I've logged some quality time on my Twister II and I am feeling more and more comfortable with it. Scuds are easy, control is becomming less of an issue, and I've done a few small jumps (3 feet up). The major issue I was having was that after about 20 min of quality flying time, my arms felt like they were on fire and ready to fall off. Solution: I bought a PL back strap. That made flying for longer MUCH easier. My question here is: when I decide to start for bigger jumps, would it be a good idea to take the back strap off? On one hand, it would seem to me that the strap would make it easier but I'm not too sure about the safety issues considering I'm still pretty new. Any advice here is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

This all comes down to your personal preference. I personally fly without a strop when I jump. The reason why is because when you are jumping you need to be able to redirect the kite and if you can't do it fast enough with the strop restrictions then it's probably not a great idea. With mine I need to give it some good input to redirect it correctly so I fly without the restriction . Just givin' my two cents. You might try it and see what happens too, progression is the key.

I personally much prefer jumping on handles w/o a strop. It's much better with a partner, because I do get worn out quite quickly, max 15 mins unless I'm not going so hard or the wind is not giving me enough juice. I recently pulled a back muscle and I'm still having to do most of my hard flying with a harness. It's a lot harder to get more air with the same wind, also harder to milk the gusts for more air. That's because of the strop, and also my skills, I know that with more hours in on a harness I'll be able to handle the kite better within the limitations of the strop.

but yeah, imho it's better to go without any attachment / strop when going for more big air with a fixed bridle. When you're comfortable with the wind force, then start to strap in at times.

I've had all my best jumps to date with no harness, no strop. Eventually that will change when i get into depower, but for now the fixed-bridle jump skills are what i work on when i go out and the wind co-operates.

have fun and be safe! It's good to have a smaller kite to help you suss out the bigger winds before putting the big kites up....

Great input, thanks! I want to keep it as safe as possible while I progress in jumping I don't want anything hindering redirection...

Whatever you do make sure if you use a stop, it has some kind of safety release, You dont want to have a kite start dragging you and have no way to release from it.

strop or strap??

If your using what i think you are (back strap... not the strop between handles) I would pitch it if you get into jumping... The only times ive ever let go of my handles is when the wind rips them out of my hands..ie nasty gust... if you are tied in, in any way, bad times are commin if you get hit by a gust.

Just fly whenever you can... your arms will adjust to the strain. When i first started flying i was up for about 5 mins before i got tired, now i can fly hard for an hour before i take a breather.. i am startin to look a little like popeye tho lol.

I looked into the back strap too, but figured i wreck myself if in the wrong conditions, and inland nebraska winds are very rarely favorable!

Yeah, on jump wind days the strap is coming off, don't want to get dragged. I'm fortunate to live in an area where we have a LOT of clean costal wind

Drew...nice kite! Lol

i would jump without it-you dont want to be restricted on redirects......you'll get used to the monster pull after awhile--today i got a solid 3hr session with my blade 10.5 and i can go 8 hrs of jumping with my blade 6.6 (with breaks of course)