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3 Mistakes Every New Kitesurfer Makes
After years of riding, I've made a lot of mistakes along the way. The funny thing about kitesurfing is no one wants to show themselves riding bad or crashing. It occurred to me I can think of hundreds of mistakes I've made along the way. I'll be dropping these mistake videos along the way and I may even start intentional filming the right way vs the wrong way in future videos. This is going to be a fun one so lets dive right into it.
Mistake One - Riding Overpowered
Kitesurfers ofte
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2nd Nov 2020
Kitesurfing: New Rules of Navigation
This video has been on my mind forever. I know it's going to drive some of you crazy but it must be said. Different Rules of Navigation should be observed in flat water spots. Like a slick behind a sandbar, an island or a jetty. A buddy of mine Leo Chen put it best. It's not about possession of the spot. It's about thoughtful use of a rare resource.
Flat water is hard to come by and sought after for riders who are pushing their progression on the water. Love or hate this idea, I think we c
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22nd Oct 2020
Toeside to Heelside Transitions
Today we are going over toeside to heelside transitions. Before trying this, you should know how to ride toeside and make a transition.
Always remember to visualize a trick before trying it. Get these 5 easy steps in your head and see yourself doing it before going out and giving it a try!
Step One: Send Kite
Send the kite slowly across the wind window with the bar sheeted out, keep your hands in the middle of the bar.
Step Two: Follow the Kite
Twist with your shoulder and hips foll
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19th Oct 2020
How to Ride Toeside kitesurfing
Step One - Park your Kite
Park the kite around a 45 degree angle. This applies whether you are going to your right or left. Keep the kite stable partially sheeted out. Park it high but not too high. If the kite is near noon, It will pull you off your edge.
Step Two - Edge and Twist
Twist into the wind so that your chest is facing upwind. While doing this, engage your heel edge and shift your feet so that your toeside edge is now digging in. As you twist you should naturally feel th
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14th Oct 2020
Frontroll Kiteloops - The Fastest Way
The Frontroll Kiteloop is one of the most exciting and scary tricks in kiteboarding. The key to learning this move is to start doing kiteloops… a lot of them! Thing is, those are kind of intimidating too! The trick to learning this is to start in extremely light winds. I'm talking about the kind of conditions where you're riding and the wind gets so light you can kind of stay upwind, you can kind of jump and you're ready to put up a bigger kite or get off the water. When this happens, you can
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14th Oct 2020
Three Tips for Better Kitesurfing Pop
Kiteboarders are obsessed with getting more air, more height and more power into their tricks. At the end of the day, there are no shortcuts to improving skill on the water, only practice. That said, there are some things you can do that over time are going to have a huge impact on your riding and your pop.Tip One - Ride Finless
Take the next 2 - 4 months and commit to riding without fins on your twintip. At first, everything is going to be more difficult. You'll find that you can't stay
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24th Sep 2020
Raley to Blind
The Raley to Blind is a critical step in your unhooked freestyle journey. It's typically the first fundamental move to be paired with a rotation. In our “Unhooked Fundamentals” playlist, I hammered home the point that all advanced moves are combinations of the fundamentals.
This lower intermediate move is the first progression towards the Blind Judge, the Blind Judge 3, 5 and beyond. Once you get comfortable landing this to blind, you can pair the rotation with the Backroll and the Frontro
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22nd Sep 2020
Kiteloop Back Roll - Ride with Blake
Today we're covering one of the most sought-after tricks in kiteboarding: the backroll kiteloop, also known as the F-16. This doesn’t have to be a scary trick. Actually, most people accidentally do backroll kiteloops as they are learning their first backrolls because it is natural to pull in on your back hand as you throw the rotation.
The only thing that makes this trick scary is when you don’t know what you are doing and it gets out of control. If you can follow
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20th May 2019
Down Loop Front Roll Transition - Ride with Blake
Today Rygo and I are going to be covering a very important topic, one that will change the way you transition forever. The reason downloops are so cool is because they're basically a shortcut to more powered transitions, used for riding waves, carving turns and riding in light winds. Make sure to do this while slightly under-powered to minimize risk of injury.
This is one of our more advanced videos. The good news is that we have three tutorials you should master before attemp
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2nd May 2019
How to Do an Unhooked Back Roll
Unhooked Back RollBasicsDifficulty 2Today we’re going to breakdown a heelside back roll. Learning the back roll is going to open the door to many other more advanced tricks that begin with this rotation. Tricks like the Back to Blind, the KGB or even Back Mobes. Like all sports, it comes down to repetition and practicing the basics. The Back Roll is often a misunderstood trick. Not because it's overly difficult but because people often mistake it for a flip and while you can invert you
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25th Apr 2019
How to Kiteloop: Down Loop Landings - Ride with Blake
Down Loops are the first step in learning kiteloops.
Today we are going to be going over how to land with a downloop. A downloop is different from a heli loop because they are more of a transitional loop used at the end of a jump, trick or transition. A heli loop will catch you softly, whereas a downloop will help, but more so pull you into the other direction. You may land hot, but it won’t be the same amount of pull as a kiteloop, Make sure always to land with your board pointed downwi
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22nd Apr 2019
How to do an unhooked raley
The Raley
Level: Basics
Difficulty: 2 of 10
Today we’re going to break down the raley. This is usually the first trick aspiring freestyle or wakestyle riders learn. It’s a must if you hope to progress into any other air tricks as they all stem from this basic maneuver. Best of all, it’s a lot easier than you think. While not overly difficult, the raley is at the heart of most freestyle tricks. Loads of tricks start with the raley and incorporate rolls or spins.
For example, a Blind Ju
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17th Apr 2019
Kiteboarding - How to pop unhooked
This blog will eventually be made into a complete beginners' unhooked playlist. Stand by while we film this spring.
This week we're going to break down the most fundamental move in kiteboarding: the pop. In freestyle kiteboarding, all advanced kiteboarding tricks can be broken down into smaller tricks. That means you have to master the basics, and it doesn’t get any more basic than a good pop. Think of this as your foundation whether you want to progress into air tricks, the park or just ge
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10th Apr 2019
Kiteboarding: Back Roll Tail Grab - Ride with Blake s3 ep6
The kiteboarding back roll with style
The Back Roll is often the first trick new kiteboarders learn. The thing is, as exciting as they are, at the end of the day, they don't look that great on their own. Now, add a grab. The Tail Grab is the easiest grab to pair with your Back Roll. It's also one of the better-looking grabs. For this playlist, our aim is to help you add a bunch of safe, good-feeling, easy tricks. These will improve your riding and style fast. These are non-inv
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24th Jan 2019
Kiteboarding: Back Roll Roast Beef Grab - Ride with Blake: s3 ep5
The roast beef is arguably the best looking grab you can pair with a back roll, especially if you follow the tenets of style from our first video in this playlist. It might look like a difficult grab, but it’s actually really easy if you learn the muscle memory of the grab first. This is a trick you can master hooked in and cross over to your unhooked riding if you really want to up your game. The secret to making this trick look good is keeping the kite low and letting it pull you through
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7th Jan 2019