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Learn · Disciplines · Freestyle
The unhooked discipline — raleys, handle passes and powered rotations. What it is, how the progression works, and where to actually learn it: a flat lagoon, steady thermal wind, and the home spot of a GKA World Champion.
What is freestyle kitesurfing?
Freestyle is the trick-focused discipline where the rider rides unhooked — disconnected from the harness chicken loop, holding the bar by hand — to perform powered rotations, raleys and handle passes.
The defining move is the handle pass: mid-rotation, with the kite parked overhead, you pass the bar from one hand to the other behind your back so your body can spin freely beneath it. Where a hooked freerider uses the kite's lift to float a jump, a freestyler loads energy by edging hard against the board and releasing it — the "pop" — for explosive, snappy tricks that look nothing like floaty big-air jumps.
Set your expectations honestly: this is an advanced discipline. Nobody starts here on day one. Think of it as a goal you build towards once you can already ride confidently — and a goal worth chasing, because few feelings in the sport beat landing your first clean pass.
Clearing up the styles
These three get blurred together constantly. They're different disciplines, ridden in different wind, scored in different ways — and knowing which is which tells you exactly why a flat, steady-wind spot matters for learning freestyle.
Riding disconnected from the harness, holding the bar by hand. The kite is kept higher and lift-assisted; rotations and handle passes are the language. This is the technical, style-judged discipline.
Wind Typically light-to-moderate, steady wind
Kite flown low, more power downwards, almost always ridden in boots. Pop comes from the board off the water, wakeboard-influenced. Harder-landing, more raw than classic freestyle.
Wind Moderate, powered wind
A different discipline entirely — maximum height in strong wind, scored on how high you go. Megaloops and board-offs, not handle passes. It needs wind freestyle riders would call 'too much'.
Wind Strong wind (from ~20 kt up)
The takeaway: pure freestyle thrives on steady, moderate wind over flat water. Big air wants the opposite — strong, gusty days that would make handle passes a nightmare. That's the single biggest reason a spot like ours is built for learning the technical side.
The building blocks
Every unhooked trick is built from the same three ingredients. Get these right and the tricks follow; get them wrong and you fight the kite forever.
Here's the part every honest coach tells you: flat water and steady wind are non-negotiable. Gusty, choppy conditions add variables and slow focused repetition. Flat water with smooth, moderate wind makes pop, timing and feedback easier to repeat, but it does not create a fixed progression timeline — and that is the water we'll get to next.
The progression ladder
Freestyle is a ladder, not a leap. Most riders can locate themselves on a rung or two from the bottom. Each step up is a coaching milestone — these are typically learned with a coach watching every attempt, not self-taught off a video.
This is a general reference, not a fixed syllabus or timeline. The next element depends on the skills you already control, the wind, the equipment and the session; no rung or competition result is guaranteed.
The first unhooked trick and the gateway to everything else — board and body thrown out flat behind you, then snapped back to the board. Prerequisites are reliable pop and riding upwind both ways.
Add rotation to the Raley. The S-bend wraps a front rotation into the move — the building block every pass is built on.
The S-bend pass and back-to-blind: the bar leaves one hand and is caught by the other as the body spins under the parked kite. This is where freestyle really begins.
A Raley with a backside 180 to a blind landing — and its bigger sibling, the blind judge 3. Technical, committed, and a milestone every freestyler remembers.
Kiteloop handle passes and double handle passes at the advanced end. The competition-level tricks — years of progression, not a self-taught leap.
Wherever you are on it, coaching turns the next rung into a clear plan rather than a guessing game. Your starting level, conditions and repetition still determine the pace. See how freestyle coaching works →
Are you ready for freestyle?
Freestyle rewards riders who already have the fundamentals locked in. Run through this checklist honestly — it qualifies you faster than any sales pitch ever could.
That's independent-rider level. If you're there, you're ready for freestyle coaching. If you're not yet, the path is simple and worth it:
Where to actually learn it
The lagoon often offers flat water, open space and a shallow teaching area over sand. Wind, chop, water movement, traffic, equipment and rider level still determine whether a specific freestyle drill is suitable on the day.
The first ~800 m is usually knee-to-waist deep over sand. Depending on the actual depth, location and rider height, you can often stand and reset there. The shallow area can simplify a reset, but it does not remove the real risk of a freestyle fall.
Depth changes with the tide and conditions. The team selects the suitable zone and timing for the actual water level.
The base sits on the northern edge of El Gouna. The team chooses an active training zone from the live wind direction, traffic and available room; no attempt or upwind corridor is guaranteed.
Our station classified roughly 77% of days as rideable across the measured period, peaking around 85% in August. This is historical data under our published threshold, not a forecast or a promise for a booked day.
Rescue support is available during operating hours, but a specific intervention or response time cannot be guaranteed. It does not replace self-rescue, safe spacing or a live assessment before each attempt.
Our own weather station, 16-day forecast and live webcam (four years of data) help you line up sessions with likely wind windows. Forecasts can still change.
Train where a World Champion trains
Finn Flügel — 2025 GKA Freestyle World Champion — trains at our home spot, coached by co-owner Lukáš. You don't reach that level on a spot that fights you; the same flat water, steady wind and coaching eye that sharpen a champion are what serious freestyle progression demands.
Our coaching setup is built for exactly this kind of technical work:
Real-time, in-helmet correction is uniquely suited to unhooked riding, where the right cue a split-second before the pop changes everything.
2025 GKA Freestyle World Champion
Trains at our home spot — coached by co-owner Lukáš.
2022 GWA Wingfoil Surf-Freestyle World Champion
Comes to Kitepower to ride, recharge and enjoy the flat water.
Pro kitesurfer · Flysurfer international team rider
A regular on our lagoon — riding the same Flysurfer kites we teach with.
Freestyle is the technical, trick-focused side of kitesurfing where the rider rides unhooked — disconnected from the harness chicken loop, holding the bar by hand — to perform powered rotations, raleys and handle passes. Power comes from 'popping' off the edge of the board rather than from the kite's lift, which is what gives freestyle its explosive, snappy look. It's an advanced discipline: a progression goal you build towards once you can already ride confidently.
A handle pass is the signature freestyle move: while unhooked and mid-rotation, you pass the bar from one hand to the other behind your back so your body can keep spinning freely under the kite. It happens at the apex of the trick, once the kite is parked and the 'pop' spring has faded. Learning to time that pass is the heart of freestyle progression.
Freestyle is unhooked handle-pass riding with the kite kept higher and lift-assisted rotations. Wakestyle keeps the kite low for more power and is almost always ridden in boots, with pop generated off the board like wakeboarding. Big air is a separate discipline aimed at maximum height — megaloops in strong wind, scored on how high you jump. Freestyle sits at the technical, style end; big air at the height end.
Freestyle is for riders who are already independent: you should be able to ride upwind confidently in both directions, stop in control, handle stronger wind comfortably and self-rescue. If you're not there yet, the path is a beginner course first, then consolidating your riding, then freestyle coaching. There's no shortcut — but with the right conditions and coaching the progression is genuinely enjoyable.
It depends heavily on your starting level and the conditions. Many riders spend their first dedicated sessions just getting comfortable unhooking and finding reliable pop before their first Raley. What every coach agrees on is that flat water and steady wind make the difference between days of progress and years of frustration — gusty, choppy spots slow everything down. We'd rather set honest expectations in person than promise a number.
You can train freestyle at Kitepower El Gouna — the oldest kite school in El Gouna (since 2004). The first ~800 m is knee-to-waist deep over sand, followed by a separate independent-riding zone. It's the home spot of 2025 GKA Freestyle World Champion Finn Flügel, who trains here coached by co-owner Lukáš.
