Hi - I have a 3.1 Prism Tensor which has the leading edge lines to the bar and the trailing edge lines to a wrist leash. I thought it would be fun to try flying it as a 'depower' kite so I switched the lines. (LE to a harness thru the middle of the bar and TE to the bar.) It didn't work! I adjusted line lengths and played around with it for awhile. Is there something in the geometry of the kite or in how it is bridled that prevents this from working. I managed to get the kite in the air but when I started a turn the kite would seem to stall or collapse before I could get it to turn. Any thoughts? Thanks!

There is way more to depowering a kite then just switching the lines around.

Depowerable kites are bridled differently then FBs, they incorporate a mixer system to vary the angle of attack, they often have different profiles then similarly sized FBs and they may or may not incorporate pulleys on the bar side as well as trimmers and a line that slides through the bar to allow you to adjust the length of the power lines on the fly by pulling the bar in and out.

Even if you took a FB kite and put it on a DP bar, you would not make the kite a depowerable unless you reworked the bridle and added a mixer system to it.

You kind of answered your own question - a "fixed bridle" kite means the bridle is set at the optimum angle for the kites performance and does not change. You can can fly a four line foil with rear lines slack or even removing them and they fly as a 2 line foil pulling the the front lines left and right to steer it. Adding rear lines (or brake lines) and then you have brake ability and also used in steering depending on how you want to turn the kite. But all of these do not change the angle of attack on the kite.
Most depower kites work by changing the angle of attack tilting the kite forward and back. Your fixed bridle kite is always keeping the kite at a fixed angle unless you apply brake line pressure which pulls in the trailing edge like a flap but doesn't change the angle of the whole kite in the way a depowerable kite does. Now some depowerable kites have more bridle than others but there are pulleys involved that slide along the bridle to change different angles and and compensate directional forces on the bridle.

All you did was change your kites configuration from front line/power line steering (having the front lines to the outside of the bar) to bottom line steering by putting your brake lines on the bar. So every time you go to steer you are pulling in on the brake line.

(darn, I take too long typing, you beat me to the reply button)

what you did is akin to the Ozone Turbo bar. The power lines go through the middle of the bar.The brakes go to the ends,so you are steering by brakes alone. But it is NOT depowered. Not all kites like to be steered by brakes.

Thanks! I knew it didn't work and now I understand why....I'll change it back!

With a fixed bridle kite the bridles are fixed in optimal position as mentioned.

Most kites are designed with 4 rows of bridle. A.B,C and Z From front to back. With a depower kite as you adjust things the length of each row changes at a certian ratio. This changes the overall angle of the canopy and sometimes the shape. The combination of the kite spilling more wind due to more nose down AOA and a smaller projected area combine to give you your depower. Turning is accomplished in a manor more similar to a brake turn.

There is no such thing as 100% depower !