Inverted side slide by Aerialis Kites

Transcript

1. ›

   The inverted side slide

   0:22

   Hi, Sven Arnesen from Aerialis Kites, and here's another brand new quad line kite tutorial for you: the inverted side slide. Just like the upright side slide, the inverted side slide is another move proving one of the unique characteristics of a quad line kite. You can stop it in the air, upside down, keep it glued on the spot, and then slide it all across the wind window and back. So if you follow along with this tutorial, I'll let you in on the details so that you can learn how to do these inverted slides yourself.

2. ›

   Before you start

   2:28

   The side slide is building on skills from a few of the previous tutorials you can find here at Aerialis Kites. I'll drop the links down below in the text, or wherever. Go check them out. And before we get going, please be aware that there is no one truth, nothing is written in stone. There are several ways to go about the inverted side slide, and in this tutorial I bring you a few guidelines that at least have been working for me, and hopefully they will work for you too. But most importantly, go out there, have fun and just fly. Oh yeah, for your information, in this tutorial I'm using a 10 meter line set, that's 30 feet, but the slide will certainly work on a longer set of lines too. Longer lines mean longer slides. The only reason why I'm using such a short line set in this tutorial is to get the kite up close for filming.

3. ›

   Mirror your input

   3:36

   Now, there are many similarities between the upright and the inverted side slide. However, there is one major difference: in an inverted slide, your kite is upside down and your left and your right flying lines are crossed. Due to the fact that your kite is upside down, the line you hold in your left hand is still connected to the kite's left side, but because it's upside down, the kite's left side is now pointing to the right, and vice versa. All this means you will have to mirror your input, compared to the upright slide, to have your kite side-sliding in that inverted position. Tricky! So, to do an inverted side slide to the left, you will have to pull your right hand a little closer to your body while extending your left one. Okay, with that out of the way, let's dive into it.

4. ›

   Six elements

   4:57

   As you probably know by now, I kind of like the idea of breaking a move down into smaller elements, so let's do it again and break the inverted side slide down into the following six elements. One: fly into the inverted hover. Two: hold and tend the inverted hover. Three: start the inverted side slide to the left. Four: stop the inverted side slide. Five: start and return the inverted side slide to the right. And finally, six: stop the inverted side slide again. As you can see, elements three and five are quite similar, and so are elements four and six, but no worries, we'll get a little deeper into that later. So let's go through each and every element one by one, and when done, let's put them all together.

5. ›

   Fly into the hover and hold it

   5:40

   All right. One: fly into the hover. Let's fly into the inverted hover. Put your kite on the ground, resting on its leading edge. Take off from the ground and reverse it upwards, and when the kite is two or three kite widths up the wind window, you gently loosen the brakes until the kite stops and starts to hover, still in that inverted position. And by the way, you're in no hurry, so take it slow. This is what it looks like. Or you can of course enter the inverted hover directly from flying: fly your kite around, and when you approach the middle of the wind window, or a little lower, directly downwind, you turn the kite over into that inverted position, slow it down, and finally have it sitting in that inverted hover, looking just like this. Two: hold and tend the hover. Now you're in the perfect position to start the side slide. But hey, wait for a second. Let's take the time to keep that kite in the stationary inverted hover for a few seconds. Start by keeping it there for a count of three. All right: one, two, three. Now do it all over again, but this time I challenge you to hover the kite a little longer, let's say for a count of five: one, two, three, four, five. And again, but now you should try to keep the hover for ten full seconds. Can you make it? It should look something like this: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. Now practice these two steps, fly into and hold the inverted hover for ten seconds, until you can do it properly eight or even nine out of ten times. And when you tend the hover, make sure to have both hands extended equally out in front of your body. Let's call this the neutral hand position. While keeping your hands in this position, also make sure your input to the kite is subtle: too much, and the hover will start to look a little wobbly.

6. ›

   Start the slide

   8:36

   All right, now we are ready to slide that kite. Three: start the side slide to the left. And actually, it's pretty easy: pull your right hand just a little closer to your body, and the kite will start sliding to the left. Remember now that your kite is upside down and the lines are crossed. But of course there are a few other things coming into play too, so here are some more details. Before starting the slide, make sure you have your kite sitting comfortably in a stable inverted hover. Now your hands should be in that neutral position I talked about, both hands extended equally out in front of your body. And now you're about to do several things simultaneously. Pull gently your right hand a little closer to your body, and you might also push your left hand just a tiny bit away from you. Let's call this the skewed hand position. Now this is actually all it takes to start the kite sliding to the left. But you're not quite there yet, because you will also have to tend the hover, meaning always keeping your kite at the same height and its leading edge horizontal while sliding. You do this tending just like for a stationary inverted hover: subtle input with your wrists, balancing the kite in the air. If it starts to drop, put on just a little more tension to your brake lines; or if it starts to lift, move your thumbs ever so slightly backwards. Like I said, the leading edge is supposed to be horizontal while sliding, so you might actually have to put a little tension on one brake line while giving a little slack to the other one, to make sure the leading edge stays horizontal all the time. Check out my other hover tutorials if required: loads of helpful stuff in them, links down below. Okay, let's check out the full sequence of the three first elements: one, flying into the inverted hover; two, hold the inverted hover; and three, start the slide to the left. See what it should look like.

7. ›

   Stop the slide

   10:37

   All right, step number four: stop the slide. Now, it's really satisfactory when you nail those smooth side slides, just like this. But what happens when the kite nears the edge of the wind window? Well, we better check it out. Whoops! Now, too close to the edge, and the kite loses all its lift and drops to the ground. Now that doesn't look so good, does it? No, we need to stop the slide before the kite gets to the edge, and that's pretty easy too. From that skewed hand position required for sliding, right hand towards your body, left hand a little forward for a left slide, simply return both hands back to the neutral position while carefully balancing the hover. Returning from a skewed hand position to the neutral one will gradually slow down the speed of the slide and finally bring the kite to a complete stop, while still in that inverted hover. And you can do this stop wherever the kite is situated in the wind window. Let's take a closer look at the stop, and now with both the kite and the pilot in view. No matter where the kite is situated in the wind window, you can stop the slide by returning your hands from that skewed to the neutral position.

8. ›

   Reverse and stop the slide

   12:42

   Five: start and reverse the side slide. Now, when your kite is hovering way left in the wind window, it's time to reverse the side slide, sliding to the right. And I bet you've probably guessed how to do it: you just go from that neutral hand position to the skewed one again, but this time you will pull your left hand a little closer to your body while extending your right one a little away from you. Now the kite will start to slide again, but this time to the right. Once again, make sure to tend the hover, keeping the kite's height consistent and its leading edge horizontal while sliding, by just tiny adjustments with your hands and wrists. Here's what it looks like. The kite is now hovering close to the left edge of the wind window. Initiate the right inverted slide by gently pulling on the left lines while pushing on the right ones. While sliding, tend the hover to make it as stable as possible. Slide the kite to the middle of the wind window and beyond, towards the right edge. And finally, step number six: stop the side slide before reaching the right edge. Stop the kite by returning your hands to the neutral position. Voilà, it stops. Here's the same video shot, but this time also with a pilot in view.

9. ›

   Practice and body language

   14:26

   And from here on it's actually all up to you and how much you will practice, because the more you practice, the better you'll get. After a while, when you have all the basics down, make sure to practice the side slides in both directions and at any height in the wind window. Notice any difference in the input required and the feel of the kite, depending on its height and position in the wind window. You can also experiment with slower or faster slides and stops, and when you get the hang of it, you can get pretty close to stopping the slides on a dime. And now that's pretty cool. Finally, I must not forget to mention the body language, because you can always improve your side slides by moving around on the ground. In lighter winds you might have to move backwards to make sure you have enough pressure in the sail to keep your kite in the air. In stronger winds you can take some pressure out of the sail by moving downwind. And by walking sideways, some call it cheating, you'll be able to extend the slide significantly. So whatever you're carrying, drop it, pick up your kites, hit the field, and soon you'll be sliding your kites all over the place. Thanks for watching, and see you soon in another tutorial. Bye bye. Just fly.