Easy Kiteboarding Beach Start - RIDE with Blake

Hey, what's up guys? Blake from MACkite here. I've been pretty busy traveling the past few months, taking a little break, but it's good to be back and making some tutorial videos. I've got a really fun trick for you today, the beach start, and I'm excited to go over it.

This is a really fun trick because, instead of having to do your traditional "flying the kite, holding the board, walking into the water, putting it on your feet, and then sinking in", you can start right off the beach without even getting wet, hop out into the water, and then just ride off and keep going. It's a really fun way to start and it's pretty easy, quite simple, and just a few steps.

Step number one is to simply put your front foot in the front strap. Fly your kite over your head, put the board down onto the beach, slide your front foot into the front strap, and get situated, comfortable, and ready to go.

Step number two is to have your back foot on the heelside edge. You don't want to be standing in front of the toeside edge because then the board will hit you in the back of the ankle. Pull up on the front foot in order to get the board off the sand and then extend your back foot and basically just hop as the kite pulls you. You can pull in on the bar to get some lift. Hop with your back foot out to the shoreline where the water is.

Step number three is that, right as you're in the water reaching ankle or shin deep, you're going to slowly send the kite in the direction that you're going to go, because that will pull you into the start just as if you were starting in the water. It's the same thing; it's just that now you're hopping on one leg and sending the kite as you're about to start to pull you and get you going and riding in that direction.

Step number four is to pull up on your front foot so that it doesn't get suctioned to the water. Right as you're sending your kite, then after that pull up on your front foot so that it keeps the board off of the water so it doesn't catch. If you keep your board on the water, it can suction and pull you off or pull you over your front edge. So just lift up on it so it doesn't catch the water and that'll keep you from getting pulled over the front or leaning too far back and having the board slide out from under you.

Step number five is where you're going to jump off your back foot and slide it into the strap. The kite is already going down, pulling on the bar, and it takes you off, riding out into the sea.

That is how you do a beach start, about the easiest one I can think of. You can also do jumping beach starts or starts where you just toss your board and hop on and jump into the straps, but with your foot already in the front strap, it's a nice, easy way to get into it where you're not sinking in the water and starting like that.

I hope this video helped you out and gave you another tip on something fun to do in kiteboarding. There's so much to learn and there's always something new that you can practice, so let me know how it goes for you. I'm looking forward to continuing these videos and teaching you a bunch of other fun stuff. I hope you have a great week and we'll see you next time.