Lots of theory and lack of wind

Here they are – our experience and emotions from the last 3 days of our Assistant Instructor training course. 

DAY 3

• Points of sail
• Wind window
• Apparent wind, induced wind and their influence on wind window
• Aerodynamics
• Equipment

The third day of our AICT started with a session about kite flight theory and aerodynamics. This was the session we were the most afraid of. Physics has never been our strong side, therefore we were not that excited about it. Yet we understood why it’s necessary to understand every little detail that affects the kites. 

Luckily the Assistant Instructor is well compiled and easy to follow. We went through each section step by step and in most difficult cases we also watched some videos to explain theory with live examples. This made understanding a lot easier, so we advise everyone to look up some kite aerodynamics videos in Youtube. Even after kiting for years, there are still aspects that we had never thought about. For instance when you’re kiting you don’t wonder a lot about the effect of induced wind on your kiting, do you?!

At the end of the morning session we also went through the equipment terminology – oh boy! Naming all 25 different parts of the kite and lines… well, you never really think about what is the name of this knot or the other. But now all of a sudden we need to know it all. Kristiin also gave us a hint that this is probably going to be in the exam as well.

The afternoon session was again practical session. We had two students coming to whom we were supposed to teach bodydraging and self-rescue. Unfortunately the wind prediction was poor and when we arrived to the spot, we were puzzled how much teaching there can be done. At the end it was decided that Kristiin will go through self-rescue with us and we will go through the same with students. Fortunately self-rescue is something that we both have had to do several times (part of being a kitesurfer), so there was not so much worry about that.

When the students came there was no wind. Nevertheless we had to do something with the students, so self-rescue it was. It was the first day for Triin to teach and Anne-Mai to observe. Triin got to teach a student who had taken the basic 1 course in Pärnu, but she didn’t know how much the student actually remembered. So she started off with introductory questions and moved step by step further. While setting up the gear, the wind changed direction and suddenly it started blowing. This meant that there was a slight chance to do a full lesson after all. They tried to get to the water as quickly as possible, because you never know for how long you’ll have the wind. And of course as usual – Murphy! When Triin started passing the kite over to the student, the wind dropped. Complete zero. After a wait and some hassle, she got the kite back up and the student was able to do fly a bit till the kite dropped again. Must note that it was tricky for Triin to get the kite up because when teaching a student you cannot do everything that you would like. For example, we were told we should never use the power lines to lift the kite from power zone (but this is what we would normally do when the kite drops with trailing edge on the water). We were also instructed that we shouldn’t pull from the back lines to help the kite to turn to sailing position so that we would be able to launch (again something that we normally would do if there is not enough wind). When teaching a student we should teach them to use only the bar and that’s it. We got the kite back up and started moving a bit further to try bodydraging but then the wind dropped again and Triin decided to call it a day. She felt that it was such a waste of time for the student and decided that it’s time to show the self-rescue and make another appointment for bodydraging.

After the session we had as usual a feedback session. We were lucky that the students were satisfied even if they got to fly the kite for a bit. Triin noted that she struggled a lot in the beginning to understand how much the student knows and maybe spent too much time to find it out. She also noted that it was tricky to relaunch the kite with such a slight wind when it’s attached to someone else and you cannot do what you would like to. Jane explained that if the circumstances need us to do something we shouldn’t teach in the first sessions, we still can do it, but should explain the students that is something they shouldn’t try themselves yet. The biggest take-away of the session was that the trickiest part in teaching is that we lack the skills how to teach – we know what we do in the water, but we lack experience how to explain and show everything to the students so that they would get it in a heartbeat. Jane, however, said that it will all come with experience and we should worry less.

Day 4

• Wind
• Weather
• Tides

We felt so tired in the morning. The course was so intense that it started getting to us. Yet we had two days to go and taking a look at the weather forecast even more…

On day four we had only the morning session in Surftown as Kristiin and Jane had other duties they couldn’t avoid. We, of course, didn’t mind we get some time off. We started the day with weather – how to read the meteorological map, what are the global weather patterns and trade winds, what is the coriolis effect, how do the high and low pressure systems work and affect the wind, how to notice the weather change from the clouds, what is wind shadow and venturi effect, etc. and what we should know about the tides and currents. At the end of the session we were laughing that now we’re ready to be weather reporters. If anyone is hiring one, you know where to find us! We were also laughing about the latin names of the clouds and their translation. (Silly we know but still…) Apparently cumulus is a cauliflower!

As there was no wind we couldn’t do our riding skills test, so called it a day after becoming weather specialists!

Later in the evening we decided to do our written exams on IKO’s website. 100 questions in an hour! We both passed the exam easily. The exam wasn’t as hard as we expected. There were a lot of questions about the weather, the wind, ROW and signs, safety, equipment, teaching etc. There were also some topics we hadn’t cover or that even weren’t in the book, so we tried to use our logic or just guessed. All in all it was way easier than thought. 

DAY 5

• Gear maintenance
• Bladder repair
• Fixing kite tears
• Pump maintenance
• Bar and lines maintenance

In the morning we were happy and sad at the same time. Were happy that we passed our exams and that part is done. Sad about the weather – the forecast was so positive the night before that we hoped we could do our last teaching session + the riding skills test and we done with the course. Yet there was no wind, complete silence and we knew that if we’re unable do finish today we need additional sessions.

As we had no wind and we had covered most of the theory, the 5th day was also shorter than supposed to. We met in Surftown where we learnt how to fix the gear. How to check for holes, how to repair the holes, how to turn Kristiin’s brand new bar from 4-line bar to 5-line bar, how to maintain the pump etc. We made a promise to ourselves that we will start taking care of our care a bit more from now on and at least in the beginning of each season do a full maintenance.

At the end of the session we agreed that we will try to do the necessary sessions the following week. Unfortunately finding times suitable for everyone was impossible so we agreed that Kristiin and Jane will contact us when there’s suitable wind and the students are available. And then we’ll see how and where we could continue with our missing sessions.