Hi,

I've had a small (~1m^2) hq symphony type two-liner foil for years, which has always been great fun. I did a weekend kite-boarding course and now I'm hooked. Didn't get up on the board but did body dragging which was a blast in itself.

I'd like to get a trainer to practice kite skills before I take more lessons. I know a lot of people seem to prefer the rush to the hydra for training, but we have a lot of flat water on the coast near us (near Hamburg, Germany, so at the North and Baltic seas), so I'm hoping to do some body dragging with the trainer too, just for fun.

For this reason I've narrowed it pretty much down to the hydra (unless someone has some good reasons not to get a hydra?) I would really like to get a powerzone modded sheetable hydra to practice the same skills you need for kb'ing, but the costs (~$75 postage + ~30-50% customs tax on total cost of kite+ postage!) would be almost more than a "real" depower kite.

Not quite sure which size hydra would be better. I weigh only about 130 pounds, but I've heard the 350 flies a little better (and to be honest, I like the green /so/ much better than the orange!), but it would be a drag to find that I'm usually overpowered.

The other option I've been tossing around is the ocean rodeo 2m^2 trainer. I've read some pretty mixed reviews on it, but it does seem like if you want to practice for kb'ing, than scaled down fully sheetable kb'ing kite might be the way to go.

So I have three questions:

1. if I get the hydra, should I get a 300 or 350
2. what about the ocean rodeo?
3. Some other trainer better?

cheers,

-j

John at Powerzone Sports can make you a sheetable Hydra 350. You can learn on this if you're interested in getting into kiteboarding.

-joedy

Hey,

well, thanks for the reply, but I guess you didn't read my whole post. As I wrote above, I live in Germany and the postage would be ~$75 and then I would have to pay ~50% custom taxes on top of the price of kite+postage...that would make it more expensive than a "real" depower kite...

-j

I didn't see this post before I responded to the u2u. What size kite were you training on. What wind speeds are we talking about? If the wind speeds are right the hydra will work for you. My guess is you were training on something larger than the largest hydra.

If you already took a lesson, understand how to launch, land, and operate the safety features on the kite, know right of way rules (kites yield to everyone, etc), and were able to body drag well with a depowerable kite hooked into a harness, I don't think going back to a 2 line kite will help you at all. Depending on your winds I would assume an 8 or 10 meter depower would be a good start. Take it out in light winds first (9-15 knots).

We were training on full sized kiteboarding kites, ~8-10m^2 depending on the weight of the people. I don't know what the wind speed was, but it was a light wind. the kites were still yank us out of the water tho, pretty good. I was able to fly ok, and did body drags with figure eights in the window, but I wasn't depowering well at all...always pulled instinctively on the bar when it was getting too strong instead of letting the bar out. also turned the bar like a steering wheel a bunch. that's why I thought it would be a good idea and even investment to practice kite skills whilst not paying $80/hour first.

obviously it would be nice to just buy a real depower kite, but I don't have that kind of money laying around. HQs are cheaper in Germany (HQ is a German company) than in the states. I can get a hydra for 190€, which is only about $230. An Apex 3m^2 costs 500€, though, which is about $600....think my wife would #@%$#! if I dropped $600 on a whim for a kite. :wink2:

I also like just flying the kites on the beach, so I thinking I could get some bar handling skills whilst having fun if I got a ~3m^2 trainer. That pretty much narrowed it down to a hydra, a rush pro, or maybe the ocean rodeo 2m^2....(right?).

Any thoughts on above or on whether I should get a hydra 300 vs. 350 (or a rush pro 300 or 350?).

thanks for your replies!

-j

For what you describe I would go with a hydra 350 for a trainer. I think you might get more out of a used depower in a more appropriate size. You may also want to invest in a wind meter to help you learn wind speeds. If you don't know the speeds you are likely to get hurt by using the wrong size of kite.

Is anybody going to try to convince me to get a rush pro instead of a hydra?

btw, what do you use your neos for, stetson?

I have a rush pro that i bring to the beach, it was my first kite. Now i hand to people that want to try flying (if they qualify). Wish it was a hydra... I wouldnt hand it over so quick..... Would be playing all sorts of games w/ it

Quote:

Originally posted by erasurehead Is anybody going to try to convince me to get a rush pro instead of a hydra? btw, what do you use your neos for, stetson?

I use them for everything. I landboard with them of course but also kiteboard, snowkite, and buggy with them. They are a really great durable and predictable kite. A 6m would be a good higher wind kite for you, but might be hard to find used. I have days when the 8m is too big for me but then I outweigh you by 70lbs. I would guess you could start using a 6m on land at about 15-17mph on grass and probably a lot lower on hardpack. With a smaller depower you will need a lot more wind to get going except on hardpack.

Pansh has just come out with a closed cell kite. It is a good price but does not come complete with lines + bar / handles. They have a screamin' intro deal on their new 8m closed cell depower. Something to consider? http://www.panshkite.com/index.php?gOo=goods_search_list.dwt...

If your desire is to use the kite out on the water then spend the extra cash for a closed cell . I used my open cell trainer on water but had to pack up and start all over from the beach if I crashed. Water relaunch is worth $$$ !

Hydra might help with the turning the bar like a steering wheel but you overcome that really quickly.

The "pulling the bar instinctively" is exactly what you need to do with the hydra because you need to hang on as you are not harnessed to the kite, which is totally different from depower so it will just make it more instinctive to pull in.

You can probably get a used depower thats 3 or 4 years old as cheap as a new hydra. I had a Hydra 350 and loved it, but as soon as I got a depower I stopped using it. You would also need a harness though which is another $50-70 used...

If money is a problem then it might be more expensive to buy a trainer first (especially the hydra 350 / the best trainer) to then buy a depower than to just buy a depower. But if you plan to stay with the trainer for a year or two before moving on to a depower then it's probably worth it. By the way... the sport get's expensive pretty quickly...

No, get yourself a cheap 'proper' kite and learn to set up, launch, land, body-drag etc with that.

If money is a problem - this is the wrong sport for you there's plenty of suppliers in Europe though!

should be plenty of used kites in Europe too.

Maybe one of these?

http://epickites.com/products/tutor.php

The tutor looks cool. Basically same idea as the ocean rodeo 2m^2, which nobody's commented on yet. The ocean rodeo is a good bit more affordable...any opinions on comparing these two?

-j

Hey mate you should scope out the English site

www.kitecrowd.com