Will Holt

The old ions are a lot of hard work and take a little while to get the set up correct. With a bit of experience with them you can tune them just right. They have a tendency to fly loose on the back lines perticularly when sheeted out reducing turning performance. This can be fixed by tightening the back lines but if it's tightened to much then you introduce a lot of back stall when sheeted in. After a while you do develop a rhythm of pulling in on the downstroke and letting the bar out a bit on the redirect to encourage the kite back to the top of the window. They are nice kites but i would be wary. In life you get what you pay for and you may find yourself forking out for bladders and sail repairs left right and centre. My advice do your homework look at the photos carefully get a look in real life or even a test flight. They also have a tendency to burst the leading edge stitching perticularly at the 3 sections close to the wingtips so definitely look at this area. Finally make sure you have seen the thing pumped up and holding air before you hand any gold coins over. Hope this helps

If its real then its impressive! Going to have to start converting my old kites. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/9157973/Dutch-engineer-flies-using-custom-built-human-bird-wings-in-viral-video.html

The aches are just your body using new muscles! I found when I was learning that initially it took more power to get up and cruising especially in the chop and that with time and practice you become more efficient with a reduced need for power as a result of your kite control and board technique. I wouldn't recommend looking at what other kites other peeps are on and going one bigger, that said in those conditions I would have been out on an 8.5 at 75kg. It always easier to pump another kite if you are underpowered than get nailed on the beach by a gust. Everyone is different according to weight, boardsize, technique, line length etc and knowing your wind ranges come with time and experience. You could get a hold of an anemometer for a few gold coins then you can start to work out your ranges for sure. As a rule of thumb if your pumping a 14 and people are out on kites the size of carrier bags you might be in for a wild ride (followed by a trip to a&e). PS: way easier to learn in less gusty wind!

Just had a look at the guys profile he's also selling this: SOFAMOR SPINE DIVISION IMPLANT SET COMPACT CD LOW BACK SET 1 & 2 + IMPLANT SET | eBay Think he is trying to take advantage of the beginner market and then flog them the kit to self repair their spinal injuries after seriously hurting themselves!

Bought a set of the d30 pads and mystic straps a couple of months ago to replace my Nobile Pro straps. Really comfortable although once your up and away i find a little bit of foot wriggling is required to really lock your feet into the strap!

In the chop use your knees to absorb the waves, and focus on keeping your head and upper body at a constant height. This will stop you flying of the top of every peak and should help in holding a more consistent edge to hold a line upwind.

Think they might have sorted it on the newer models but definitely a problem on the II's and III's. Since I had mine repaired I havnt had any problems. I was lucky enough to catch it before the bladder exploded though! Its a preventative measure for something that addresses a pretty shoddy design flaw from Flexifoil.

This is a common problem with the ions, its happened on both of mine as flexifoil dont triple stitch the leading edge. Make sure that you get whoever repairs it to also sow webbing on over the stitching. Usually the three sections closest to the wingtips on either side does the trick and stops the stitching getting shredded again when self launching and landing, otherwise it is almost guaranteed to happen again. Probably will cost a bit more but certainly saves you time and money in the long run.

It might be your rear pigtails but still 50 cm is a huge ammount. The fifth line always carries the risk of cutting any kite in half. I flew the 4 line twice, changed to the fifth and never looked back, in my opinion it feels a lot better to fly. Never bailed onto the 'mini fifth' but they get a lot of bad press. I will probably be at Camber over the weekend so if your there ill happily take a look but doubt ill be able to help as im out of ideas. Cant imagine your setting it up wrong if you have been flying II's and III's! Ill probably have my Ion III 12.5 down if you want to have a look at lengths.

The 1/2 lines dont come with the fifth line kit, they come with the kite!

I think this is your problem. I wonder if when they sold you the kite ex demo they just chucked in a pair from a different kite as they had lost the originals hence the ones you have are the wrong lengths. Im not sure about the lengths but i imagine that rather than all the lengths being the same for all sizes each year, the lengths are the same for all the kites of the same size i.e. to compensate for scaling up and scaling down and hence difference in the attachment points (don't quote me on that though). Id give Flexi a call or at least and email and find out how long they are supposed to be. Definitely worth doing as the performance gain is significant especially at the low end where the ion's are traditionally awful (just my opinion)!

Interesting how this debate has changed over the last couple of years. Soon after the fifth line first came out a lot of people swore by them for the supposed '100%' depower safety. Now it seems there isn't much in it. Lets be honest though it adds and extra minute max to set up time!

Ok just checked the ion5 manual and it appears they just take the bridle off and attach the toggles and then attach the centre lines straight to these. Every previous ion has had a roughly 50cm pigtail line that goes from these toggles to the centre lines for five line mode to give the correct angle of attack. I cannot see any reason why you would not need these on the ion 5 as the attachment point positions are almost identical! If your kite is ex-demo they may have lost or not included them but you could probably nab them off one of your other ions and see if thats what it is.

When you took the bridle off to change up from four line to fifth line did you put the pigtail things on the frontline or are you attaching the lines straight to the kite? The extension thing is roughly half a metre

I wish flexifoil would sort their bloody pigtails out. The ions have been a bitch to tune since their birth. In terms of tuning the bar throw has stayed pretty much the same all your lines should be the same length when fully trimmed out. Its then just a question of tuning up at the pigtail end. I fly on the five line setup and foudn that the kite flys really loose on the back lines if you dont trim it and generates no power. Trial and error is only way until the kite just oversheets when you fully pull the bar in. 500mm is half a meter are you sure you did it that much because that is a huge ammount to trim by. If you mean 50mm (5cm) that sounds similar to what im flying on. Flew my brothers rebel at the weekend and was amazed how easy it was to set up, no messing about with knots or pigtails flew on the default lengths and it just worked. Flexi should probably take a leaf out of Norths book.

For repeat offenders: Drop downwind kite dead low against the water, hand up ready for the passing hi five, dummy and pull their quick release on the way past. That'll teach them!

Camber has gotten perticularly bad this season. The boys from the kitesurf centre do a really good job of teaching and keeping the classes up the beach away from everyone and out of the way. Now though there are so many schools run out of vans there who spread out along the entire beach its becoming an absolute nightmare (i counted 4 last time i was there). Its dangerous especially when its busy not only for the learners but also for the experienced guys as beginner kite flying is often slightly unpredictable!!! Why they cant teach upwind where the kitesurf centre does is beyond me.

Looks like the ring has come of the depower line that holds in the 5th line just above the QR. Gave mine a horrid grinding feel when that happened!

You dont buy that leopard sking thong you've always wanted second hand, just in case it doesnt fit snugly around your package. Adopt this attitude with harnesses shell out a few extra quid and get yourself a shiny new one that you have tried on before you bought it and you will go far. Especially if your buying a waist harness snug fit is crucial. Always amusing to see people coming of the water with and ebay tragedy around their armpits and a spreader bar for a nose!

Going on the title of chipped fins, rather than distorted fins (if your fins have changed shape thats a fairly impressive acheivement) I have a few chip in my fins where ive misjudged the water depth and to be honest it doesnt make a blind bit of difference. In theory a chip will slow you down as it disrupts the flow of water around them but quite frankly unless you are racing at the top levels the effects are going to be negligible. If your still learning i almost certainly wouldnt bother as you are only going to end up chipping the new ones!! If you have taken enormous chunks out of one, and by that i mean a substantial volume like a third or more, then maybe you should think about replacing them. A work around if you really want one and can be bothered is to swap your toe side fins with your heelside fins. The toeside fins usually get scraped a bit less and are probably in a better condition, but really this is fairly pointless (it wont turn you into a pro kitesurfer overnight) and wont massively affect the boards performance if the chips are fairly small. Fairly long winded answer but hey im at work!

Stood on one of the little bastards a couple of years ago. The hot water denatures the enzymes within the venom neutralising it. The quicker the better. Took me an hour to get home and hot water on it by that time my foot had swollen to the size of a small football and still could feel it aching if I flexed my foot for a few months after! Nasty stuff everyone gets caught sooner or later though all part of the fun, along with wind watching, girlfriend negotiating and getting ragdolled

Pretty sure I have worked out where they got the graphics from! http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/air_france_concorde.jpg http://www.board-mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Xenon_la_luz_20115.jpg

Victim of the iPhone autocorrect, meant hadlow not Harlow!

Starting to think I need to trade in my current kites and buy some new gear. Was something quick in the turns that packs a punch and was thinking of the Hadlow pros from flexi. Does anyone know where I can get hold of one on demo? Might need to hold on to it for a couple of weeks as work these days is certainly making it difficult to get out. Never demoed except at demo days so not quite sure how all this works! Cheers guys

The sad thing is someone will buy that and there will be a new thread on here in a couple of weeks entitled. "I bought this on eBay and everyone laughed at me when I got to the beach, was it a bad decision?."