Kitesurfing Basics: Drift Launching (Lake Weyba Setup)

Here's a little video on how to setup and launch at one of our local kitesurfing locations, Lake Weyba.
Weyba is a great little kiting location, flat water, limited water traffic and a huge open space of shallow water to take advantage of. Perfect for learning and progressing.
Being surrounded by trees a conventional beach launch isn't possible to perform safely, so self launching must be done via a drift launch.
George runs us through how to safely get yourself launched and on the water at Lake Weyba using a drift launch, some of the do's and don'ts.
Stay tuned for more kiting content, some more basics on setup, safety, self launching and landing coming soon!
Outro music used royalty free with attribution from bensound.com

[@ourrealitytravels]

Great vid mate, nice and simple. Thanks.

[@julianabrahams9697]

Thanks for the great video. I'm planning on spending some time near Weyba to get some solid training in. (Been learning in small increments for a couple years now. How is the wind at Weyba around Oct?

[@AdventureSportsAU]

Hi Julian, no worries October is usually great for wind at lake weyba. If you take a look at our website there is a guide on the different wind seasons here but Oct is usually pretty good in most years even if we have and early or late season.

[@joehozzy2616]

Safest technique I have seen on youtube so far. I have tried the wrap lines around bar method and it didn't work for me (dangerous). Thank you!

[@AdventureSportsAU]

Thanks Joe! Yeah we don't recommend wrapping your lines if you can avoid it, as you're effectively disabling your safety & release until they're all unwound again. So long as you've got a little bit of clear shoreline to access the water this method is usually pretty safe and effective.

[@nicolasboudet9302]

You are lucky to be in very shallow water. On my home lake the water is very deep , the wind often side on from the small place to go to the water without trees or other plants so it is quite difficult to use your technique and there is a big tree on the shore just on the way between the position where I can park my kite on the shore and the perpendicular position where I may swim with the bar, the lines and the board. In addition the wind is very perturbâtes on the shore which is also quite steep! Any recommendations for this configuration?🤓

[@AdventureSportsAU]

Hi Nicolas. Your location doesn't sound ideal. Without seeing it, it isn't really possible to make a recommendation. If the wind was cross onshore, you could swim out and do a boat launch technique, but with cross shore conditions, that could result in needing to abandon your gear if it doesn't go perfectly. Considering that a drift launch or boat launch can fail from time to time, we wouldn't recommend you use these options unless you are willing to totally release and possibly lose/damage your kite. If you have a boat, with a small motor and can use it in this location, there are options which we can discuss if you have that option.

[@nicolasboudet9302]

@@AdventureSportsAU it is not possible to use a boat, the only ways are swimming or use the wind pull when possible🥺

[@AdventureSportsAU]

@@nicolasboudet9302 yeah that makes it pretty hard to self launch. If you can have someone assist you can swim out while they hold the kite, a bit tricky but can be done. On your own it is quite difficult. If you don't have clear access to the water you will need to enter the water with your lines wound (after setting up on the beach). You then hold your kite and then unwind them, letting them drift down wind before putting your kite down to drift. Do not let go of your kite until your lines are fully unwound and appear to be free and clear. This is quite a risky and dangerous method, as if anything goes wrong during the process you will likely not have your safety in action yet, and will need to fully release the kite meaning it can get lost or damaged etc. It only really works if there is enough current/wind to pull your lines down wind and you often need to swim backwards while holding all your gear etc. If you're in deep water it can be very hard to stay up wind of your lines as your kite will want to drag you down wind too. You can do this method with a small pontoon like a SUP or kayak which is anchored in the water instead of a boat, this makes it a lot easier but it is still a risky method. Honestly I wouldn't recommend it unless you are quite experienced, and even then, there are a lot of ways it can go wrong because the entire time from the beach to the launch you effectively have no flagging safety system. Even when you unwind your lines and let them out it is easy to get a tangle, and this means your safety line might not be running free. If you look up some boat launching videos (we haven't made one yet unfortunately) this might give you some ideas on how to handle your location. Your conditions are similar to a boat launch, where you have minimal space and deep water. Unfortunately some locations can be simply too difficult and dangerous to self-launch safely, sounds like yours might be quite challenging. Always better to get assistance where you can.

[@devmich99]

And you just realised that you've forgotten your board ;-)

[@AdventureSportsAU]

We have a handy little buoy at the lake we tie them to, but yep, you definitely need to keep an eye on your board while you launch.

[@beleg1437]

Every other launch video I've watched says not to hook in the chicken loop when you did. Too soon.

[@AdventureSportsAU]

With modern release systems there is much less reason to remain unhooked. There are pros and cons to both, but in our experience the risk of tangling or incorrectly hooking in at the last minute outweighs the benefits that come with staying unhooked. All it takes is to pick up your bar the wrong way etc. and you can end up in strife. It's a hold over from the days where release systems were much more clunky and unreliable, likely still a good idea if you are on older equipment. Do what you feel more comfortable with, but we no longer encourage people to stay unhooked, at least in our conditions here.

[@beleg1437]

@@AdventureSportsAU Thanks for the response. I had not heard that side of the story yet.

[@theaoooooo]

@@beleg1437 If you can make sure you can eject when shit happen then you would be better hook in.