Free Kiteboarding Self Rescue Clinic with Jessica at Playa Central in La Ventana

Jessica, the lead instructor at Playa Central Kiteboarding in La Ventana, offered a free clinic on how to do a self rescue and safety tips on how to handle unexpected situations. Her kite school instructs all level of kiteboarding and has found that even some advanced riders would benefit from a review like this. In this clinic she also encouraged people to feel comfortable enough to pull their safety release on the beach or in any unfriendly situation on a dime.

After announcing the clinic on her Facebook Page and a local Newsletter, Jessica had about 16 kiters of all ages show up at 10 AM and soak in tips on how to calmly self rescue, and what to do if you can´t remember any of the tips!

Here are some tips and FAQ´s from the clinic:

*When would I have to do a self rescue?

If you simply cannot re launch your kite after several attempts

If your lines are tangled/inverted/twisted and you have lost control of your kite.

If you and another sailor get tangled; and other unexpected situations.

* Step by step Self Rescue:

1. Execute your safety release (most safeties are push away safeties, make sure to know how to release from a kite before you use it in the water).

2. At this point you are not connected to your bar, only your leash will have tension and be connected to one of the center lines, and your bar and the 3 or 4 lines (depending on if it is a 4 or a 5 line kite) will bounce away from you toward your kite leaving all other lines with slack. When all the tension is on one line, the kite can no longer take shape of that solid wing, thus it will keep depowring the more slack the other lines and keep the tension on the leash line.

3. Pull yourself to your bar, wrap the line around one tip of your bar to secure that tension. Then grab all the lines and continue wrapping until you get to your kite, if you have rubber bands around your bar use it to keep the lines wrapped up. You will be tired, so rest here and catch your breath.

5. If your kite is face down on thew water, just like you would have it on the beach, then sometimes it is hard to flip the kite over belly up. Start at a wing tip if you can, and slowly get flip the leading edge over.

6. You will sail in toward the beach by using your kite as a sail by essentially holding the two wing tips. Sometimes you grab the back line and ce

nter bridal and feel out the kite and find the best position to sail with the kite. Remember the canopy needs to be exposed to the wind to get it to sail, so play around and find that sweet spot where you start actually sailing back to the beach.

* What if you cannot remember any of this?
Just release your kite, grab the only line you will be connected to (your lead through or leash line) and pull yourself to your kite, don´t bother rolling your lines up, and once you get to your kite make a sail our of it and sail back to shore.

Jessica´s school is open to everybody but it so happens that a third of our clients are kids! Yes, kids! Ages 8 and up, so if you are a parent please make sure to contact Jessica and ask about Kid Camps and special kid packages.

For great kiteboarding lessons in La Ventana reserve your spot by e-mailing jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com or visit www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

You can also check out the link from The Kiteboarder´s website for beginner kiters:http://thekiteboarderschool.com/self-rescue/ to see some videos and read the tips they give you.