For our school, Kitepassion Tarifa Kiteschool, teaching children is a priority within our school model and in which we have extensive experience.
You have to have a series of minimum parameters within which you can teach a child the sport of kite: his age and his weight.
All children are especially attracted by the color and liveliness of a kite. And the truth is that watching a child practicing kite is a real pleasure, since with a series of minimum prerequisites they learn quickly and safely.
From the IKO (International Kiteboarding Organization) there are three age groups to start kiting:
- Age 3-6 kite flying
- Age 6-9 kiters on the water and waterstart
- Age 9-12 Independent riders/students
Likewise, future kitesurfers have to control, regardless of their age, three areas:
- Cognitive area (learning ability)
- Emotional area
- Psychological area. In other words, the child has to be prepared to practice kitesurfing and be mature in their reactions.
The golden rule to teach kitesurfing to children is to have fun. You have to create a fun environment, making small groups in which the student feels comfortable with other children, making learning a fun game until he reaches 100% control of the kite’s flight.
Do not forget that the motor of this sport is the kite and if you control the kite well, you have everything won in terms of safety and fun. With children, we always start with a training kite or power kite.
Once this point of the power kite is controlled, the student starts with the four line kite. However, always with short lines and kites related to their weight and size. In other words, the bar with short lines, between 7/12 meters, makes this sport much safer.
Since in this way you avoid the kiteloop in case of making a mistake, you have less power, the kite is closer to the student which means more control.
The distance of the lines and the appearance of bow-type kites and later hybrid delta have completely changed this sport in terms of safety and have made it accessible to everyone.
APPROPRIATE AGE AND LENGTH OF CLASS
You also have to take into account the duration of the classes by virtue of age. Depending on the age of the children, the lesson will last one time or another:
- 3-6 years of age: sessions can last from 15 to 30 minutes
- 6-9 years old: 1-2 hour sessions
- 9-12 years old: sessions about 3 hours
Once the student is ready to go into the water, we will go into the water to perform the bodydrag exercise or body drag with the kite. In this case we will initially start with tandem bodydrag.
That is, we will enter the water with the young man, and he will connect his leash to our harness. In the first instance, we as instructors will pilot the kite and the child will be hooked to our harness handle.
It is done this way at the beginning so that future kitesurfers can see how the kite has to be moved in the power zone and how the body has to be tilted forward to start gliding over the water.
This exercise will be the first contact between the child and the sea. You will have a great time sliding on the water and you will understand the concept of traction in a safe and easy way.
Once the child understands the exercise and the idea 100%, we will connect the kite to him and we will go behind connected to him making a tandem.
The instructor never separates from the child, which will transmit security and fun is guaranteed.
Waterstart and kids kitesurfers
Once the child has mastered the concept of dropping the bar and bodydrag, they are ready to start the board. Always with the age parameters that we have commented on previously.
We will teach you the step-by-step Waterstart stroke Kitesurfing or one stroke kite motion to get up on the board. It will be so much fun for him that soon we will see the child sliding on the table on the water. A real show!!
From this moment and always in a fun way, a world of fun, sports and incredible surroundings will begin on the beach that will last a lifetime. Slowly but surely.
More info: Juan I. Fernández 34 615683051
https://www.tarifakitepassion.com info@tarifakitepassion.com
