Axel by KiteForge

Transcript

1. ›

   Introduction

   0:05

   In this tutorial, we're going to explore the quad axel, one of the very few freestyle or slack line tricks that are possible on a quad line kite. It's basically a flat spin under totally loose lines. There are usually three ways that I go into it. The first is out of a ground pass: lean over and fire.

2. ›

   Entry 1: lean and fire

   1:03

   That's the first one I'm going to show you, and the reason is that the natural movement of the kite, as it travels forward and then faces down, already sends the inertia in the same direction that the axel is going to fire off. We're going to come in from one side. It's also important to note that I'm right-handed, so my power hand is my right hand: it's the one I'm going to strike with. If you're a lefty, you may find that going the other direction is a little more advantageous. Of course, it's always good to practice maneuvers in two different directions. But here's the lean and fire. Lean and fire, just like that. That's basically what an axel looks like.

   Now, the breakdown. As the kite has leaned over, I'm going to show you the mechanics. You'll notice that this right hand leans out even as I face down. So here we go: I travel across, right hand out, even as I'm making the turn. That sets the right hand up for a quick fire on the axel hit. When I actually fire, two primary things are going on. One is that the strike is actually a bounce: I'm not pulling the kite through. I have my hand out, I strike, and I release immediately as soon as I've struck the end of the line. The other is that, even as I do that, my body is already moving forward. I'll set a line in the sand here so you can get a sense of the amount I move. Again, we lean forward, leaning that right hand out. There it is. The amount that you pull back, the amount that your hand passes your hip, will vary depending on your flow, the kite you're flying and that sort of thing. We'll do that a couple more times so you can get a better look. There we go: that one's pretty good and flat. And here goes another one.

3. ›

   Entry 1: slow motion

   2:38

   Let's take a look at that in slow motion, so we can examine some of the additional details of what is going on with the hands.

   All right, so there's a look at that in slow motion. You probably also observed a certain amount of forward tuck: I put a forward roll into the striking hand so that I hit only the bottom line when I make the axel. I'm not looking to make contact with the top line, just the bottom line. Let me do a couple more of those. There it is. And with the moving forward, my torso moving toward the kite is really setting the kite up to be pretty loose on the lines, so that when I hit it, it can rotate freely.

   Another takeaway: as I move forward on the kite, you'll notice that I continue to creep forward until the axel rotation is completely done. That's because the kite needs to be slack in order to rotate. I need to make sure the lines are hanging slightly underneath the kite while it is in rotation. The slack is just allowing the kite to send one wing more downwind and the other wing more upwind. Even as that happens, you'll notice that my arms go in a cycle. As you watch this go around again, one wing comes toward me: that's of course the strike hand. The other hand goes out slightly, because that wing is going away from me. As those wings change depth relative to me, you'll see my hands finish accordingly. One more of those. There it is. The amount of rotation will be subtle, and you're going to find different levels of success depending on the type of kite you're flying.

4. ›

   Tips: kite, bridle and tuning

   5:29

   Some takeaways before I show you the next style. First, any kite with a little more weight, as you get into a standard, mid vents, full vents, extra vents, kites of that nature, they're a little bit stiffer. When you hit it, the energy doesn't get absorbed by flexible rods, so it gives you a pretty nice axel. Vented kites, by their very nature, their aerodynamics, tend to rotate a little better as well.

   The other takeaway is the setting up here at the top of the handles. This is really critical. If you're a flyer who enjoys a bit more forward in the sail, for whatever reason, the shorter your top line is here, the less responsive those brake lines are. So if you're learning the axel and you're not getting a good brake hit, you can simply let those top leaders out a little to increase that sensitivity.

   Also, especially on the Djinn because of its adjustable Sync Bridle, the “Sport” setting I've found, and “Hold my Beer” (you can find information about that in another tutorial), tend to be the most sensitive and responsive for axel-type inputs, flic flac and things of that nature. If you're out on “Team”, that will be reduced a little bit. And on the “Easy” setting of the Djinn bridle, it will be the least sensitive. So that's the basic introduction to the face-down axel and some of the details that go into it.

5. ›

   Entry 2: static axel

   7:20

   Let's take a look at a static axel from a single point in the sky. When approaching a static axel, an axel when the kite is already hovering in one spot, inverted, there is a little extra nuance. What we showed earlier with the face-down axel has a natural setup that really inclines the kite and makes it ready for the axel. When you're in a proper inverted hover, just sitting in position, and you want to fire an axel, remember that the strike is done from this position (the hands). In order to get there, I've got to go here and then fire back. So you'll notice a little bit of opposition: I go one, two, and that sort of whiplashes the kite and really gives it a good axel. Here we go. There it is. And again, key your mind to the fact that I hit and release, and my body is moving forward almost even as I'm making the input itself.

   Let's do a couple more of those. Once more, static, for the Djinn: my leading edge is straight, I do the offset and fire, and it goes like this. That was pretty flat. That one actually dropped out. And we'll do one more just like this. There it is. Again, pretty straightforward, just a little bit of opposition work.

   What I will say is that the Djinn's Sync Bridle is particularly adept at axels. It just tends to flatten the kite out really well. Depending on the type of kite you're flying, you may find some advantage in having a little bit of down offset in the back wing. You can see that the wing I'm going to fire, the right-hand wing, which is on the left in the video frame, is leaning down slightly. With standard or more traditional quad bridles, that can actually help you fire off the axel a little. For the Djinn, we tend to look for an absolutely straight leading edge, and that offset, fire, one, two.

6. ›

   Entry 2: slow motion

   9:42

   Having looked at the basic inputs, let's see it in slow motion and really start to break down the offset, the fire and so forth.

   Now that we've seen those in slow motion, one other thing I want to point out is how far the kite came forward toward me when I struck the axel. Ideally, when I do an axel, I want the kite to simply flatten out, rotate in space, and then open up again. To me, that's a pretty ideal axel. When we get too much of a pull on it, you'll notice that the kite flattens and then actually comes upwind toward the pilot and then comes back.

   That brings my attention to the other factor: in some of those axels you see me do, right after I've made the strike, after I've given it lots of slack, I wait for it to go all the way around. Just as it's finishing the rotation, I step back and let the kite land at the end of the lines.

7. ›

   Entry 3: dive axel

   11:48

   Having looked at the static axel, let's move on to the dive axel. The dive axel is very similar to the static axel, except that you're coming at it with speed. The offset and fire is much, much faster. It's a little trickier to pull off, but the payoff is that it's super exciting to watch. It's very sudden, and pound for pound, when I'm really in the flow, I probably get flatter axels doing a dive attempt than with any other approach. Let's see what that looks like. You'll notice the same offset. I'm going to come at speed, and here it goes. There it is. You can see I don't slow down very much. In the slow motion you may see a little bit of speed control, but ultimately I'm coming at it right until the last moment and using mostly the offset and fire to actually stop and rotate the kite. Let's see that again. There it is. And let's see if I can get a really good one. There it is: that's a superbly flat one. That's the dive axel.

8. ›

   Entry 3: slow motion

   13:04

   Let's take a look at that in slow motion and you'll see how we're applying the static axel movements, as well as a couple of additional nuances.

   Having had a look at the dive axel, especially in slow motion, you can see all of the consecutive details I've talked about: the hand offset, the body giving even as I'm firing, continuing the give through the rotation, waiting for that rotation to finish, and then, subtly, to whatever amount, taking up the slack in the lines so that the kite secures.

9. ›

   Closing thoughts

   15:36

   One other thing you may have just picked up on: a lot of the time when I'm going into an axel, and this applies to dual lines and pretty much anything where you're looking to do some sort of slack line maneuver, immediately before, you'll notice that my arms are loading in, and then they fire. The reason is simply that I'm preloading power, because putting power in and then suddenly stalling it makes a bigger contrast. One, it looks a lot more exciting, and two, once you get the hang of it, it really facilitates breaking the wind off the kite. The other thing is that, once I'm loaded and I've fired with all that power in there, I have this much to give into the kite even as I'm moving. My body movement combined with my arm movement gets a lot more slack into it as needed. If you're a little shorter, with shorter arms and legs, and maybe your launch out of the gate isn't quite as quick, that's one of the things that can really help.

   With that, I'm going to hit you with a bunch of cool slow motion and action footage of the axel here at the end, to see a mix of the different variables that go into it. I strongly encourage you to experiment and have fun: try the different bridle settings, try the different leader settings, try it with heavier kites, try it with more flexible kites, in higher wind, take it off to the edge. If you do an axel on the far right edge, how does that behave versus doing it on the left? Personally, as I said, my right hand is my strongest side. The left has been a pretty stimulating and humbling journey. So it's always fun to try doing it both ways. With that, have fun with the axel and these last few clips, and I will see you in the next tutorial.