Hi,
Greetings from new bloke here from a rather un-windy Teesside North East England
I am absolutely brand new to kite sports (and forums for that matter) and after watching Jon Holgate and Carl the bullets (carltb)'s excellent videos on you tube I sedated the missus and bought a 4m octane, SB harness and a Scrub psycho 2 board which after 4 flights I'm yet to get rolling.
Anyway if anybody's got any advice or is in my neck of the woods who fancy's taking on a problem child please give me a shout. I fly in Seaton Carew or possibly Redcar.

Cheers
:puzzled:

Welcome to the funny farm of on line forums.
I'm across the pond from you. So I can't come help! But I would suggest spending some time getting to know the kite and the winds. And when you are sure you can control the kite (which means flying it without looking at it) then start learning all over again with the board. This will help you be able to watch where your going and keep balanced on the board instead of always looking at where the kite is. Also get a helmet. You can't ride if your melon is cracked.
Have fun and good luck finding locals that fly. They will be your best teachers.
Dave.

Welcome aboard the good ship lollipop, skydance... This is my first and only online forum as well, I was on Kite Crowd for a short while, but I found that I enjoyed PKF more, and I was not interested in paying dues... I thought it might be a once only thing, but after a month of use, they asked for more money... Though it was only £1, I just didn't feel it was worth it to me.

You may benefit from Kite Crowd though as most of the guys here on PKF are in the US and Canada whereas most of the guys on KC are from the UK. Not to say you won't benefit here, we are all willing to help, but you are much more likely to find someone close to you on KC that can meet up with you. There are several on here from the UK, as well as Austrailia, but most are North American by locale.

We are all always willing to give advice, so here's a thought,... Try to check online weather almanacs or weather histories and find out when wind is most prevalent in your area, you may just be in a season when the wind is lame in your area,... For instance there is practically NO wind during the summer months where I am, but every other time of year, it is at least decent.

When you DO get wind, try to fly the heck out of that 4m while standing still, then when you get the hang of it while static flying, try to get moving. And do your best to find someone experienced to offer advice!

Good luck!
Spencer

Welcome to PKF. As stated above, become a great pilot first no matter how long that process takes. No matter how bad you want to jump on that scrub, patients and flight practice will go a long way for you in making the transition from static to traction flight.
We'll see how long just one kite lasts. LOL
Better buy more sedatives for the missus. You are about to spend even more money.....


Above all, just fly and have fun.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I am now sure that although it is not local I did pick the right forum to use.
I had my forth flight yesterday in light winds down in my old army town of Aldershot in the huge playing fields of Queens avenue and I did try to get on the board only to step straight off again without getting it rolling pretty much as you said- look down to step in the bindings and oh hell the kites heading for the ground. Correct the kite and over balance having to step straight off again. I think I have had a reasonable start for my forth flight, I have identified the wind window and can side launch, I can get the kite 2 foot off the deck on broad turns after down turning in light winds, set up and pack up is still a pain though as I get lines tangled on set up despite carefully packing up I.e. fig 8 over the bar etc...
Despite a small amount of frustration of being a bit useless though, the overriding feeling is that this is cool and I will definitely be sticking with it.
Thanks for the replies and if anyone is interested I have couple of vids of my first flights for analysis if I can figure how to upload.
So once again thanks for the replys.
Matt M

That's easy. If they are Youtube vids, Use the "post reply" tab. Not quick reply.
Click on the youtube tab in the the fonts and links sections.
Now just type only the Youtube video ID letters/numbers. Not the whole link.


[youtube] bhe55556837 [/youtube]

This is fictional, but you get the idea. There won't be any spaces before of after the ID, just the brackets.

And for vimeo, just copy and paste the vid link from the bottom right of the video screen. Should look like:
#vimeo.com/xxx

Welcome skydance,
I'm originally a Smoggy now living in the Midlands (UK). My advice for a noob would be forget the board for now and learn how to fly the kite first, otherwise you'll have too much to think about... kite, board, board, kite....
When you can fly the kite by feel it's much easier to step on to a board or a buggy.

Have fun, fly safe and start saving for more kit :D

Right well I could not find the unique movie id (Thanks 3 shot) on my phone so I shot the lot through the blender and edited it all on my phone and uploaded it as Aldershot Flight on the 11th Sept. I will try and paste a link here:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9laglkGmhyA&feature=yout...

Thoughts, comments, abuse?

Thanks again PKF crew

Here ya go.



Just preview a quote with this reply to see what I mean by video ID. You just needed to drop the extra digits. We are lazy here and like to see it in preview (joking)

No abuse here. Just become a great pilot first, and wear a melon protector. Especially on the harness. Enjoy that Octane. They are great kites. Zen like I must say.

And BTW, you did pick the right forum
Great people here with tons of "SANE" knowledge and advice. Don't be a stranger. There are a bunch of UK peeps here as well.

I've been accused of a lot of things but being sane isn't one of them.. Welcome!!!! You'll like it here..

Cheers 3 shot, got it now. Thanks everyone, will keep you all posted with any more vids though probably not this weekend as wind alert says gusting 38 knots at Hartlepool on Sunday and I reckon 20kts is man enough for me for now as I don't want to show up on Durham Tees valley airport's radar.

:o:o:o