Ryan set up his kite and I watched. Then, he launched and went out into the water. I watched him as he struggled to keep an edge in a very gusty wind. Then, knowing I had 2 hours to kill, I went back to the truck and grabbed my Beamer 3.6. It was windy enough to get some 3+ foot jumps on the beach.

Later, after Ryan was done with about 90 minutes on the water, Mark arrived to assist with the lesson. We set up down the beach... away from innocents. They had me fly the slingshot b5 first.

Slingshot B5 is similar to this kite

They had me do some turning and practice landings. I'm guessing that was an effort to evaluate my current level of knowledge. It was kind of fun because Ryan and Mark did all of the grunt work. Ryan layed out the lines before we flew the kite. Then, when we were done, Mark wrapped everything up while Ryan set up the second kite.

The second kite, a Slingshot 6

(The green area near the bottom left/right of the above half dome)

While I was flying the Slingshot 6, I wore the harness.

Once I was comfortable with this kite, they directed me out into the water (while I was still steering the kite in the air). Once in the water, Ryan quickly instructed me in the wonders of body-dragging. And, I was off. Once I was sufficiently on my way to Canadia, Mark told me to start dragging back toward shore. Quickly, I changed direction of the kite. A bit too quickly. The kite shot through the strongest part of the wind window and dragged me along at break-neck speed. Once through the power zone, the kite slammed into the water, inflatable edge first making a loud smack as it splashed in. This began the lesson on water re-launching.

Water re-relaunching isn't fun, so I'll learn not to crash the kite as quickly as I can.

Next, after we got the kite back into the air, Mark came out with the kiteboard. It was time to put my feet in the straps. This in an awkward feeling. you're laying in the water with a kite attached to your waist and your feet up in these straps on a board floating on top of the water. This, all while you're steering the kite with (most of the time) one hand on the bar. At this point, you're supposed to steer the kite into the power zone at the edge of the wind window nearest the direction you would like to go. When the kite pulls, you keep the board between you and the kite until the speed and power of the kite pull you up to a position where you can keep the board planing. That didn't happen for me because the kite we were using was too small for the winds. After my closest attempt at getting up on the board, the wind died. Mark kept saying, "One more launch." while we waited for the wind... and waited and waited. The wind finally came... when we were back up at our cars putting away our gear.

Mark and Ryan are great instructors. They really earn every penny they charge for the lesson.

At the end of the day, Mark said that I was doing great and he basically approved me for moving on to my bigger kite. I need to finish making my board before I can do any 'boarding', but I'll body drag every chance I get until it is done.