Unhooked Riding

Disconnect from the chicken loop and ride with direct bar control — the gateway to wakestyle tricks.

Unhooked riding changes everything about your connection to the kite. When you unhook from the chicken loop, the harness no longer absorbs the kite's pull — it's all in your arms, your core, and your technique. This direct connection gives you the precise control needed for wakestyle tricks, but it requires a different set of skills and a different approach to power management.

Safe Unhooking and Trim

The first challenge is unhooking safely and maintaining kite control without the harness taking the load. You'll learn the correct body position for unhooked riding: arms bent, bar close to your body, weight low and centred. Your instructor will have you practise unhooking and rehooking repeatedly until it's a smooth, confident motion rather than a nervous fumble.

Trim is critical when riding unhooked. The kite needs to be depowered enough that you can hold it comfortably with your arms, but powered enough to maintain speed and pop for tricks. Finding this balance requires adjusting your depower strap and bar position before unhooking. Your instructor will help you dial in the perfect trim for the day's conditions.

Unhooked Pops and Grabs

Once you're comfortable riding unhooked, we introduce the unhooked pop — loading your edge and releasing it to launch yourself off the water with the bar held in your hands rather than connected to your harness. The pop feels completely different unhooked because the power dynamics change. You'll practise pops to both sides, then add basic grabs: indy, melon, and tail grab.

"Riding unhooked for the first time was terrifying — all that power in my arms instead of my harness. But after thirty minutes I started to love the direct connection. By the end of the session I was popping and grabbing, and I understood why freestylers are obsessed with unhooked riding." — Liam H., advancing kiter

Kiter riding unhooked with direct bar control

Unhooked riding is the gateway to the most technical and visually impressive tricks in kitesurfing. This lesson gives you the foundation — safe unhooking, proper trim, and your first unhooked pops — so you can progress into the full freestyle world with confidence and control. It's a fundamental shift in how you ride, and it opens doors that hooked-in riding simply can't.