Just working up to mega loops.
I've got a few questions.
Now most guys appear to like 18-22m lines, but my experience with 20-26 makes me think it's safer to learn on the 26's. Let me explain......
I feel the trick with this is to not let the yank pull your centre of gravity away from landing directly downwind. Most of the time as long as I land backfoot first and directly downwind I have better success. So getting used to a little yank first makes sense before going for the 15m lines kite below your superman method. With the 26m lines the initial kiteloop is higher in the window, less kick. So the question is..... Do I stick with this until I make 20 or 30 in a row before moving onto the shorter lines? (Deeper kite loops)
The second question...... After the initial loop, I feel it's nearly always better to have the heli loop on the opposite side of the wind window. Is this a hard and fast rule? Everytime I've looped both times on the same side it ends badly.(feels like significantly less kite support)
Just trying to do this with the least chance of a major injury.
26m lines are not optimal as the kite is slower to turn. I find 22/23m to be the least extreme. I hate using short lines (ie 17 or 18 or even shorter) the Core videos make my knees shudder. As long as the wind is steady and strong I like 20m as the kite goes lower and catches you easier but if the wind is **** it can go badly. I'd go slightly shorter to get the most out of it.
Most of the time I second heliloop after I have landed. That's not by choice, it's just I either don't get enough height, or not windy enough. Keep in mind the pros are using 9m kites in 40 knots.
That being said. I did a loop the other day at Happy Valley, the wind was up and I was on my 7m. I completed the first loop, was still so far up in the air, I busted another loop the same direction. It was kind of unusual, must have been caught in an uplift.
Also use boots. It helps you commit and stop being a panzy. Plus the rocker in better with a wake style board.
When I second loop late, I also need to keep a hand on my chicken loop, sometimes you will get slack lines when you heading directly downwind.
last thing you want to do is unhook.
Have fun.
Also possible the deceleration I'm feeling isn't catch but just kiteloop braking effect from heli loop. Maybe I'm not letting the kite go behind far enough before I heliloop.
Played with an xensr and noticed hard landings (bad kite redirect or missed heli loop are around 3.5g's) but a good heli loop comes in under 1g on touchdown.
For reference....... My last failed mega loop had a 9g crash...... Or so the xensr said (though I was going to hospital for sure).
What's the difference between a kite loop or a mega loop?
I recon I have landed 200 loops, but only recon I have thrown a hand full of Megga Loops!
I prefer 24m lines. Harder to get higher with short 19m lines. Unless your using kickers!
Sav, what conditions and kite size are you looping in?
So I'm saying a mega loop kicks you almost horizontal, kite doesn't have to be below you but 45 degrees or shallower would be my standard. You definitely feel the extra lift up along with the kick.
Conditions vary a little, because I suck at it but never try less than 25-28knots up to high 30's, 10 or 8's only flat water with semi gusty wind. The gusty wind part is always in the back of my mind as I've had a few good wind direction change crashes. (simlar to a mid loop stall)
I 100% agree it harder to get solid height on shorter lines, that's half the reason I'm still on 26's.
Another question for people who have learnt this in the past few years,
How many heavy wipeouts did you have before you start getting 90% of them?
What hooked in tricks where you working on at the time you tried this? (just trying to gauge skill level)
Im currently trying to get Dimitri's toeside nose grab frontroll kiteloop transition. I'm missing it due to poor toeside popping technique......So I think anyways.
I thought a megaloop implied some type of deeper kiteloop jump, followed by some type of momentum braking kite manoeuvre. Would be similar to the difference between an underpowered Backmobe and an overpowered one (to use your analogy), both Backmobes but, one looks cooler than the other and the part I'm getting concerned about, one has more consequences.
I don't think you could ride away without the second loop (must be a reflex reaction), just seems to have too much downwind momentum.
Agree kite below you is a mega loop. But I'm over 30 and trying to learn this.
Also agree that the extra height I think I'm getting from 26m lines compared to 20 would not be beneficial if I looped the kite anywhere near horizontal ( forget about below). 6m is too much distance to make up (maybe I get 1-2 meters extra height from the 26m lines), so like you said it's too dangerous to go horizontal.
Again I'm just learning this trick, spent hrs watching videos and still cannot nail it. I'm still working on controlling the deeper loops to not pull my body off centre. Gone in head/neck first a few times and consider myself lucky to not be injured already.
So Kozzie you don't think that 26's allow you to loop the kite higher in the wind window, meaning less kick and shorter distance for the kite to come back overhead?
I have very fast turning kites but the shorter the lines the closer the kite comes to the water on the loop (assuming similar input force).
Kozzie, do you have to alternate the side of the window with the 2 kiteloops?
ditch the 26m lines and use a wave as a ramp to make it easier for you.
with your "second" loop guessing you mean the one you use to land its going to be better to alternate it from the first one. useually its ramp a wave jump backhand megaloop then forhand kiteloop as you land and to stop any penuleming and keep kite moving so you can ride away.
hope that answers what you are asking
you need to figure out if you want to do a kiteloop or a megaloop. its not like you can build yourself upto a mega by doing deeper kiteloops at 45 degrees or whatever your trying. you just need to make sure its the perfect conditions to throw a megaloop (short lines small c kite super windy board with rocker helps for landing boots help it from flinging off a big ramp will help with your height and getting the kite under you. if its not all these conditions then just forget about "practiceing it" and just work on your kiteloops.
oh and when you do finally pull the trigger wear a vest ive fractured ribs and got winded so bad thought i was just going to drown slowly. seriously the impact of not getting caught by your kite after a megaloop is intense its what i can only imagine shellshock is like you cant breath your in agony cant move and your minds raceing i swear even my hearing was ****ed from the impact for ahwhile.
oh and also that "pull" you seem to want to eliminate by useing longer lines... that pull is what allows you to get so horizontal and the kite to get under ya, its all or nothing with these.
- Jeff Tobias arguably did the first proper Kiteloop and it was called as such for a pretty long time (2003-4).
- Bertrand Fluery was the next guy to push it hard often on super short lines and was going fully above the kite, catching the wind again sometimes and riding it out smooth (2004-7).
- Booney and Balls (Australians, Melbourne) Invented the Kiteloop Handlepass not long after seeing Jeff Kiteloop. Their idea was to get fully above the kite and then do a 360 or Mobe. They did KL3, KLkgb and a few others before anyone else did it. They stopped doing them not long after when people started doing a little loop above their head and making it look crappy.
- A while later either Ruben or Aaron (I think) decided to call it a "Megaloop" to draw attention to what they were doing, they didn't do anything that hadn't already been done or named previous.
You can't really "Kiteloop" when in contact with the water, that's called a Downloop, or Downturn. (Downloop used to be known as a forward kiteloop jump).
While you may think it makes sense to call a big Kiteloop a "Megaloop" it really doesn't... Do you make a distinction between a "jump" and a "megajump"? No. Also it's all in the eye of the beholder, just because you give it a new name because of height doesn't mean someone will use that name right .
Out of curiosity, dose this happen to anyone else. Kite looping in the flats I get a solid pull and a good catch. And the same sesh I'll go out to the waves, get good hight but not much side pull and zero catch. It just feels like free falling straight after I start the loop. This happen to anyone else?