Finally got to enjoy my 5 month belated birthday present, a skills session at the local kite school.

Have had an 8′ flexifoil Stacker for mashing about with for a few years now, but a frustrating morning on a blustery norfolk coast trying to self launch it and only ending up with a bird’s nest of lines led me get some help in learning to self launch.

Great morning for flying a four line 3.5m Rage in. Turns out its not a lack of skill for me, but clearly a lack of expensive equipment 😉 . And I reckon Im going to be on a board by the end of summer too…
Im hooked.
Where’s my debit card and does anyone want to buy a 8′ stacker? 🙂

Not me, but will be soon:

Good man. Fun innit.

I’ve got a Flexifoil buggy for sale if you fancy…

I think Im going to go for the board thang first. Maybe buggying next year…

The question is whether to get a 2.5 or 3.5 Rage…

BTW my desktop has toasted again.

Think I might try a new case first…then work thorugh GFX and as last resort Mobo 🙁

Recommend a case with tool-less drive bays, USB & audio out front and comes with a 120mm fan?

Great sport, wish I still had my kites.

Started off with a Flexifoil 4.5m Viper which was great fun to fly, loads of airtime and some good scudding. Regret selling that one but I couldn’t take it abroad with me.

Last kite I had was a 6m Radsail which was good for board riding. Spent a couple of summers at the local beach and park with it but had to sell it all due to old injuries flaring up.

Expensive hobby but worth it 😀

Last case I bought was in 1998… (-: Lian Li and Coolermaster both make good cases I hear.

If you’re somewhere windy (ie, the coast), I’d say go with the 2.5. I got a 3.5 and in hindsight it was a mistake.

3.5 = too much for big wind days or two much for light wind days?

[hijack]
The good news is the recovery disks that came with the replacement netbook this week (aspire one, £130 ex VAT – bargin esp for work emergency) appear to have resurrected the bricked one so now have spare netbook which is handy. So much bloatware they stick on them though! takes a while just cleaning the build back to something lightweight.
I was thinking anything around £40 for a case from scan or overclockers that didnt have the word “gaming” in it’s name would do…
[/hijack]

3.5m will be fine to start off with. You’d get bored pretty quickly with a little 2.5m. Smallest I had was a 3m, only came out with winds over 20mph really.

If you’re going down the landboard route then IMO get a minimum of a 4m. I used to have a 4m Felxi blade II and a Kheo landboard – it was great fun and I was able to get reasonable air on a good day but the blade was a very fast kite to fly so the 4m had to be worked constantly to keep it flying in the power zone (either on a 2-line bar or handles). I had a go a friends 6m and could ‘park’ the kite and then conentrate on the board skills so was actually easier. Also you’ll need a harness for landboarding so better to get a kite that’ll do 4-lines and depower rather than handles.

I wouldn’t stick a foil on a 2 line bar, especially not to start with, you lose any braking control that you’d have with handles. Handles and some Flexi’ kite killers on a sub 10mph wind day, build up the wind speed as you progress. At least if it goes wrong then, at least you can just let go of the kite and it’ll just flap to the floor with the kite killers on. You won’t need a harness for landboarding, obviously if you went down the depower kite route, then yes, but not necessary for something like a Flexifoil Rage.

It is highly addictive though, I only sold my gear when I bought a boat and started wakeboarding. Still wish I had it for those windy summer evenings down the beach 8)

Looks like a lot of fun. I was watching these on my ride this morning.

all good stuff to read, cheers guys.

Going for a smaller kite to start with, as if I go to landboard, Id get a bigger kite at the same time. Fast kite for fun off board, larger slower one for cruising around lazily…

Watched a guy go out on a harness/10m thing as I was coming off the field, made it look so easy and effortless 🙂

Going for a smaller kite to start with, as if I go to landboard, Id get a bigger kite at the same time.

I would. On handles, forget the bar till you’re board / buggy bound.

Oh boy my triceps & trapezoids are feelin’ it today!

I would. On handles, forget the bar till you’re board / buggy bound.

That’s the plan.

Not a piss take, just curious what the attraction is? What happens when you fly a kite that’s enjoyable?

We have something like this:

Not flown it yet, but it’s an ace idea 🙂

Not a piss take, just curious what the attraction is? What happens when you fly a kite that’s enjoyable?

Learning to fly a big power kite in a decent wind is like riding a trail and not knowing how high you’ll go off a jump.

Imagine hopping off a kerb and clearing the whole road by mistake. That was me flying my Blade. A bit like trying to hang on to a runaway horse – that can fly.

Quite complicated to start with, soon becomes exicting and most possible to hurt yourself quite badly and very quickly. Depends on your nature if you find that enjoyable!

Not a piss take, just curious what the attraction is? What happens when you fly a kite that’s enjoyable?

Small-ish kite:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fip23Ts7gZY[/video]

Bigger kites with boards:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6gwFoyT7zc[/video]

Big kites with boards in a storm (Ruben Lenten):

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1N6_Spizvk[/video]

Can be seriously good fun getting boosted really high. Jumps like pendulums give quite a rush and dragging/scudding are really entertaining

reminds me ive got a 3.6M sat unused in the loft which i really should shift on

Have had an 8′ flexifoil Stacker

Great fun with quality short lines and a brisk wind.

Only problem I find is if you stack a few together, you tend to attract people from nowhere wanting to have a go.

flexifoil used to have a great active forum, but looks like its gone from their site?

does anyone want to buy a 8′ stacker?

If they are the rainbow version, drop me a email Stoner

Looks fun, would love to give the kite water boarding go but time and money = no chance.

The basic kite jump, what are the injury options/likelihood and does it wreck your knees?

EDIT ah just noticed “most possible to hurt yourself quite badly and very quickly” I’ll give it a miss then. For the last few months I’ve been having these wierd recurring dreams where I jump/float really high (and then land gently) this looks exactly like those dreams.

Not rainbow – yellow green black.

‘course I type 8′ and I cant actually remmeber if its 8’ or 6’…

will check at home at end of week and put up a classifieds or email any dibs.

No worries Stoner.

Just in case someone has not seen this clip yet& one for Donk 😉

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdgUFKH9rDw&feature=related[/video]

flexifoil used to have a great active forum, but looks like its gone from their site?

Its now called Kitecrowd and its independent from Flexi. New mods, new boards, new users.

Racekites is also worth a look, as is Kiteboarder.co.uk for those wanting a more kitesurf based forum. I prefer them to Kitecrowd, which seems to have gone down the toilet since Flexi stopped running it IMO.

The basic kite jump, what are the injury options/likelihood and does it wreck your knees?

You can do yourself some serious injuries kiting. I’ve witnessed two people break their clavicle just on small kites (one was dragged into a goalpost (by a 4m kite) and another was lofted (by a 6m) and landed really badly). Knee wise the usual impacts, twisting etc from heavy or awkward landings.

The injuries I saw were inexperience on both cases, in the lofting it was my mate who thought launching a 6m in gusting 40mph winds was a good idea no matter how much I told him otherwise.

If you start off small in lighter winds you can minimize injury risk as you learn to control the kite, read the wind and know when it’s too much IMO.

A bit like trying to hang on to a runaway horse – that can fly

Not sure I’d want to do that, either!

Edit – lol at Ski’s clip!

You can do yourself some serious injuries kiting.

I learned the hard way about the wisdom of not using Kite Killers too.

I saw a video a few years ago. A kite surfer is being interviewed and another kite surfer runs ashore behind him, with his kite parked overhead. He hops over some lines on the beach, gets caught in a gust and just shoot upwards! He’s carried a couple of hundred feet up and tries to fly back over the sea before he looses the updraft!

Altogether too dangerous, I sold my kites and bought a motocross bike. Much safer. Seriously!

all power kites are not created equal. Lift and thrust are separate qualities.