A little inspiration for anyone getting out this weekend:
Front Blind Mobe – Aaron Hadlow:
Double Back Roll One Footer – James Busse:
S-bend to Blind with an Airpass: James Busse:
Planning on hitting the water this weekend? What tricks are you gonna be trying?
Users of the Progression Player and subscribers of our monthly newsletter have already had access to this short video that’s for anyone wanting a little inspiration to spice up their next session!
Everyone has to turn around at some point, whatever level you’re at, the Progression Trick Wheel will highlight 9 different tricks all based around the fundamentals of edging, jumping and rotations. Take a look, get inspired and trying something new when you next hit the water:
Many of these tricks are available through The Progression Player iOS App or the Progression Intemediate Volume 2 & Advanced DVDs.
How many of these tricks do you do?
This month we’re taking the Name that Trick Competition back a stage, away from all the powered handle passes and showcasing some of the amazing freeriding style of Airush Pro Rider & Dutch Champ Bas Koole! The aim is the same as before, take the two mashed up tricks and tell us the full trick names – submitting your answer on our Facebook Competition page.
This month we’ve got some great prizes from X3 with their Kite Compression Kits – reduce the size of packed up kites by three times, a massive help when you are packing for a kite trip and need to squeeze everything into one board bag! Check out more on the kits at the Modern Fuel website.
I remember going down the beach with my powerkite, flying around having a great time on land, while guys were out on the water going big and throwing some amazing old school tricks which were not so old school at that time 
Riders such as Steve Kelner, Jason Furness and Brian Kelner were the local hot shots at my beach, and at that time kitesurfing was about sending it hard and and getting that board off your feet.
It took a few years before I took the plunge and got on the water. When i came to learn my first tricks the spotlight was on nailing unhooked tricks and kiteloops. These took me a while to do, but i managed to add raleys, s-bends, surface passes, krypts, f16s and dangle passes into my trick list, any urge to learn board offs had disappeared with the experience of unhooking.
Unfortunately last year I had a nasty accident and dislocated my shoulder quite badly. It took 12 months of physio and a full on operation to get things working again. However my arm no longer sits in its original place and i have found unhooking is putting too much stress on my joint.
The reason i love this sport is due to it’s versatility, and the fact i couldn’t unhook anymore was upsetting but I can still work on my hooked in style and wave-riding.
Now I really wanted to start trying some board offs, so with the new Progression Player app and a quick download, I headed down the beach ready to give it ago!
The foot out was a simple starting point for me, the trick itself isn’t to hard. If you can jump and grab the tail of your board you can try these out with ease. We have a great video available that will show you the progressions that lead up to a board-off, including this important one-footer step:
My main struggle was the mentality barrier. I kept imagining getting my foot out and not being able to put it back in, thus ending in a knee jerking landing. The fact I had previously been off the water for a year didn’t help, but with a nice 20 knots hitting my 11m I sent the kite on my first tack and got the trick, and the stoke was back. A bit of confidence really does make a big difference!
Top Tips for one-footers
After I’d started building confidence with the single foot out the time came around for a board off.
Later that week I was blessed by the wind Gods with a 30 knot flat water session so out came my 9m and a big grin on my face!
As soon as I was up on my board I spotted the perfect kicker and sent the kite hard, this time grabbing the tail and taking both feet out. It was an amazing feeling not being locked into straps, so good I actually forgot I needed to put the board back on to my feet!
Unfortunately a trend then started of me getting the board off and not back on. No matter how hard I tried or how high I jumped, I couldn’t get my board into the correct position to get it on to my feet.
Frustrated by my half completed or failed trick, I went back to the board off chapter on my Progression Player, and practised in front of the tv flicking the board on and of my feet by using my wrist to correctly position the board. This helped a lot!
It took a few more sessions on the water for me to nail the board off, I found the wind hitting the board itself made things tricky but i can proudly say I now have board offs down, and am excited in how i can progress in this style of kiting. Definitely a fun session when the wind is strong and you are hanging with too much power to try anything more technical.
Board off top tips
There are lots of different ways to grab the board and make a board of a little more fun and interesting. Here are a couple of variations:
If you’re keen to learn to Board-offs then either install the Progression Player on to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad or get the Progression Kiteboarding Advanced DVD.
Even though I am employed by Progression I have been using their products from the beginning, and continue to use them both for myself and with my students during the summer season. If you are interested in watching some great footage during the transitional stage of kiting where the handles passes became the top trick for comps, have a look at A.C. This was our first and only action kite movie and is free to watch online (all 45 minutes of it!). You might even spot a certain 5x World Champ back when he was just 14 years old and throwing down some massive board offs!
Thank to all the riders in the photos and videos:
Bas Koole – www.baskoole.com
Tom Hebert – www.tomhebert.com
James Busse
Christian Harris – www.ckperformanceclinics.co.uk
There is no way of escaping it, TV adverts are already in full force, parties are being planned – Christmas is coming!
So its time to get the perfect kitesurfing Christmas present for your brother, sister, mother, father, niece, nephew, son, daughter, grandson or grandaughter – or maybe just get it on your own wish list, so you get something you want this year! Progression DVDs are the ideal gift for any kitesurfer from Beginner to Professional, with over 2 hours of detail instruction on each DVD, you’ll be giving your kitesurfing obsessed relative something that will make their next session a guaranteed win!
And we’ve got some great deals for the Christmas Holidays:
Whether its for the early beginner (Beginner & Intermediate Volume 1), the super keen novice (Beginner, Intermediate Volume 1 & 2), the go getting Intermediate (Intermediate Volume 1 & 2), aspiring advanced (Intermediate Volume 2 & Advanced) or wannabe Pro (Advanced & Professional) – we’ve got you covered!
Buy them now from the Progression Online Store with worldwide shipping or you’ll find our DVDs in pretty much every kitesurfing store around the world!
The new Progression Player, launched in September, has been hugely popular with over 5000 video downloads and great feedback like this from Simon:
“Totally got me off my intermediate plateau. Great job. Expensive but a lot cheaper than buying new gear in the hope that it will make me improve! Just choosing my next one now.”
So don’t hesitate to try a new trick this month by taking advantage of our 50% discount on selected tricks in the Progression Player. We’ve taken one trick or technique for each skill level, dropped the price to £1.49 / €1.59 /$1.99 – so there is no excuse to not tryout a Progression video and see why kiters are using Progression’s help to get more from their kiting!
Tricks & Techniques on Offer until November 14th 2011 for £1.49 / €1.59 /$1.99
Also for all you intermediate riders – get some inspiration for your next session and add a little extra to your transitions with the Progression Trick Wheel.
The best kitesurfing progression comes for continually adding something new to a trick you’ve already got to grips with, whether that’s throwing in a grab, downloop or a rotation. The Progression Trick Wheel offers an easy way to get inspiration for that next trick, keep your sessions interesting!
For transitions we have the following:
EXCLUSIVE to the Progression Player in November – Download it now!
For those stat geeks out there we will be reporting in our blog next week about which videos, regions and days were most popular for keen Progression kiters.
The big news for now however is that we have a very lucky winner of the super awesome, brand new, Supershinn kiteboard…….
A Mr Alex Scott – Congratulations!!
We had an overwhelming response to the competition with 80% of Progression Player video purchasers submitting an entry. A winner was selected at random.
We have loads more offers, competitions and video releases coming soon so sign up to our newsletter here to make sure you don’t miss out!
We hope you have enjoyed using our new app and we are excited about new features and content we have planned for 2012. More news on that to follow!
Our new Progression Player app has had a great reception with awesome feedback, loads of downloads and a lot of you buying videos! Thank you!
We’ve created a Promo video that should give those of you who haven’t downloaded the app, or don’t own an iOS device, a better understanding of what is available through the Progression Player…
And this is just the start, we have big plans for the Player so any feedback or ideas – send them over.
We all know that kitesurfing is a comparably expensive sport. A bit of research online puts the cost of entry into this sport at about £1000 but that’s just for starters as most of us have more than one size of kite and also more than one type of board these days. It’s no wonder that famous (and rich) entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson and the founders of Google are big fans!
But once you’re up and running you should be quids in right?
Wrong! With so much to learn and new places to ride, the costs are endless. Obsession and ambition are not kind to your wallet in this sport!
Have you ever worked out how much you’ve spent on kiting? I thought i would quickly sketch out approximately how much i had spent personally on kitesurfing since i began nearly 5 years ago:
Kites (with bars) – £4,000
Now on my 2nd set and that is probably less than most. I only have two kite sizes because in reality i ride my 7m most of the time no matter what the weather. I also learnt on someone else’s kites so I’m not counting these….
Kitesurfing Boards – £1,700
Also only on my second twin tip board but i also have a wave board. Haven’t tried boots yet but they are on the shopping list!
Kitesurfing Lessons – £300
So i was lucky in that i knew a lot of people who kitesurfed so i had a lot of help for free, however i did do the essential beginner lessons at the start. I would love to get some one to one training though to help me learn to wave ride and also to start unhooking, that may be a new cost to add on soon!
Petrol to the beach – £500 (sure its more than that over 5 yrs)
Wetsuits / Harnesses – £800
Kitesurfing DVDs – £60
Ok so i kind of got these free but i have used the first three DVDs religiously to help me learn new tricks. I would have purchased them if i hadn’t been working here
Kitesurfing Magazines – £110 +
My yearly sub to KW although i have purchased other mags adhoc over that time.
Kitesurfing Holidays – woah, it’s about £13,000!
Obviously these are holidays, like normal vacations i would take irregardless, but i can honestly say all of my holidays in the last 5 years have been purely about kitesurfing – the ultimate opportunity to step up my riding and learn something new. Living in the UK also means i holiday more often to escape the cold weather!
So that’s a total cost of just over £20,000!
It’s a lot of money, no doubt about it, but i still think it’s all money well spent for five years of pure pleasure
With our DVDs and now with our new app, one our key objectives is to help people learn faster and get as much out of the sport as they can. That includes getting as much out of the money they have spent too – like on a holiday or on some new kit, or even replacing the cost of one to one coaching session in some higher level cases.
Learning something new can also come at a different cost – the cost of injury! Some of our Facebook fans shared some of their experiences of injury costs and i know from personal experience that yes, this is actually a cost that is far harder to swallow than the monetary kind.
Although sometimes these just can’t be avoided, with good instruction you can reduce your chance of failure and hopefully avoid the ultimate cost of all – anything that stops you kiting!
Ultimately most of us are willing to invest in this sport at any cost, whether that’s money, time or sometimes even injury. It’s the sport that most definitely keeps you hooked, just make sure you’re saving your pennies
Here at Progression we have been working hard to give kitesurfers more digital options to view our premium instructional video content, following lots of customer feedback and requests in this area. We are now excited to launch our first iPhone app, allowing kitesurfers to learn anytime or anywhere they want!
The Progression Player app is free to download and will feature short promotional videos free of charge. Over 60 full instructional chapters from our library are available to download within the app from £1.99 each with all payments will be made through apple app store accounts.
We have chosen the iPhone (or iOS platform) for a number of reasons, mainly due to the stats on our website showing a high proportion of ‘device’ traffic came from iPhones or iPads and also because the apple store offers a great channel through which to distribute and manage our app.
We are really keen to get as much feedback as possible so please do let us know what you think. We have lots more plans for more apps next year, all aimed at helping kitesurfers get a head start on their session and make the most of their time on the water!
For more information, FAQ and to give us any feedback then check out the new player website here – www.progression.me/player.
