Welcome Exult

[John Barresi]

Hello @Exult,

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[Exult]

Hello John Barresi and the rest of the forum,

Thank you for your welcoming message, well maintained site and friendly forum!

Well, how I started out... had a dual line that I eventually could make square turns with as a child (got it from my father), but it wasn't until I visited a kite festival more or less by a coincidence and then saw a Tramontana pair team flying routine ... I was totally unprepared, hadn't seen anything like it - the kite bug struck hard and mercilessly. I've never fully recovered.

First proper kite: Jam Session - Loved, crashed, repaired, loved crashed, repaired, reinforced, videos bought, worn, repaired,...
Then entered the Maestrale, oh what a happy kite, It really turns on a dime and turtles rapidly. If you pull it out of the turtle just above the ground it bounces back into the air (its battens acting like springs) like it would jump for joy. Jam Session was still the sensible well controlled kite (actually this kite has something like a coming home feeling still).

Then there came an kite-intermission called getting a family/small children. Almost no kiting in 10 years!

The kite celibacy came to an abrupt end when a circus/jojo/kite-store offered old models of Prism kites at a(/close to) 50% percent discount. Suddenly there were the kites I've been drooling for when I started out. Effectively, they offered "the sh*t" to a former, dormant and now defenseless kite-junkie! I bought four Prism kites in a couple of months.

Another reason of the kite relapse was videos on Youtube and Vimeo. Watching them I noticed that trick-flying did not appear to be the same as before: backspin, backspin, backspin... One of the first videos I found comfort in (by showing something different" was the "Freestyle Session with the Hydra" (this is very impressing IMHO).
Currently I'm more trying to learn new school, like backspin, reliable lazy suzans (certainly no comets yet) - I'm more into axels, groundwork, 540, flying figures...

After reading a thread on GWTW forum about (to some extent) tricking "Fazer XXL by HQ" (literal name of the thread), I got curious on whether the (relatively) smaller Fazer XL could offer "the best of two worlds" both be something that you could get a real work out from and at the same time do tricks. Also, to see if due to its large size and therefore expected slower movements, could help out in breaking down tricks in their parts (to learn them of course). How is the kite then? Well, powerful but yet agile, a bit like a calf that have just been let out from the barn in spring, now bouncing around in the pasture or a like a pat of butter in a frying pan. When attempting square turns after the turn the kite will over-steer continue with a wing tip first (the way to the square turns for the Fazer XL is to do push turns). You need to pull on the wrong wing (now trailing) to get it back in action. The pat-of-butter characteristic and the fact that some times you suddenly suddenly end up like 3m (10') downstreams makes it the only kite that actually makes me laugh at occasions. It can also be made to do stalls, axle, fades... Another hint, when doing ground work, for a kite this size/rod-diameter the wing nocks breaks easily - cover them with a soft cap. Also before tipstabbing in a bit harder wind reinforce the inside of the leading edges where they meat the lower spreaders with a 6mm carbon rod (difficult with the original LEs since they are plugged).

Naah, I'm getting too detailed here. Can't go on kite by kite. Fast-forward to now - have gotten an Infinity and a Shadow recently, since there are a lot of moves I'd like to learn.

The name "Exult" I've chosen here is supposed to reflect the feeling of expectation and eagerness when approaching a field when conditions are really good. The problem being in my area there are not too many of those places... It also seem to affect then number of Kiters here. I've not seen any dual line kiter past the lawn dart stage during this millennium (not counting powerkiters with a foil kite)! In the end of the nineties I could go to the largest field in Stockholm and meet a few kiters almost every weekend. Now ... I guess they are at home watching Netflix, playing computer games or flying quadrocopters in their backyards or something.

[makatakam]

Hi, Exult -- welcome to the forum and back to kiting. I look forward to flying with you someday.

[Exult]

20 hours ago, makatakam said:

Hi, Exult -- welcome to the forum and back to kiting. I look forward to flying with you someday.

Thank you very much for that, I'm certainly not spoilt by the number of skilled sport kiters (foils excluded) in the places I fly in. However flying in the same field would require some travelling though. Sorry, it is my fault I should have updated the account settings better to show where I live ... but now it is done ... Country: Sweden.

Hmm ... (checking your account profile) ... quads seem to be your fashion, personally I've got quite little experience with them. Got a 5 square meter Peter Lynn 4-line foil from 1999 that I've used for traction when skiing a couple of times. Though I've been checking them out (in the sense of reading on various web sites) Revs, Korvokites, HQ... But for the day (and several months ahead), I would have it difficult to explain another kite purchase for the beloved wife.