The Mario Jump developed over years of using the kite to launch me back downwind to my surfboard after falling. I was doing this starting in waist deep water at first, but then started doing it off the beach and seeing how far away I could let the board drift and still land on it. It is incredibly bizarre how much fun it is.
A good trick to already know before trying this is the twintip version of a hot launch beach start; basically just this with the board connected to you the whole time. That helps you get the feel for loading up against the kite. The lining up with your board for the landing is definitely the trickiest part.
1. Point the nose of your board directly downwind of you and let it drift.
2. Bring your kite far to the side of the wind window, pretty close to the water at beside 3 or 9 o’clock. Continue adjusting your body positioning if needed to make sure the board is still downwind of you. Very important!
3. Turn your kite hard to the center so it falls back in the wind window and is straight in front (downwind) of you. You are basically creating a hot launch effect.
4. Keep the bar sheeted out and continue to resist the pull from the kite until it is shooting higher up towards 12 o’clock overhead. This gives you a lift straight up out of the water versus just pulling you downwind and slightly of the water. If you know how to boost big on a twintip this is the same principle.
5. When the kite’s around two-thirds of its way up towards 12 o’clock, sheet the bar in and let the kite lift you up into the air. You can shake your legs, do scissor kicks, put your legs above your head, whatever you are feeling, to keep your balance mid-flying.
6. Spot your board and adjust the kite to bring you directly over it while in the air. Maybe you are too far left or right so you need to whip your kite a little to one side or the other to bring you more on top of it. Or maybe you are just crushing it and don’t need to adjust the kite at all. That’s even better. Congrats, you’re a rock star.
7. Since you basically just hot launched yourself straight downwind, to continue with decent speed and give yourself a soft landing, potentially you will need to downloop your kite. When you downloop your kite depends on how far you flew underneath your kite and how far over you moved it when flying through the air. This is similar to doing big airs. The bigger you go, the more you will have to downloop in the air. —REIDER DECKER
Caption: Airush’s Reider Decker with a Squamish Mario. Medysky photo
