I had the good fortune of kiting for 2 weeks straight in NC this October but developed pain in my elbow that radiated down to my little finger about a week into it. The pain mainly occured at night after the day of kiting. Soon after my return from vacation and with some rest the pain resolved. I had not even thought about it since then... of course I had not kited since then either.

My kites (Flexifoil Ions and Atoms) have moderate bar pressure and some people have mentioned that as a risk factor.

Last night when lifting weights I noticed some sensitivity in that same elbow.

Has anyone else noticed this and are there any suggestions on preventative therapy/ training?

Regards, HJR

I would say relaxing is the best thing you can do. I never notice the strain of my bars, or get tennis elbow. Then again I spend alot of time on my kites. And I know where to shift my weight and muscles as needed. If your kite doesnt feel like an extension of your body yet, your probably not that relaxed out there....take a deep breath, let your harness do the work, and use the bar to steer, not take your weight!
Hope this helps

Thanks, I agree that relaxation should help this problem a lot. I also spent a lot of time relaunching during my vacation and that had me pulling on my right side line a lot.

The flexifoils take a bit of finesse to relaunch especiall in light wind so I got really exhausted a few times when trying to get the kite to the edge of the window.

HJR

I have never had this type of pain from Kiting - however, I have been involved in some type of sport for most of my life and so I have had similar injuries. I use Traumeel to help with these types of pain. Traumeel is a homeopathic remedy mainly designed to ease the pain and reduce the swelling. Traumeel comes in tablets that you swall and also a topical gel/lotion. I highly recommend it

I know what you mean I've had this problem when taking too much time away from kiting. My forearm mucsles and biceps after a week of straight hard kiting wears me out. Sometimes in crazy winds its hard not to get fatigued. Rest makes it go away. The newer bows are less pressure and make your time out longer. On my hybrid kite its not to hard but i will feel it after a heavy wind day on the kite.

What kind of kite? Bow or hybrid or..?
Any kite with more depower always gives me elbow pain as well. In general they hurt my arms, the opposite arm to the direction I am facing.
The more weight you can put into your harness the better.

The bow and the SLE are very comfortable. The turning and amount of input is greatly reduced. I can remember to the earlier days when it felt like your biceps were going to peal off your arm if you pulled again. The newer kites are much faster and less is more. The less input the less output of energy. I used to fatigue quickly when there was more resistance. Now that the designs are better and better our adventure gets longer and longer.

I've got a bad shoulder that's kinda responsible for me getting out of windsurfing and getting into kiting. My old RRD and Diesel C kites had virtually no bar pressure (or depower) and didn't bother my shoulder a bit.
I bought a Turbo Diesel from Keith and only flew it for half a season or so as the 2-1 bar produced lots o' bar pressure (like most true bows) and really aggravated my wing. The Frenzys get me too if I'm really lit as does the T2. The only thing that helps me is rest and/or kites with little bar pressure-like my sweet Ozone Sports and the little woman's Rev's.
If you're developing tennis elbow the only thing that will really help is rest.
Laurel dealt with this the last couple of summers from waterskiing. She ended up half lame and finally got a shot of Cortizone which ended up being an overdose and emaciated the muscles around her elbow. Now she's fine but she really needed to just take a break for a few weeks.