Your on a board in the water or flying down the beach in your buggy. How does one get back to their starting point if the wind is only going in one direction.
Can one tack with a kite or is this a one way trip.

Of course you can go upwind.

You've got a fair amount of kites, have you had a lesson yet?

In my limited buggy experience, I have found that depending totally of the angle the wind is blowing. Yes in one sense, that you can go back and forth. I have done that at JIBE and had LOADS of fun. While in the same JIBE adventure the very next day, winds were blowing off shore in a direction that made tack nearly impossible. In fact I had to down the kite till the wind changed directions because I wasn't skilled enough. I did however see others that were MUCH more proficient than I, who were tacking. Albeit very cumbersome and slowly but they were doing it in very short zig-zag patterns..

compliments of Popeyethewelder http://popeyethewelder.com/a-kite-buggy-tutorial-lets-start-...

Maybe next year at JIBE I will have had enough air time to figure it out and be proficient at it like the others I saw . . . no one with any common sense likes to sit there with a perfectly good kite on the ground and difficult wind to navigate in.

cheers

Quote: Originally posted by erratic winds

Of course you can go upwind. You've got a fair amount of kites, have you had a lesson yet?

No lessons yet, but I got an invite by markite to watch him fly and ask all sort of questions

Quote: Originally posted by Michael Gaylan

In my limited buggy experience, I have found that depending totally of the angle the wind is blowing. Yes in one sense, that you can go back and forth. I have done that at JIBE and had LOADS of fun. While in the same JIBE adventure the very next day, winds were blowing off shore in a direction that made tack nearly impossible. In fact I had to down the kite till the wind changed directions because I wasn't skilled enough. I did however see others that were MUCH more proficient than I, who were tacking. Albeit very cumbersome and slowly but they were doing it in very short zig-zag patterns.. compliments of Popeyethewelder http://popeyethewelder.com/a-kite-buggy-tutorial-lets-start-... Maybe next year at JIBE I will have had enough air time to figure it out and be proficient at it like the others I saw . . . no one with any common sense likes to sit there with a perfectly good kite on the ground and difficult wind to navigate in. cheers

Great link.

A lot of going upwind you'll need to develop a number of techniques depending on wind strength and what you are doing (buggy /surf / ski or snowboard etc)
If you stand and static fly a kite in very light wind you'll notice that if you just let the kite fly how it wants to there won't be as much kite speed and power and a very narrow wind window from left to right. But if you start working the hell out of the kite you'll develop more power in the kite and get a much wider wind window but you'll need to be on top of your actions at the edges of the window otherwise the kite will just stall and fall. So taking that to moving you will need to work the kite to build up some speed and that will often mean starting pointing a little downwind until you have some apparent wind and speed in the buggy or board to start angling upwind. Then you will may even find in very light wind you need to do a bit of stepping heading downwind slightly then gaining ground upwind once you have some speed and power. Then turning slightly across or downwind when power drops off to build more speed doing another step gaining more upwind over what you lost building the speed and power.
In higher winds the kite will sit further forward with a wider wind window giving more power further at the edges of the wind window. Then the other component is learning to edge to drive you upwind. In a buggy this means steering and pointing the buggy upwind and looking where you want to go and not looking at the kite. Same with surfing and skiing and snowboarding - the more power the more you need to edge which will really drive you at a much higher angle upwind. There will be times that you can pick up enough speed where you can then turn and run almost straight upwind for a good distance but a lot of that depends on the surface you are on as well.
Picking a spot to steer for really helps and try not to keep the kite high or look at it a lot. Fight for where you want to go - make the kite fly the way you want it to don't let it take you for a ride downwind.

big dump of snow and Puslinch is now frozen so people are starting to get out this week - there will be a lot more getting out starting next weekend and through the holidays

Great description of what has to be done...I'm heading out to see what I can do with a 12mph westerly and a board, probably not much but it'll be fun anyway