Beginner Land and Taxi Drills

The board then cannot move across you, and the wing stays clear of you.

Get on the board from the upwind side. That is the side that the wind comes from. Use the same procedure after every fall:

1. Swim to the upwind side of the board.
2. Get on the board.
3. Pull the wing to you with the leash.
4. Find the handles.

Robby Naish · MACkite

Paddling returns you to the beach. Treat it as a primary skill.

Lie on the board and paddle it with your arms, as you paddle a surfboard. In shallow water the board floats with the foil above the water. Use that position to cross weed. Turn the foil below the board when the water is deep enough.

The wing pulls on its leash while you paddle. To stop this, put the wing below your feet. Turn the wing over and hold the leading edge with your feet.

Practise paddling upwind before you need it. You move downwind continuously while you learn. The ability to paddle back upwind makes that safe.

In shallow water you can also walk. Put the wing on the board and walk along the beach. This is easier than to pull the board along the sand or to carry both items.

Kitesurf College · Sam Light · Robby Naish

The kneeling position is the base for all the drills that follow.

1. Get onto the board and lie on it.
2. Push up onto your knees. Put your toes below you.
3. Put your knees far apart. This gives most of your stability.
4. Stay in the middle of the board.

Some riders put their toes together behind them. Other riders put their feet far apart. Both positions work. Use the position that is more stable for you.

While you get into position, you can put one hand on the board. You can also put the wing on the water. Then hold the front handle and lift the wing.

Elite Watersports · Sam Light · Damien LeRoy

A board that moves is a stable board. New riders do not expect this.

Put the front hand on the boom. Put the back hand on the boom. Pull in only enough to start to move. When the board has speed, it stops moving from side to side. The foil and the fins hold the board only when water flows across them.

Keep your body upright on your knees. Do not bend forward. The upright position gives the wing space to fly above you and keeps it off the water.

Kitesurf College · Damien LeRoy · MACkite · Sam Light

Every instructor teaches this rule. You use it continuously.

Turn your upper body to move the wing toward the nose of the board. The nose turns downwind. Move the wing toward the tail. The nose turns upwind. Move the wing along the board as you move a sliding door.

Your position on the board also steers it. Kneel further forward and the board turns downwind. Kneel further back and the board turns upwind more easily.

You can also lean. A small lean steers the board as it steers a surfboard. If the board feels attached to the water, lean back to lift the nose. The board is then free.

The visible instruction is "move the wing". The actual cause is different, and it is worth the extra words: you keep the wing pulling forward and then pull the back hand in. That loads your back foot, and the back foot turns the board upwind. A wing that is angled back but aimed incorrectly still moves you downwind.

Kitesurf College · Elite Watersports · MACkite · Sam Light · SUPboarder · WingWorld

You move downwind during every delay. Stop the loss early.

When the wing is under control, turn the board across the wind. That is about 90° to the wind, or slightly upwind of 90°. Instructors call this direction crosswind. Then start to move. Each second that you stay still is distance that you must recover.

Kitesurf College · Damien LeRoy

This drill makes the steering automatic.

Do this drill when you taxi on your knees.

1. Move toward the nose and move the wing forward. See the board turn downwind.
2. Move back to the tail and move the wing back. See the board turn upwind.
3. Move to the nose again. Release the back hand and hold the front handle. See the wing and the board stop.
4. Release the wing, sit down, and do the drill again in the other direction.

Do not try to keep the wing out of the water. This step is practice. Stay here for as long as you need.

MACkite

Two directions remove your speed, and neither feels like an error at the time.

Too far upwind: you stop. If you point at the wind, you do not move.

Too far downwind: in light wind the wind appears to stop. Your movement with the wind removes most of the wind that you had.

Find both limits on purpose. Then you recognise the condition immediately and you can steer out of it.

Watch out: in light wind, movement downwind is a trap. Your own movement removes the small wind that is available, and you cannot sail back. Stay across the wind, or slightly upwind of that.

Kitesurf College · Damien LeRoy · WingWorld

This is the easier turn. Learn it on your knees, where a fall costs you nothing.

1. Move the wing toward the nose. The board turns downwind.
2. Move the wing high above your head.
3. Release the back hand and move the front hand across.
4. Put the new back hand on the wing. The pull of the wing turns you through the rest of the turn.

This is the same hand movement that you practised on the beach. The board now turns below you.

Watch out: on a large inflatable SUP this turn is slow and difficult. If it does not work, sit down and paddle the board around.

Kitesurf College · Elite Watersports · Sam Light

This position makes the stand-up possible. Few sources mention it.

While you kneel and move, turn your knees to an angle. Do not keep them square to the board. Point your knees slightly downwind and your feet slightly upwind. Move your back knee toward the middle of the board.

This position does two things. You can hold the wing without a twist in your body. Your back leg is also clear of the foot that you move forward next.

The direction of your knees also trims the board. One direction lifts or lowers the tail. The other direction rolls the board from side to side. The angled position keeps both effects small.

Elite Watersports · Kitesurf College · Sam Light · WingWorld

This is the standard method. Almost every instructor teaches it.

First move across the wind, so that the board is already stable. Then:

1. Move your front foot forward. Put the ball of the foot on the centreline, near the front strap inserts. Put it further forward if you are new to foiling and want to keep the foil below the water.
2. Stand up mainly on the front leg.
3. Put the back foot down with the arch on the centreline, near the rear inserts.
4. Keep both feet near the centreline. Do not put them on the rails.

Stand up slowly. If the position feels incorrect, go back to your knee and do the procedure again. Do this 20 times if necessary. A fast stand-up in one movement is why riders fall off the other side.

Use the wing to lift you. Do not pull the wing down toward you. Do not lean forward while you stand up.

If the board has too much buoyancy to put your weight above it, use the tripod method. Put the trailing edge of the wing on the water. Lean down onto your own forearm against the front of the wing. The wing holds you while you put your feet in position. Then move the wing slowly above your head and hold the back handle.

Watch out: there is a time window. Stand up after the board moves and is stable, but before the speed is high enough for the foil to lift. Do not build maximum speed and then stand up.

Robby Naish · Elite Watersports · Kitesurf College · Sam Light · Damien LeRoy · WingWorld

This method almost removes the kneeling stage. Try it on a small board, or if you already stand sideways on a board.

The knee start is the conventional method. It suits riders who come from a SUP background on a large board of 140 to 160 litres. If your board is smaller, or if you already ride a surfboard, a wakeboard or a snowboard, this method can be faster to learn. It puts you directly into the sideways stance that your body knows.

Set up as usual. Put the wind behind you, the wing downwind, and the board across the wind or slightly upwind of that. Then:

1. Get onto the board on both knees and both hands, with your body already sideways. Your hands hold your weight and balance the upwind rail.
2. Move your front foot forward. Put the arch on the centreline.
3. Go low. Put your backside almost on your ankles. The low centre of gravity is the important part of this method.
4. Move the back foot forward and stay low. Balance with your ankles and your feet. Do not stand up.
5. Hold the front handle of the wing. Use it to turn yourself back across the wind. You have moved downwind while you got into position.
6. When you move across the wind with pull in the wing, stand up slowly. Use the pull of the wing to help you.

You can also stay low and ride. This is a satisfactory way to sail. It also lets you select the moment when you stand up.

Do each step slowly. Speed puts you back in the water and costs more time than the slow method.

This method puts less load on your knees. You are on your knees for a short time only. After that, the soles of your feet take the load and the friction, not your knees, your shins and the tops of your feet. Use this method if your knees hurt. The knee pads of your wetsuit also last longer.

You also balance differently. In the low position you correct with your toes and your ankles, not with movement of your upper body.

The method also measures the wind. If you are low and almost planing, the gust is sufficient. Stand up and you are usually on the foil in a few seconds. If the board feels slow in that position, wait for a stronger gust.

Watch out: this is one method, not the method. It needs hip flexibility and ankle flexibility to get properly low. Its instructor rides a lake that is usually flat and does not claim the method in chop. Riders report that it is most difficult in very light wind, when the pull is too small to turn you or to lift you. If the knee start works for you, continue with it. If chop is the problem, use the next two drills.

AWKWA (Ben), two videos — single-source method; the "get low", "swing across the wind before standing" and "front foot first" parts agree with the other instructors

Use this on a smaller board, or in chop, where an upright position makes you fall.

On a large stable board you can kneel or stand up and then lift the wing. On a smaller board, or in chop, that upright moment is when you fall, especially while the wing comes up.

The stink bug start removes that moment. You start in a low position below the wing, which is stable. Your hands are already on the handles, so you can add pull and start immediately. When you move, the foil acts as a large stabiliser.

1. Lie on the board. From here, keep your weight so that the nose stays slightly up.
2. Pull the wing to you if you do not hold it.
3. Turn the nose of the board slightly downwind. Push against the water or against the wing to turn it.
4. Move the wing above your head. Put your front hand on the front handle. Your back hand can hold the rail of the board.
5. Put both elbows beside your waist. Lean on your elbows. Pull your knees in, close to the middle of the board, where the buoyancy is.
6. In one movement, hold the back handle and lift the front hand to fly the wing.

The wing must pull you immediately. When you have speed, stand up and go.

The reason for the downwind nose: the first lift of the wing gives a sudden increase of pull, and that pull is aimed downwind. If the nose points across the wind or upwind at that moment, the pull rolls you over the side. A nose that points slightly downwind absorbs the pull.

Watch out: the position of your weight along the board decides this drill. Too far forward and the nose goes under. Too far back and the nose lifts too much, which is less stable and much slower to start. Keep the nose slightly up at all times. A smaller board needs more accuracy.

Kitesurf College

The same start with one leg on each side of the board. This version works in real chop.

Hold the wing and sit on the board with one leg on each side. You can lift the wing and taxi in this position. It gives good control in chop, because your legs hold the board.

When you are ready to start:

1. Put your elbows down, in the same position as the basic stink bug.
2. Release the back hand and hold the rail with it.
3. Put all of your weight on your arms. Lift both legs off the sides of the board in one quick movement. You are now below the wing, as in the basic stink bug.
4. Put the back hand on the wing, lift the front hand, and add pull.

The advantage: you can change from this position to a kneeling position in about two seconds. If you are quick, you almost do not stop, and a board that moves is much more stable than a board that is stationary.

This position also lets you go through chop and small broken waves instead of falling. The upright position gives you a good view of the water. You can wait for a gap in the waves, then start and ride away.

Its instructor recommends that you learn to taxi in this position.

Watch out: this version needs more strength and more flexibility to lift your legs off the sides. It also gives you less time to correct the position of your weight. Learn the basic stink bug first. Make your weight position accurate before you add this version.

Kitesurf College

A straight-leg position is the fastest way back into the water.

Keep your knees bent. Keep your weight low. If you lock your legs straight, each small wave moves you off balance.

Keep your body above the board. Do not lean out to the side as a windsurfer does. Your weight must be directly above the board, because the board is narrow.

Damien LeRoy · KT Surfing · Robby Naish · AWKWA

Your hands correct your balance faster than your feet do.

If you fall backward, pull the back hand in a small amount. The extra pull holds you up.

If you fall forward, push the back hand out and remove the pull. The wing then does not pull you over.

Practise both corrections on purpose. The wing then works as a handrail.

Damien LeRoy · WingWorld

This is the primary skill. It is worth several sessions.

Taxi across the wind, in both directions. Turn around, return, and do it again.

To keep the foil below the surface, keep enough weight on your front foot. Weight that moves back toward the tail lets the foil lift. If the board feels light, push down through the front foot.

Kitesurf College · Elite Watersports

Downwind is free. Upwind is what makes a session a return trip.

Look at the position where you want to go. Your shoulders, your waist and your hips follow your eyes. That aims the board and puts the pull of the wing into your legs.

Feet: point the front foot forward, slightly off the centreline on the upwind side. Put the back foot across the centreline toward the back. Push the back leg toward the wind and put more weight on your back heel.

Wing: hold it closer to the leading edge. Pull the front hand in a small amount and push the back hand out a small amount. Keep the wing at approximately 45° across the board. Move it back a small amount to turn upwind. Then always return it to the middle to keep your speed.

On a SUP: the fins are all at the back, so the board turns downwind continuously. Keep the wing high and the pull small. Put weight on the upwind rail. Lean onto your heels so that the rail goes into the water. With no centre fin, stand as far back above the fins as you can, and move your front foot toward the upwind rail so that the board acts as a fin. Keep your speed, because fins hold only when water moves across them.

Watch out: the strong lean on the upwind rail is a SUP technique. On a foil board, keep the board flat with the mast vertical. A rail lean there is mostly drag. The part that applies to both is weight to the back and back-foot pressure to turn upwind.

SUPboarder · Robby Naish · Scott Miller · Damien LeRoy · WingWorld

This turn gains ground upwind. The other turn loses it.

1. Move the wing toward the tail and step back. The nose turns up into the wind.
2. As the nose goes through the wind, step forward to hold your balance.
3. Move the wing above your head and change hands.
4. Move the wing forward again to start across the wind, then return it to the middle.

Look through the turn, at the position where you are going. Do not look back at the wing. Stay low. Keep the board moving. Look for the wing only when you are around and moving again.

Watch out: a lean back and a look at the wing during the turn is the cause of almost every failed tack. The board stalls and stops. Stay forward.

Slingshot · KT Surfing · Sam Light

The same turn as on your knees. One item of timing is more important here.

Move the wing toward the nose to start downwind. Then, before the board points fully downwind, move the wing above your head, release the back hand and move the front hand across. Put the new back hand on the wing and let the pull turn you.

If you do this too late, you move with the wind and you have no pull left to complete the turn.

Kitesurf College · Elite Watersports

This one rule decides whether the turn works. Practise it as its own drill.

When you can ride long distances without a fall, use whole sessions to turn around and ride back. A turn is the only time when the board rotates instead of moves forward. If the rotation stops halfway, you fall. A board that does not move has no force that holds you up.

Learn the turn on your knees first, even if you already ride standing. Go back onto your knees for it. The kneeling position gives you more balance and lets you stop for a moment while you learn the movement.

To start the turn, release the back hand, put it on the leading edge, and push on it. You now lean on the wing, and that is what lets you turn the board with your feet.

Make one continuous movement from one side to the other at a constant speed, through the full 180°. Your feet can do this in three ways: many small steps, one large step at the point of maximum twist, or a change of feet before the turn. When you are around on the new side, hold the handles and go.

Watch out: late foot movement is the usual failure. You stop leaning on the wing, so you no longer turn the board. You then only move your weight on a board that has stopped, and it becomes unstable immediately. You can hold the boom instead of the leading edge, but then a fall over the side is more probable.

WingWorld

After a turn you stand in the wrong direction. This is the correction.

Wait until you move across the wind and the board is stable. Do not do this during a turn. You can change your feet in one movement, but it is easier in two: move your feet closer together, then make a small jump to change them.

The rule that makes it work: keep both feet centred on the same point at all times. If your feet move forward or back off that point, the trim of the board changes below you and you lose your balance.

Kitesurf College

You have a good side and a bad side. Only the good side improves without attention.

One direction feels natural. It is the same direction that you use on a skateboard or a snowboard. The other direction feels difficult. This is normal, and it does not correct itself while you ride your good side.

Practise the difficult direction on purpose. Use ten minutes in each direction, and change, instead of 30 minutes in the easy direction.

Robby Naish · Damien LeRoy

You will fall many hundreds of times. An incorrect fall damages expensive equipment.

When you fall, do not pull the wing down with you and do not land on it. The wing is a sewn inflated structure. The joint between the strut and the leading edge takes all of your weight if you land on it.

You can often recover a backward fall. Pull the back hand in and let the wing hold you up. Then get on the board from the upwind side and start again.

Robby Naish · WingWorld

One control sets your height. Learn it before your first flight.

Weight toward the tail turns the front wing of the foil up. The foil then makes more lift and you rise. Weight toward the nose turns it down. The foil then makes less lift and you go down.

That is the complete rule. Height is a decision about the position of your weight along the board.

Kitesurf College

The objective of your first foiling session is a short flight that you ended on purpose.

1. Move across the wind with weight on the front foot to build speed.
2. When you have speed, press the back foot briefly. Add only a small amount of weight, so that the board stays almost level and rises slowly.
3. If the board continues to rise, move your weight slightly forward to level it.
4. To return to the water, push the back hand out. A wing in flight needs less pull than a wing that taxis.
5. Move more weight onto the front foot and let the board return to the water. A higher wing also removes some pull.

Make many short flights, not one long flight. The exercise is the change between the two conditions.

Watch out: too much weight on the back foot turns the board and the foil up together. The board continues to rise and the foil comes out of the water. Be gentle and rise slowly.

Kitesurf College

A foil does not need a long fast run. It needs load.

Move the board across the wind. Wait until you feel the pull fill the wing. Then pump the board: press from the front foot to the back foot, as you do to ollie a skateboard. This loads the front wing of the foil. The load lifts you, not the speed alone.

When the nose comes off the water, move your hips forward above your front foot. Then hold a constant pressure on the front foot.

If your speed is close to flying speed but not enough: aim across the wind, build your best speed, wait for a gust, and add a few pumps of the wing.

Watch out: very light wind needs pumping of the wing and pumping of the foil at the same time. That is a separate and much more advanced skill. It is the reason that light wind take-offs fail.

Robby Naish · Damien LeRoy · Kitesurf College

There are three causes. Correct the correct one instead of repeating the attempt.

• The speed is too low. Below flying speed, pressure on the back foot does nothing, or lifts you and then stalls. If you raise the nose before you have speed, you make the speed lower.
• The course is too far upwind. You lose speed and never reach the threshold.
• The course is downwind. Movement with the wind reduces the wind at the wing. The wing then stops pulling and stops supporting you.

So: build speed across the wind, with weight on the front foot and the board flat, to make the drag as low as possible. Then press the back foot.

Kitesurf College

You have about one second to correct both. Neither is optional.

The pull. On the surface you pull hard against the drag of the board in the water. In flight almost all of that drag stops. If you keep the same pull, you accelerate to a speed that you are not ready for. Reduce the pull. A flight needs very little power. Also keep some pressure on the front foot, or the foil lifts too much and comes out of the water.

The steering. On the surface you steer by movement of the wing forward and back. In flight a very small lean steers instead. Toes down turns you downwind quickly. Heels down turns you upwind quickly. Stand upright, in line with the mast, and keep the wing above your head instead of in front of you.

Kitesurf College · Robby Naish

This is the specific first-flight crash. Learn it before it occurs.

On the surface you lean back on your heels to balance a powered wing. If you keep that lean in flight, the foil turns hard upwind. Sometimes it turns you completely around. The wind then catches the top of the wing and puts you in the water.

So, as you feel the board rise, reduce the heel lean to almost nothing. A small lean is sufficient to balance the wing, and it is sufficient to ride upwind.

If you correct too much, you lean on your toes and turn downwind. Stay between the two, upright above the mast.

Kitesurf College