The Wind Window

 

Figuring out the wind window is one of the more technical and difficult aspects of Kiteboarding, master the window and your on your way to becoming an accomplished Kiteboarder.  This article focuses on learning how to fly your kite in the wind window with all speeds of wind.

The wind window is the found by first finding the direction of the wind.  Standing with the wind pushing against your back you are looking at the wind window.  Stick your hands straight forward (pointing downwind) and now point your left hand 80 degrees to the left and your right hand 80 degrees to the right.  You will find yourself pointing towards the edges of the window.  Look straight up and you will see the top of the window.  Now that you look like your waiting for something to miraculously fall from the sky; you understand the edges of the wind window.

To fully understand all the aspects of the window I’m going to break it down into two views each with a diagram.  The first is going to be called the front view this looks at the window as it is seen regularly while flying your kite.  The second view is going to be called the side view.  This view is what it would look like to be standing to the side of someone flying a kite.  Together these views show all the effects that the wind has on the kite while it is in different areas of the window.

First we will look at the front view which is the view you will see while flying your kite.  The diagram below shows what is explained here for an easier understanding.  The yellow strip with green ends represents the neutral zone.  This strip is at the edge of the window and is where your kite will have the least amount of power.  The black arrows show the direction that the kite will be pulling while in that area of the window.

The green tips show the area where your kite will be launched and landed.  In this area of the zone the kite will be pulling you horizontally were as when it gets to the top of the window it will be pulling you vertically.

In the side view you can see not only the neutral strip on the edge of the window but also the red zone which is the power zone.  When your kite is flown in this area of the window the force which you kite pulls with is much stronger.  Again the direction of the pull is in the direction which the arrow’s point.  The reason your kite will have more power in the power zone is because it has more surface area open to the wind which means more wind can hit the kite.  As you can see in the side view the light blue kite has less area for the wind to push on were as the dark blue kite has much more of its surface open to the wind.

This should give you a general understanding of how the wind window works and how you can fly your kite in different areas to do what you want to do.  But the best way to learn the window is to get out there and fly around.  You’ll be surprised how fast you will master it.  This will make learning ride that much easier.  So get out there and practice flying around the wind window!