Hi peeps,

Sorry to trouble you guys for yet more advice for a newbie, but you may be able to help me (if I'm even in the right place!).

I'd like to get into power kiting, but just the static sort (if that makes sense?). i.e. not surfing or land buggying.

What I'm not sure of is what sort of kite I should be going for. Most of the ones discussed here seem targeted at surfer and buggys. What I'm looking for is a relatively safe, but impressive looking kite for occasional use.

I'm a healthy 6foot bloke, and I reckon I'm looking at a 6 or 8 foot flexifoil, but is that too wimpy..?? Anything beyond that seems overkill for a large playing field or small beach (my local sites).

What I'm looking for is a kite that will turn heads with impressive performance, but still be safe to manage with me + 1 helper. Any thought greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Harry.

Theres nothing wrong with 6 or 8 foot flexifoils, they are faster through the air than four lined 'traction' kites such as the blades, bullets etc, and also turn faster, so would probably suit you OK, as they can look pretty impressive in the air.

Another advantage is that they are much cheaper than kites aimed at traction activities.

They aren't much of a challenge though, and not exactly exciting to fly (although they can still generate some power in strong winds). If you really don't want to get into any sort of traction kite activity, then have you thought about getting a modern stunt kite instead? I don't know much about these personally, but they will give you more opportunity for doing tricks with the kite (whilst you remain stationary). Flexifoil have a good range of stunt kites as well, and at least with a stunt kite there will always be something new to learn.

With a two-lined 6 or 8 foot flexifoil 'stacker' type kite, it'll take you 5 minutes (literally) to learn how to fly it and that will be it, nothing more to learn without getting a 'traction' kite.

Hope that helps.

Al.

Don't be such a wimp!!... Go big or go home!


Only joking... Go with whatever you feel comfortable with, you can always get bigger and better kites later, as I'm sure you'll end up wanting to get into traction activities.

Is there any way you can get someone to let you try out a few different kites first. Where will you be flying??

Joner

go for a four line foil, manouverability of a stunt kite but also poweful enough to pull you along etc......speak to the guys at powerkiteshop.com...free delievery and they'll price match..expect to spend £200 to £250 for a decent sized foil 3/4m is a good starting place but be warned it's addictive and can get expensive..but hey your only on this planet once....col

something like a flexifoil bullet would probably be good, powerful, more forgiving than the blades.
what do you intend to do with the kite? If you just want it for getting dragged around you'll probably find you want to try other things fairly shortly such as buggying, landboards or kitesurfing

[Edited on 24-10-2003 by bucski]

Hi again,

Thanks for everyone's comments - all useful stuff.

I have done a bit of stunt kite flying in the past, but not for a while. I hadn't really thought about getting a new, larger stunt kite, I was looking for a bit of a change really. I did also wonder if a plain Flexifoil would be too simple to master, and it sounds like that may be the case.

The problem is that these power kite look so awesome, I feel that I just gotta have one..! Yeah, I know - sounds like a recipe for disaster in the making... ;-)

Based on people's comments here, I have looked at the Blade III and Bullet. Although bucski mentioned that the Bullet was less forgiving than the Blade, it does seem to be available in smaller sizes.

As such, I have narrowed my selection down to a 4-line 2.5m Bullet on the basis of the following: (feel free to shout if I've got anything wrong)

1. Being 4-line, I will be able to do more interesting flying than with a 2-line (i.e. closer to stunt flying) although nowhere near as fast!

2. I'm a power kite beginner, and the rating of the 2.5m Bullet seems to be Novice/Intermediate, whereas the Blade is Intermediate/Experienced.

2. A 2.5m Bullet is easier to handle than a 3.0m Blade III (this is a bit of an assumption on my part, based purely on size), but a Bullet is still capable of pulling a buggy in the right conditions.

3. A 1.5m Bullet is just too small for me, hence not worth buying because I'd want to upgrade quickly!

Will a 2.5m Bullet fly reasonably well in lower windspeeds to allow me to familiarise myself with it gradually? I haven't been able to find the speed range for it on-line yet...

There is a kite club locally, and I believe they do a bit of buggying as well, so I hope to get in touch with them soon.

I'm based in SE England, and most of my flying would be on a fairly empty playing field the size of a cricket pitch, and local pebbly beaches, also with very few people on (and onshore winds only!).

Does all (any?!) of this sound sensible, or have I lost the plot..? ;-)

Cheers all, and thanx for being a friendly bunch!

Yep...That all sounds fine. A 2.5m Bullet will certainly give you a good taste for power-kiting. It will fly in light winds so that you can familiarise yourself with it, but will provide enough power for skudding, jumping and traction activities in stronger winds.

I wouldn't say you'll get close to stunt kite flying with it, but the four lines do allow precision control.

Just be warned, once you start flying it, you'll soon be after bigger kites to complement it!!

Al.

whoops!!!
i meant to say that the bullets were more forgiving than the blades, sorry for the confusion
tim
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