Riding toeside is at the heart of good kiting technique, and opens up the door to a whole new bunch of tricks. If you're riding a surfboard (or planning to once you've got things dialled on your twin tip) then riding toeside is essential - unless you only want to be able to ride waves 50% of the time! Learning to ride toeside also opens up your options when it comes to transitions (changing from one direction to the other) and it saves that, let's be honest, pretty uncool 'sitting in the water' transition.
The move:
Okay, so you're nicely powered up, you've spotted a nice flat piece of water and there's no one else in your immediate vicinity, time to start the manoeuvre:
1. Kite position. Keep the kite at around 10 or 11 O'clock - through having it fairly high in the window, you'll naturally get a bit more lift, making your 180? easier.
2. Eye up your spot. Have a look for the exact spot where you want to begin turning your board - if there's chop then aim for the top of piece of chop to minimise the chance of catching an edge.
3. Begin transferring your weight forward slightly. When you're riding toeside your back foot (which you put most weight through) changes, so you need to start preparing for this as you begin the movement.
4. Step around. This is the tricky bit and everything happens pretty quickly - it will take a few goes before you begin to get your head around it. You need to move your board around quickly though, so 'step' your back foot quickly around so that you take the board through 180?.
5. Turn your shoulders. Follow your feet with the rest of your body. It feels a bit unnatural at first as you're facing the wrong way! But you need to forget about where the kite's pulling you and make sure that your body is nice and square over your board.
6. Adjust your weight. As you're doing all of this remember that your back foot has changed, so you need to focus on your 'new' back foot - put your weight through this.
7. Power your kite up. Regardless of how quick you are, you'll always lose some power as you make the change to toeside, so make sure your kite is powered up - give the bar a pull, or dive the kite slightly if necessary.
8. Drop the hand! Ok, maybe not on your first go, but as soon as you're feeling confident you need to drop the front hand off the bar and bring it round in front of your body: this one move will naturally twist your body around and make toeside riding a lot more comfortable (and a lot more stylish).
Riding toeside is at the heart of good kiting technique, and opens up the door to a whole new bunch of tricks. If you're riding a surfboard (or planning to once you've got things dialled on your twin tip) then riding toeside is essential - unless you only want to be able to ride waves 50% of the time! Learning to ride toeside also opens up your options when it comes to transitions (changing from one direction to the other) and it saves that, let's be honest, pretty uncool 'sitting in the water' transition.
The move:
Okay, so you're nicely powered up, you've spotted a nice flat piece of water and there's no one else in your immediate vicinity, time to start the manoeuvre:
1. Kite position. Keep the kite at around 10 or 11 O'clock - through having it fairly high in the window, you'll naturally get a bit more lift, making your 180? easier.
2. Eye up your spot. Have a look for the exact spot where you want to begin turning your board - if there's chop then aim for the top of piece of chop to minimise the chance of catching an edge.
3. Begin transferring your weight forward slightly. When you're riding toeside your back foot (which you put most weight through) changes, so you need to start preparing for this as you begin the movement.
4. Step around. This is the tricky bit and everything happens pretty quickly - it will take a few goes before you begin to get your head around it. You need to move your board around quickly though, so 'step' your back foot quickly around so that you take the board through 180?.
5. Turn your shoulders. Follow your feet with the rest of your body. It feels a bit unnatural at first as you're facing the wrong way! But you need to forget about where the kite's pulling you and make sure that your body is nice and square over your board.
6. Adjust your weight. As you're doing all of this remember that your back foot has changed, so you need to focus on your 'new' back foot - put your weight through this.
7. Power your kite up. Regardless of how quick you are, you'll always lose some power as you make the change to toeside, so make sure your kite is powered up - give the bar a pull, or dive the kite slightly if necessary.
8. Drop the hand! Ok, maybe not on your first go, but as soon as you're feeling confident you need to drop the front hand off the bar and bring it round in front of your body: this one move will naturally twist your body around and make toeside riding a lot more comfortable (and a lot more stylish).