Board-Off Breakthrough | Land Drills for Kiteboarding Tricks That Stick

You've got jumping down pat and can even style it out with a tail grab in your sleep. Then you mastered one-footers. Ready for your first board-off? Yep, completely bare-footed while you wave your board in the air like a trophy and somehow get it back on your feet before you go swimming. Sound fun? Of course it does! Thankfully, Dave has some tips to get you there with only minimal swimming.

Practice Makes Perfect

We'll start simple. This board-off involves grabbing your board's handle, removing the board, and then placing it back on your feet before riding off into the sunset. Easy, right? But hold on there, cowboy! Before you mount up, let's try it without the kite.

Since you can already maneuver the kite through a nice, lofty jump, what you really need is to practice taking the board on and off your feet. It sounds easy enough, but being up in the air with no board to land on makes your mind do strange things. You need to gain the muscle memory to get the board on and off your feet without a second thought. Then you can focus on the kite and without worrying about your feet and their lack of a board.

In your downtime, grab your board and kick off your shoes. You can practice on the couch while watching TV, on the grass while the kids play, or at the beach while you're waiting on the wind. Have a seat, then put your board on. Now take it off. Now put it on again. Repeat. And repeat.

Mix it up a little. Pretend the breeze caught your board and blew it into a weird angle. Or maybe that takeoff wasn't perfect. Now you're a bit twisted to one side... you get the idea. Cover every situation you can think of so the muscle memory is there when you need it.

Sure, it's not as fun as getting out there and going for it, but you're going to get so many more reps sitting on dry land than you are trying and crashing in the water. You'll come out way ahead if you invest some time into taking your board on and off.

Give It a Go

Once you've had your dry land "session", go ahead and get in the water. Go for it. And after you come back in, use what you learned to practice the motion again. Work on the parts that gave you trouble. Work on extending your legs after the board is off. You don't want to stay crunched up. Not only does it not look as good, but you'll be trying to bring the board up to your feet rather than giving your feet some momentum to meet the board halfway.

The key is to be so comfortable with having your board off your feet that you feel calm when you do this trick. Remember, it's ok if you don't get the board back on in time. You'll splash down, drag back to your board, and try again.

Lose Your Board, Not Your Mind

In fact, the first time you go out to try your board-offs, you should lose your board. On purpose. Take it off, hold it out a couple seconds, then toss it safely away at a 45-degree angle from your back foot. You won't land on it, and it'll be easy to get back to it there.

There is a very important reason to practice doing this deliberately. If you have your board in your hand and realize you won't have enough time to get it back on, your instinct is to hold onto the board so it's already in your hand when you land in the water. This is a great way to end your season early. Even if you feel like you're coming down gently, you'll sink and your board won't. Your arm and shoulder will be forced up, quickly, at an intensely painful angle. If you jump with the intent to take your board off and throw it away, you'll get used to doing that when you need to. It'll be no big deal and you'll stay safe.

Once you're comfortable with having no board on your feet while you're flying above the water, you can practice putting the board back on. Your body will know what to do and your mind will be calm. Bring the kite to 12, jump, bring your legs up, get the board off and extend your legs down, pause a second, and then see if you can put it back on.

If not, you already know what to do. And if you succeed, you'll have the presence of mind to control your kite through its arc as you come in for a controlled landing.

Go Big

Another tip that will boost your success rate is to take out a bigger kite so you can get long, lofty jumps. More airtime means more time to get through the whole board-off.

Take Your Time

Most tricks can really only be practiced on the water. It may feel a little frustrating to be sitting on land practicing your board-offs when you just want to get out there and go for it, but it's really a good thing that you can get so much practice in so quickly. Everything will go that much more smoothly once you do get your kite out.

Of course, there will still be missteps, but those happen when learning any new trick. Enjoy the process and celebrate each victory that brings you one step closer to mastery. Remember, you learn just as much from the times you don't succeed as the times you do. We'll see you on the water!

MACkite Subscription Links:

YouTube  |   Instagram  |   Spotify Oddcasts

Contact MACkite Below:

800.622.4655  |   Kiteboarder@MACkite.com  |   LIVE Chat Messenger