Strapless kitesurfing tutorial with willow - River Tonkin

You have already learnt how to ride with straps, now its time for a new challenge.  Get euphoric shivers by smelling the scent of Sex Wax and you definitely wouldn’t want to miss the feeling of strapless kitesurfing for the world?  Ride your first wave and you will be well and truly addicted?  Then it’s time for the supreme discipline – strapless freestyle! Here we go! First pop, grab, 180 or start already with a frontroll.
With Willow-River Tonkin at your side you won’t miss a thing.  All together the Kitesurf tutorial includes 10 short videos, which were produced in Brazil, Tatajuba. Here are the frist two episodes of our strapless kitesurfing video tutorial. If you don’t want to miss a new episode register yourself in our free online strapless freestyle camp with Willlow-River Tonkin!

We thank our Media partner Gleiten.TV for the production of these video series.

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Strapless kitesurfing destinations

These KiteWorldWide destinationen are the most suitable ones for strapless kitesurfers and those who want to become such:

Kite & Sail Kitesurfing and Sailing

Kite & Sail

On this tour you will explore fascinating landscapes, enjoy your dinner under the stars, anchor in desert bays and start kitesurf sessions from a sandbank. Take the chance to learn the basics of sailing while making fast and easy progress in kitesurfing!

KiteWorldWide Kitesurfing in Tatajuba

Brazil - Tatajuba

Empty spots, wind and kiting, kiting, kiting! The little paradise, called Tatajuba, pleases everyone with one of the best shallow water spots and the most reliable and strongest wind of Brazil!

KiteWorldWide Kitesurfing in South Africa

South Africa - Cape Town

This awesome loft-style villa is just a few steps from the famous Sunset Beach. With cosy guest rooms, rooftop terrace with a pool and a view, living room, braai place and kitchen. The location: Only 100 m from the beach & spot - In Sunset Beach!

KiteWorldWide  Kitesurfing in Brazil - Prea

Brazil - Prea

Kicking back and kitesurfing! It is all possible at this place. We have a super relaxed pousada for you to chill out and perfect wind conditions. The season lasts from July until February, constant side on shore wind is included;-)

Kitesurfing in Jericoacoara KiteWorldWide  Accommodation  Brazil

Brazil - Jericoacoara

Jeri will enchant you. Far away from any stress, you can not only relax at this beautiful place, but also party through the night. With all the samba in your system, enjoying life is even easier.

KiteWorldWide  Kitesurfing at Cape Verde

Cape Verde - Sal

The perfect not too far destination for winter: Island Sal. Wind certainty and perfect conditions for all those who want to kite in a „real“ wave. It’s also ideal for beginners since the bay of Santa Maria is protects the spot. Brand-new since 2017: the KiteWorldWide Kite House.

Episode 1: Strapless Jump with Pop

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

Learn with Willow-River Tonkin how to do your first strapless pops. A solid pop is the fundament for all further strapless tricks, so make sure you get the fundamentals dialed.

First you should ride cross wind, keep your back leg straight and your front leg bent while jumping. To ensure that the board won’t fall off your feet push the board with your toes into the wind. For landing steer the kite down and also land downwind. And there you go: your first strapless pop!

Episode 2: Strapless Jump with Kite

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

Now it’s time to learn your first Strapless Jump.

For the jump move the kite to 12, bend your front leg and straighten your back leg. Remember to point your toes into the wind. Hold the kite on 12 until you land Downwind. Here you go, Your first strapless Jump.

Strapless Kitesurfing - pros and cons

Strapless Kitesurfing, a new challange for the enthusiastic Kitesurfer!  Of course this kind of kitesurfing has its advantages as well as disadvantages

Advantages:

  • You can place your feet in the optimum position for both surfing waves and going upwind.
  • You can move your feet easily without having to put them in or take them out of foot straps.
  • Your board cannot damage your knees or ankles by twisting them.

Disadvantages:

  • If you fly your kite high, launch of a wave lip or broken white water, you could slip off the board.
  • Water starts are more difficult until you learn the technique to perfect them.

Episode 3: Strapless Grab with Pop

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

For this trick it is essential that you don’t try to reach out and grab the board.  Instead, after you pop you want to tuck your legs in and bring you board close to you.  If you try to reach out for your board it will take a lot of time and it will end up being much harder.  So again, make sure you bend your knees and bring the board close to you and then you can go for the grab.

Episode 4: Grab with Kite

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

One of the main things when you want to do a big grab using your kite is to jump quite high. You want to be able to feel the hang time of the kite, you want to be floating up there while grabbing your board. So make sure you steer that kite quite high and pull in your bar to have the maximum amount of lift. The main problem people have with this trick is that they try to reach out for their board. For this trick you have to bend your knees and bring the board close to you and then you will be able to grab it comfortably.

Episode 5: Strapless Frontside 180°

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

For the Frontside 180˚ you will want to make sure you really pay attention to how you move your board. If you turn it wrong or if you don’t control it using the wind, it will fall away from your feet.  When you land on your nose first, you want to make sure that you keep most of your weight on the nose of the board. If you put too much weight near the tail, the fins will catch and the board will spin out of control.

Episode 6: Frontside 180° to wrapped

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

The Frontside 180˚ to wrapped is actually quite easy if you are managing to first do the Frontside 180˚.   Just like the Frontside 180˚, you want to make sure that you really pay attention to how you move you board.  As soon as you land on your nose with the board pointing fins first, you want to bend your knees to stabilize your landing.  Next thing you want to do is let go of your front hand from the bar and use your back hand to pull the bar around your back.  At the same time as pulling the bar around your back, you want to push a little bit on your fins to initiate the turn.  Once you manage to do the turn, you can then steer your kite down and ride off.

TIP: If you put too much weight near the tail in the beginning, the fins will catch and the board will spin out of control. Use your front hand to help you turn around and to keep your balance.

Episode 7: Strapless One footer

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

To do a One Footer jump, you just need to do a normal jump with the kite.  As soon as you pop out of the water you need to pull in your back knee and grab the board near the tail.  Then, kick out your back leg forward off the board.  When coming in for the landing, you want should pull your back leg in and place it on the pad at the rear of the board.

Tip: You can either kick your leg forwards or backwards off the board! Try both, It’s really easy!

Episode 8: Toeside 180°

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

The “Toeside 180°” is a fairly simple trick.  Ride toeside, then pop into the wind quite aggressively and release your front hand from the bar.  By releasing your front hand, you will be able to rotate much easier. Land fins forward, keep most of your weight on the nose of the board to keep the fins out of the water and simply ride off.

Trick tip: You can also try and throw in a grab with your front hand, to add a bit of style!

Episode 9: Strapless Toeside 180° to wrapped

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

Once you have managed to do the Toeside 180°, you can then start trying this trick.  As soon as you land just like the Toeside 180°, you want to keep all your weight on the nose of you board.  As soon as you land, you’ll want to switch from using your back hand to your front hand. If you don’t switch your hands, you will have trouble doing the second rotation.  By pushing your fins slightly more into the water, it will initiate your rotation.  Make sure when you are doing the second rotation, you spin the bar around you at the same time.

So once you spin the bar around you and ride off toeside again, you have completed this trick!

Trick tip: The more you practice this trick, the faster and more “flowy” you will get!

Episode 10: Frontroll

Learning Strapless Kitesurfing

As a little preview for what you can expect, here one of the probably most stylish and also sophisticated jumps: the strapless frontroll.  The frontroll requires supreme discipline for this strapless tricks.  Make sure you have a good speed before you pop.  Rotate on the vertical axis. To rotate faster, keep spinning your head and push with your hip.  For landing, bend your Frontleg and straighten your Backleg. There you go. Your first strapless frontroll.

Useful info

There are a few things you have to take care of course. We have listed some tips for you from our strapless expert Willow for a perfect Strapless start:

WAX VS PAD

Wax has more of a surfing feel to it. Wax is nice because you can cover everywhere that your foot may shift, whereas sometimes if you using pads and you haven’t covered your whole board, you can slip and slam.

  • I personally prefer using pads, I like to know that I have got 100% grip on the board when I hit the water.
  • You never have to think about bringing wax to the beach or making sure your wax doesn’t melt in the sun between sessions.

Size of the board

Size of the board really depends on your riding style. If you are new to riding a directional then its better to have a bit of a bigger board, that means it will be more stable when learning to do turns and so on.

Once you start riding in the waves or start doing strapless freestyle, then its better to use a smaller board.  Smaller boards are a lot quicker and more snappy.  They are also a lot more maneuverable which really helps when doing strapless freestyle.

Shape of the board

The shape of the board all depends on what style you are planning to achieve. If you going out in the waves, you will want a more narrow and pointy board.
For strapless freestyle riding you will want more of a stubby or rounded nosed board.  As they are often smaller and easier to manoeuvre, they also catch the wind a lot more because of there shape.

Straps vs Strapless

Strapless is a lot more challenging but that’s the fun part of it.
You feel a lot more free to move around on your board.  Whereas with straps you often feel more restricted.

  • If you have done any surfing before you will find strapless kitesurfing is an easy transition.