Just curious to see who would rather jump with handles or a bar, and whether you would rather be harnessed in or not. And say why you prefer what you do.

I like to jump with a bar and harness. It's easier to have longer flying sessions because your arms aren't holding onto the kite since it's attatched to your waist. Also you don't have to worry about losing grip while floating around.

Depower!

the poll would make more sense focused on FB kites I reckon, depower is automatic harness and bar.

+1 on on the handles from me.

Yeah, for fixed bridle, I'd go with handles and no harness.

Depower = Bar hooked in.

Fixed bridle = handlles unhooked .

Not sure how to answer poll ?

Generally I use depower for jumping on Blades , Skis and ATB. I use Fixed bridles for buggy so not for jumping.

I assume you mean FB?

so I say handles no harness

I was thinking about getting a bar for jumping on my fixed bridle. What are the pros and cons if I wasn't to use a harness?

Handles = more brake control. Adding just a touch of brake if needed.
Bar = not screwing up adding brakes at wrong time. Less brake control.

Put the money for a bar towards a depower kite.

fb-handles and unhooked

arcs.... hooked in.... floaty and easy and safe (safer than the blade, anyway)

Quote:

Originally posted by Bladerunner Put the money for a bar towards a depower kite.

^^^ well said

Fixed bridle kite used for jumping is sooooo much better with handles.

If you want big, floaty, easy jumps then de-power is what you need .... if your skills are up to it.

Quote:

Originally posted by Bladerunner Handles = more brake control. Adding just a touch of brake if needed. Bar = not screwing up adding brakes at wrong time. Less brake control. Put the money for a bar towards a depower kite.

/agreed 100%

How is jumping with a depower different than fixed bridle?

Technically, the technique is going to be the same, but the feel will be totally different. Just a quick note about depower kites, they dont like to fly static. They will fly a lot better when you are actually moving along the ground/water/snow/etc...

Having said that, it has to do with where the power is going to be exerted against your body. with a depower kite, it pulls against the harness, not your arms. I did a couple static jumps with my 12m Outlaw Saturday morning. I am not sure who all saw me doing that, but I had at least one jump that had my feet dangling about chest height (4 or 5 feet off the ground). That was right before I wrapped up the kite and launched my 8m and hopped back in the buggy...

With a fixed bridle you are relying more on the quick turning and redirect of the kite along with you running back and opposite the direction you send the kite. With depower, you are more leveraging the larger sized kite and your ability to change the angle of attack at the time when you jump.

interesting, i prefer to jump with handles on my ace 4.5 but when it comes to the cirrus 6 the bar is awesome, both fixed bridles.
I havent flown depower or lei etc yet.

Depower and hooked here! I like that i can jump all day and not wear my arms out. I also like being able to adjust power for maximum height, max hover distance, or max airtime. although for static jumping i would assume the preference is handles, i see alot more on videos and such.

When im riding, bar and harness gives me the freedom to grab the board, or take the board off and on while in the air (still workin on the latter, but getting close :bouncy:

Agreed, handles for FB.

Rarely fly static with de-power, but jumping a bit is fun that way.

I'm usually in the buggy with de-power and like my a$$ in the seat.

A bar on FB feels weird to me, I like to have some input to the kite, and a good QR. I usually fly static with handles but skud with my depower kites, just because they are larger and I have better QRs for them. I actually love jumping with my LEI's; super floaty and tons of power. I acutally took my 12m atom out in 14mph this past weekend after flying the 6m radical. With the libre I was skudding 20-30ft for each loop thru the bottom of the window, the atom was pulling me at least 50ft passing it thru the top of the window. Super easy jumps by powering too; rather than changing the camber or aoa, an lei depower changes the angle of the entire kite to the wind so the power feeling is much more sudden and lifty when near the top of the window. Wonder if there are any good articles on this... there's a distinct lack of kite physics literature!

Arkay changing the angle of the entire kite is the same as changing the AOA or angle of attack.

how do you fly with a bar i dont get it, i am just starting and am prolly going to buy a peter lynn hornet 3.0 to start. but once i buy a larger kite i dont understand how you would fly with a bar?

Here is a schematic. When you turn the kite, the changing geometry of the triangles formed by the main lines, center brake lines and bar works to pull on the brake line in the direction of the turn. But you give up individual control of brakes that you get on handles.

how do you stop the kite then?

bring it back over your head - it will pretty much just sit there with minimum input from the pilot. particularly if its an Arc.

I fly all my FB's with a bar and the main reason is that i hate riding toeside with handles! Its just an un-natural position!

With a bar you just use one hand and you can get a lot more weight over the toeside edge. I always ride hooked in and bars offer the best safety systems. IMO flexifoil extreme bars are the best with Naish style pull away safety and integral leashes. I use a 60cm on the smaller kites and a 70cm on the larger ones.

You really have to use a bar on a board but most people would use a depower foil or inflatable. I just like my twister and blade too much. I'm using the venom a lot more these days though.

I good kite should not overfly the window. It will just fly to the edge and hang there. Turning it a bit helps prevent overfly. If you are flying a 4 or 3 line FB on a bar you can always grab a handfull of brake if needed.

Bar and Harness. While the harness takes the pressure off your arms, I just prefer a bar. Its more of a secure feeling for me. But thats just me.:bigok:

Good luck,
AJ

... do we need to dig up the video of the twits jumping on handles, who just can't hang on? Harness if you must use handles but a proper depower kite will be more fun ... note I didn't say safer

I am learning how to jump on a 5m Haka. After flying the thing for a little bit I realized real fast I need to be hooked in with that much pull. Maybe not the ideal set up but I went with a climbing harness/pully rig. Added a quick release for safety. Getting a few feet of air is good enough for this old man. :smug: I would love to try a bar one day. My next large kite will have a bar for sure.