Guide to beginners kitesurfing techniques in Boracay
Learning to kitesurf in Boracay can change your life
Boracay has developed a reputation as one of the foremost centres for kitesurfing anywhere in the world, and thousands of people descend on this little piece of paradise every year to learn the skills of the world’s hippest extreme sport.
Bulabog beach is the home of kitesurfing on Boracay and where the vast majority of schools are based. For complete novices it takes about a week to learn the necessary skills to skim about the water at a rate of knots, and the first few days will be simply trying to control the monstrous kite attached.
Like all sports, kitesurfing depends a great deal on practice and those wanting to learn the specific techniques will only get as much as out of their time as effort they put in. One of the most crucial kitesurfing techniques to master on Boracay is the dead-man safety release system.
This is extremely important for safety while kitesurfing on Boracay, especially for novices who are just taking up the watersport for the first time. Make sure you read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully before hitting the sand. Another important kitesurfing technique is to practice using your control system – and this includes operating the kite with either hand independently on the pole. More on Boracay activities.
Another important aspect of kitesurfing on Boracay is learning to control the power of your kite. This means the expected surface area of your kite combined with its flying speed rate. It is essential to master controlling the kite on the ground before ever venturing into the water, and to practice trying to de-power several times by drawing or loosening the frontage lines. This allows kiteboarders on Boracay to adjust the angle and surface area of their kite relative to the direction of the wind.
Controlling the flying speed while kitesurfing on Boracay is also important to reduce or boost the power of your kite. The main way to do this is to operate the kite’s brake lines. Utilising these (by pulling on the brake lines) will instantly help to significantly reduce the kite’s aerial speed. When learning to kitesurf on Boracay it is crucial to practice this particular technique until you are 100 per cent happy with how it operates.
All equipment will be provided by your school
Unlike windsurfing, the volume of a board has little or no role in kitesurfing. This means that your board can be as thin as possible as long as you maintain enough power from the kite. All kites will be sluggish in light winds and are likely not to behave properly when you turn around to jibe. Whether you require a larger board surface area board when kitesurfing in Boracay will depend on how fast and powerful your kite performs in light wind.
If you take kiteboarders on Boracay of a broadly similar standard, the kite size for each will generally be proportional to the weight of the rider. So a kiteboarder on Boracay twice as heavy as his friend should be using a kite twice as big. There is no restriction on the size of a kite any rider can use for a particular board, so even experienced riders can get away with using the same board in different conditions.
If you are somehow separated from your board and need to retrieve it from the ocean, normally a rider would end up further downwind from where their board lies. To slow your movement downwind (or even move upwind) a rider should control his kite with only the upper hand to move it to a wind window edge and then use their lower hand and body as the keel. That way your body becomes the board to resist downwind drift.
Cold weather kitesurfing may not happen very often on Boracay, but is definitely an extreme sport when it does so it pays to be careful and act appropriately when danger signs occur. It is noticeably harder to relaunch a kite from cold water and if you lose your board then it becomes more difficult to retrieve it by dragging yourself upwind. Remember to wear a dry suit or thick wetsuit in very cold weather, and perhaps even have an extra layer of clothing underneath. Always wear a warm helmet and thin gloves and never kiteboard by yourself if it is very cold. If you start to shiver then it is time to go home.
For a complete guide to kitesurfing in Boracay including recommended schools.
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