JohnA

Unless you are a midget (no disrespect to all the midget kiteboarders out there), I don't think you are going to be able to kiteboard on a 6.6. It is happy enough to drag you through the water though. All of the blades are good for landboarding; I find the 4.0 is sufficient in most winds. I let someone borrow my 6.6 today and he was happily landboarding along. That was in nasty gusty winds probably 8-25mph. John

Hi, I am around the same weight as you and the B3-6.6 sounds about right for your needs. Beware that in a big wind, the 6.6 will lift you up a long long way. I've been up in excess of 15ft and I wouldn't say I'm by any means an expert jumper yet. The nice thing about the 6.6 which I don't at ALL find with the 4.0 is that you get a nice soft landing most of the time. Usable wind range is probably about 5-15mph. Higher, and you're in for a fun ride... John

I think this unfortunate story has only one moral. You need a kite monkey. Most of the time when I go out, I go out with my girlfriend. She keeps an eye on the dogs around, and when one comes near she gets wary, when it gets too close she shouts at it, and in one recent case, when it cocked its leg, she clipped it around the ear. Most dog owners are pretty careful and leash their dogs when kites are around, and in most cases I've had when the dog has been running around the kite before they have had time to react, the owner apologises and leashes the dog at first opportunity. There is unfortunately a small minority of dog owners who don't give a damn - just as there is a small minority of kite owners who are irresponsible and cause a danger to others. The best thing we can do is to be on the lookout for that kind of dog and protect our equipment in advance. Because, as this story has laid out pretty clearly, you are on your own if your kite is damaged. In the meantime, we should probably be thinking about keeping our own house in order... clip other kite owners around the ear who cause a danger to people! That will turn out to be the only way to avoid the sort of bans we are only too eager to put on dog owners... John

Hi, My feeling is that flexi need to be reinforcing the eyelets, just like bike rim manufacturers do, to stop this exact problem. In fact, the handle and line is fairly much analagous to a rim and spoke. Those types of materials like ABS and aluminium that fail catastrophically really should have some sort of reinforcement where you drill holes and put pressure. Especially since the nature of a knot means that it is likely to put more pressure on one part of the eyelet. To be quite honest I'd think that steel would be a much much better material to be using. High impact strength, less likely catastrophic failure... I don't think the extra weight would make much difference. It's certainly clear that flexi need to be doing something about this before someone gets hurt, because if they're aware of it, they could be in for a nasty lawsuit if they haven't recalled. John

Haha I hear you; I never said I wasn't crazy. I could just as easily pull out a smaller kite I guess, but that wouldn't be so fun. Besides my girlfriend steals the 4m kite, leaving me no choice dammit I'm a little circumspect about using the kite killers unless I have to: mostly because you invariably get the lines twisted a bit when it lands, which can mean that you have twisted lines when you then come to power up. Thus you end up hurriedly trying to untwist them before the kite powers up of its own accord. A bar does seem to solve this problem to some extent but introduces other issues instead. The last time I used the kite killers would be in Seaford on Sunday, when I scared myself senseless, caught with a gust whilst in the air and landing much further down the sloped beach than I had planned (it wasn't so much that it was a huge jump: 10ft high and 30ft long, but rather that I wasn't prepared for it and was fully powered up). In that instance, I let go of the handles and packed up for the day. You gotta understand when mother nature has you beat. Regards, John

The thing that helps me is to sit and tell yourself that it's not knotted, it's just tangled... I start by removing all the small loops, just feed them through. Then the bigger loops if you can see them. Then all is left to do is to start with the biggest line you have free and wind it. When the tangle becomes unmanageable, go back to step 1 John

Again this is a technique that works in moderate winds but when it's really howling, I find my arms are fully extended and I can't pull them back... whilst bobbing up and down off the ground at zenith. It's all I can do to pull the kite to the edge of the wind. This is probably something to do with me being a psycho idiot who flys his 6.6 in too strong winds, but that's all part of the fun isn't it? John

In my experience this is a bad idea, since if the kite does power up, you are totally out of control... I pretty much never move the position of my hands; it's only in the big winds that braking is impossible and that's when you are messed up most if the kite powers up with your hands in the wrong position. John

I think for most of us cost is an issue too! With kites in the 300-500 area and boards in the 100+ band... I for one can't afford the largest kite and decent board all at the same time. So like it or not I was stuck with a smallish kite until I had progressed, and then onto a board the next month. I think it turned out pretty well that way. Probably much of the problem is those with more money than sense, or parents with more money than care for their child's welfare... My two cents anyhow... John

Hi, I don't know from personal experience but masses of people have been on Clapham Common with Firebees. From speaking to people they all seem to be having a good time with it. They seem to track well and stay up nicely. Kiteworld seem to do a 4m complete kit for £145, which sounds like a good deal. If you feel the £300 or so for an equivalent Flexi is worth it, you will probably get a good Ebay return on the Firebee anyhow... John

Hi, Yeah that pretty much corroborates what I have figured out. My Blade III 6.6 simply won't be put down in the power zone in a heavy wind - I'm not strong enough to pull the brakes... So I edge her away from the window, buffet her against the edge, pointed down at about 15 degrees, and she will slowly fall groundward. When the bottom edge is nearly touching the ground, I brake on the top edge and she falls square. I find if I let nature take its course, the kite tends to fold and as a result I tend to lift it off a little at that point, bouncing the kite downwind, keeping the brakes on mostly. I also find it will power up when downwind unless you keep a pretty good hand on the brakes when on the ground... John

Hi, Yeah, I agree, and many shops are fairly responsible. I was having a good chat with the guys in The Kite Shop to day and they had refused to sell a 9yr old kid a 3.5m bullet. He had convinced his parents it was what he wanted and could cope with it, and brought them into the shop with him to pay for it. They duely refused to sell it to him and offered a 1.5 or 2.5m as a first kite. Cue fed up child and relieved parents. Of course those shops on the internet don't have the luxury of discretion of sale. It is ultimately then up to the buyer to beware of buying a kite that is too powerful. I do however wish the kite manufacturers would have the guts to create weight/wind/kite size charts for beginners... Regards, John

Hi, Thanks a lot for the response. I took the handles back to The Kite Shop in Covent Garden and they looked at it for a few minutes, passed it around and duely went to get me a fresh set from stock. Andy there said he had seen it once before, but that he didn't know anything about a bad batch. There was also a thread on handles recently; The Kite Shop also have them in stock, and bars. I bought a 65cm bar today, which should add to my fun, or something. Regards, John

Hi, My girlfriend is a similar weight to you and she gets thrown around hugely by our 4.0. Some air too but she hasn't gotten into that so much yet. If you've kited before, you might find the 4.9 more stable and with better left, but if it's your first kite, you might want to think carefully since that 4.9 will probably get you serious air. I weigh more like 100kg and I find the 4.0 is a bit tame. But that's not really comparing apples with apples. Regards, John

Hi, I was out having some fun on my kite today and got some pretty serious air in 25-30mph winds on my Blade III 6.6. Yay. It got rather wet after it got dumped in the sea a few times so after I scared myself during a jump gone wrong (back hurts but I don't think any major damage), I packed it all away. Took it out later on today inshore to dry it out with rather lower winds (5mph gusting 10-12) and as I was getting some air, I heard a thwack noise and got a pain in my hand. What seems to have happened is the knot on the left handle on the powerline has come clean through the handle... Has anyone else had this happen? Scared me somewhat and hurt my hand as the other knot clipped against the handle. Warranty repair or fix it yourself? Happy flying... John