First flight
The first time you will get out with your kite, you should try it on land and leave the board in its bag. You are strongly urged to practice in an area free of obstructions with plenty of space and preferably made up of sand or grass (beware of trees, powerlines, sharp objects, roads, etc). When flying your kite, you must ensure that people stay out of the flying and danger areas depicted on the left. This is roughly 100 x 100 metres and is an area where the kite could suddenly crash if anything were to malfunction.

Launching the kite from the beach
The best is to have someone (more experienced) assist you in the launch. Each type of kite has its own way of being launched. Inflatable kites such as Naish, North, or Cabrinha, need to be launched sideways by a partner, perpedular to the wind in an area called the neutral zone (see image on left and figure 5), whereas self inflatables set up with 4 lines can launch vertically directly downwind from you. Once in the air, the handling is pretty similar for all wings. Pull on the right hand side of the bar and the kite will veer towards the right, and pulling on the left side will do the inverse.

After launching your kite, bring it to the neutral zone where it will pull the least (if facing straight downwind, the neutral zone axis is perpendicular to the wind going from your right hand to your left hand, passing directly above your head. See figure 1 for more details). If the conditions are gusty, you need to be careful to keep the flying lines tight at all times to retain control.

Loose lines have no control and the kite will go erratically, either crashing or catapulting you somewhere where you don't really want to be. If you make the kite go from left to right, or up and down, you will feel its pull while it travels through the power zone. This is where you will be keeping the kite when you will be getting better. Try this up down zigzagging pattern on the beach until you get comfortable to try it in the water.

Launching the Kite from the Water
After your first fall, you will be forced to learn to relaunch your kite. Waterstarting inflatable traction kites is not that easy, especially narrow long kites (high aspect ratio).

With self inflatable kites, the longer they stay in the water, the less chance of launching from the water you will have. The reason for this is that they have one-way valves in their leading edge where they automatically inflate by the action of passing wind (when the kite falls in the water, water may enter through the valves).

Fig 5. Partner launching the kite

Fig 6. Stef Budai Waterstarting

With manually inflated kites, water does not infiltrate, but they are trickier to launch from the water. You need to bring the kite to the window edge by pulling on one end of the bar, and the kite will automatically turn onto its side and be ready to fly. The best way is to stand somewhere where you can touch the bottom, so you don't drift downwind. If you're in deep trouble, it will be trickier, as you'll need to use the windgusts to your advantage. Here a 5th line may come in handy as this will help tip the kite on its back quickly. You will notice that as you gain more experience, waterstarting will become easier and the kite will remain airborne longer.

Getting up on the board
Once the kite is up in the air, your next step is to get on the board and then onto a plane. For this, bring the kite up right above you at the edge of the neutral zone. Hook in the harness lines if you have not done so, and use one hand to control your board and slide your feet into the straps. If you have a wakeboard, you won't need to deal with this part. Once in the straps, pull hard on one end of the bar (depending on which direction you're heading), and the kite will take a sharp dive (figure 6). You will feel it pull you strongly and you'll try to get on a plane using your legs to control the board. During this time, don't forget to pull the other end of the bar before the kite hits the water to steer it back upwards. Keep on doing this up and down motion until you have enough power to keep it steady at an angle. If the wind is light, you may need to keep doing the up and down motion continually, if the wind is strong, you will need to keep the kite steady at the edge of the powerzone with both feet firmly in the footstraps.

Upwind edging
Now that you have learned how to control the kite, water start, and ride the board, you can prepare for the next step: going upwind. In order to go against the wind, you need strong winds and a good control of your rig. Similarily to a windsurfer, you will need to push with your back foot to keep the board in an upwind direction. You'll also need to maintain the board banked at an an angle to keep the windward edge cutting the water. The kite wing will have to be ahead of you at a low angle (around 30 degrees) for better results. You will notice it is almost impossible to keep the same stance for long, because you continually need to shift your position to adjust for changes in wind force and direction. Most often, you will be going upwind in a zigzag pattern, like if you were drunk. Don't worry, that is the right way to do it. During the first days, going downwind will be much easier than going upwind, and you will find yourself doing a lot of walking back because upwind edging won't really work. If this happens, bring the kite up in the neutral zone so that it pulls the least, and you should be able to walk back to your point of origin more or less comfortably.

Jibing
If you made it to this point, you're almost an intermediate kiteboarder by now. All you need to learn now is turn around and come back to where your point of origin. This is most easily done on bi-directional wakeboards, where all you need to do is steer the kite to the opposite direction, swap the weight on your legs, and sail back. On the other types of boards, a little more practice is needed because you'll need to jibe them. The best to do this way is to switch your feet first (like a step jibe on a windsurfer), and carve the board downwind 180 degrees. At the same time, pull on the back side of the bar to steer the kite into the turn direction, so once you come out of your jibe your kite is heading the right way.

Fig 7. Stef Budai Jumping

At first, the easiest thing to do is to bring your kite in the neutral zone above you, thus its pull will be minimal and you will be able to concentrate on the footwork more efficiently.

You're probably wondering if it is possible to tack a kite. Until now I have not seen it, but I am sure it will be possible as the pros get better at their thing.

Getting Air
Getting airborne is definetely one of the very exciting things about this sport. You can take mega jumps even in flat water! Jumping is pretty simple, and you will first want to try to do it without your board (don't worry it is attached to your ankle and will follow you; just make sure your wear a helmet so it does not land on your head!). All you need to do is wait for a good gust, and while on a full plane, yank on the back end of the control bar to make the kite go in the opposite direction from where you are going. It will start pulling like crazy, and give yourself a little push with the feet; you will get catapulted like a slingshot! Once airborne, try to pull the other end of the bar to bring the kite back to the original direction of movement and get ready to land. Touchdown will be similar to that of a windsurfing jump, but if you're wiping out, don't worry you're only landing on water and you'll just have a good laugh!