issue is the quality of judgments made by this individual young person. A kiteboarder makes decisions of similar importance to some one riding down hill on a mountain bike or driving a car. Kiteboarding is dangers and requires some foresight and good judgment to stay safe. Kids who ride mountain bikes on trails without close supervision tend to understand that some crashes hurt a lot and that you could kill yourself by loosing control and hitting a tree hard. That level of understanding is required in kitesurfing since the kitesurfer needs to make important safety related decisions often. At the other end of the age range I have taught many students in their late 60’s Learning kite control a with a trainer You can accelerate the kiteboarding learning curve by working with a small trainer kite before or between your kiteboarding lessons. The skills you can develop with the trainer include learning to push and pull on the bar to create tension and slack in the lines to turn the kite. You will learn to anticipate the amount of lag time so the kite turns at the intended place in the sky and learn to fly power strokes through the sky to generate different amounts of power. Additional skills that can be developed include flying the kite with one hand and controlling the kite by feel instead of by looking at it. Equipment You need a two-line kite with a bar. The bar will need a harness line attached. You will also need a windsurfing or kitesurfing harness to hook to the line on the bar. I recommend a 2-meter kite. These come with the harness line and strong kite lines and sell for around $160. The $99. 1-meter kites come with weak lines and the fabric of the kite is not strong enough to fly with a harness in stronger winds. A safe place to fly. You need at least 100 yards of clear area down wind and to the sides to avoid injuring yourself or others. The surface should be soft enough to avoid scraping your skin if you are dragged across it at speed. Grass or sand is the preferred surface. No power lines, no trees, no rocks, no buildings, no posts, no innocent bystanders or dogs. A steady wind between 10 and 25 mph helps, gusty winds increase the danger and difficulty. Watch out for the effects of objects (trees, buildings, hills) which are upwind. Learning to turn the kite by pushing and pulling on the bar. Kites respond to a difference in tension on the lines. If the line on the right side of the kite is tighter than the line on the left, the kite will turn to the right. If the line on the left side of the kite is tighter than the line on the right, the kite will turn to the left. Most adults will attempt to turn the kite with a steering wheel motion (like turning a car). This almost works when the kite is above you, (because the line length is changed) but clearly does not work when the kite is low on the side (because the motion of the bar is not creating a difference in line length). The motion that is most effective is much more like steering a bicycle than a car. Your goal is to pull directly away from the kite with one hand as you push straight toward the kite with the other hand. This creates the maximum difference in tension in the lines and the kite responds by turning in a tight radius turn. Holding the bar. When the kite is to the side, hold the bar at a 45-degree angle to the ground, so that the line going from the top of the kite goes to the top of the bar. This allows you to keep your hands at shoulder width and helps you keep track of which line you need to pull to make the kite climb or dive. Pull the top of the bar to turn the kite into a climb and pull the bottom line to turn into a dive. Learning to anticipate the amount of lag time. The kite responds to the motion of the bar only after a significant time lag. For instance, when you roll the kite into a dive, you will need to pull one side of the bar for your bottom turn when the kite is only half way down, this will make the kite respond just before hitting the water (or the ground). If you wait until the kite is most of the way down, and then try to turn the kite, it will continue to dive for a second and end up hitting the water before starting to turn. You also need to straighten out the bar before you expect the kite to stop turning. If you hold tension in one line until the kite is pointed in the desired direction and then even out the bar, the kite will continue to turn for a moment, and end up heading off in the wrong direction. Learning to fly power strokes through the sky. The primary pattern used in kitesurfing is the power stroke. This is a vertical pattern to one side of the kiteboarder. The bottom turn is at 9:30 on a clock face half-buried in the ground and the top turn is at 11:00 on that clock face (15 feet above the ground and 60 feet off the ground respectively). The goal is to keep the kite at a constant distance from that place where the lines go completely slack (90 degrees from directly down wind). This plane where the kite lines go slack is called the edge and is your main reference. If you are facing directly down wind, the edge goes from the ground on your left, over above you, and continues to the ground on your right. This plane divides the sky between the area upwind of you (where you cannot fly the kite), from the area downwind of you (where you can fly the kite). The distance between the kite and the edge is referred to as the depth. The kite generates more power when it is deeper, and less power as it approaches the edge (until the lines go completely slack when the kite reaches the edge). Your goal is to generate steady power from the kite; this is accomplished by keeping the kite at the same depth from the edge as you move it up and down. Flying with one hand. You need to have a harness line attached to the bar and a windsurfing or kitesurfing harness on your body. Note that when you are hooked in to the bar, the kite can drag or lift you , even if you let go of the bar, so be prepared. Make sure that you have the kite under control and a large safety zone around you before hooking in. Once you are attached to the kite, your arms are used for steering instead of holding the kite's power. Now you can push instead of pull. The first exercise is to open your fingers and control the kite by pushing with your thumb or the heel of one hand at a time. After getting used to this sensation remove one hand from the bar then alternately push and pull the bar with the remaining hand to steer the kite in a power stroke. Use the top hand, the one used to turn the kite into a climb. Controlling the kite by feel. Start by moving the kite through a soft power stroke (a shorter power stroke closer to the edge gives you less power) and repeat the motion a few dozen times. Every stroke should be identical, with the top and bottom turns at the same depth from the edge (the turns are stacked vertically one above the other). This should give you steady power. You need to be able to fly the kite under control when watching it before there is any hope of looking away without loosing control. Once you have the kite moving up and down under control, start concentrating on the feel of the kite as it turns. You will feel an increase in power as the kite passes the half-way mark in each turn. As the direction the kite is pointed passes beyond the eye of the wind, the kite accelerates and the vibration in the lines increases in pitch. The increase in pull and the accompanying increase in vibration speed are the signals that you are finished with one turn and it is time to turn back in the other direction by pulling with the other hand. As you concentrate on the changing strength of the pull or the changing vibration in the lines, look away from the kite for a few moments. After a while, you should be able to look away for a long time and still maintain the soft power stroke. Lodging The Vagabond Lodge - http://www.vagabondlodge.com/ Hood River Hotel - http://www.hoodriverhotel.com Best Western Hood River Inn - http://www.hoodriverinn.com/ Gorge View B & B - http://gorgeview.com/ For longer stays (5 days +): Hood River Vacation Rentals - www.hrvacations.com | |