Just some idle banter about reflections on kiting.


When I first started static flying; the experience was very relaxing and zen like. I was still learning to fly and the people I was with were on buggies. I was perfectly content at first with just static flying. I guess after one of them thought my kite control was "good enough"; had me try their buggy out. I was hooked after the first ride.

There's times when everything is so peaceful and blissful. Everything is working so perfect. But there always seems to be an element of danger just lurking on the edge. Usually involving turning.

The kite can be very mischievous and ornery. It's like it says "come with me... come over here..." as it wants to take you where it wants to go. Like "let me take you beyond the boundary of your play area" or "I want to go this way(opposite direction) even though you want to go that way."

I'll be driving down a road and a memory will drift into my mind that will haunt me or disturb me(briefly). Like having to big of a kite out in too much wind. Or having a close call in the buggy. Or a very precipitous situation where things could have gotten or been very bad; but it was right on the edge and didn't go that far. But it could have(the haunting aspect).


Maybe it's just because I'm still new to this stuff. Anyone here ever just driving down the road and some haunting thought will drift into your mind from something kite related out of the recent past?


I had two weekends in a row where I got removed from the buggy two to three times each weekend. This last weekend it was my goal to not have the kite pull me out of the buggy. I was cautious. I didn't get removed, but it was a bit dull but it was good being able to compare the difference in why I wasn't getting removed and what I wasn't doing that in the two previous weekends was leading to that happening. But the person I was with flipped his twice(first I've seen of him do that).

The times I've gotten removed:

Once involved attempting to make an upwind turn(a right turn would have been simple, the left turn involved the kite pulling me out the back of the buggy).

Fast turns involving the kite not being overhead or high in the window. It was low and I was transitioning from going upwind to going downwind and the rate of acceleration was very great for the kite. Maybe I didn't have the buggy fully turned around yet and the kite pulled me out.

Spinning out on a turn and ending up backwards to the kite.

Taking a fast turn and out running the kite.

Cutting at such an extreme angle with enough pull to wind up on two wheels and not compensating enough to either maintain being on two wheels or correctly correcting quickly enough to sit the buggy back down on three. I usually wind up flipping it as ending up on two wheels happened so fast I wasn't expecting it or planning on it.


As soon as the weather warms up; I'm going to take a trip down to the coast and get some water lessons.



I still like the buggy though.

Its awesome reading your post and being taken back to when I first started buggying. It seems that the turns are always the hairiest to master when your first learning...that and going upwind.

Whenever you are playing with Mother Nature, there is always an aspect of uncertainty. You never know when she is going to throw a gust or lull at you. After you get spanked once or twice you realize that even though things feel perfect fine right now, it can hit the fan pretty much anytime without any notice at all. This is not necessarily a bad thing and helps keep you on the side of safety. As long as you do side with the safety side of things the dangers will be kept to a minimum. Wearing proper gear, knowing your surroundings, planning your ride and always keeping an escape or bail plan will help make those unexpected instances just that, and instance and not an injury or danger. You cant eliminate the chance of something happening 100%, but you can minimize it to nearly zero.

As far as the turns go...
The more seat time you get, the more things will start to come together. It wont be long before you are pounding the kite into the turn, sliding the back end of the buggy around into a 180 and popping up on two wheels with ease....and doing it under full control and feeling very comfortable doing so. When that time comes, you will once again find your zen and the buggy will be even more awesome.

If you get the chance, head out here to Vegas and we can get you out on the lake bed. NABX is a destination that you should try to fit on your schedule of things to do. There's nothing quite like dropping the kite down to inches above the playa, parking it out towards the edge and cruising a smooth 30+MPH 4-5 mile run without moving your kite at all .... now that's ZEN!!!

keep at it and it will get easier and more comfortable for you.

Hope that helps and let us know how it goes for ya.

I've been buggying just over 2yrs now, and I do not have "scary flashbacks". There are times when I am cruising down the beach at 30-40mph and thinking about doing a transition, and I start to get a little nervous, but I've learned the limits of what my buggy can do, and normally feel pretty comfortable scrubbing off speed before attempting to turn around.

I've had my fair share of catastrophic buggy ejections. Some caught on tape (sod farm video from todd?), some not. I nearly broke my wrist one day riding in gusty conditions, and I probably would have broken my arm at the fall buggy bash had I not pulled my arm back against my body on a bad loft/launch. But these memories do not come back to haunt me. Instead, I generally remember the days I spent cruising comfortably at high speed. I drive down the freeway at 65mph dreaming I'm actually in my buggy, with the kite just over the shoulder of the road pulling me along.

Hopefully you will get to that point soon when the bad ones dont haunt you, and what you remember are the good times instead.

In my case lessons learned - that's why I switched to depower. If you watch some of my video's you can see how I transition for a turn - slide the buggy facing down wind and bring the kite across - as you are facing, and moving downwind the kite will lose some of it's power (less likely to eject you). This allows me to swoop the kite low and regain power after a nice transitional slide - I've never been ejected doing this.

Fortunately the scariest moment I had in my buggy was actually while going straight down the beach.This was one of my first times flying depower in a buggy. I think about it all the time! The wind was pretty good, making my kite choice, (12m Ranger) a borderline decision. I made it down the beach very easily. Coming back, I got up to a real good speed and started taking the kite to the top of the power window to slow my self down. Now I am getting lifted out of the buggy in slow motion! I was to the point where my toes were the only thing still touching the buggy( a really interesting situation). Once I got back down into the seat, I tried to slow down, the wind had just picked up too much and now I was not able to slow my self down. That kite was just pulling like a truck. I reached for the safety( the pier was really coming up quick) gave it a quick tug and watched my kite lift off and float 200 hundred yards up on the beach. I then realized I forgot to hook up my leash. Really wasn't that bad a deal, but to think of all the things that could have gone wrong is what makes me now err on the side of caution and go with a safer choice!

As far as turning under power, I tend to steer my buggy as if I were driving a dirt track car. I am always prepared to turn that wheel downwind if necessary to avoid being yanked out of the seat. I have high side rails on the buggy and that helps a ton, but it is not at all impossible to be yanked out or flipped over. I do love doing the power slide turns when I am on the field with tons of room.

Experience is our best instructor!

man i love FS kites(foil depowers/pl's) and plan to get one ASAP, But that RL video really proves how the ridgitity of a inflatable turns so fast and can really make precise movements, i mean for him to pull of some of those big jumps you neeeeed to be able to put your kite where you need it to go with lighting speed.

hope that made sence....too much coffffeeeee

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started taking the kite to the top of the power window to slow my self down. Now I am getting lifted out of the buggy in slow motion!

Almost the same thing happened to me at Speed Week (Sandy Point - Vic). Cruising back from the point when a squall hit us and things started getting very fast and a bit sideways. Instinctively, I very slowly raised the kite which did slow me a bit but now I was getting lifted out of the bug - in slow motion. I think I steered a little more down wind, let the bar out and hung on and my bum sank back into the seat. I think what I should have done was left the kite low and forwards and perhaps done a few small slides to keep my speed under control.

Nigel said to me some time later that you can always crash the kite - especially if it's only a couple of feet above the sand - something I've done on a few occasions when I've not been paying attention!! A quick grab of the brake handle usually gets the kite up and moving again.

Always learning......

I would strongly advise not to crash the kite. After it hits the ground it may tumble and relaunch itself in any direction at any time. If the fixed bridle doesn't have a safety system and your not wearing kite killers think in these terms - I can let go and maybe lose a $300 kite or I can hold on and get launched onto a hard packed surface out of control and receive possible life threatening injuries that in the end could have easily been avoided. Depower should have a built in safety system, if not don't fly it.

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I would strongly advise not to crash the kite. After it hits the ground it may tumble and relaunch itself in any direction at any time.

When I've done it (accidentally) it's been more like catching the sand and slowly rolling onto it's nose - but, of course, I have kept going forwards in the bug putting the kite square in the power zone - which in the instances I've had has been no problem but if it was howling I could see the potential for disaster there. Hmmm...I'll have to re-think that idea.

Speaking of ideas - if you're flying a fixed bridle/no killers and the sh#t hits the fan, what happens if you completely release the downwind handle? Will the kite flag out with zero power or would it go into a mad propeller spin?

If you let go one of the handle the kite can sometimes go into a death spiral - mind you there is very little fabric showing - it's more of a mess than dangerous.

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Originally posted by flexiblade In my case lessons learned - that's why I switched to depower. If you watch some of my video's you can see how I transition for a turn - slide the buggy facing down wind and bring the kite across - as you are facing, and moving downwind the kite will lose some of it's power (less likely to eject you). This allows me to swoop the kite low and regain power after a nice transitional slide - I've never been ejected doing this.

Can you send a link to a video that shows this? I think I know what you mean, but it is very different from how I scrub speed if I understand you correctly.

Philip