Sports

Many people seem to think kite-jumping is stupid and dangerous, but I think its great fun, and just a natural progression from flying powerful kites.. Common sense seems to say you should wear protective clothing (knee pads, helmets, sturdy boots etc.) and only do it on soft sand, but unless you're really taking it the the extreme, it 's not that big a deal... I often do little (6 foot) jumps on hard packed sand in bare feet.
In steady winds, you should soon get the hang of landing softly. I find the best way to get high jumps is to take the kite to one edge of the window, then bring it back through the window and towards the top of the window, accelerating the kite all the time. As you do this, resist the pull so that the lines stretch and then just as the kite reaches its apex let it pull you off the ground. You get lift from both the tension in the lines and the kite continuing its upward acceleration.. keep the kite above you with the main lines tight and you should come back to the ground fairly gently.. on occasion, a gust may actually lift you into the air again before you land... this can be quite unnerving to start with.
Another technique is to run with the kite in one direction, then turn the kite the other way. If you keep running, as the kite flies away from you, the lines will stretch and then you'll be pulled off your feet and into a jump following a semicircular pathway. This type of jump isn't usually as high as the earlier method, but the 'hang-time' can be longer.

Soon after this, I started kite-mountain-boarding. The 3 mile long beach and hard-packed sands of Borth are ideal for this mad sport. You reach some pretty high speeds and can do all manner of tricks, turns, jumps etc. Basically, Kite-mountainboarding involves using the power of a power kite to pull you along on a mountainboard. A mountainboard is an overgorwn skateboard, with large pneumatic tyres and some form of suspension and foot-straps. Originally people sat in three-wheeled buggies and got pulled along the beach by kites in these, but with the advent of kitesurfing and the 'invention' of mountainboards, kite-mountainboarding started to take off. If yu are planning on learning to kitesurf, then its an excellent cross-training tool as the principles are very similar.