Billy down the green always asks “How do I do this handlepass” or, “How do I do that handlepass”. The problem Billy has is he only just learnt front rolls and back rolls so when he goes for one of the new school handlepasses and gets it all wrong I say “Back to Basics Billy!”, just like Neal Hilder Bells used to tell me when I got into unhooking. One of the best basics probably has to be the 180. Massively overlooked due to the 360 (or ‘Flat 3′), 540 or 720 the 180 can actually be just as fun and is a good place to start with handle-passes.

1) First of all let’s find a smallish kicker to start with. Start looking for one in the distance.

2) Here’s a good one. Small but it will do the job. Even off a small kicker if you time your takeoff right before the wave breaks you can get a good bit of height. Go in fast edging for power and unhook just before the kicker.

3) Pop off the kicker keeping your elbows into your chest and push down on the bar. This will keep your weight over the bar making it easier to pass as the kite won’t be pulling it away. Try to time how fast your rotating in relation to your height. Already you can start to spot the landing as your looking down. A good tip I’ve heard of from other riders when learning this is to look at your toeside edge on the way round.

4) Eyes on the landing still and hold off the pass as you rotate round. Passing the bar too early is a classic mistake as you can be concentrating on the bar pass rather then the rotation leading to an off balanced position. Only once your facing away from the kite go for the pass. Most of the rotation should already be complete by the time you get your other hand on.

5) Try and take the landing. Landing slightly over your heels is preferred as you can ride out some power heading towards the kite and absorb a lot of power through the legs. Landing heavily on the toeside edge can drive you away from the kite which can power it back up before everything is under control. In some cases landing heavily on the toeside can deliver a face first entry into the water. A successful difficult landing can be described as a “Good Take”.

Learning to pop to blind and pass the bar afterwards can really help with the 180 because the body movement is very similar. A good tip when going for any pass is to try and rotate around the bar rather then passing the bar behind you. After a while you can build the speed up more and decrease the kite angle for one of the best feeling tricks I think there is in kitesurfing.

p.s thanks to Martyn Wells for the photos.

Kitesurfing with the use of a surfboard has become increasingly mainstream, with the majority of riders having a surfboard with or with out straps in their quiver. For those wanting to progress on the waves who have not come from a surfing background, this simple guide on surfboard designs will enable you to know what does what. Surfboards differ in terms of length, width, thickness, rocker, rail shape and tail shape, but once you have this lot worked out you can tweak your ride with a change of fins.

Length is always a compromise. Larger boards pick up waves earlier and glide well, whilst also getting around sections easily; on the other hand shorter boards are more maneuverable and respond quicker feeling alive under your feet. However don’t make the mistake of buying a board that is too short for you, as it will make it harder to catch those much-needed waves.

Wider surfboards have more buoyancy, consequently they get going earlier and pick up tiny waves as the width makes up for a large part of the boards surface area. More surface area means less drag, thus better glide and better distribution of weight. However, narrow boards allow you more control and less bounce, letting cut backs and punching through any wind driven chop easier.

Thickness of the board determines how buoyant the board is. Surfers rely on a buoyant board to allow them to pick up waves when paddling, on the other hand, kites have the power of the kite to tow them in, and so whilst it remains important is it not such a vital aspect as it is for a surfer. Surfers find a buoyant board to their advantage as it helps them pick waves up early, however for kiters it poses the problem that it can also become bouncy quick and it lacks in maneuverability.

A board with flat rocker will be nice and flat leaving more board in the water when riding, this creates a more stable board giving it improved drive and overall a larger planing area. A board with more rocker will be highly maneuverable enabling you to throw the board around quicker and ride bigger waves. Also, a board with heaps of nose rocker is less likely to dig in to the face of the wave. Tail rocker makes the board more and more maneuverable but what you must note is that as a result it creates more drag.

The rail on the surfboard is the edge joining the top and bottom of the board. Different rail shapes determine how the board flows through the water when riding. Soft rails are generally rounded and smooth generating good stability and lots of drive. Whilst this allows the board to be easy to ride, it can sometimes lack performance. Hard rails are often finished off into a corner or commonly on a good distinctive edge, however more positively to soft rails, these boards snap into turns making it quicker and tighter when hitting top and bottom turns.

There are many different tail shapes out there, but I am going to quickly cover the most common:

Squashtail = Most common tail shape on surfboard. Squashtail gives a stable ride but leaves the board relatively loose. Ideal for small and overhead waves.

Squaretail = Less common, The squaretail makes for a maneuverable board. Not recommended in overhead waves.

Rounded Pintail = Makes a board that bites extremely well, holding in the extremes as there is nothing stopping the flow of water release. The rounded pintail is great for a large powerful hollow surf.

Pintail = Pintail bites better and even longer then the rounded pintail. It’s dedicated to larger, powerful tube riding waves.

Swallowtail = The swallowtail is a hybrid of the squaretail and pintail so you get lots of drive and sensitivity at the same time. Great for creating drive on smaller surf but also fine in larger surf assuming the swallow isn’t to big.

Bat-tail = A Bat-tail is simply a swallowtail with a little added stability.

The world record wind speed in a non-tornadic environment was set in the United States in 1934. This world record wind speed still stands unchallenged today at 231 mph as measured by a heated rotation anemometer. The winds were so strong the anemometer was reported to have broken.

Others have argued that a wind gust of 207 mph at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland would actually have been higher because of where it was measured. Even so, nothing beats the amazing wind speed of the highest recorded wind in a tornado. That record was determined via Doppler Radar near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The wind speed was an incredible 302 mph on May 3, 1999.

As a strict kitesurfer (I only fly kites on the sea) I have always been amazed by the thought of Terrain, going up or down it, or as in the video below over the whole lot. Apart from Waves the sea is controlled by gravity, it will always be flat. Kitesurfing boasts many sports within it which is something I like to refer to a lot (Waveriding, Speed, Hangtime, Freestyle, Racing, Wakestyle etc etc) Snow kiting on the other hand takes in many of these divisions (apart from Waves obviously) but there is one side to this sport which is very unique. That is the ability to jump off the side of hills/mountains and fly.

People often talk about influences from other sports but never has their been such close comparisons to them. Speed Flying and Paragliding look very similar to this. The more you see of this type of thing as a ‘kitesurfer’ the more you think about spending a season in the snow. After all every kitesurfer loves jumping off the sand dunes.