Today I thought I should learn some tricks to blind and some handlepasses, starting with Raley to blind, followed by S-Bend to blind, Flat 3, and Backroll + 360. I could now write a book about how to fail in making handlepasses and blind-riding. I think that everything just failed. But it was fun, and I will continue, maybe I one day might write a tutorial for how to do handlepasses as well.
5 things to learn before starting to try (fail) handlepasses and jumping to blind
- It looks easy on YouTube and when other people are doing it. It is not.
- Have the leash on the right side! Otherwise the leash will end up completely around you, when you let go of the bar and the kite chrashes in the middle of the powerzone, the leash will squeeze the guts out of you. And if you are heads down in the water, only fish will hear you scream, and they are not helping.
- Turn your freaking head. If you turn your head unnaturally much into the direction you are spinning, the body will end up following. If you do not turn your head, the body will not spin at all.
- The workouts that you skipped the last 5 months would have been needed. At least the for the arms. Start doing some chins. Now. (Here is some training especially made for kitesurfers. Check it)
- Every single kilo or pound that you have, that are not muscles or bones, are completely worthless in this kind of activity. Lesson learned.
Some memories from failing blindpops and handlepasses
This whole failing excercise took place at Bulabog Beach in Boracay, Philippines. Here are some pictures from today, enjoy.
before trying handlepass everything felt alright
Too weak arms
You would never believe that the kiteleash can handle all the pressure
Studying the fish life
Must. get. over. those. lines.
“landing on your back” will be the new “landing” if you start to practice handlepasses
Landing on the stomach – Variaton is good
landing on the ass also starts to feel natural now
failing to a nice nosepress
Landing and holding on to the bar would be a great thing to do, I realize when watching the pictures
Do not lose the bar all the time you weak dude
// Best regards, Jonathan
falling on stomach, variation is good – gold one!
Great post! I had similar goals when we were there. Well, actually my goal was to learn just to do a unhooked pop to blind with a surface pass. I didn't manage it, so I am looking forward for next summers craches with that trick. I heard that raley to toeside with a surface pass is good practice for raley to blind. I also did hooked in front rolls to blind and on landing aggressively going downwind slacking the lines and then passing the lines above my head as practise. One hint to consider I got from a fellow kitesurfer (did not try, but makes sense) was to let go of the bar before landing. This makes it easier to commit to the rotation and land to blind, making the progression a bit easier. Have fun crashing and landing new tricks 🙂
Thanks!
Surface passes and popping/raley to toeside + surfacepass is working already, but the hooked in to blind was a good tip, will try it.
The tip of letting go of the bar has become practiced a lot, Ryan told me to do it, was he the fellow kitesurfer to you as well? 🙂
By the way, blind-riding and surfacepasses is great to practice on snow, if you have got home already? 🙂
Thank for commenting!
I got the hint from a North team rider, don't remember his name. But he's the one who owns the Chicken Loop cafe at the north end of the beach.
Yes, we are at home. Just waiting for the flu to pass to go out and check if Laajalahti has some snow. Practising on pure ice is always a bit sketchy :/
Go for it man!