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How To Control Your Kite

Kite control can seem perplexing at first, but it is as simple as riding a bike, in that no matter how technical an expert makes it look, all they are really doing is pulling left and right with their hands.

All kites work in the same way regardless of type or size. They have a leading edge, trailing edge, and wing tips.

The leading edge is the front part of the kite that moves from the sky first, kind of like the front of your car, wherever the leading edge points, that’s where the kite will go. If it’s pointing up, the kite goes up. If the leading edge is point down, the kite goes down.

The kite rotates around its wingtips as you steer it around the sky, it is just like watching a seagull pivoting around its inside wing as it turns a circle.

The trailing edge is simply there to give the kite a bit of ‘drag’ and stability in the sky so that it is not too hard to control.

Steering Your Kite

This is not something that you can read about and expect to master, but there are some key tips:

  1. Steer the kite as if you were riding a bike, not driving a car. This means push and pull – the left hand pulls the line to steer the kite left, the right hand must be pushed forward and vice versa.
  2. Keep your arms out in front of you, shoulders relaxed. When you steer with the push pull technique, keep your hands quite close together, your wrists should almost brush each other as you steer.
  3. Never cross your hands, even if the lines get twisted or the kite is upside down on the ground.
  4. Use smooth steady push pull movements. Start in small figure of eights at first, and then slowly build up.

Key tip: Mark out an object in the far distance that is straight downwind from where you are, such as a distant church spire or mast. Use this as your centre point when you fly the kite in a figure of eight.