Kiteworld Mag - Pop Transition

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MOVE: Pop Transition

RIDER: Lewis Crathern

PHOTOS: William Milne

Transitions are a great way of introducing a little style and flow to changing direction at the end of each run. Lewis Crathern gets you up and round with the basic pop transition

Transitions are good fun and bring a new challenge to getting air, so it’s important you can jump reasonably well before trying them. It’s really all about timing, and when you do them right, you should be able to drive out of your transition already planing quickly in the other direction.

• Decide on a spot where you want to initiate a transition. I find small waves or ramps helpful as they naturally throw you up and reduce the need to be able to pop so well to begin with.

• Edge hard and into the wind whilst sending the kite over your head like you would for a normal jump. Unlike a normal jump you need to edge hard enough so that your momentum almost stops and you go straight up rather than up and horizontal. When learning, try not to send the kite too hard as it will make the timing much harder and your landings, heavier. Send it steadily up to 12 o'clock from about 10 as you edge hard upwind.

• Once you've edged as far as you can go and you can feel the kite pulling you up, push off with your back foot.

• Now the important part. Keep the kite above your head at 12 o’clock until you’re on your way back down.

• You should only pull hard on your new front hand as you head back towards the water to get you travelling forwards again.

• When you’re first getting to grips with it you should land planing straight downwind towards your kite and then re-engage the rail to head back upwind. After more practice you can land and immediately plane upwind instead of having to go downwind first.

PROBLEMS:
The most common problems with transitions are to do with a lack of power when landing. This is usually because of a number of reasons:

• Too much forward momentum carried into the transition will result in your kite being one side of the window and you swinging out to the other. Try to go slow and keep the kite at 12 o’clock for longer so you have kite control.

• Sending the kite across too early will mean you fall out of the sky hard and with no power because the timing is so much harder to get right. After practice you can jump as high as you do for normal jumps.