wen

First thing I do is do a couple of 360s starting by moving as little as I can, and keeping my eyes focused on the kite. That gets me warmed up to walking backwards and also gives me an idea of how slippery the floor is. To minimize dizziness, try taking fewer, larger steps, and utilizing the full extension of your arms to minimize the amount of walking you need to do. ( For up and overs, I take one step back to load it up, pull the kite through with my arms going to/over one shoulder, and then pivot my body around- it's helped a bit compared to backing through it and having to duck down.)

Also, take turns slowly at first until you get a feel for how much the stack wobbles and how much you can do without the last kite losing air.

Is the hesitation more pronounced after an upwards 180 and does the pull lessen? I've had a few larger kites that did the same thing if you turned too tight near the edge.

Personally, I only de-tension if I'm breaking down the leading edge. It probably doesn't hurt to do so, but the damage is not terribly significant if you don't.

Finding someone in person is always the best, but one really helpful thing you can do is to cut yourself a set of 30~50ft lines. It's save you a lot of walking, and at that distance, you can see what's happening much better as well as have way less input lag.

Personally I only fly in the rain at events, but there's something very satisfying and exciting about flying in the rain is it's warm enough and you have a place to dry off after. Pick out kite and line while you're dry and let them dry out after. I try to rinse them down in the shower and let them dry there if there's any salt spray. Personally, I haven't can any color bleeding through rain and sea, but maybe I've just been lucky.

I don't usually choreograph an entire song, but I'll first pick out sections that are important to me. Either apparent mood or tempo changes in the music, or different moods that I can fit into the music. Usually that ends up being a smooth section with big arcs, smooth push turns, maybe a side slide; an uptempo section that's more exciting and locked on to obvious beats of the music: consecutive snappy corners (which have that lovely sound), tight cascades, snap stalls, etc.. and somewhere in between things like octagons, tight spins, slower slack line tricks, and the like. Overchoreographing can go very poorly for me if the wind is light, so once I've picked out the important sections, I'll keep in mind the parts that I absolutely want as planned, a few ways I would like to interpret the other sections, and a handful of moves/criteria that I want to do somewhere in the duration of the song. I've always been a huge fan of the folks who have full choreography and pull it off the same despite wind and weather though!

First off, it's yellow. It feels kinda like the green spiderwire I have, pretty light and smooth. Doesn't cut the hands as much as spectra (I think) but I wouldn't use it for anything with too much pull. The guys who designed and produced it have always referred to it as 'bridle line' No idea what brand though. Probably just whatever the other FWK stuff is bridled with.

I prefer heavier line: The 'bridle line' that comes with the Wala being my favorite. However, for lighter-and especially softer- kites, I'll go to something like 50lb Spiderwire, Horvath's 5, 7 or my closest broken dual line set. The hair-like line that the Zen comes with, which I believe is a invisible thread ment for quilting, I'm iffy on. It's practically weightless, but will curl up if it's been stressed and forms knots easily. It does work very well with the Zen, but I imagine not much else.

Congrats on the new kite! The 3D was my first indoor kite as well. Now, the way I did it (which in retrospect might not have been the best thing) was to glue the rubberband together in the 'inner' side of the standoffs so that I could still switch it around, but it wouldn't fall off. The downside is that superglue will make the rubberband deteriorate faster, and when it snaps, one end is glued to the spar. Perhaps a softer glue? Also, you'll probably want to put a drop of superglue on the back end of the standoffs, where they poke through the sail. This may help prevent splintering and give a little traction on slippery ground indoors, though a small endcap would be better for the latter. Good luck and have fun!

'Tis but a scant two weeks away, who's going? I finally decided to go myself this year, though i'm still working out sleeping arrangements (roomshare, anyone? ) Seems like a pretty big event, Just gotta do all those kite repairs i've been putting off!

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6ECFA74ED1E3FF39Part 4 of 7 6 parts, over an hour

Wen Dual - Geary Quad - Albert Single - Litsong Single - Daryl Single line - Wen Combined - LyGer Synergy - Daryl Tai Chi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjZWWREE6A0

I've also found when the kite's heading down and turning up close to the ground (too close?) i pull/push turn and when the lower line is slack, pull in the lower line and step back for a tighter turn (sometimes). the kite will stall a bit though, but better then hitting the ground (of course i try not to have to use this much ) hope that makes some sense... even if you think it means "make a sandwich"

looks fun