I'm looking at buying a small kite for practicing on land, and was looking at the HQ Rush II 250. I'm about 107 lbs, and I wasn't sure if that would be the right size.

I also surf and snowboard, so eventually I might combine the kiting with one of the board sports, but I'm not in any real hurry to kill myself.

And if anyone's in S Florida, give me a holla.

Nice choice. Any size is right when the wind is right. When you are comfortable with it, you will have a very large useable wind range.
8-10 mph will be fun for the 250 and 10-12 will pull you around without getting you into too much trouble.
The new 300 Pro is and interesting choice with the 3rd line (so a single brake bridle). This enables reverse launching in the event you plunk it on its nose.

If budget allows, consider a 4-line kite right off the bat. The HQ Beamer series is abot the most often recommended. You gain the ability not only to reverse launch but back it down, land it down wind and re-launch. If you are headed for board sports, then put it on a bar to give you the feel for that. Or start with a Beamer TSR (comes with a bar instead of handles) or its new replacement, the Scout. 3m size is right for you.

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Originally posted by acampbell If budget allows, consider a 4-line kite right off the bat. The HQ Beamer series is abot the most often recommended. You gain the ability not only to reverse launch but back it down, land it down wind and re-launch. If you are headed for board sports, then put it on a bar to give you the feel for that. Or start with a Beamer TSR (comes with a bar instead of handles) or its new replacement, the Scout. 3m size is right for you.

While the 250 flies great it is a 2 line kite. The extra bit of money to go with a beamer or TSR will be WELL WORTH IT !!!

Being able to reverse launch + let go and have the kite back down nicely on the brakes for easy relaunch is a HUGE ADVANTAGE both when learning and then once you want the kite as an engine. You will crash the kite a lot at 1st so being able to reverse launch will save you a lot of time + agro recovering from one.

You will grow out of a 2 line kite. A kite with brakes will become your high wind kite as you progress.

My opinion only !

Does it matter if it's the Beamer 2 or Beamer 3?

No, not for your purposes. The B3 is just more refined in terms of features and build.
What part of Florida?

SE Florida, Delray Beach.

Have you heard anything about this kite? http://cgi.ebay.com/BN-3-meters-4-lines-control-stunt-power-...
It seems too cheap.

I also found a beamer 3.6, it's rigged as a 2 line but they claim it can be rigged as a 4 line. It doesn't look like the design of the II or the III, and I guess I'd have to buy more line to rig it as a quad. There's not a lot of information on it, just that it's been flown for only 3 hours. What kind of questions should I as the seller?

Oh, and what about the New Tech kites? Are they any good? There's a ballistic 2.2 quad line that's in my budget.

the rush is a great kite and the ballistic is ok the price is better on the ballistic and it is quad line good to get u started the tsr beamer is no longer bein made if you can find on the are great kites they have been replaced with the scout another great kite

I still have a few 2.5m and 3.5m Profoils.

http://www.kiteinnovations.com/Profoil.htm

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Originally posted by tedsfoils I still have a few 2.5m and 3.5m Profoils. http://www.kiteinnovations.com/Profoil.htm

These are a good choice, too. Figure $40-60 for line sets and $13 for kite killers and you still come out well.

Yes The Profoils are a far superior kite to the Ballistic. You can't beat the present pricing.
Go for the PRETTY PINK 3.5 and you can be sure the B.F. will let you have it for your own

I'm not really a pink kind of girl, I like my equipment to be red. Snowboard, Surfboard, etc. But I can deal with if that's the best choice. I could paint red hibiscus flowers on it. The Ballistic has the cool red phoenix on it, and the rush 250 is red too.

So what size control bar would work for that 3.5 ProFoil? And how do I choose a line set?

The Profoil would be flown on handles, which gives you far more control then the bar. I was in NY for a snowkiting event, and when the winds were up near 30mph I was out on my first kite on handles. Most of the riders were kite surfers who never even seen handles.

Line set is up to you, HQ makes a great line set, http://www.kiteplace.com/quad_line_powerkite_accessories.htm

Profoil is your best bet. You'll be using it forever, were the 2 line foils might end up boring you eventually.

I would use a small bar HQ 50 cm/ 20" or Flexifoil 55 cm "Lite" control bar.

20m or 25m line set would be fine. Most stock kites that size would ship with 20m.

Welcome to the power kite forum!

Thanks for the welcome, although I feel like I've been persuaded to get a bigger kite than I originally planned. I remember going out surfing my first time, and my teacher/boyfriend said "oh these are small waves"... which they were for him at 3 ft. I, on the other hand, was pushed around a lot. I've been know to be able to surf 1 ft waves. So although I think I will get the 3.5 profoil, I'm still going to get something smaller too(and RTF), since I know the power of nature.

Flexi sting 2 they rock. I bought my wife a 1.7 and I love to fly it. It is really fast and responsive. It is a really fun kite static. Turns on a dime! And one day I used it to landboard with in 25 mph wind.The downside is... I bought her a pink one ,for breast cancer research. Which is good , but don't look good to see shipyard welder gettin it on a board flyin' this little pink tasmanian devil on strings!

Can I use this bar with the profoil?

http://www.realkiteboarding.com/index.cfm?page=detail&ca...

NO ....... and yes.

That bar is for a depower kite !!!!! It has a trim strap and stuff you don't need. Search the HQ or flexifoil bar for fixed bridle kites to see the difference. It won't have a trim strap but a pulley instead + a different way of attaching your lines.
You could modify that bar but that's not the best choice.

Powerzone has a mod for the profoil to change it to a depower some time in the future ! As it comes you can fly the profoil on handles or a bar. 2 line or 4 line.

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Originally posted by cloudswinger Can I use this bar with the profoil? http://www.realkiteboarding.com/index.cfm?page=detail&ca...

I guess I was in a hurry this morning. I am aware of the profoil depower mod. I was thinking of getting a 3.5 and a 2.5(or 1.5?), using the 3.5 as is for my summer/light wind kite, and modding the smaller one as a depower trainer since it'd require more wind anyway. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Are the 3.5 and 2.5 too close to each other in size? I've read that the 1.5 is really buzzy. And then when I get the money for a water kite, I could use the bar maybe.

So I really wanted to know if depower bars are interchangable between depower kites, or are certain bars designed for the kites they're expected to be used with. Like this bar said it's for SLE kites, while I would be using it with a foil.

And I found a line set that said it's older version which is tied, not sewn. Is that going to matter for me?

Odds are that older lineset is inferior line ??? Possibly Pansh and not the best.

Unfortunately you can't just put a fixed bridle kite on a depower bar and fly. You just need to dump the trim system and buy a pulley + D-loop to change it over though.

Another option for bigger kites is a " crossover " bar set-up. It gives better brake action but takes 3 pulleys and that weighs too much effecting the brakes on smaller kites .

Pwerzone will know, but I think I would mod the 3.5 to depower and leave the smaller one on handles or a bar.

The 1.5 is definately a different kite than the 3.5 . I think I'ld be going with the 2.5 but I don't like kites under 3m in general. So consider the source of that comment as biased !

So I got the 3.5m kite, and now I'm waiting for the wind to die down. It's been really breezy lately, but the only time the wind is steady is when it's over 15. I've been using my wind meter to develop my wind gauging skills.