windofchange

Another difference is that the 2008 Rev 1.5 SLE is made of Ripstop Polyester. They changed this to Ripstop Nylon in 2010 and started adding in the extra 1/4" leading edge. The main reason for this change was the huge increase in cost for Ripstop Poly material (also known as Icarex). The Ripstop Polyester or Icarex is usually lighter weight than the Nylon but just as strong. Also, Ripstop Poly is (usually) coated on both sides which repels water better, stretches less and flies through the air smoother - depending on who you talk to. Ripstop Nylon is usually only coated on one side. The coating decreases porosity in the fabric and wear. Most advanced pilots prefer Poly sails over Nylon (some are just the opposite). Icarex is a brand name of a company that produces Ripstop Polyester material. There are several other companies that also produce ripstop poly, most of them being equal in quality as the Icarex brand, but Icarex is most known by the kiting community which is why that name is thrown around so much, even to identify Ripstop Poly material that isn't "actually" Icarex brand. If this is your first Rev, you would probably get much more use and knowledge of flying with a newer Rev that has both style leading edges than you would over the different sail materials. Both the Nylon and Poly versions fly pretty much the same, only an experienced pilot would really know the difference and be able to capitalize on it during flight. As far as wear, the EXP has always been made with Ripstop Nylon, my very first Rev was an EXP and I it is still flyable today - and that was over 11 years ago. It has had a very rough life and has taught not only myself, but literally hundreds of other new pilots over the last 11 years - and it isn't dead yet. Obviously now that I have moved to the B-Series Revs, my ol' EXP doesn't get near the air time it did when it was new.

Thanks, I am glad the post helped. Sorry for the length, I do get rambling on sometimes. The Green Race rods were developed by Revolution just recently, and are the latest in carbon technology. The design and construction came because of a need in some military applications that Rev was working on. It turned out so well that when they heard of a couple people constantly breaking the Race Rods they were using they decided to do something special for them (seems underwater flying was putting some serious stress...who'dathunk?). I am not really sure on what the actual material is that is used in the Green Race Rods (company secret), but was told that the carbon is the same type and layup as the normal Race Rods - but what is mixed in with it during the wrapping process is what gives the rods their special "Olive Green" look while also giving them superior strength. The Greenies are not 100% shatter proof and if you put them under enough stress, they will explode - but chances are that under that much force the kite or sail would be destroyed before the rod would actually blow out. There is a picture of me flexing the green race rods in my gallery folder. My fingers were starting to hurt during the flexing process while waiting for the picture to be snapped. Hmmm, I guess my gallery got deleted, I can no longer find it. I will have to see if I can find a copy of the pictures somewhere..... If you want to see the pic, let me know and I will try to find it.

Lots of questions - all good ones so no problem. I would highly recommend the 1.5 over the EXP. The reasons is that the 1.5 comes with two leading edges, one is the SLE rod which is very robust and nearly indestructible. The SLE rod is also very fun to fly solo as it makes the kite faster and much more responsive. I enjoy flying with the SLE rod when flying solo because the kite is much more lively. For precision and control, the standard leading edge rod (1/4" rod) can be installed instead of the larger SLE rod (7/16" rod). The standard Leading Edge makes the kite more flexible, allowing the sail to billow more and absorb gusts. It also makes the kite less responsive as the frame will flex more to dampen inputs and slow the kite down. This is great for working on precision maneuvers such as hovers, inverted hovers, clock turns, etc... It also helps when flying team with other pilots as the kite will stay put in the air much easier with less "Twitchy" control. The standard rod can be flown pretty aggressively and can be exciting and fairly quick, but it will not be as fast and twitchy as the SLE rod. Another advantage with having the two different leading edges is weight. The standard rod weighs much less than the SLE rod. For light wind flying, install the standard rod to lighten the kite up a lot and make light wind flying much more doable. For heavy winds, put the SLE rod in and have a blast! With the two leading edge frames, your usable wind range will be from 3-4 mph on the light side up to 18 mph on the strong side. This gives you a wide wind range to fly in. With skill and practice, you can expand your wind range to fly in even less wind or even higher winds. With the 1.5, you get the best of both worlds and can grow with the kite for a long time. The 1.5 can do pretty much everything the Rev is designed to do, so your skills will not suffer at all by purchasing the 1.5 as a first kite or growing with it to competition levels. If you do get to comp level on your skills, you will probably want to move up to the B Series (John Barresi Signature Series). Even though this kite is basically the same size as the 1.5, the way the sails are cut and sewn makes a huge difference on how the kite flies. Also, the B-Series is made from an Icarex / Polyester sail which is lighter than the normal Nylon sail that the EXP and 1.5 are made from. The B-Series does fly much nicer than the 1.5 or EXP. As for 2 wrap, 3 wrap etc... What this is is a number system that identifies the many different frames that are available for your kite. The number represents the number of wraps of carbon fiber used to build the rods. 2-wrap rods have two wraps of carbon fiber, 3 wrap rods = 3 wraps of carbon etc... Strength and weight are in direct proportion to the amount of wraps of carbon so a 2 wrap rod weighs less than a 3 wrap rod, the 3 wrap rod is stronger than the 2 wrap rod etc... One of the most awesome features of the EXP, 1.5 and B-Series kites is that they are designed so that all the different frame sets are completely interchangeable. You can take an EXP and put in a 3 or 4 wrap frame, you can take the 1.5 and install a 2 wrap frame and so on. This allows you to customize your kite for the wind conditions you are flying in. For light winds you will want to put in a 2 or 3 wrap frame. For strong winds you will want to put in a 3 or even the 4 wrap frame. You can also mix-n-match frames to suit your personal flying style. One thing to remember is that the wraps just designate the amount of layers of carbon used in the rod. Therefore you can have a 3 wrap standard rod as well as a 3 wrap SLE rod. Even though they both have 3 wraps of carbon, the SLE rod will weight much more because the diameter of the rod is larger. The SLE rods come in 3 and 4 wraps, the standard rods come in 2, 3 and 4 wraps. And to make things even more hard to decide, the standard rods are also available in the Race Rods as well as the Zen rods. Here are the rods listed in weight from lightest to heaviest. 2-wrap (also labeled "Professional Use Only" or 2 feathers - the lightest and most delicate rod available) Zen (special Zen rod made from the same carbon material as the Zen model. Ever so slightly heavier than the 2 wrap but still very lightweight, slightly stronger than the normal 2 wraps. The Zen rod looks way cool and has a special carbon fiber texture to it and has Zen stickers) Race Rod (Special Carbon Fiber, laid up in a special way to give this rod very fast reflex, super light but stronger than the other two rods listed above. Labeled as "Race" with flames - colored black) Green Race Rod (same carbon as the race rod but layered up through a special process and mixed with Rev magic for the ultimate strength - very strong rod. Labeled as "Race" with flames - colored green) 3 Wrap (Labeled as "Ultra Light" or 3 feathers) 4 Wrap (Labeled as "Revolution Equipped" or "Strong" or 4 feathers) 3 wrap SLE (Same carbon as 1/4" 3 wrap but 7/16" diameter Ultra stiff, very strong. Labeled as "Ultra Light" or 3 feathers) 4 wrap SLE (Same carbon as 1/4" 4 wrap but 7/16" diameter Mega stiff, mega strong, nearly indestructible. Labeled as "Revolution Equipped", "Strong" or 4 feathers) Hope that helps.....

Purchasing a Harness is like purchasing a pair of shoes. Everyone has their own taste as to what is comfortable, fits right, and works for them. There are so many different types of harness's out there that it is nearly impossible to say "This one is best". You really need to try them on and use them to see if they are going to work for you. With the Buggy, your choices will be much less than if you do all the other aspects of kiting such as Kitesurfing and Kite Boarding (ground boarding). With the buggy, you want a harness that will allow you to sit down easily and comfortably. Most large seat harness's such as the Dakine Fusion can be very difficult to sit down into the buggy with. They have so much back support that it makes it difficult to bend at the waist. I would highly recommend a "strap" style seat harness such as the new Peter Lynn seat harness or the Ozone SB or Base harness. Both of these are seat style harnesses but instead of the big bulky support, they use straps that go around your legs to hold the harness in place. You can also use a waist harness, but what most people find is that the waist harnesses end up riding up on you while in the buggy and it can be very uncomfortable. Again, everyone has their own opinion on these so you may find the waist harness is perfect for you....the only way to know is to try it out and see for yourself. Spreader bars are usually purchased separately so you can get the style of spreader that will work for your gear. The standard style is a hammer head type (metal hook). You can purchase the Peter Lynn spinning roller harnesses, those are exceptionally nice and work best with a strop line (link line connected between the handles). The hammer head style is preferred when using a control bar system with a chicken loop release setup. The roller works best for handles and a strop. That being said..... I usually don't recommend beginners hooking into a harness when they are first learning. Things can happen pretty quickly in the buggy and you will want to be able to dump the kite at a moments notice if things go wrong. The harness can actually cause you more problems in that it is harder to hook into, makes control a bit harder and can be difficult to get out of when your first learning. If you are using a depowerable kite system you will need to use the harness to fly. All other style kites can be flown without a harness and that is what I recommend for starters. Once you get use to the power and how to ride, you can then opt to purchase a harness if needed. Most of our experienced pilots here do not use a harness unless they are going on very long runs or racing. Racing usually involves using a kite that is stronger or slightly overpowered and the harness helps control the extra power. Even then, they will sometimes unhook in the turns or when they need to work the kite harder. The harness is not a necessity and can be purchased at any time. As you ride and as your skills improve, you may find that you don't need or even want a harness so I wouldn't worry about forking out the cash to get one at this point of your buggying. Hope that helps.

It would be interesting to see if any of the teams (I-Quad, Too Much Fun, etc...) ever had an issue because one lineset was a foot or so different than the others? Also, LPG is available in both 300 yard and 1000 yard spools. Why the 300 yard??? Not really sure, that's just what they started producing. I think this has to do more with the fishing line industry than the kiting industry. In reality, us kite flyers are nothing more than a drip in the bucket compared to the amount of fishing line that is sold every month. I think the spools that they use just work nicely to hold 300 yards and that is why they use that number. Until I-Quad came along, 120' line sets were extremely rare and usually only available in custom builds. The standard lines were always 75', 100' or 150'. 120' is really the odd one. Times of course have changed this.

It is TRUE and verified!!!! Shimano did purchase the entire operation of Innovative Textiles - including the Laser Pro line - which includes Laser Pro Gold spectra kite line. That being said....there is no shortage of LPG line at this time. Conrad (previous owner of Innovative Textiles), who learned how to make LPG line while working with Daniel Prentice of Shanti, is still a very large part of Shimano's operation and is continuing to produce LPG kite line. They no longer produce pre-made linesets which is why many shops are no longer carrying the product. Bulk line is still being produced though but must be ordered in large quantities to make it worth the time to have Conrad produce the line. At this time, we have been assured that bulk line will still be available and as long at the demand is there, they will continue to make it. LPG line is produced in batches and it does take a long time to produce this type of line. So it is possible that a batch may run short on supply and there may be a shortage until the next batch can be ran. As of this time we are told there is plenty of supply and there is no shortage. Hope that clears up any rumors out there. This is the knowledge that I have received on the line at this time. Obviously it could change at any moment and if anyone else has any other info, please let us all know.

Don't worry to much John....IE really really sucks on PC too.

One of the things you can do to help with your rankings is to clean up the code a bit. Just on the main Kitelife.com/index page I noticed over 60 validation errors and that is with HTML 4.01 transitional which is usually much more tolerant of coding issues than XHTML Strict. Most of these errors is due to the wrong doctype being used or mixed tag commands. Using coding for multiple doctypes can cause unwelcome results or issues. Minor issue really but I have found that errors in the markup code will adversely effect your rankings. These errors could also cause your pages to not view properly or take longer to load. I assume that many of these errors are compounded from previous ones - this is usually the case. Also as just a suggestion seeing as you are looking into redoing the whole site, I would move the Google analytics code from your HEAD and place it right before the closing BODY tag. This can also cause your page to take longer to load as it starts the analytics tracking first before the page loads. By moving it to the end of your page it will do the tracking last after the page has already loaded. I would also move more items to your CSS page and clean up the HTML pages more. Moving to a table-less layout might also make it much easier to manage / edit all of your pages. Just a couple things I noticed from quickly looking at the main page, if you need more info then please let me know and I would be more than happy to help. I fully understand the task you have placed in front of you. Myself being in somewhat a similar situation. Lucky enough I only have about 2000 pages that i needed to move and most of those have already been done.....but there is always something new that comes along and then you get to do it all over again.... As always, I hope this helps.

Although it has been mentioned time and time again, it never hurts to bring it up once more. One of the best resources that I have ever found on slack line tricks is Randy Greenway's sportkite blog. He has many videos free to download and use. Randy G's Sportkite Blog It's a page that everyone should at least have bookmarked!

Well, you got a great kite to learn with! That's a good start. The JJF is awesome and very capable - so if you aren't getting a trick, it can't be blamed on the kite. LOL Anyways, what you want to do is start with the basics, landings, stalls and basic control maneuvers such as drawing patterns in the air. Not just circles but squares, rectangles, octagons etc... This will give you a better feel of the kite and how it reacts to your controls - which will help you learn what the kite needs (for input) to get it to perform the tricks. This doesn't mean that all you can do is fly the kite around for months, you can still work on pretty much any trick but learning these basics will make everything else so much easier. One of the first tricks that most people learn (and possibly one of the easiest) is the Axle. You do need to have learned how to stall the kite before you can perform this trick (and most others). The axle is super simple to do, but can take time in learning how to do it so that it looks awesome. Basically, stall the kite on one edge, get the kite level with the ground and give the outside line a pop while throwing slack to the inside line and the kite will rotate itself over the lines and open back up. From there you can start doing other tricks such as the Cascade, Axle to Fade and others. The Axle to Fade is a great way to set up the Jacobs Ladder as well. Although they are not really called tricks, one of the best things that I learned when starting was ground recoveries. These are tricks that you do to get the kite back in the air after crashing (or messing up a trick). You can pretty much relaunch the kite from the ground in "almost" any position. This saves you from having to walk to your kite every single time you mess up a trick - which can be tiresome, boring and frustrating. I highly suggest mastering ground recoveries before really getting into any tricks. Hope this helps get you started. The funnest thing about sport kites is that you can learn the tricks fairly quickly but then you can spend years mastering them. Oh.....one more thing. Coming from a Power Kiting background myself, the hardest thing to learn was that these kites require a super delicate and precise touch. Something that will be very hard to un-learn from the way power kites need to be flown. Think of it as Power Kite = nuclear warhead....sport kites = laser beam.

We do have a large selection of parts in stock, but some of the other places to check would be: www.goodwinds.com and www.kitebuilder.com

Revolution sells their kites to dealers in three basic packages. 1) Kite Only package. This package includes the complete kite with one frame, bridle and kite sleeve/bag. 2) Kite with handles. This package includes the above, plus the training DVD, Manual and Rev Handles. 3) Complete package: This package includes the above plus a set of Laser Pro Gold flying lines. These three options are for every model of kite Revolution produces except the B-Series model. Lines are not available as a complete package with the B-Series model. Some dealers may opt to order lines in separately and then include those with the B-Series model. Dealers can order any of these packages and can also customize the above if necessary. Depending on how your local dealer orders from Revolution will be the deciding factor on what you will be purchasing from your dealer. Some dealers order the kites without linesets and then include their own lines to save a couple bucks. If the dealer includes a high quality line such as Shanti or LPG, there isn't much of an issue but some dealers have been known to include a low grade lineset that is cheaper and inferior to increase their profits - which could be a serious concern when you purchase your kite. Cheap / junk lines on a Rev will seriously effect how the kite performs. Revolution has no control over what is included with their kites once they leave the Revolution factory. Your best bet is to contact your dealer before ordering and ask what the dealer has included in your package such as what frame, manufacturer of lines (weight and length), and other accessories. This way you can be sure of what you are ordering. Here at A Wind Of Change, all of our complete packages include 100% authentic Revolution supplied linesets, frames and accessories. Hope that helps.

Here is a video I took with my phone, not the best as I was just figuring out how to use it. This is at one of our Friday Night Fun Fly's a couple weeks ago. Zero wind with the Focus Manta.

Raylynn, Glad to help and glad you are getting along with your Silverfox. The Silverfox is an excellent kite that will take you far. Just remember that the fade is a finesse type of trick, coax and ease that baby into the fade instead of pounding it into submission. Backspins, Lazy's, insane's and most other rotation type maneuvers require the same type of hand, more of a drag of the lines instead of a yank. One way I teach to do the fade is to do a fade launch (like the others above have mentioned) ... but have the pilot start out by pulling way to light at first (NO POPS), and then slowly increase the pull (not yank) until the kite starts to float up off the ground. This usually ends up with a nose plant but when done in the lighter winds and with a very soft pull it doesn't do any damage to the kite. Just keep increasing the pull until you get the kite to float up and then throw the hands forward for slack and you got it. Once you get that down, remember how much pull you had to give the kite and then do the exact same when the kite is up in the air and your set. It really is a super easy trick to do once you get the feel for it. Let us all know how it goes for you.

You are popping way to hard. This is causing the kite to launch backwards towards you and then float upwards. You don't want to yank the kite backwards but instead, sweep the kite back a little so that the wind fills the bottom of the sail and causes it to flip over. So do this: Glide the kite down into the flare and then quickly (but as smooth as possible) sweep (not pop) your hands backwards to get the kite to flip over into the fade. Once the kite starts to flip, throw slack so that the kite doesn't nose dive into the ground but instead, flips forward. Be ready to gently pull the hands back towards your chest so that you can catch the nose before it darts upwards to far. The entire motion should be smooth and controlled, fade, pull/sweep backwards, throw slack and then catch. No sudden yanks or pops. The kite should FLOW gracefully through the maneuvers. If you watch the video's of the Jacobs Ladder, you will see a bit of a pop to get the rotations but to pull the kite into the fade position the movement is more subtle and the arm movements are much larger sweeping motions. The same movement needs to be done to get a controlled fade launch. Smoothly sweep the kite backwards so that it will flip. If you yank/pop the kite, it will just launch straight up backwards and you will get nearly zero rotation (this maneuver usually ends with the nose of the kite pounding straight into the ground). Some kites like to be "Yanked-n-spanked" into different tricks and some tricks require to be "yanked-n-spanked" to get the trick to work. The fade is NOT one of them. Very few kites like to be pounded into a fade. Most require a forceful but graceful sweep type control to get into the fade. The Yo-Fade is different. To do this trick I find that you barely start the flare and then immediately pop (pound) the kite hard and then throw a ton of slack to get the kite to roll up. This is not a fade though but more of a violent reversed roll up. If you like to pop the kite into the fade then you will need to pop much quicker - before the kite flattens out into the flare (pancake). Start your flare and before the nose of the kite starts to level off, pop and then toss a lot of slack. This type of fade requires your timing to be much more precise and much quicker - no time to think about what the kite is doing. For slower fades the movement needs to be much more smoother and less violent. For reference: Randy G's Sport Kite Blog - Fade Tutorial Hope that helps.

The Canard is a very nice kite, flies exceptionally well and looks great. I have a couple, I haven't really spent much time with it in light winds so can't really comment on that but it does do very well in the stronger winds (4-5 mph +). The Canard seems to be a very high pointing kite so it sits very nicely in the air. If you are happy with the Wala, you may want to take a look at the Wala XL. The larger XL glides much easier than the smaller version and is still very active to fly. Hope that helps.

Just to clarify, I didn't out-fly I-Quad (other than in my mind). The ZEN out flew the 1.5 sul's that I-Quad was using. I was just happy they too weren't on Zen's or it would have been a totally different story for sure. lol The Zen has incredible light wind performance and is everything it has been hyped up to be. It does take a small time to get use to the way it performs and it is bigger in size than the 1.5's so response is different as well but once you get the kite dialed in then you will absolutely love it. It turns days where you would normally be sitting and cussing the lightest of wind into days of fun and flight!

I had the opportunity to fly a Zen along side of I-Quad at the Antelope Island festival a month or so ago. I-Quad was using their SUL's, I was on the Zen. The winds were exceptionally light, maybe 2-3ish. We were flying patterns, just follow the leader stuff, I was lucky enough to be the leader. I just want to make sure that it is well known that my skills are nowhere near that of I-Quad and I am astonished and amazed every time I get to see them fly as a team and even more amazed watching them fly solo. As said, follow the leader was going great and we were having a blast. The wind died off to maybe 1ish and the whole I-Quad team started backing up and somewhat laughing as the wind died. The Zen turned back up and headed to zenith as the rest of I-Quad turned upwards and then dropped to the ground. I was pleased to hear John B. mutter "You can't beat that Zen" and for once I felt as if I out-flew I-Quad. (Ok, it was the kite not the pilot but I will take this one as a victory for myself). LOL We had a great time but (IMO) for light winds outdoors, the Zen is still king - even when compared to the awesome talent of the best pilots on the planet. Hope this helps.

Yes, the Zen is a much larger kite overall than the 1.5 series kites so comparison between the two is a tough call. If you take the sail area of the Zen and ratio that against the weight, and then do the same with the 1.5 series kites I think you will find that the Zen has a lesser weight per sq. area number than the 1.5. Another thing tho remember is that it is not just weight that makes a light wind kite fly. Although weight is a huge factor, it comes down to how the sail is made as well. The B-Series kites are produced differently than the 1.5 which is different than the EXP. Because of these differences, each kite will behave and fly differently in different wind conditions. The truth of the matter is that it still comes down to pilot skill. Give a standard B-Series kite with 3 wraps to a professional pilot such as John B. or Steve D. and they will be able to put it in the air in the lightest of winds - but give an indoor kite to a beginner in the same wind conditions and they will not even be able to give it flight at all. I remember being served a huge portion of humble pie at NABX last year when Ben handed me his Rev that he was flying in barely 1-2 mph winds. He was doing awesome with it and barely walking backwards at all. I took control and could barely keep it in the air and I was moving my feet a ton! Frustrated, I told him that I needed to spend more time on an SUL Rev and that I couldn't figure why my light wind skills were so far off. He then elaborated to me that the kite was a standard 1.5, not an SUL. I handed the handles back, hung my head low and realized once again just how much pilot skill is worth. Every Rev rod is made by hand and rolled on Rev's machines and come from large batches of carbon, each batch (or production run) could have slightly different characteristics depending on the temperature of the material when it was woven or the consistency of the chemicals that are used to mix the resin. Because of this there will always be differences in the physical weight of the rods. There really isn't a sure fire way (that would be cost effective) to make every single rod weigh exactly the same - but the rods will all be within the acceptable tolerances and be very durable. As Ben pointed out to me at NABX, the overall weight of the kite can be compensated with proper skills. Obviously the Indoor and Zen kites are much nicer to fly in near zero winds than a 1.5 Standard - but skill will always be the deciding factor on how these kites perform in a given environment. I highly doubt that John B. knows (or cares) what the weight of each of his rods are in his kites or his teams kites. If one breaks, I am sure he just grabs another and sticks it in. His skills and amazing talents speak for themselves. Rod weights and the minuscule differences thereof really don't matter that much. The opinions expressed in this post are worth exactly what you paid for them.

Welcome back! If your looking for some kite drugs - check out the tutorials on Randy G's site. These will feed your addiction: Randy G's Sport Kite Blog The tutorials are on the left hand side. Let us know when you get your first roll up.

I was referring specifically to the Shadow as the OP was asking about a light wind or UL type kite and looking for something less than 150.00. Of the light wind kites that I have flown, the Shadow is one of the best that still fit in the requested budget. The kites you have mentioned are all excellent kites and are indeed a large step up from the Jazz in performance. Of the ones listed, the Acrobatx UL is probably the only one that I would also recommend. The Silver Fox UL's are very nice but in my opinion, are not the best UL kite and are more like a lightweight standard. Still, the Acrobatx UL is not nearly as good in 1-2 mph winds as the Shadow and is slightly on the heavier side of the scale. I would say its bottom end wind range is around the 3mph mark for the average pilot with normal light wind skills. The Nik Nak fits right in with the 4D as far as performance and may be a little nicer as far as quality goes, but it is still very limited in the amount of tricks it can do compared to the Shadow. It will fly in zero winds though where the Shadow would be very difficult to fly indoors (IMO). The only other kite that comes to mind that is in the requested price range would the the Desire UL. That one has a bit more color and also flies very well in the lightest of breezes. Oh, and speaking of Breezes, the HQ Breeze is another very nice light wind kite that may work but I have only very limited time on it myself. The Breeze I flew seemed to have a ton of oversteer but once you got use to it, it was quite nice to fly. For my light wind flying, I have two kites that battle for which one gets pulled out of the bag. The Skyburner Ocius UL and the Widow Maker UL. Both above the $150.00 mark but both are incredibly awesome and (IMO) the best UL kites on the market at this time.

In the hands of a skilled pilot, the 4D can trick fairly well. This kite is incredibly light on the lines though and it is hard to get the feel of it without flying it for a good amount of time. It is designed to fly indoors and in the lightest of winds but can handle some stronger gusts should that happen. For tricking in near non-existent wind then the 4D is a great kite but it is delicate to control, hand motions/inputs need to be tended to very closely. If you are looking for a kite to trick in winds from say....1-2 mph up to around 8 mph, I highly recommend the HQ Shadow. This kite can be found just a tad bit above that 150.00 mark and is worth every penny. Very nicely made, sail is PC31 Icarex and it is super light. An experienced pilot can trick it down to 1 mph with a little work but it should fly and trick fine in 2-5 mph winds with very little work. I wouldn't recommend winds above 7-8mph with it. The Shadow is close to a 7' wingspan as well so you get a lot of kite for a very good price. If you do decide on a Shadow, move the tow point towards the nose about 1 inch right out of the box. For some reason these kites are shipped with the bridle set in the heaviest position and will probably need to be adjusted for best flight. Easy to do though so not anything serious. Link to the HQ Shadow Hope this helps.

The Prism Jazz is a small kite and very limited on what you can do with it, if you got the skills, the kite can do quite a bit more than you would expect. I watched Mark Reed do some pretty amazing things with it once...but then again he could axle a lawn chair if you hooked lines up to it. It can perform the basics such as axles, 540's, half axles, cascades, coin toss, flick flacks but roll up tricks will be very difficult. Also, even though the kite "can" perform these tricks, they don't always look that great and it is very hard to get a good consistency with it, especially if you are in varying wind conditions. It really does come down to the pilots skill more than the kite when tricking this little guy. If you are just learning then it will probably be much more difficult to learn to trick on this kite than it would be on some of the larger wings such as the Quantum, Hypnotist or other 7'+ sized kite. Hope that helps.

In almost every scenario I have ever done or seen, the largest kite is the anchor kite (top kite, highest in the sky). Even though all the other kites will be flying, they will all hang off of the main line which needs to be hoisted up by the largest and most powerful kite. To realize this, picture a balloon floating in the air and anchored on the ground, then put a fan blowing against balloon and string...then put a large paper plate/bowl in the center of the line from the ground to the balloon so that it is totally flat and catches the wind from the fan. The plate/bowl will have so much drag that it will pull the balloon back to where nothing will stay up and the plate/bowl will just land on the ground. Now replace the balloon with a large RC helicopter (or two dozen+ helium balloons) and do the same, if the helicopter/bunch of balloons have enough lifting power it will hold the plate/bowl up no problem even if the fan increases. As far as which one goes where, the only way to know for sure is to just hook em up and fly. But your second picture is more correct as to how any of my trains have ever flown. As stated above, the only issue you may have is if your anchor kite (top kite) ends up flying at a very low angle of attack and all of your other kites like to fly at a very high angle of attack, then you may run into the situation like your first picture - but I don't think that will happen because they will all be flying in the same wind and coming from the same anchor point...and the angles of attack would need to be on the extreme opposite of each other to be an issue. Rig em up and get a picture for all of us to enjoy....and have some fun!

The wind conditions you are describing are the worst, especially if you trying to learn tricks. You can watch all the tutorials in the world about how to do a trick, and they will teach you everything you need to know EXCEPT how hard or soft you need to pop your inputs. That can only be learned from the feel of the kite while you are doing the tricks. These inputs also need to be adjusted for the wind conditions. For ultra light winds you usually need to give softer more controlled inputs. For strong wind you may find that you need to be much more aggressive on your inputs. The reason I bring this up is that when learning, you don't know just how soft or hard you need to be to do a certain trick so you need to use trial and error to figure it out. The problem when trying to do these tricks in mega-varying wind is that one time you may pull to soft so you set the trick up for a second time and the wind dies and you yank the kite out of the air! Very frustrating!!!!!! What you want is consistent winds, not necessarily strong or light winds but consistent. That way you can try the same trick multiple times with different strengths of input to figure out just what is needed to get the trick done. Normally the lighter the wind the easier it is to trick, not necessarily because you don't need to pull as hard but more because you don't have to RUN as fast to hold a stall or keep slack in the lines so the kite can complete the rotation(s). Personally, I find it nearly impossible to trick in anything over 15mph, unless you have a very good vented kite and even then it can be very challenging to do many of the tricks. I "prefer" winds from about 3-4 mph to 8-10 mph for tricking. One thing that you may want to look into another area to fly at. Sometimes even moving your flying location a couple hundred yards one way or another can make a huge difference in the way the wind is blowing across your field. There are some parks here in Vegas that I refuse to fly at just because the winds are so bad where others are so much nicer even though they may be a mile or four further down the road. Try some other areas and see if you can get some better conditions. My flying time is somewhat limited with work, family and other things that come up so I don't mind driving another 5-10 minutes to get to a field that I know will have better winds....basically I don't want to waste what little flying time I have on a field that has crappy conditions. As mentioned, you may not have to change fields at all, with our local field there is one area (about 150 foot section) that for some strange reason the wind just sucks. The rest of the field is awesome. Try some new areas and see if it gets better, you may be surprised. Hope this helps.