2011/08/10 von Tim Kummerfeld

Tim's Kummerkasten: S-Bend Pass

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Hamburg-based CORE Teamrider Tim Kummerfeld greets you all with a very nordic “Moin Moin” and “Guten Tach”! Who’s not familiar with this; trying to learn new tricks often ending in sorrow. Depression haunts you in sleepless nights and worries about your style overcome. There’s an end to it!  “Tims Kummerkasten”, which is german for an “agony column”, “une Boîte à chagrins” or  in simple and plain spanish “Anuncios personales relativos a personas u objetos perdidos”, you’ll get the essential tips to learn proper tricks. Tim won’t be beating around the bush, he is a straight talker, and will cut to the chase. 

Welcome to the “Kummerkasten”! If a problem regarding a trick is on your mind, just drop a mail to kummerkasten@corenation.net. No matter if it’s a backroll or a complex handlepass. I’ll always try my very best to help. Since we’re just getting started obviously there are no requests yet, so I’ll be presenting one of my favourite tricks, the S-Bend-Pass.

To make this little gem look smooth you need the right technique. Plenty of power is a massive point! You need to be pretty lit, but still be able to unhook without having the feel of loosing control. I like to ride the 10 or 12sqm GTS and tie the steering lines to medium speed. This way, the kite is not too fast, but still reacts perfectly to steering inputs.The best angle for the kite is just under two o’clock.

Take off

A proper S-Bend is a Railey with a frontside rotation, which means that you edge hard to pop off into a railey. While you’re being pulled, you turn your head and shoulder inwards. If you time it correctly the rest is child’s play and you’ll perform a proper S-Bend. At about ¾ of the rotation you transform the horizontal rotation to a vertical rotation by pulling in the bar hard to the front of your hip. (A little bit of strength won’t hurt) as you are now passing the handle from the front to the back hand.  Once the bar has been passed you'll be landing toeside smoothly.

S-Bend-Pass 3:

The next step is not landing toeside, but to continue to rotate for another 180° and land heelside. If you’re going for this trick remember it normally doesn't work out if you decide after the handlepass “There’s still plenty of time left, let’s do this one heelside!”, as your entire body position during the trick contributes to the landing. The most important factors are initiating the handlepass a little earlier and keeping a compact body position, which means having your legs tucked up. Even when you already have got the bar in the back hand, don’t relax until you have almost finished the 360 degree spin.

Fellow land-dwellers, let's get practicing!