KiteSOFAing Episode 6: Surfboard Tacks Kitesurfing

[@MichalTomaszewski-d9e]

OMG, I just tried that today on the session and finally it clicked! The tip to focus mostly on kite movement instead of the board is game changing!

[@progressionsports]

For all the tacks, kite is key - all of kiting really! But with the tacks its so easy to get the kite positioning wrong to start with. Glad its helping and keep focusing on this and your tacks will just get better and better 🤙

[@ilias2841]

Hello, this is the best and most precise instruction I've seen on the tack ever! Those cues are very helpful.

[@progressionsports]

Glad it was helpful!

[@samsongeller392]

Excellent ! Clear instruction !

[@joaoramos5678]

Here from Portugal, thanks, I've falling so many times trying it. Now I've a path to follow. I'll let you know. Tanks again!!!!

[@progressionsports]

Hope it helps!

[@markusbroyles1884]

Love this ! Thank you so much !!

[@progressionsports]

My pleasure, hope it helps and once you have this kite movement worked out it will unlock a whole load of progression in the future.

[@MrDISANSKI]

wow this is excelent. i think i understand what i was doing wrong after watching this :) will try again tomorrow :) thanks guys

[@progressionsports]

Any further success with your tacks?

[@alansim6127]

After few years of being able to occasionally tack am struggling to get my % up. Am sure I’ve been doing Stage 1 and 2 together so thanks for explaining so well and separating these out. Can’t wait to get out and try it.

[@progressionsports]

Glad its giving you some extra insight - love to know if it helps.

[@alansim6127]

@@progressionsports Definitely helping thanks. Realised that before I was gradually sheeting out and coming a bit inboard as kite was being brought up to 12.

[@nicolasboudet9302]

I was so pleased by your foot change vid that I reviewed this one on strapless tack. It gave me several clues of what I did wrong for years (e.g. sheeting out and carving upwind before having the kite at noon!) I think that feet movement during this tack (at least push tack) would be very useful to understand fully this complex move! Possible subject for your next vid?😎

[@progressionsports]

I definitely have a lot more to discuss on the tacks! I covered the kite movement first because its so often overlooked or skimmed over but it is the most crucial element (IMHO). Body position is next and it will come, whether that is as more KZbin videos or I hope to have a full premium Progression Tacking video which will cover it all. Love to know how your tacks progress now you have a better idea about the kite and bar positioning.

[@onurb.2770]

I was waiting for this for so loooong from Progression, please make a long version for the app.

[@progressionsports]

Definitely more tacking content to come. We'll see what format it comes in as I have some big changes for how we coaching in the future! But let me know if these kite movement tips help for now

[@sungbyun]

Looking forward to the full version on progression.me too.

[@Rhutt258]

This is an awesome vid Very good at explaining Thanks!

[@progressionsports]

Glad it was helpful!

[@thomassupertramp]

thank you so much !

[@4hoolie]

Great thanks 👍

[@AntonBrazhnyk]

Thanks a lot for such detailed video. The ones I could find before were so brief and short it made learning the tack a guess game. I wish I had the video before I started learning. Who knows how many mistakes I picked from that guess game. :)

[@progressionsports]

I hope it helps, understand the kite movement is so vital but overlooked by so many people. I'd love to know if it ups your success rate.

[@AntonBrazhnyk]

@@progressionsports Not kiting these days, but I'll remember to get back to the video when I'll get on the water.

[@samsongeller392]

Excellent !,

[@filippepericleous6613]

awesome thanks that helped heaps

[@progressionsports]

Glad it helped! 🤙

[@slogoheinzy8695]

thank you so much for this great video . please can you clarify exactly when the sheeting in begins ? my understanding is that you a) sheet out and carve to bring kite up to 12 b) sheet in as you rotate as this will give you lift to rotate - in conclusion, you dont sheet in untill you have carved and kite is at 12. do i have this correct ?

[@progressionsports]

Yes, the kite must be at 12 before you start carving and sheeted out. Then the sheeting in can be slow and progressive but you don't start until after you carve. The action of carving will give you stability from the momentum of the carve and you can initially lean back against the sheeted out kite to get tension. The sheeting in action helps to get your body back up over the board so you can rotate your body standing upright rather than couched down. I'll talk some more about the body and board positions in a future video.

[@slogoheinzy8695]

Many thanks.i believe I've been performing the polar opposite of this ie carving sheeting in and then sheeting out whilst rotating. I always get a wet bum !

[@onurb.2770]

After all these tries I am still struggling with tacking especially on the open sea when there is chop and big waves. At beachside, regardless it is N or SW wind at my local spot, I manage it most of the time when the water is flat. The usual suspect is that I sometimes do not manage to carve the tip of the board upwind somehow. I must say this is the the most difficult turn I have on kitesurfing.

[@mortenbrando]

Great video thanks - No dry land moves or muscle memory skills to practice for making tacks?

[@progressionsports]

Hey Morten, well I can't give away everything for free ;-) But yes dry land drills are super handy for the tacks. I'l do have a video planned that explains about beach drills in general. For now for something very dynamic like tack, grab your bar (with all the lines wrapped up) and walk through the whole movement. The key is to do it properly - NOT half heartily, limb and lacking energy - do it like you would on the water, muscles firing and engaged through your whole body, holding your bar, , acting out the kite moving, trying to work through each of the positions and get a feeling for where the bar will be in relation to your body at each stage. Also really think about where your weight is on your feet at each stage as that is so key to keeping the board gliding through out.

[@RG-sg6hx]

Thankyou so much for the video I noticed you do a roll tack and a push tack on the surfboard , do you use the PUSH tack on a foil or do you only use a ROLL tack?

[@progressionsports]

Hey RG. You can do both, I personally got into the push tack first as i could already do that on my surfboard and have ridden strapless on my foils pretty much the whole time. People coming from race backgrounds or using smaller more high performance foils will start with the roll. If you ride with straps you can't really push tack, you get tied up in the straps. I have just written a blog post which covers all of this: "Learning the Kitefoil Tack - Part 1 : Four Tacks but Where to Start?" www.progression.me/blog/learning-the-kitefoil-tack-part-1-four-tacks-but-where-to-start/

[@RG-sg6hx]

@@progressionsports Hi Rob thankyou for your reply, I can do the push tack on a surfboard, I have tried it on the foil , I carve upwind and the foil board is canted over to my heelside, then when I get lifted and change my feet the foilboard is still canted on the original heelside , this doesnt happen when I do it on a surfboard - any tips?