been flying for almost two years now and im starting to get some realy air 12 foot plus. the thing that im abit worried about is is there a definable technique to come down?
i see alot of kite surfers doing figure eights in the air but i reckon with my kite if i do that ill either get dropped or super accelerated.
usually i just fly the kite off to the side out of the power but if theres only a thin "take off strip" is there any way tro come down without getting dragged off to sea?
also how long are lines supposed to last for? mine are a year old i dont particularly take good care of them and i fly in high winds. am i taking risks?
any help would be great

This is a good little tutorial...
http://chris.m.whittaker.googlepages.com/pendulumjump

That's a cool demo - it even uses a Blade III!

thats funny cos i dont do pendulums like that at all :S lol i run in the opposite direction to the kite then flick it round :S which really slingshots you off the floor. ill have to test that technique next time i fly.
but yeah thats kinda what i guessed u need to do just wonder wether theres ever a way to practice it which isnt particularly dangerous

You do do jumps like that, that's just a run up to get more tension (i think). In that demo he's still running the same direction even when the kites flicked around to go the opposite direction.

cool thanks. although ive never ever really run from thye kite. i always find a coup[le steps is more tha enough. maybe its time for me to invest in saftey equipment :P

Yeh and the running is sometimes harder (with my 3m at least). But when you do do it, it's muuuch more fun. Think you get more of a swing.

And the coming down thing, i always make sure i'm jumping facing towards the way i'm going. Bit hard when you're landing moving sideways. For me that always results in a tuck and roll.

yeah im not too bothered about the landing, always been quite good at landing without hurting myself particularly at speed. just the height thats starting to worry me. if you go up 12 foot ( or more (hence the reason i wanted to know about stopping my ascension to the heavens :D)) and sumit goes wrong its not gonna be pretty. but hey thats the dangers and half the fun.

i've never gone that high. i've been 6ftish. Not sure if you'd keep going up, maybe in strong winds. Seen this?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3527580255723030876&...

yeah man thats what got me into kiting lol
but yeah im actually getting abit worried that thatl happen to me with these winds, gets to the point when i cant even hold the kite at any point in the window never mind the power zone
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XwC1XibdIus
this is me getting absolutley wasted in a field near my uni residence. this was when the kite overflew the opened up again but it was stil in the side of the window :S. for some that field is really really crap the kites always luffing or overflying

:O did that hurt? I didn't have one half as bad as that but i've been recovering from whiplash for months.

naaah didnt hurt at all! commando rolls all the way. lucky i got the foot down though otherwise i wuda landed on my face

Ah it's not so bad from the side. When i did it it was flat forward. I did that the other day actually, getting into my buggy..aaand i think i dremp of going high last night ó.0.

I'm a "high flyer" meaning i go for height and tricks and such. The highest ive gone is 20ft up (ive done that twice). When you go up, you want to do figure eights for a softer landing. Although you might go a little higher depending on the winds, it REALLY helps. When you are battling the wind and such standing on the ground, its hard, but when you jump, the resistance against the wind gets lesser and lesser. As you jump, you get to going the speed of the wind, and due to gravity you start to come down. It's just like if you start running the direction the wind is going with your kite up. it will fall down. In some cases, there are very wierd, and very rare up dragts which you can just hope doesnt take you up too far. My average jumping height is about 12ft and thats very controlled to me. Thats when i start doing 720's and 360's and such.

is it worth me getting a harness?

Most people that fly fixed bridle, non-depowering kites prefer to jump without being hooked in. It tends to make your jumps more dynamic (particularly pendelums) I still wear a harness while jumping, but only to give my arms a rest between jumps.

As far as coming down goes.... A combination of figure 8's and moderate pressure of your brake lines once airborne will not only give you a softer landing, it will actually help you achieve better heights. Light pressure on your brake lines when your kite is at its apex, acts like flaps on an airplane, transferring forward momentum into upward lift. Try the technique out with out jumping by standing with kite overhead in a strong wind. You'll notice a measurable increase in lift.

Learning these techniques is also important from a safety aspect. Your biggest danger, is not that you'll keep going up (that rarely ever happens), it's that you will be 20 feet up, and at your zenith, as you swing under the kite, it overshoots you and balls up. You'll end up falling on your back, or worse, your head. A kite that has some brakes applied and is constantly changing its direction relative to the wind (i.e. figure 8's), will rarely overshoot.

cool i didnt know u could do that. next time there arent gale force winds ill try it out :D