I've been lurking on the forums for about a month now and figured I'd better register and say hello.

A friend introduced me to his Peter Lynn Twister II 4.1m power kite about 6 weeks ago. I supermanned about 3 times, tore up a ton of skin on my leg and was instantly hooked.

I'm a bigger guy than him and after asking him a few hundred questions about power kites I got myself a Twister 5.6 as soon as I could.

I'm still trying to learn as much as I can, and I'm excited about all the possibilities - kiteboarding on the water, mountain-boarding, snow-kiting (lots of snow here), and I'd love to try buggying too. I'm already thinking about the "next" step, and I see it would be a big one. Buying another, much more expensive kite along with the gear that goes with each different activity.

I've been showing my friends and family my kite and trying to do some jumping as well. So when I'm not checking the power kite forum, or other PK sites, I'm refreshing a weather page seeing if the wind will be high enough . Yep, I'm obsessed.

Anyone else around here from MN?

-skelman

Not from MN, but wanted to welcome you to the forum! Be safe and have fun with that Twister.

Welcome....

Just across the border from the Twin Cities in Wisconsin....

I got a couple of kites we could fly.....

I am always looking for a reason to get out....

Skelman,

Welcome ... I too am a new junkie .... have fun and fly safe

Welcome from another flyer in Wisconsin. I am near Green Bay... you know, home of the World Champion Green Bay Packers. Uh, maybe it's safer to keep the thread on kites.

You have yourself a fun kite. Remember you will be on frozen tundra soon. Get the right safety gear. You've probably read the threads here. If not, do some digging.

Regarding next steps... after I got started, I flew 2 and 3m foils on handles a lot. I flew the smitherenes out of them and learned to fly them with my eyes closed. I will never regret it.

Regarding getting mobile... I started on a 7.5m depower, an Ozone Frenzy. (I weigh 185 and learned kite skiing to start out.) I was frequently underpowered but in hindset, I am glad I was.

Oh, and did I mention saving your money? Three kites won't be enough.:singing:

Twister IIR 5.6 - yeah, thats the ticket!:wee:

Welcome to the Twister Tribe.

Welcome from Green Bay! Nice to have more neighbors with similar interests. I have a sister in Minnetonka and a brother-in-law in Hudson so I have cheap room and board if ever needed. Have fun with that kite, I had one once and it def was a blast to play with.

Thanks for all the welcoming words everyone... yeah it's probably best to keep the topic on kites here .

I'm still having lots of fun taking the Twister out for static flying and jumping, but you can only watch so many videos of people getting massive air on boards or waves before giving in.

Why do so many of you have so many different kites? Have they gotten that much better technology-wise in the last few years or do you just want to try every different kite out? I could see a few for different wind-speeds or for friends, but what gives? I like my Twister, and my thought is my next kite would be an expensive, depower that would be good on water/snow/land like a PL Charger, S3 Flysurfer, or HQ Neo 2. An all-around kite with a large wind range would seem like the way to go.

I'm a newb, so please feel free to school me with kite knowledge.

I'm also 6.8, 235#, so any gear or kite I get will need to be larger than most.

Why so many different kites? :dunno: Probably the easiest answer is because they make them! If we all had iron will/self discipline, we might all settle for that 3 kite quiver, but then, where would the manafacturer's be? It's a good thing for them that we often get together at events, and share other peoples gear, and find something we like, then gotta have, well, it's a jones after all! :wee: Welcome to the addiction!

It's tempting to buy the shiny new gear but you can build a cheap quiver off the addictions of others.

My plan is simple.
Take PKF kiters old #@%$#!,
pretend new #@%$#! doesn't exist.

Hey who told u my plan :roll:

I do want an apex II 5m though.
It's not about how your kites look, but damn I want a pink high winds kite!

Take it slow on the big kites bro, or atleast be smart and realize you're gonna get spanked if you get too ambitious too fast.

I'm not saying its a big deal one way or the other, just be ready for your cuptuppance when the time comes.

Skelman, you will find that there is quite a kiting community around the Twin cities area. I live way up in the Northwestern part of the state, dang near on the Canadian border. Not a whole lot of kiters up here unless you head further North to Winnipeg Manitoba. Anyway, as i mentioned, there are a lot of kiters around the twin cities and most are probably trying to get in their last water sessions before the temps drop. You won't have any problem finding people to snowkite with this winter if that is your thing. The website of choice for the area is www.lakawa.com .....check it out and welcome to PKF!

Jack

welcome im also a newbie lol and a junkie :D i have a twister as well awesome kites

Welcome! :karate:

Thanks again everyone. I've been checking out lakawa.com too kiteyakker, thanks. It seems like there's lots of kiteboarders around here. I definitely want to give snowkiting a try too, so looks like I'll need to buy some more gear

It's a windy one today, might be a bit much for my Twister, but we'll see after work!

Hey Skelman!

I am also from Minnesota. I'm from Duluth, but started out teaching from 2000-04 years in the Minneapolis area. Lived in Hopkins and Plymouth. Currently, I'm living in South Korea, and I am new to this as well. AND, like you, I'm already hooked! I just wish I had more free time to do some kiting. I have only a 4m Ozone Flow, but it's been great for learning on. There were some strong winds last weekend, which took me up and brought me down pretty hard since it's only a 4m. So now, I'm mending a bruised heel. Should be all good to go again in a week or so. Getting a new kite soon, but still deciding on 8/10m Ozone Access or 9/11 Ozone Frenzy. There's an Ozone distributor here in S. Korea, so I'll stick with Ozone only for now.

Where abouts in MN are you? I'll be back again next summer for a few weeks. By then, we should both have our feet wet. Good luck with your kiting!!

Hey hondamon!

I'm in a southern suburb of the twin cities, just the edge of civilization, where all the corn fields start.

Yeah, I pushed it last weekend too (Friday), and also hurt my heel...Well really my ankle. I came down so hard on my heel/ankle I guess it turned inward. I've had plenty of ankle twists from basketball, but this one went the other way and hurt like no other. I thought I broke my foot. Oops

Felt like an idiot because I had been so careful before then and instead this time I decided to jump when it was pretty gusty out. ~8 feet in the air moving way too fast did me in. So much for tuck-n-roll, heh.

Oh well, lesson learned. Time to buy an anemometer and be less stupid. This happened 2 minutes after launching my kite that day. A short time later conditions were pretty good too. I think I'll need more than a couple weeks to heal up from this one.

Send me a message next summer for sure! I'm still looking for that nice open field for mountainboarding/buggying near by. Snow and water are easy...

Oh man, sorry to hear about ur ankle. Ankles and are tough ones to heal from...but given time they do heal. I grew up playing soccer, so I know what thats all about. Ive had far too many injuries from that and whatever else...most od which have been in my adult years. Only problem is that things dont heal quite as quickly anymore.

Corn fields, huh? Sounds like Lakeville maybe? I taught in that district for a year. You must be able to find some land no problem...soccer pitches, park, open land? Im in the same boat. Korea is mountainous for the most part and there are just a few people living here on this spit of land. Less than half the size of minnesota with around 50 mil peops. Needless to say, its quite populated. Today my girlfriend and I are heading to the west coast. Shes going to use the kite while I [patiently] watch. Im just about able to walk with full weight on my heel. Ugh!

Oh man, sorry to hear about ur ankle. Ankles and are tough ones to heal from...but given time they do heal. I grew up playing soccer, so I know what thats all about. Ive had far too many injuries from that and whatever else...most od which have been in my adult years. Only problem is that things dont heal quite as quickly anymore.

Corn fields, huh? Sounds like Lakeville maybe? I taught in that district for a year. You must be able to find some land no problem...soccer pitches, park, open land? Im in the same boat. Korea is mountainous for the most part and there are just a few people living here on this spit of land. Less than half the size of minnesota with around 50 mil peops. Needless to say, its quite populated. Today my girlfriend and I are heading to the west coast. Shes going to use the kite while I [patiently] watch. Im just about able to walk with full weight on my heel. Ugh!

Oh man, sorry to hear about ur ankle. Ankles and are tough ones to heal from...but given time they do heal. I grew up playing soccer, so I know what thats all about. Ive had far too many injuries from that and whatever else...most od which have been in my adult years. Only problem is that things dont heal quite as quickly anymore.

Corn fields, huh? Sounds like Lakeville maybe? I taught in that district for a year. You must be able to find some land no problem...soccer pitches, park, open land? Im in the same boat. Korea is mountainous for the most part and there are just a few people living here on this spit of land. Less than half the size of minnesota with around 50 mil peops. Needless to say, its quite populated. Today my girlfriend and I are heading to the west coast. Shes going to use the kite while I [patiently] watch. Im just about able to walk with full weight on my heel. Ugh!

Oh man, sorry to hear about ur ankle. Ankles and are tough ones to heal from...but given time they do heal. I grew up playing soccer, so I know what thats all about. Ive had far too many injuries from that and whatever else...most od which have been in my adult years. Only problem is that things dont heal quite as quickly anymore.

Corn fields, huh? Sounds like Lakeville maybe? I taught in that district for a year. You must be able to find some land no problem...soccer pitches, park, open land? Im in the same boat. Korea is mountainous for the most part and there are just a few people living here on this spit of land. Less than half the size of minnesota with around 50 mil peops. Needless to say, its quite populated. Today my girlfriend and I are heading to the west coast. Shes going to use the kite while I [patiently] watch. Im just about able to walk with full weight on my heel. Ugh!