Kitesurfing Lingo – The most used expessions on the water!

Kitesurfing is awesome! But it can be a bit tricky to navigate the surfer lingo, both as a beginner and an experienced rider.

Your buddy calls from the beach and says it’s "nuking"... Nuking, you think, and you want to look cool, so you don’t admit you don’t know what that means and throw your 12m kite in the car, hoping for the best. You arrive and find out that "nuking" means it’s blowing like crazy. In other words, the wind is really intense.

I’ve compiled some of the best and most well-known kitesurfing terms to help you feel a bit more confident on the water.

P.S. You don’t drive back and forth on the water... you sail... Something I got quite a bit of backlash for saying when I first started kitesurfing back in 2011!

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Kook:A slightly overconfident kiter who doesn’t quite have the technique down. Moves uncontrollably and can be a danger—both to themselves and others on the water.

Walk of shame: When you have to walk all the way back to the beach with your gear because you could only kite in one direction. Either due to lack of experience or because the wind dropped. Bonus points if you look a bit grumpy. (P.S. Every real kiter has done at least one, if not several, walks of shame in their life!)

Nuking: Extreme wind conditions where it’s blowing about 15-20 m/s (30-40 knots!)

Kitemare: A kite nightmare. A kite accident or mishap.

Mowing the lawn: A boring kite style where you’re sailing with your kite just above the water (to everyone else’s irritation, as it’s hard to sail past each other) and just going back and forth without doing any tricks.

Spaghetti Lines: When your lines get all tangled. Happens often after you’ve tangled your lines with someone or triggered your kite. It can sometimes take hours to untangle, and if there’s seaweed on the lines, I hope you’ve got a lot of patience.

Sending it: Going all in. Whether it’s a jump, a trick, or anything else, but it needs to be done with full dedication and a bit of madness.

Kite graveyard: Often a place downwind from the spot, where you can drop your kite and know for sure it’ll break. It could be sharp reeds that can puncture the bladder, sharp rocks, a tree that many run into when they launch their kite, or other things.

Spot Snob / Wind Snob: Those who only want to kite in perfect conditions. In good, steady wind, in the sunshine, and on nice flat water. It’s tough in Denmark, where you’ve got to go out in rain, sleet, and snow. But I’ve met some who only kite on sunny days! :D

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Test rabbit/Wind dummy: The kiter who’s the first on the water, testing the conditions.

Underpowered: When there’s not quite enough wind, and you have to fight to sail or maintain height. This often leads to a "walk of shame."

Overpowered: When there’s too much wind for your kite, and you have trouble controlling it.

Self-Rescue: When something goes wrong (could be broken equipment, wind shifting, or other issues), and you have to save yourself back to shore. It’s a good idea to practice! Most kitesurfers will eventually find themselves in a situation where they need to perform a self-rescue. (This is always something we go over and teach at our kite camps).

Kiteloop: When you make a circle with your kite in the air.

Losing height: Can be caused by various things like currents, waves, or wind. You can’t make it back to where you started. Either you fight to get back or do a walk of shame.

Thermal wind: A phenomenon that occurs due to the temperature difference between the water and the air. It happens every day at our kite spot in Turkey. There’s never any wind in the forecast, but it blows every day in the season!

Wind window: The area where you can fly your kite.

Air-time, Hang-time: The time you spend in the air during a jump.

Body Dragging: You get dragged by the kite in the water without a board on. It’s part of the training to learn how to fly the kite and a necessary skill to get back to your board if you’ve lost it. Many don’t prioritize learning “upwind” body drag, but it’s a super important skill!

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De-power: Changing the angle of the kite so there’s less pull on it.

Downwinder: A planned trip where you ride with the wind without riding against it. You end up somewhere else, often several kilometers away. Of course, you only do this if someone has arranged to pick you up at your destination, and always in the company of others. It’s something I love, especially on a directional board; it’s fun to enjoy the waves along the coast without having to worry about getting back upwind.

Edge: Pushing the edge of your board down into the water to get grip and steer your direction. Especially important when building speed, going upwind, or preparing for a jump.

Unhooked: Riding without your chicken loop connected to your harness. Typically used in freestyle. Did you know it's called a chicken loop because, when kites first came out, you just held them by the arms? Later, the chicken loop came in, and you were considered a chicken if you used it. Don’t ask me why it’s called a donkey dick! (I’ve tried Googling it, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that…! If you know why it’s called a donkey dick, feel free to comment—I’m curious!). In modern terms, it’s probably called a chicken finger or chicken stick, but when I started, it was called a donkey dick.

Backroll: A backward 360-degree rotation in the air.

Frontroll: A forward 360-degree rotation in the air.

Big air: A discipline within kitesurfing where it’s all about jumping (really) high, doing wild tricks like rotations, board-offs, kite loops, staying in the air for a long time, and landing with style.

Handlepass: You’re unhooked and pass the bar behind your back in the air.

Railey: An unhooked "pop" where you don’t use the kite to jump. Your legs swing behind you. It’s one of the first unhooked tricks you learn and a gateway trick to other unhooked tricks.

Stomp: Landing a trick successfully.

It’s all, of course, written with a wink ;)

If you have any other fun or important kite terms, feel free to share them in the comments :D

Hang Loose! See you on the water //Emely

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