I've never tried snow kiting and fly a Flexi Rage 6.0 with handles. Can I use it for snow, or do I need something special?

It can be used for snow kiting, though I believe most people find it much easier to snow kite with a depower of some sort.

Thanks Maven. I'm also looking/shopping for my next kite. Trying to decide if I should depowerable or not. I know I want to go a little little bigger, but not sure If I'll use it to buggy or take a try at jumping. Any thoughts...

If you're for a good depower on the cheap, I've got a 10m HQ Apex II for sale :D. It's a great starter depower, easy, stable, and fairly forgiving. I'm selling it because it's got too much overlap with other kites in my quiver, but it's a good kite and in perfect shape. Seriously though, asking the guy who's currently selling three different depower kites what to recommend is kinda asking for a sales pitch :D.

I'm not going to recommend sizes without knowing how much you weigh and what your wind conditions are, but I can make some observations on particular models.

The HQ Apex and the Ozone Access are both fantastic intros to depower. They're stable and forgiving, while still providing plenty of power. As a brand, I prefer Ozone, but HQ is good quality too. I have a 10m HQ Apex II for sale.

Peter Lynn arcs are loved by many people. They're very good at dealing with gusts and autozenith is one of the best kite advances ever. If you're planning on moving to water at some point, arcs will work just fine there. I would recommend staying away from the Scorpion as your first arc, simply because it is the most difficult to launch. I have a 10m PL Synergy for sale. I also have a 16m PL Scorpion for sale, but as stated, I wouldn't recommend that (the Scorpion) for a first arc.

LEI are certainly usable on snow, but they are more difficult to relaunch than foils. If you are going to move on to water, it's not bad to be able to use the same kites for both snow and water, and LEI will do that very well. That said, I have very little experience with LEI and cannot give more info.

I'm sure that some people will argue with some of my statements :dunno:, but they're the opinion that I have.

Hope that helps.

I agree with what Maven said. Ozones are hard to beat, and HQ makes good depower kites as well. I have a 11M Frenzy and a 6M Access and they are both excellent for snow, the Access is very forgiving and low lift. IMO, foils are much easier to launch and deal with on snow than LEIs. The one advantage that LEIs have over foils, however, is that most of them offer 100% depower, which is nice, i doubt most foils come anywhere near that, except maybe Flysurfer. If you plan on doing both water and snow at some point, an LEI is still a good all around choice, however. I can't speak for ARCs but plenty of folks seem to really like them. Lots of choices, good luck deciding!

I vote Peter Lynn Arcs, like my Synergy, just because thats what I have lol.

The superior gusty wind capabilites and the blessing of autozenith make it a perfect setup for me. I get 15-25mph winds usually and very gusty cause I am quite inland:tumble:

Brian

What are your typical snow conditions like and are you on skiis or a snowboard?

I used fixed bridle foils with handles on skiis for quite a while, but mostly only on flat snow conditions on lakes. When a gust hits you have to be able to carve hard to force the kite to the edge of the window and even side slip some in the bigger gusts. I still find big fixed bridle foils the most efficient and economical kites for cruising in the lightest wind, flat surface conditions.

Once the snow gets deeper and heavier I move to depower rigs.

@aronma-Sorry for the hijack, but are you on eastkb as andrewb?

Quote:

Originally posted by kiteyakker IThe one advantage that LEIs have over foils, however, is that most of them offer 100% depower, which is nice, i doubt most foils come anywhere near that, except maybe Flysurfer

wrong statement !!!

It is true that most LEI can depower a lot when you push away the bar, but this is not 100%

on the other hand, when you release the safety a foil will have much lower pull than a tube especially than many tubes now have their safety on both front lines then still can have much pull if the kite does not place itself in the right position

with a foil, when you release, it flags out and the pull is very minimal because it does not have a rigid structure

IMO it's still safer to use a depower foil for the first snowkite season. Then it's anyone choice.

Well, according to the Slingshot website, most of their LEI kites offer 100% depower, but i'm not really sure what that is supposed to mean. I have a Slingshot T2 which when the trim is adjusted correctly, the kite has very little power, and pushing the bar fully away would basically cause the kite to fall out of the sky. I don't know if this means 100% or not. It really seemed dependent on where the trim was set.

I wasn't advocating that a new kiter would be safer with an LEI, I use foils on snow exclusively and do find that they are safe because of the frontline safety, it is an excellent safety feature. I'm not sure why LEI kites don't have this, maybe kiters that use LEI kites can comment on this.

i have to put my vote with peter lynn arcs
or foils i use both for all the advantages mentioned by others.
and the lei kite users will need your help to launch ,then you can self launch your arc hehehehe (running joke we have)

with a tube kite, frozen valves that crack can be a probleme aswell .

they all work with each their pros and cons
i can't think of anny negative point with arcs on snow except maybe filling the kite in low winds...
safety.ease of use l,earning curve are all reasons i aswell think arc/foils are better choice

but i'm not bashing lei kites since 90% of kiters at my field use them and do great,this has lots to do with what's localy available and $$$ arcs tend to be more expensive even used they keep better value.
new guys do have a harder time getting going on lei kites
in my experience ..

but you should get an arc :singing:

steff

Quote:

Originally posted by kiteyakker Well, according to the Slingshot website, most of their LEI kites offer 100% depower, but i'm not really sure what that is supposed to mean.

Someone here once said that the only way to de-power a kite 100% is to pack it in your bag and lock it in your car. (or something like that)

I like the idea of a 5th line safety on a foil that completely tacos the kite with no flying line tension, like the new Neo II. The first Neo stalled the kite but did not flag it 100% on the rears.

Even the ARC's won't give up easy when they flag on a single line and can be a handful until you 'git er down and sandbagged.

Edit: Back to your post, the Rage will be fin in snow, but not lifty of course. Maven's Apex would be a great next step.

Here's another chime for the Rage. I started on my 4.7. No reason it won't work and then everyone else will be wondering how you're ripping it up on such a "small" kite when they are lofting 12's around