a question from a newb

[shanobi187]

Hi all, I'm a new member and pretty new to the kiting community. I had a question for everyone regarding the best steps to take to get better at kiting. I know, practice, practice, practice, and i do as much as i can. I can keep good control going horizontally and vertically and i can land fairly well. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what tricks to start off with (I fly a Prism Nexus my friend and neighbor bought me after the death of my beetle Thanx again Spz0)

also if there were any other training excercises i should be doing on a regular basis to hone what I can do already. Thanks in advance to everyone and I''ve already gained a wealth of knowledge just from looking through this forum, So thanks for all the great posts, they really helped.

[JoneZ]

practicing kite maneuvers is a great way to hone in your ability to be precise with your kite.

http://www.hiflykites.co.za/free-kite-guid...e-maneuvers.htm

check those out, as well as some that I printed off and'll give you when I see you.

As for tricks? well, learn slides, and how to control a them across the window (a dynamic or dihedral bridle will make this easier to control -- I'll make you up a couple of new yokes for a dynamic setup in the meantime). Also practice stalling, and tending the stall. that'll give you a great basis for learning an Axel.

Heres a link for an axel that I found helpful. Its all 1980's narrated, and makes you feel like your sitting in a school desk, about to grab your #2 pencil to jot down notes, but its a good tutorial. lol

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/ho...ite-trick-1730/

OH!! Also, remember me telling you about the "EZ Axel"?

Heres the link

http://www.kfs.org/~abw/kite/rec.kites/axel1.html

~Jon

[windofchange]

Here's one of the best places on the web to learn tricks.

Randy G's Sportkite blog

Do a little searching around and you'll find a world of information.

[John Barresi]

Randy's tutorials are awesome, I used all of them when I decided to teach myself all the new tricks in 2006.

[shanobi187]

these are really helpfull vids, thanks a ton, looks like i have some field work to do

[nosedive]

Here's one of the best places on the web to learn tricks.

Randy G's Sportkite blog

Do a little searching around and you'll find a world of information.

I'm having trouble seeing his tutorials on his page?? Anyone else?

[John Barresi]

Here's a straight link to the whole index of tutorials...

http://cid-268807a1b99b3f7c.profile.live.c...9B3F7C!103/

[randyg]

Shanobi,

Just remember to start slow and in every session spend time working on things like stalls, straight lines, punch, pull and combo turns. Get the kite to do what you mean for it to do. I don't break my tutorials down by skill levels but start with the Half Axel and Fade. Those are two very important "gateway" tricks that so many other tricks build from.

If you are having trouble viewing my videos after download, try the VLC player and www.videolan.org. Some are in .avi format compressed with the DivX codec and others through .wmv.

And you are right...

Practice, Practice, Practice

There generally no shortcuts to learn this stuff. At least that was the case for me.

All the best!

[John Barresi]

You're the man Randy, thanks for putting all these vids online!

[cerfvoliste]

Hi Ho welcome to the sport. There are some great beginner DVD's out there for the beginning pilot. 2 that come to mind are "Flight School" by Dodd Gross and Prism's "Free Style Pilot."

Enjoy

Rx

[RobB]

OK... I have to add this...

You need to get a full size kite. You will find it easier to control, and you will learn much faster. Get something like a Prism Hypnotist to use for a while. Once you've got your basics down, a Blue Moon or a Sea Devil will accelarate your learning curve even more. There are actually so many kites in that range that are awesome, it's hard to recommend just one... once you're done breaking kites, step up to something in that range.

Keep watching the videos, and close your eyes and visualize the tricks. If you can find someone to watch, or teach you, that would work the fastest...

Good luck !

~Rob.