Hey guys,

i've been kiting for about a year now and have moved from very lame kites Flexifoil Stackers to the fourline kites. I've been flying a blade 3m for about 5 months and decided to get a bigger kite so i bought my self a bullet 4.5m.

from what i have read so far on this forum is to make kite boarding easier / more enjoyable i should get a bar. the questions i have ar really what do i need to get

i have on my blade kite killers but obviously if i got to use a bar then these wont be used what should i use instead and how does it work?

do i need a harness?how does the kite connect to the bar? e.g where do the brake lines go?



i know they are quite large and probably stupid questions but any help would be great or if ne 1 knows of any manuals etc please send them on!

thanks

ed

Personally I'd stick to handles till you learn the board, one less thing to confuse you. Some of our local guys still preffer to use handles. When your boarding nicely, it may be an idea to switch over to free up a hand for board grabs.

Agree with Pablo. You should be ok boarding with handles. Later, get a bar, then far down the road play with harness. You don't want to be strapped to a powerful kite before you learn how they behave.

Bar vs Handles, it all comes down to personal preference. You might like handles and stick with it. You can use harness with handles as well.

Yep, gotta agree with both the other posts. I thought I was ready one day, hooked onto a harness with a 5 meter Sami. For the first leg of the trip I was doing no wrong, I was in the process of turning (down wind) when a gust hit me and I was yanked from my buggy, hurled into the air about 20 feet before I knew what happened, then I pulled the chicken strap and dropped to the ground. Had it not been for my prior parachute training (35 years ago) I know I would have broken something.

So you flew Flexifoil Stackers for a year, how many, what size. I switched from using 4 6ft. stackers to my first quad, a slightly used almost new, SkyTiger-18, a great kite, old tech, but great to learn on.

Oh, if you ever want to get a bar, both Ozone and Flexifoil Extreme bars are good for landboarding. Different safe system but they work well on landboarding. Break lines go to middle of the bar and are connected to your arm or harness somewhere so when you let go the bar, it pulls the break lines for safety and land the kite.

I have been using Dakine harnesses, one waist and two seat harness. I prefer seat harness these days as waist harness always end up around my chast rather than staying around my waist. But definately easy to get on and off.

Dakine Fusion has good back support and good for landboarding but it's a little bulky. Dakine Storm is less bulky and comfortable to move around with but its back support is not as good as that of Fusion and spreader bar tends to climb (?) up higher without spearder bar pad. Since it's comfortable to move around, I use it for buggying as well. - Brian

hey all,

thanks for allthe great respones!

ive moved to the quad lines about 6 months ago and started boarding pretty much straight away! so im not tooo bad on the board. id like to try the bar out and will probably buy the flexifoil extreme bar.

ive seen a few harnesses on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=020&a...) really dont know if getting a kitesurfing harness is any different than one for land... dunno if the do specific ones for land to be honest.

if i was to get that harness or something similar and tried linking it up with my new kite (also won on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=020&a...) would i need to get anything else to connect me to the kite? what do i buy to connect the middle o the bar (where the break lines go) to the harness?

sorry i know stupid questions but its all new to me?


ed

You are pretty much set then. You don't have to worry about middle line as bars come with 4 lines - 2 main lines and 2 break lines in the middle. Here is the extreme bar:


Flexifoil Extreme bar

Thaks for all your help! but just to clarify if i bought this extereme bar then i wouldnt have to buy abnything else to connect it to the harness. i realise it has the chicken loop (or what ever its called) but like when i use handles i have kite killer which connect to my arms so if i let go the kite doesnt go miles. i assum there is something like that for harnesses.

Could you do me a favour an write a list down of all things i need! I knw its a lot to ask so thanks in advance but because im really not sure what items i would need to get.

il start the list:
1 x 4.5 Flexifoil Kite
1 x harness (like this one)
1 x extreme bar


really appreciate all your help guys!

thanks

ed

I have run my 4.5 bullet on a bar and handles. For me, the handles are the way to go. I suggest you pick up a harness and try running handles with a strop 1st. I put a home made quick release on mine but some climbing rope is all you need.
I'm running a bar on my 7m bullet for now. I do think it's a trade off. A little less performance but I like the feel of the bar with skis and blades.