prighello

Cracked me up with this line Flew twice this weekend in good winds. I've got circles down now for sure. I've tried to do the slack line tricks but well I'm not very good at them. I really just like zooming the kite around and doing spirals and stuff. Thank you for all the advice! I'm thinking that I might look into getting a Rev since they appear to do precision and spins well. I see that you are a fan of them. Are they easy to pick up and fly or is the learning curve greater than a dual line?

Just a quick update. I’ve taken the kite out a few more times. I’ve also discovered that kite flying is banned year around in many places up and down the coast here due to a bird…crazy. Some of the best places I’ve found to go are banned from kites yet ATVs, dirt bikes, and 4WD trucks are permitted. So odd. Anyway, I found a park where the wind was high but very unpredictable. The kite would go tearing across the sky then the wind would die and the thing would fall before another gust. It was interesting but tricky and I crashed A LOT, but no broken parts 😊 yet! I also found a small section of beach where dogs and therefore kites (cuz they go together somehow in the minds of regulators or environmentalists) are permitted. I went out one evening when the wind was blasting and had a great time! The kite was really moving and pulling me a good bit. I was able to do some neat landings/stalls where you spike the bottom of the leading edge into the sand. I also did some lateral swoops where you graze the surface of the sand with the edge as well. I suppose I should tape the kite if I plan on doing this stuff much. One thing I am having a hard time with is circles. I can turn just fine but the kite (or me) seems to need a lot of airspace to complete a circle and I almost crash most times I try to complete one. Any advice on how to get better at this? Practice I suppose. I am hopeless at recoveries as well, once the kite is buried in the sand it is done for me. No worries though, I am not shamed by a little walk. I also, I think I need to even out my lines are they appeared to stretch a bit uneven. This is next for me to resolve before I take the beast out again. Anyway, it is fun and I am glad to have jumped in with a pretty durable kite as it has yet to fail me even with some good spills.

Okay, the kite arrived yesterday and I took it out today. There was not much wind and the window was really small so I got to try a lot of hovering type stuff and soft landing. I watched a bunch of videos on how to fly but forgot most it. One thing I noticed is that the kite is slow to react to input but maybe this is just the low wind thing. The wind was so weak that a few times the kite did some crazy tricky looking stuff but I didn't have anything to do with it. The thing spent half the time on the ground at some odd angle. I really had trouble with recovery. I kept getting the kite stuck face down and facing me after trying to recover it from some other old angle. I tried the pop up recovery I saw in an old Prism video on youtube but I could not do it. Two quick tugs one to pop the other to get it up. I must have tried 50 times! The freaking kite just will not pop. Maybe its the beach sand? Anyway I must have walked to the kite 30 time today...fun stuff. The other thing I need to figure out is the winding of the lines. I took a break and wound the lines up on the winder. I was pretty careful about how I did it but when I went to unwind boy oh boy did I have a tangled mess. The lines were wrapped around one another for maybe a 100 turns. I spent 30 minutes getting it all sorted out. There must be a "correct" way to do this that I missed. Anyway, a few times the wind kicked up and the kite hauled a bit buzzing around. This was fun, I like speed, pull, and noise. I figure if I can go out on a day with some real wind then I'll likely have a bit more of a good time. But hey I didn't break anything today so all is well I will say the best part might have been when a seagull came and stole my lunch from my pack. I chased the beast up and down the beach trying to get my stuff back. Mainly because I didn't want it to to get hurt eating plastic.

IDK about keeping the bet now as I kind of just jumped into the middle? I hope I won't feel the need to get another kite a few weeks later but my curiosity about foils might do me in :)

Thank you folks for all the feedback and advice. I found a good deal on a Prism Hypnotist and it seemed to be a beginner friendly kite so I ordered it. The thing looks big but it breaks down to a manageable size. I figure I might as well get something solid plus the DVD will hopefully help me out. I will follow up once I get kite and fly it. Thank also for informing me about needing a stake; I had no idea. If there is anything else I should know please share and thank you all again.

Thank you for the welcome. I have been flying single line kites off and on since I was a kid. I came here to learn more about other types and to join the community.

Hello, I have been flying single line kites for many years and recently became interested in dual line kites after seeing one flown at the beach. I've read a bunch but I'm still confused about where to start. Line material and length, wing sizes and shapes, frame materials, precision vs trick vs ??? There is a lot more to this than I thought. I'd like to get a decent kite that can be controlled to make right and left turns and spin around a bit. I don't think I'm all that interested in tricks, more just controlling the flight of the kite and feeling it tug. What I really liked about the kite I saw was how fast and noisy it was. I see a lot of stuff about getting kites for tricks but what about for just flying around like I've mentioned? I live by the beach on the central coast of California and it is often windy here but I've no real idea of the speed; enough to howl at my house in the evenings. Anyway, can anyone recommend a kite or two for what I've mention in the $50-$80 range? The other thing I'd not so sure about it framed vs foils. I don't want something that is really tough to fly that I will crash all the time and get frustrated by. One of my single line kites is like this and crashes a lot to the point where I'm about to trash the thing. Final note is I'd like something not too huge as I like to hike and having something I fit in a pack or in the back seat of my car would be a plus. Thank you for the help!