Power Kite Forum

Noobie, just saying hi

gusher37 - 13-2-2015 at 01:35 AM

Hi guys and gals.

Firstly....great forum....lots of helpful tips and hints and more important...safety advice.

About me....I'm not a complete novice to the kiting world but far from an expert, but have been flying power kites for fun on land for 5/6 years now as well as introducing the buzz to my son and daughter too....it's going to get expensive I can see lol.

I've briefly dabbled in kite boarding and had a 3 day coarse at camber, due to our land kiting myself and my son picked it up fairly quickly and by the 3rd day I was starting to get up on the board and getting a bit more confident than my ability and ended up wiping out and getting the kite out of shape and in a spin in 25-30 winds and choppy seas,which then decided to take me for a little detour down the East Sussex coast line until after 30 secs of underwater action and a few litres of sea water injested I came to a stop with a near thousand pound pull only a few seconds away.....but that being said, and I was slightly shaken up its not put me off the world of power kites and I've now decided to move into landboarding to get more experience of kite control with the added confusion of the board and experience before getting back in the water. ....as I felt it was the crashing of the waves that made the initial action of starting the kites power dive add that to the transition of getting your feet hooked in the board with the waves covering your view and vision as a novice was the main problems with the learning curve of kite bording for me anyhows.....so im hoping the landboarding experience with help with the eventual transition to water again!!!

IN our arsenal of kites for landboarding....we've now got a 2.5 flexifoil quark "3" line trainer...which we've been messing around with for years on the beech and in land....I've now got a flexifoil sting 3.3 for next training step for boarding with a flexi foil areodeck carbon and we've also recently acquired a Pete Lynn 5.6 twister 11 for lower wind conditions with a standard pl bar....! Which I'm planning to replace with a better set up when we eventually hook in.
I'm not a small guy....I'm 6,3 and 120 kg but an ex heavyweight boxer so in reasonable shape.....ie not morbidly obeses as my son says lol...so

Any advice or suggetions of our kite choice or next step of bar and kite choice is greatly appreciated,.....great forum though and look forward to maybe meeting some of you guys inland and on the beech....as camber will be our main stay I suspect until we're more confident to go else were.

Kind regards

Matt

BigMikesKites - 13-2-2015 at 04:02 AM

Welcome. Glad to have you

robinsonpr - 13-2-2015 at 04:03 AM

Hi Matt, welcome!! Your story sounds very similar to my own. I had some lessons on water in Egypt 10 years ago but have had a long break due to having kids. I've recently got back into kites in the past 6 months or so, and like you am going the landboard route now, mainly because I live nowhere near a beach. But ultimately I aspire to be able to kitesurf.

With my attempts at landboarding I quickly discovered that inland wind is absolutely pants, and that doesn't help matters.

I also discovered that landboarding is not as easy as it looks, especially when trying to learn in the aforementioned wind. And most importantly I discovered quickly that it hurts when you fall. Alot. I'm still nursing a broken thumb (though no board involved there, just a big kite and some turbulent wind and not enough pilot skill!)

Sounds like you're being very sensible with your kite choices, you clearly have a healthy respect for the power. I got a 3m Twister for my first baby steps on the board. But quickly wanted the next step up as I needed more power. I didn't go for a 5m fixed bridle like your Twister as I wanted a depower kite so the experience would translate directly to the kites used on the water. I was also advised on here that depower kites with landboarding can be a tad more forgiving because you can dump some power by pushing the bar out which of course you can't do with a fixed bridle like the Twister (especially if you're flying it on a bar not handles).

I ended up with a 6m Flysurfer Peak which from my limited experience seems to be a great kite. I also have a couple of Peter Lynn arcs but I haven't actually been up on a board with those yet.

I won't offer advice as such, I'm not qualified. But from my own experience going to a depower kite was good advice given by others on this forum! Also I only try boarding in fairly light winds (10-15mph). Any more than that inland and it also means you can get some strong gusts that can hurt. It means being more underpowered than anything, but I'd rather that while learning. Watch that Twister in anything over 10mph, it will have a TON of power!

I also picked up a 2nd hand buggy recently, which is great fun. Also alot more accessible for a noob, and less scary as you're sitting down (unless of course you get yanked out, that has happened!).

Where are you from by the way? I'd love to get down to Camber but that's best part of a 3 hours drive for me.

gusher37 - 13-2-2015 at 05:36 AM

Thanks Mike and thanks rob.

To be honest when I whent kiteboarding I underestimated the power of a 12m kite and that's a mistake I will never make again, so steep learning curve but luckily consiquence free apart from an appreciation and respect for the power of these kites nowadays.

After reading a few reviews and actually watching big mikes you tube videos on the twister 5.6 in slightly concerned I've purchased the wrong kite as I eventually want to be able to hook in to a harness and cruise down the beech....I'm not looking to get big air...."yet".....just master the baby steps....but I know myself and I know I love speed so I went for a fairly powerful kite like the twister in the mindset that I could add a decent set of lines to help with the de-power side of the safety functions when in slightly higher winds?

But I'm sure flying it for the first time will give me a good indication of what the behaviour of the kite will be....I'm still very novice when it comes to the type of kite required for the correct sport....so any advice and guidance is always apprecited.

I'm actually in kent rob so getting to isn't to bad it's only and hour or so away but it gets busy at times so you have to pick your moment as will I.

But as I said before I appreciate the feedback and personal experience.

Kind regards

Matt

abkayak - 13-2-2015 at 06:55 AM

welcome, heres how you do it.
buy a 2m, another 3m, 4m and 8m fb/ 6m peak , a 7,9,11m depower, and 3 harnesses
three of you kiting might as well get set up nice .. i'd go for used where i could
trust me..this is gonna be great:D

ssayre - 13-2-2015 at 07:05 AM

Welcome. Flying a fixed bridle kite like the twister when hooked in will give you little to know time to react if you make a mistake. Depower kites will give you more more time to react and have quick release already on the bar. The twister is a great kite and I would try it on the board unhooked to start with. Then practice flying it static while hooked in to get used to taking the power through your harness and to gain understanding on how applying the brakes while turning and flying in general affects the kite. That will help with transition to depower. I would only use the twister on handles whether hooked in or not. You can add a strop to the handles and a wichard quick release and pulley, however will be times when there isn't enough time to hit the quick release until after damage is done. It's critical to pick the smoothest winds possible with twister.

volock - 13-2-2015 at 12:23 PM

Welcome to the community.

You're definitely at the hard toss-up, harder falls on land, and more potential danger on water. Snow makes a bit of a compromise :D

More seriously, I'd advise plenty of practice for your FB kites and the board before stropping in. I know for me personally, the only big drawback I have landboarding when not hooked in, is riding toesdie, especially underpowered, as I can't lean as much to rotate for flying. Depending on what your options for riding places are, you might try somewhere firm and small kites in low wind, starting with your smaller kites, as you should still be able to move some on firm-pack. Grass is tricky if long and dry as you need a good amount more power, the PL Twister will play well to that. The big thing you may want to be weary of are gusts (if over 100% of wind speed, I just pack up), and making sure you know how a pendulum jump works, mostly so you can avoid the unintentional one (something I learned the hard way).

Once you're more comfortable with the kite, your 12m LEI might not be a bad low wind kite for the landboard. I'm a little lighter than you and end up using mine on my landboard for grass when the wind is right.

gusher37 - 13-2-2015 at 04:23 PM

Guys thanks for the sound advice....it's much appreciated

I've been looking at these control bars....the ozone turbo as a temp cure to ease the power surge problems associated with hooking into the pl 5.6 and to be able to give me some aspects of control and power delivery......and was wondering what you guys think of these before I eventually get a full de power kite?

Kind regards

Matt

gusher37 - 13-2-2015 at 04:42 PM

Quote: Originally posted by gusher37  
Guys thanks for the sound advice....it's much appreciated

I've been looking at these control bars....the ozone turbo or wolkernsturmer depowering 4 line control bar as a temp cure/fix to ease the power surge problems associated with hooking into the pl 5.6 or any fb and to be able to give me some aspects of control and power delivery whilst landboarding hooked in..( eventually ) !!......and was wondering what you guys think of these before I eventually payout later and get a full de power kite?

Kind regards

Matt

John Holgate - 13-2-2015 at 04:44 PM


Quote:

I've been looking at these control bars....the ozone turbo as a temp cure to ease the power surge problems associated with hooking into the pl 5.6 and to be able to give me some aspects of control and power delivery.


I'm afraid the turbo bar only adds a little turning speed by partially using the brake lines to turn. It does allow you to hook in, hit the safety pretty quick when needed and will make things much more comfy in general. But you cannot alter the power of the kite with a turbo bar. However, I'm not certain that particular bar works well with the twister. There's a thread here somewhere on kites that do work well with the turbo bar. No bar can alter the power of a fixed bridle kite as such - you need a proper depower kite to do that.

Ozone did originally advertise the turbo bar as having 'depower through brakes' but I think that's misleading and just plain wrong.

I made a vid on the turbo bar which may explain things a little better here: Ozone Turbo Bar

soliver - 13-2-2015 at 07:06 PM

Welcome to the forum gusher!

Just FYI, I've heard a lot of people say that the Twister doesn't do well on a bar.

Ask a lot of questions! this place is a GREAT resource.

3shot - 13-2-2015 at 07:35 PM

Welcome Gusher!!:thumbup:

gusher37 - 14-2-2015 at 01:23 AM

Guys....thanks for the welcome....and John thanks for that info....it's saved me wasting more money on buying one of those bar set ups as they do sell it as a depower function for fb kites!!!! So thanks for the heads up.
And im now obviously leaning towards a proper de-power kite to be hooking in and have the ability to lean on my heel side rather than get pulled topside with a handle only set up....inthink it will my experiance more able to have a quicker learning curve on the board.but that being said I'm still going to use theses smaller fb kites for now to cut my teeth and do all the baby steps.
But all the help and advice from everyone is very much appreciated👍👍

robinsonpr - 14-2-2015 at 02:07 AM

You will do fine with your small fb kites to get started on the board, especially if you can find some nice hard ground with low rolling resistance. It will allow you to get a good feel for the board. Even your bigger twister...fly that baby on handles with the board but don't strop in. If you hit a gust that is strong enough to pull you over the front of the board you can just let go of the handles and you won't end up on your face. Assuming you use kite killers of course!

Your first successful rides will give you a real buzz and just get you hooked even more!

abkayak - 14-2-2015 at 08:20 AM

Flying fb and learning the board is great...imo it makes you a better pilot
Teaches you to always be flying the kite instead of just being along for the ride
No need to rush to go dp

sadsack - 14-2-2015 at 09:05 AM

Welcome to the community.
from Michigan USA

aronma - 14-2-2015 at 06:05 PM

Welcome to PKF Matt. Have fun and be smart, wear a helmet.

gusher37 - 15-2-2015 at 02:37 AM

Thanks guys.....sound advice, from everyone....I'm in desperate need of some breeze now....lol