[Nirvana 3E fluke]

Did you ever get that Nirvana? Or any update?

[Tacoma & South King County fliers.]

My wife can be like that haha.

I'm gonna get her up early though for church first. But ill text you my phone number so if you decide to come up you can text me and ill come fly.

It would be around noon id be free.

[Tacoma & South King County fliers.]

Let me know if you plan on coming up either day though and I'll try to make sure to be down there at that same time.

Saturday is the best day but I could probably talk my wife into letting me go fly Sunday too. Haha 

[Tacoma & South King County fliers.]

I'm planning on flying tommorow at browns point about 1pm. I have some morning obligations and evening obligations but mid day I'm open.

The wind looks pretty good tommorow but will be indoubtly a little much for tricking. Sunday I will most likely by busy most of the day. 

I find about 50-60' lines at browns point is about perfect. Theres also a few fields up the hill from there that have tons of room but the winds are noticeably rough and sporadic up there.

 

[Tacoma & South King County fliers.]

I'm always down to fly weekend and weekdays after work. I'm a relative newbie as well but can hold my own I think. I still have alot more to learn than things i would say I've mastered but I'm getting better all the time.

Longview seems a bit on the far side though from where I'm at. Im specifically in South Federal Way.

Where do you usually fly at?

[Tacoma & South King County fliers.]

Anybody in here from or do much flying in this area?

I find myself flying at Brown's Point in Tacoma often. Occasionally when the wind gets 12mph+ I'll meet some kiteboarders but never see any other dual or quad fliers.

If anyone ever wants to fly thats a pretty good spot for about 2, maybe 3 fliers with really good wind right off the sound.

Would love to have another dual line flyer to trick with in the area. Ill fly rev here also but its not my go too option. But I just like to fly. 👍

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

https://store.kittyhawk.com/products/skyscraper-stunt-kite-176336

https://intothewind.com/itw-hydra-blue.html

I bought these 2 to learn tricks on first. I really wanted a Kymera but couldn't find one anywhere online. The Skyscraper is basically a Widow ng with a simplified sail design so its cheaper.

The Skyscraper is very smooth, axles extremely easy, and loves being on its back in fades and turtles.

The hydra took me longer to click with but now I do enjoy it more than the Skyscraper. But the Hydra does yoyo based tricks significantly better than the Skyscraper which for me makes it a much more enjoyable kite. 

I'd pick up a hydra and learn some axles, lazy susans, and ground recoveries. 👍

Its only $112 right now.

[Bridal activators on ITW Hydra]

The more I fly other kites, the more I like flying the Hydra. There's a certain tranquility it has in the air. It really is nice kite thats good at alot of tricks.

The bridle activators seem to make a minuscule difference in how it feels mainly on its back in my opinion.

I'm going to throw a cross bridal line and try the cross active setup just to see how it feels out of curiousty.

I ordered a new lower spreader today for it because I trashed the lower spreader in the most pathetic way. The internal furrell kept slipping too deep inside one of the rods so when I got home I went to super glue it in.

Unfortunately the furrell was really hard to slip in when it had glue on it then I suddenly buried in entirely into one of the spreader permanently. 😮 Live and learn. Haha

[Removing split upper leading edge (ITW Hydra)]

 

On 8/18/2019 at 9:03 AM, Breezin said:

WEEELLLL lucky you .Hour in yesterday and dang  CRACK  Winds were running 15 having a blast but going higher. Was really in the zone and didn't want to stop flying the Hydra.Getting ready to go vented but obviously waited to long. 4th Hydra spreader I've broken and all on the same side go figure. Kites going to be down awhile for some much needed restoration. The shopping list steadily grows as the days FLY by.Get it? FLY by. Man I CRACK myself up.Get it? CRACK goes the tube. Okay I'll stop being stupid for now. Except today I'll probably do the same stoopid mistakes practicing the Comet'e that have lead to the last 3 broken tubes on 3 different kites sigh.I WILL nail that trick eventually. Comete has been the costliest trick for me to learn by far.Lam Hoac told me it took him a year to learn it so I still have hope.Little over a year now at the miserable thing but the sometimes getting it right is worth it. That's what I keep telling myself anyways LOL.

What did you use to replace the bottom spreader?

I'm trying to find a bottom spreader for my Hydra and the dt-15 rod just doesn't seem available.

Going to probably use sky shark just not positive which rod would be best yet.

[What line length to get for UL and SUL flying?]

That's really cool. I may have to try making a long set like that for the rev or maybe one dual line set. 

Most of my time is on short lines being the small park I fly at but those would be alot of fun out at Long Beach! Thanks for that idea.

[What line length to get for UL and SUL flying?]

Thats really cool. That wind window is monstrous! 

Does the kite feel mushy that far out there?

[What line length to get for UL and SUL flying?]

On 9/1/2020 at 6:26 PM, riffclown said:

Well I fly quads on lengths like 240' when I get the chance and those aren't common. I also have 150's along with the more common lengths. As for making my own, it's a personal preference. 

240'! Wow that would be pretty cool to watch! Not sure id ever seen such long lines! 😃

Whenever I'm flying my SUL I usually use 50' 50#. I have a set of 40' 30# line but its a little harder to see the line and get it to drop quickly when doing slack line movements.

Other that that 90# line by whatever length you want is a good cover 95% line. Atleast up around the Tacoma area.

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

That's a good nuget of information I've never heard. I'll be sure to keep that in my mind when flying. 👍

There isn't many flyers at the park where I fly but I seem to always have an audience when I fly watching. I fly at Brown's Point in Tacoma a handful of days a week.

Its nice to make things look cleaner and cleaner even though a fair of the trick practicing ends up as ground recoveries. Haha😆

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

 

On 10/10/2020 at 4:56 PM, John Barresi said:

Be ready for that two handed tug just as it comes around, looking for the spine to be straight up and down, or looking down the length of it, for each flip.

That made all the difference in the world! 👍 Got a few more rungs strung together last night. Wind was very weak around 2-3 mph so it was kinda a balance act of getting that firm "out of my way" input and some slack followed by some backwards walking to get some wind back in the sail. 😎

But I managed to hook 3 rungs together and got alot of backspin practice from the turtle position too.😏

Thanks again for helping me get that trick unlocked!

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

That should help alot. Went out flying today but we have some strong and choppy 20mph winds around Seattle today so I wasn't tricking.

Man am I ever looking forward to chaining 15 jacobs ladder together! It'll be my right of passage. 😏

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

I have not been taking a step forward at all.

I'll have to make sure to do that and mimick that "out of my way" gesture.

I'm usually practicing this on a Dream Machine SUL by Lam.

Thanks for the advice!

[Nirvana 3E fluke]

Haha. It's hard to justify another kite to someone who doesn't fly. To them its just a different color kite. 😆

[Nirvana 3E fluke]

18 minutes ago, NateyLB said:

 

No one was home to get it and they sent it back to the UK lol. It’s coming next Friday. I’m excited. I’ll let you know how it goes. There’s a guy that that flies out where I do that has a full set of nirvanas. 
I think my next few kites are going to be a lam, a blue moon, and a benson. There’s so many good kites to buy. My friend has 100+ dual line sport kites. 
Does your dream machine have a black sail with green red and yellow? 

Back to the UK! 😲Man you'd think they'd atleast leave a note first to arrage a pickup or something. Glad to here it's all good though.

The Benson kites look and sound amazing as Zuul mentioned. I'd love to put a deepspace in my kite bag.

That or a nirvana will probably be my next. Now to figure out a way to justify another kite to my wife. 🤣🤣🤣

[Nirvana 3E fluke]

Man I really hope you get that kite. That'd be really lame if someone is scamming like that.

I too would really love a nirvana but they're hard to come by locally and I can't commit to the shipping from overseas yet.

I just bought a Dream Machine SUL from Lam and will say its an amazing kite. It tracks perfectly straight, tricks very easy, and its just a blast to fly. It makes me look better than I am. 😀

Lam goes way above and beyond in his communications and sale to you. You can tell its not about the sales to him but advancing the sport.

His kites are a bit pricey but I'd say worth the price all things considered  and he ships pretty quick too.

But if you get that nirvana let me know if it lives up to the hype. Lams kites definitly live up to the hype.

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

Got a couple rungs of the JL today but that fade to backflip transition is sloppy. None of them were linked together.🤨

It nearly alway will not barrel roll fully enough to enter the turtle cleanly.

I feel I need to be better at maintaining the fade and figure out the input to barrel roll out of the fade and fly more vertical from there.

When I try being more "positive" on my barrel roll input the kite tends to lunge towards me resulting in excessive line slack and an awkward stall.

Any tips for getting that fade to barrel roll and rotate to a more vertical position to better set up the next turtle position? Or on maintaining the fade better?

I will say though that as a relative newer trick flyer that the half lazy to fade feels awesome and just looks so cool in the air. 😎

[Fade to Turtle for Jacobs ladder]

I'm fairly consistent getting my kite to fade from most positions including from a half lazy susan.

But when trying to get the kite to barrel roll out of the fade to a turtle I'm struggling getting the kite to land on its back in a horizontal position. It tends to hit the backflip at nearly vertical and ends the Jacob ladder efforts.

Maybe I'm just giving slack with both lines for the turtle too early? I lost my wind when practicing today but will get some more time later this week.

 

[Bridal activators on ITW Hydra]

That's where I was getting the idea from. Figured it was worth a shot messing with a few bridal mods and seeing the response.

The kite just seems to need to be pulled nuts on perfectly into the fade or it over rotates left or right and rolls out.

[Bridal activators on ITW Hydra]

Has anyone happened to add activator lines to any of their kite bridals and if so how did you like the response?

I have a KHK Skyscraper which is awesome to fly and loves being half axled into a fade, but my Hydra seems very finicky about this move.

It seems to want to turn nose to the side when I pull it onto its back and toward me from any flare position. 

I just added activator lines from up haul to inhaul yesterday to see if that will ease this transition. 

I'll let you know how it goes but any advice on this move with the kite would be greatly appreciated!