Oh it's windy lets talk about kites

I had a cracking Day out last time home, flying a £5 kite with my boy on a deserted beach. One of my more successful tearing him away from computers attempts.

so I have upgraded and bought one of these ( I am hoping he will get a few mates interested as well)

Raptor

What a great simple pleasure it was.

Any experts on here with any tips ?

I’ve never had the patience/skill/aptitude to learn how to properly fly ‘stunt’ kites 😕 I love foil kites however – added virtue that they pack up small and you can take them with you anywhere. Agree with you that kites are a simple and fantastic pleasure!

Yep, always have at least one kite in the car often a selection!

I bought a nutter Beemer one a few years ago but haven’t flown it much as it scares the bejeebers out of me 😳

We have a Decathlon 4-line kite – whoooooooosh. Great fun, lives in the car pretty much permanently, comes out a few times a year from some action on beaches/hills/parks with the kids.

Yep, always have at least one kite in the car often a selection!

Me too.

Decathlon do (or at least to) an excellent two line foil kite, a great way to ease in to flying bigger four liners.

I now mainly fly my Flexi Bullet. Superb fun!

I now mainly fly my Flexi Bullet. Superb fun!

Good call. Its a full workout in a little bag. I had Flexi 4.9 Blade thats was bonkers for scudding and bodydragging in the surf. Huge airtime.

Have the Raptor, it’s Javelin bigger brother and a 1.2 foil for my girls.
Mine is the Infinity – just because I can… 😉
Should really sell the Blade II as it sits in the car doing nothing now – mental power!

Yep, always have at least one kite in the car

+1

Found something akin to your Raptor in my garage when I bought my house.

What a joy. For me. Hadn’t flown a kite for 30odd years. Embarrasses the **** out of my GFs teenage sons. I love it 🙂

Well we are now looking for a new spine for the Raptor after todays flight, I guess it was just too windy for it today, great fun though. Going to check out some non sparred kites for windier days.

A mate of mine lost his eye while walking his dog in black rock sands, porthmadog.
Some guy lost control of his kite which plummeted at speed into my mate’s face.

flexifoil super10 here as above lives in the car, great fun but murder on the ankles so requires a stout pair of boots. In the right wind you can get some nice air 🙂

Got a “Spirit of Air” stunt thing which was made in Newport by a man in a unit. Not sure they are still going, great bit of kit but hard work to fly, don’t do it enough to be proficient.

I have a LOT of kites 😳 . There is nothing more satisfying than a BIG single line floating in a blue sky (a side effect of my PhD). To get you started, I recommend HQ as the quality is very good. Premier Kites for big single lines, HQ for soft 1.8m2 dual line stunt kites.

Teen2 with my 2m Canard. A really beautiful flier.

Ok, I lasted an hour, but you got me in the end, PHD, kites, go on tell me more 🙂

If you like flying kites, you should try kitesurfing -awesome!!!!

I’ve got one of those little parachute style stunt kites. It rules – I like getting someone else to fly it while I lay on the ground just beyond the max reach of the strings, then have the pilot dive it towards my head.

Yep.

Needed a diversion from the research. So took up flying kites. Big ones, small ones, one, two and four line. Single line kites are for relaxation and kids, two line and four line for skills. Revolution is my favorite stunt kite.

Just back from a walk with the dog…

Anyone tried kite aerial photography? I’m thinking it could be fun to lift a GoPro.
Any recommended kites for this?

not just for windy days 😉

p.s. kitesurfing, snowkiting and kite boarding all rock 😀

CraigW
yes ive a kite photography kit a big 12 foor delta with a camera rig and rc kit great when the condititons are right 🙂

HQ Symphony 2m for the drag around the beach / fly in anything from a light breeze to a gale fun.

I’ve got a no name delta, not a lot of money and I struggled to fly it. Took it in to a kite shop in Woolacombe when on holiday, he was very helpful and sorted out some on the rods for length. He was surprised at the carbon fibre on such a cheap kite. I then made the flying lines static, fixed length and lost the winders, and used the light weight handles from my HQ foil. I can fly it to a point if the wind speed is right. Deltas have a very narrow wind window.

All good fun.

I’ve always had a problem saying stunt kite.

My current set is….
F1 Mach1 18.1m2
Best waroo 9
best yarga 13.5
Can’t remember what my 7 is, North I think.

Been so long since I flew them 🙁

Used to have loads of kites (only have a few now) – used to buy and sell via http://forum.kitecrowd.com/ which might be worth checking out re advice and I also used this to pick up 2nd hand kites. Might also be worth seeing if there any kite festivals on as this was the way that I got to try out other kites. Alternatively, some kite shops and clubs will let you try. Looks like you have some good locations to fly judging from your pics.

Thanks jms, I am checking out that forum.

Yup got a lot of kites,

Benson Deep space

Also got a Revolution, couple of Hq ones and an old flexifoil stranger. kitesurfing I have all slingshot fuels, 7m and. 13m

Nice one rig hog
great thread
Now looking again at the PDK Buster Soulfly just what size

I’ve got a delta wing kite, can’t control it at all. An old fashioned diamond stunt kite though, brilliant. Must root that out of the loft.

I’ve got a couple, a flexifoil stacker 6 which is great fun to fly even in very strong winds though I’ve occasionally broken a line (100kg lines). I’ve also got a Blade 4.9 which is frightening in anything more than a light breeze as it’s just so powerful.

Just watched that vid Buzz. Amazing I dont even know how that would be possible.

Brilliant fun

We’ve got three HQ symphonys, 1.2m, 1.4m and 1.8m 2 line kites, and a 2.5m HQ beamer 4 line kite. No expeience of any other makes but the HQs are great fun and crash resistant 😀

Aldi Kites[/url]

This is what we started with, really great value ( £3.99 each), the stunt kite was not that different from the £50 kite I bought. Worth it for the spars ( we are going through quite a few ! )