A kiteboarder's story

Beginner on C-Kites
Having graduated from landboarding using Flysurfer foil kites I must have given Boardworx the wrong impression as to my true lack of ability as my brief excursions on the North Rhino 06 and Vegas served only to convince me that a frontal lobotomy was necessary to willingly go out on one of these kites.

Bow Kites
Trading these kites in for a quiver of Cabrinha Crossbow 2’s improved my confidence greatly about going out onto the water. The re-launch was simple and the power was easily controlled in my novice hands. When these kites were coupled with a Nobile 555 board along with a fair amount of edging practice on the cable tow I found I was able to reduce the amount of time spent walking back upwind on the beach.
As my time spent swimming became less and riding became the main occupation on the water my arms suffered due to the heavy bar pressure. A swop to Switchblade 2’s reduced the bar pressure greatly and still gave me enough air-time for my beginner needs. The huge wind-range with instant power kill covered me against any sudden squalls and storms. My only problems occurred due to my neglect over keeping the pulleys free of sand.
The few attempts I had at unhooking resulted in the kite folding ( I now realize that I was not trimming the kite to suit the wind conditions), and I exchanged the Switchblades for Flexifoil Ion2’s

Hybrid Kites
With it’s greater power and sensitivity the Ion’s also required me to learn how to deep water re-launch properly ( something the Cabrinha’s had done automatically). The greater time spent in the air allowed me to attempt more complicated tricks and when coupled to a 666 board with it’s increased pop over the 555, a fair amount of safe unhooking attempts.
My main concern was with Flexifoil lines attempt to get me to join the beach knitting club at every opportunity, so I changed these to Ozone lines.

C Kites back to Hybrids
Convinced that I was now able to unhook properly I switched to C kites Slingshot 07 Fuels only to find the bar far too cluttered with the depower close to the chicken loop release. Using the Core bar instead greatly improved things but a test fly on the Nobile NHP convinced me that this much more mild mannered kite was better suited to my current needs rather than the full on turbo power of the Fuels.
The NHP kites were small for their size and I generally needed to be a size up from the other C or hybrid kites. The Nobiles had virtually no bottom end and needed to be at the top of their wind range to perform like a Fuel. These factors were ideal for me as I could go out and practice moves without getting punished too severely.
By switching from 666 boards to Shinn Pros I also had the equipment which would do a reasonable job in waves.

Delta Kites
With winter underway my mistakes were costing me precious body heat in the cold water between re-launches, so I switched to Delta’s Core GT’s and was now able to endure 5 or 6 mistakes with shorter ice baths compared to the one or two longer ones with the Nobile kites. As a consequence my confidence and willingness to try new things continued to improve.
The main problem came during unhooked moves, by keeping the kite on the virtual 5th line ie the safety position the kite tended to invert or loop upon bar release. This was solved by moving the kite leash above the chicken loop - the “suicide” position for general riding and only using the safety for launching and landing.
Overall the low end grunt on the Delta’s is excellent and they have a huge wind range for both hooked and unhooked riding. I chose the Core’s purely for their single pump as it was now winter. The ‘virtual’ 5th line has become tangled with bar but I think this was due to not using the suicide leash.

Wooden Core Kiteboards
The problem was that I was getting very little feedback from the Pro boards when loading up for unhooked moves so I didn’t know if I had enough pop for a more complicated move until I was already air-borne, and then it was too late.
A Slingshot Lunacy board solved that and gave me excellent feel and the ability to predict when I was going to get good height, it’s wide tips also allowed me to get away with some very sketchy landings.
However, it was not too good in waves and floated on top instead of cutting in. Overall it was excellent for light wind use but felt like a skateboard on a ramp in heavy swell. By using the Lunacy on flatter water and switching to an Underground FLX in chop and waves I had a board quiver that gave good pop and also performed well in waves.

By
Hunny Ichangemykitalot