Riding Blind is popping a 180 and carrying on with your back to the direction of travel, sliding in reverse with the bar pushed away or behind your back.
Also called: blind riding · pop to blind
Prerequisites
Unlocks
Helps to know first
Schools teach this differently
Sources split on kite and bar grammar: IKSURFMAG parks the kite just above 11/1 and pushes the bar away through the rotation (its pop-to-blind-with-ole guide calls this the hooked-in version of a surface pass), while MACkite's unhooked tutorial keeps the kite near 45 degrees, bears off toward the kite with light line tension and pulls the bar in to the lead hip with the back of the hand at the small of the back.
Ideal conditions
Flat water strongly preferred (chop eats momentum and the trick runs on it); moderate board speed is enough, no break-neck speed; light-wind days recommended for early unhooked attempts.
How to do it
1. Set up the approach
- Run your leash to the front-hand side, unhook, and keep the bar close to your hips from the first second.
- Keep the kite at 45 degrees or a touch lower and bear off toward it; hooked in, park it higher, just above 11 or 1 o'clock.
- Come off your hard edge carrying moderate speed on flat water; no break-neck speed needed, but no tootling along either.
- Centre your front hand so the first two fingers split the centre line; that hand steers the whole trick.
- Stand tall over the board with your hips shifted back toward the tail so the nose stays up, most of your weight on the rear heel.
2. Load and pop
- Load light tension into the lines with your edge; find the sweet spot where you can control the tension, because edge too hard and the bar pops out of your hand.
- Carve back onto your heels and stamp almost in the same beat; carve too long and you slow down, so think of it as turn and stamp.
- Kick down off your back heel against the edge, using the small bend already in your back leg; compressing into a squat first only flattens the board again.
- Drive your front knee up toward your chest as the back leg pushes down.
3. Turn to blind
- Turn your head first: look over your back shoulder as if trying to see your reflection in the water behind you, and let the shoulders and hips follow.
- Lift your back foot up toward your bum so the tail comes up, the board stays under you and you land nose-first.
- Hooked in, push the bar away through the spin so everything stays neutral; pull it in and the kite pulls you downwind.
- Unhooked, pull the bar into your lead hip and twist it until the back of your hand meets the small of your back, surface-pass style.
- Point your toes the whole way round; if you touch down before you spot the landing, you won't catch an edge.
- Land nose-first, upright and centred, weight biased to the new tail, with no edge braking under you.
4. Ride it out
- Flex your ankles and knees to work weight onto your toes and set a soft edge; the light pull it puts back on the lines and kite is what keeps the slide alive.
- Hold your free hand up and pointing behind you for balance, or bring it back onto the bar for more control.
- Ride the blind position on a mild downwind edge; the more time you spend riding blind, the more natural it feels.
- To come out, weight your toes, lean your shoulders over the nose and upwind, and turn your head to look where you are going; seeing forward again twists your body out, then move your hips back over the new tail and sit onto your heels.
- Hooked in, you can finish with an ole: push the bar fully out to dump every bit of tension, then bring it across upwind in front of your face as you turn out to toeside.
Common mistakes and fixes
Mistake
Edging hard upwind into an unhooked pop
Fix
Ride downwind and at the kite with only light line tension. Load while edging too hard and the bar pops out of your hand; keep the bar close to your hips and find the sweet spot of controllable tension.
Mistake
Pulling the bar in as you pop (bar-away method)
Fix
Push the bar away so everything stays neutral. Using the bar to help you pop chokes the kite, and pulling it in means the kite pulls you downwind instead of you landing over the board.
Mistake
Popping and turning in one movement
Fix
Think up, then round. Practice the split on land until it is automatic; attempting to pop and turn at the same time is what pulls your feet out of the straps.
Mistake
Pushing the feet and board around karate-style
Fix
Keep your chin and shoulders raised and rotate your shoulders and hips so the board follows your body; swivelling the feet round first lands you braced on all of your edge and kills the momentum.
Mistake
Kite parked too low at take-off
Fix
Keep the kite high, just above 11 or 1, and pop off your back heel with the back knee kept out.
If it goes wrong
- Keep your toes pointed through the whole rotation; if you land before you spot your landing, you won't catch an edge.
- If the landing feels wrong, let go of the bar and ride downwind to recover.
- Out of options mid-rotation: scoop the board out, throw your legs up and take a flat body flop onto the water.
Learn this with a coach, not from a page
This guide explains what the move is and what riders get wrong, so you arrive at the session knowing what you are trying to do. It cannot watch your kite, read the gust coming, or stop you committing to something you are not ready for — a coach or instructor can.
Find a certified schoolEducational 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
What do I need to be able to do before trying to ride blind?+
If you can pop a bit and ride toeside you already have the skills for the bar-away version; the toeside ankle and knee work is exactly what keeps the blind slide going. For the unhooked version, have riding toeside, the surface pass and the ollie down first, and don't try it too powered at first.
Do I learn it hooked in or unhooked?+
Both lines exist. One method keeps the kite high with the bar pushed away and lets you exit with an ole, which is the hooked-in version of a surface pass. The unhooked method runs the kite near 45 degrees with the bar twisted behind your back, and once you have it dialed you are ready for raley to blind and, further out, blind judge rotations.
What conditions make it easiest?+
Flat water, because the trick runs on momentum and chop eats momentum for breakfast. Moderate board speed is enough, and quiet light-wind days are good for early unhooked practice — chances are you'll be the only one on the water.
How do I stop catching an edge?+
Point your toes through the spin and land nose-first with your weight on the new tail, so you are over the board rather than braking on an edge. If you keep catching your heel edge after landing, you haven't depowered the kite enough post-pop: push the bar out.
Can I practise any of it off the water?+
Yes. Set a bar up hung from a tree, imagine you're riding heelside towards it, then jump up and turn 180 so your head turns back. Drill up-then-round as separate movements until the split is automatic.
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.