I have thought about getting into kiting and need help deciding on a first kite.

Here is a little background on me. I am 5'8" and weigh 150 lbs. I am in Carson City, NV for a couple months. I also live in Northern Indiana near South Bend and Fort Wayne. I go to college at Clemson University in SC and sometimes visit my sister in Charleston.

What I am looking for - I want to be able to kitesurf and snowkite, so I was looking for a closed cell kite. I am leaning towards flysurfers (psyco?), which are a little expensive. However, I am willing to accept any advice.

Also if you do have any kites that you would want to get rid of, I might be interested in buying one.

Well flysurfer are expensive but you certainly get what you pay for...
Do you have any experience flying kites?
If you want a closed cell foil, these days i think the only choices you have are peter lynn or flysurfer, with ozone possibly making one but that seems to be nothing but rumours these days...

I think the peter lynn is a great kite to learn on, although it can get you into bad habits with it's auto zenithing, it's still in my opinion the best kite to figure everything out on... flysurfers are more agressive and require a steeper learning curve...

Basically you need to start trying kites, see who's around your local areas, try and get a go on some kites, take some lessons... figure out what you want...

There's a flysurfer only school in corpus christi, texas...

I have no experience with kites. I do have some with snowboarding and wakeboarding.

Closed cell isn't necessary, I just assumed it would be good with wanting to do both water and land.

If there is someone in the Tahoe region that would let me try out a kite, that would be awesome.

flysurfer are great kites, are expensive and worth every penny.

But you can still have some fun with cheaper kites. Or you can by older versions

The Psycho3 is great but I would recommend the Pulse in first step. The Pulse is just awesome, stable, easy to relaunch...
I own a Pulse7m, and this kite is just perfect in strong winds.
I would not let my P3 in a newbie hands. This is a faster kite, and lifty.

Have you thought taking in a lesson, or maybe start just flying a small kite like a 3meter, and make your progression before going to the next step.

Buzz,
Lessons are definitely an option. I don't feel like spending a lot of money on a trainer to just buy another kite in 6 months. What is a good 3m or so kite? Thanks for the advise on the Pulse. How does it fly in light wind?

A whole lot of the sport is being able to fly a kite in such a manor that you are rarely needing to look at or think about the kite. That only comes with hours of practice. You can have a foil up in a minute and fly in a breeze to work on those valuable fly hours when there isn't enough wind or space for a surf kite. It's so much safer and easier to work things out on a smaller kite.

Not many people end up letting go of their 3m foils for good reasons. You never get tired of playing with them. They travel well because they take up so little space. It affords you a way to safely pass on your skills and introduce others to the sport.

No matter how much you spend on the 3m it will still probably be the cheapest kite you buy. Get a good quality 3m foil . You will hold on to it until it's worn out and likely own it longer than any other kite.

I personally think that HQ puts out a quality package at a good price for beginers. Their kites and accesories are good quality + they go the extra yard . It comes in a good packpack, has a how to dvd, and all safety systems included. The 3m Beamer 3 or TSR are nice and stable to make things a bit easier but pack enough power to perform as a true engine !

Another package that is priced set to go for beginers would be PKD.

i just got a flexifoil rage 2.5 for a high wind solution and a trainer, i love it. a trainer kite or smaller kite is in no way a waste, plus you can fly them almost any wear and in virtually no wind, a bad day is when you don't get to fly.

I'll second Snowbird on getting a 3-3.5m fixed bridle to play with and keep as a moderate/high wind kite or to let others learn on later. Won't work on water, but you'll learn a lot about kite control and can set it up for handles or bar. Many schools will start you on such a kite just to get basic kite skills down before moving you onto a depower kite anyway. And you'd be surprised what you can do with it on skis while while guys dinking around with LEI kites 3 times the size are still pumping and trying to get a kite in the air.

My guess is you're gonna be up against squirrelly and gusty wind conditions in Indiana, so when you go to depower I'd recommend a gust tolerant kite. And lessons are worth it - you'll pick up more in a couple hours than you will struggling to figure things out on your own for weeks.

krumly

Quote:

Originally posted by squambug Buzz, Lessons are definitely an option. I don't feel like spending a lot of money on a trainer to just buy another kite in 6 months. What is a good 3m or so kite? Thanks for the advise on the Pulse. How does it fly in light wind?

you can see that I am not the only one saying you should get a 3m to get your hans on.

Don't buy a trainer kite with 2 line. Get a real powerkite 3m with 4lines with handles and/or bar.

HQ beamer is a good choice. I just bought a Peter Lynn Twister 3m, that I tried today in 20-30 knots (very gusty). It is good but may be fast a bit. Keep in mind that you want something not with a high aspect ratio as they fly faster and are more difficult to learn with.

You can also have a Pansh legend for very cheap on ebay. I never tried it.

Pablo can tell you a lot about PKB buster2 they seem to be very good kites.

I had my nephew snowkiting with the twister 3m today. It was his second time, and he had some difficulty with it but he could manage to have some fun. He weighs 140lbs, 6ft tall and he could get some really nice speed on skis with this 3m.

A 3m fixed bridle will pull you more than you think, and very useful in the winter in big winds

As for me, I was riding with my Flysurfer Pulse 7m, and quit stable kite in big winds. Lot of fun.

I will post some video tomorrow that I took with my ATC2K helmet camera.

As for light winds, I suppose below 10 knots. The pulse is not the best kite for that.

My psycho3 10m with skis is doing OK, but a speed2 or silverarrow2 in larger sizes (15m+) would do much better. This is probably my next purchase.

But before flying this, you need to go through some other steps.

Get you a nice 3m 4lines. Buy it used. If you get bored (i doubt), you can sell it back for the same price.

take care.

Thanks for all your help. I just got a 3.6m Beamer II for a reasonable price. It comes with handles and I wanted to know if I needed to put a bar in if I wanted to snowboard. If so, what kind of bar do I need.

Next time in Charleston shoot me a U2U. Ive got a couple fixed bridles you can have a go on with my landboard.

thanks tridude. I will definitely take you up on that. I should be in town sometime in august before college starts again.

No need to get a bar ,
What you do need to get if you don't have one is a harness !!!
This way you can put a "strop" ( climbing rope ) to the top of each handle and take the power in the body. You will be able to go out all day instead of a few runs without one.