Staying upwind

I must not be very hard to stay up wind because no one in talking about it. I am just past the point of riding as far as I want with out falling. What do I do to increase my up wind ability???

Going upwind is tough-much easier on a buggy than on a board. You tend to lose ground on jibes unless you're careful, and the more you angle upwind the more force you need and the slower you go until you're using all your force to stay where you are.

Good equipment is important-the more your kite can generate power at the edges of the window the better upwind performance you'll get. A board with a larger or multiple skegs helps as well for digging harder.

There are also some techniques that help as well: I tend to 'pulse' if I need to gain ground-do S turns or bounce upwind trying to match that with power pulses on the kite. When I'm jibing I try to do it with as little power on the kite as I can get away with, or on a jump.

I think it's just a matter of balancing out forward motion vs upwind, much like on a windsurfer.

I don't windsurf much anymore, though-bad hip.

It certainly requires skill and practice. The latter more then anyting will solve your problem.

Edge hard and then even edge harder.

Practice keeping the kite low - you will have most of edging power. Go slow. If gust comes - egge harder, LEAN BACK, steer the board upwind and finally move kite down in gentle manner.

If the kite is low and I edge hard it moves to the front of the wind window and I run out of power, Then what do I do?

Perhaps you are edging too much or more likely allowing board to stall. Bear off gently.

Kite will loose some of power at the edge of window. That is the way to handle gusts. Will not depower completely. If that happens you are too aggressive with either board(too close to wind, too much edge) or kite (flying too timid, allowing kite to stay at the very edge of window).

Generally if you are just powered steer the kite at comfortable speed for turning. If you are trying to survive the gust steer it very slowly - you need no power surges.

Andre