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Unhooked · Advanced

Krypt

See it in the Trick Tree

Krypt is a raley landed toeside instead of heelside: you pull the leading knee under the bar and touch down tail first, hooked or unhooked.

Also called: Raley to Toeside

Prerequisites

Raley

Unlocks

Nothing in the tree needs this one yet — it stands on its own.

Schools teach this differently

The two schools split on the touchdown: IKSURFMAG lands the Krypt tail-first directly toeside with the kite parked low and the bar in close, while MACkite cues landing pointed downwind at the kite to dump power first, then carving pressure back onto the toes.

How to do it

  1. 1. Set up and unhook

    • Park the kite just below 1 o'clock (11 on the other tack): high enough that you trust the pop, low enough that it flies forward without lifting you.
    • Bear off hard onto a very broad reach. The slack this puts in the lines lets you unhook cleanly and lets the kite drop back a touch, so it pulls you downwind for the landing.
    • Unhook with both elbows tucked into your sides and keep them there, so the kite cannot drag your arms straight.
    • Set your weight upwind of the board and back over the tail, front leg extended.

  2. 2. Carve and pop

    • Turn your shoulders upwind so the board carves back against the kite and the lines load. Make it quick and precise, or the kite wins the tug of war.
    • Resist the building pull with your back leg and keep the front hand in close; fight the urge to pull on the back hand as you turn away from the kite.
    • Stamp down and extend the back leg as explosively as you can. The front leg stays extended the whole way.

  3. 3. Extension and flick

    • Straighten everything and uncoil the spring which is you, letting the board release up behind you. The flick is just your upwind carve continuing after you extend.
    • Check the kite. If it has crept up, steer it back down with both hands and keep the bar angled forward.
    • Work out where you are going to land so the touchdown does not surprise you.

  4. 4. Toeside landing

    • As the board falls and gravity swings your legs back under you, pull the arms in close and bring your knees up toward you.
    • Pull the toeside leading knee under the bar, much as you would for a gentle pop to toeside.
    • Touch down tail-first for a toeside landing with the bar held in close, so you land over the board instead of getting pulled forward by the kite.
    • If you land with power, point the tail downwind at the kite and ride downwind for a beat, then carve pressure back into the toeside edge and work upwind.
    • Bear away toward the kite and hook back in, or pop casually back to heelside.

Common mistakes and fixes

Mistake

Landing far downwind and having to carve back around onto your heels.

Fix

The kite has drifted up, your arms have extended, or both. Keep the arms tucked in the whole flight and do not be afraid to dive the kite down.

Mistake

Catching the toeside edge as you touch down.

Fix

You ran out of height. Pop harder off the back foot, or set the kite slightly higher in the window.

Mistake

Hinging at the hips as you lean back to load, which chokes the pop.

Fix

Lean back as one unit, like sitting on the back two legs of a chair, hips locked and heels dug in.

Mistake

Letting your arms extend while loading the edge.

Fix

Keep the arms in close, almost like you never unhooked; straightened arms bleed leverage out of the load.

Mistake

Landing across the wind in your original direction of travel while the kite is still powered.

Fix

Land riding downwind to take the power out of the kite first, then bring pressure back onto the edge.

If it goes wrong

  • If the kite has climbed while you are stretched out behind the bar, stop chasing the toeside landing and steer it down hard. IKSURFMAG teaches this for the raley the krypt is built on, where a risen kite is the cue to go for a controlled landing instead.
  • When the landing is clearly gone and you are only still holding on out of hope, let the bar go and put everything into landing flat and running downwind. MACkite says this for the airborne phase of any unhooked pop.
  • Once you are down and still unhooked and the loop will not go back on the hook, grab the chicken loop and let the bar go. Session Sports, writing about unhooked progression in general, teaches that the kite depowers from this and you can then bring the loop back to your spreader bar rather than being pulled downwind.
  • Use your back hand for that grab. IKSURFMAG's unhooking article, written for any moment you end up overpowered and off the hook, has the rider take the back hand off the bar and onto the top of the chicken loop.
  • The same move covers the case where the kite ends up overhead at the zenith and the pull is more than you can hold. Art of Kitesurf, teaching unhooked freestyle generally, tells you to release the bar straight away and use the chicken loop to get reattached, and says that this takes power out of the kite and makes getting back onto the harness easier.

Learn this with a coach, not from a page

This is a high-consequence move. The sources it is built from describe riders getting hurt on it, and every one of them teaches it as a step you earn rather than attempt. Get coaching, build up in stages, ride with people who can help you, and give yourself deep water and clear space downwind.

Find a certified school

Educational reference, not instruction. Kitesurfing is a risk sport: the steps here describe what named schools, instructors and technique libraries teach, and the page lists exactly which ones, but real conditions involve wind, gusts, water state, traffic and equipment behaviour that no written guide accounts for. Schools also teach justified variations — where our sources disagree, the page says so instead of picking one. Judge your own readiness, use the safety systems on your kite, and do not attempt a move because a page made it sound achievable. KitesurfingOfficial accepts no liability for the use of this information on the water.

Questions riders ask

Do I have to be unhooked to learn the Krypt?+

No. IKSURFMAG's coaches say you can happily learn it both hooked or unhooked; the version their tutorial demonstrates is unhooked, and apart from the unhooking mechanics the rest stays much the same.

What should I have dialed in before trying it?+

Work through the raley first. MACkite's unhooked progression stacks raley-to-toeside after the unhooked pop, the surface pass and the raley itself; for the softer pop-to-toeside stepping stone, their bar is simply being able to pop and ride toeside.

Where does the kite go?+

Just below 1 o'clock (11 on the other tack). Too high and you fly instead of popping; too low and most riders lack the confidence to commit. MACkite gives the same band: keep it low at 11 or 1.

Why bother landing toeside at all?+

MACkite treats the toeside landing as the doorway to blind and wrapped landings later on, and the same frontside pattern feeds tricks like raley to wrapped and 313s.

Do I need full speed for my first attempts?+

No. IKSURFMAG's advice is to start gently: you do not need to be hounding along at Mach 10 aiming for a full-blown raley. A decent extended pop gives you the feel before you stretch it into the whole move.

Keep reading

Sources

Every step on this page traces to the sources below. Where they disagree or stay silent, the page says so instead of guessing.