Mate,
that justs means that you are underpowered..... having to move the kite up and down and all. If you dont have constant pull when you unhook... hook back in... it should have a pull of a boat..

You should be comfortably powered up and riding without having to sine the kite.
Some riders use the depower strap a little such that when they unhook,such that the kite has the same power as if they were hooked on the chicken loop....

play around and see what works best... i tend to just unhook... gives you tonnes of power!!! HELL YEAH!!

also the bar matters.. some bars are **** for unhook... some of the thick bars are like taht.
Big chicken loops are good for hooking back in.

Lines wise... so long your kite is reasonably balanced and tuned such that when the front lines are bagged out all the way in full power, they are the same length as the back lines... it should be fine...

my 2 cents.

With regards to this e-mail, somewhat related... I am still in the early stages (first season) flying a 12m Naish X2 for the most part. When I get smashed I become unhooked really easily... when this happens the flying characteristics of the kite COMPLETELY change, it sits back in the power zone and takes it forever to fly to zenith, seems very unresponsive to anything I do, problem is because of where the kite sits when this happens... I don't have the strength to hook back in and hence get dragged downwind HEAPS leaving a hell of alot of body dragging to get back to my board....

Also, where I see other kiters holding the kite low at the edge of the window on the beach (just after lauch or chatting to somebody)... I have tried this on numerous occasion with different power settings and just get pulled in the direction of the kite... it will just not happen. Simply Jack of the kite... or is it me?

To Baron and Monkey,

Monkey sounds like you are riding a bit underpowered and are oversheeting the kite (pulling in on the bar too much), this tends to create a stall in the airflow over the canopy and sometimes results in the kite flying backwards or just stopping forward flying and crashing backwards.

When you unhook, the kite will always be powered and you will be surprised at how much extra power the kite generates by you not sheeting out unwittingly as you ride. To set the bar, you should aim at riding with the trim strap pulled in a fair way to reduce the wingtip flaring. Whenever I unhook, I always sheet in about 75% of the trim strap before I unhook and then let it back out again when I hook back in. If your kite is stalling on the upstroke, you have too much back line tension and need to pull in more on the trim strap.

Baron, you are riding hooked in with too much back line tension. The X2's were quite a high aspect ratio kite and were fairly susceptible to stalling if oversheeted. You will get more power from your X2 if you sheet it out a bit and allow it to generate power the way it was designed to .... by flying fast. This is why X2's were never meant to be a beginner kite, they need to fly really quick to generate their power, oversheeting until you "feel" power or pressure is not the way they work and if you "feel" that pressure at low speeds you are way oversheeted.

You are probably riding with the bar a fair ways out from your body if when you are unhooked if it stalls/flys slowly. Try resetting your lines. All 4 lines should be equal length with the trim strap set at full power and the bar at about 30% from full power.

Hope this helps,

Cheers Kitehard... that does shed light on my problem. I became aware of the differnce in aspect ratios after purchasing the kite second hand and am aware that it is not doing me any favours at this stage of the game.

I know there is a lot of "what kite should I buy?" questions which come about but in your opinion... what could you suggest in terms of a 12m kite which is;
1) more stable
2) early planing
3) good upwind capability
4) better water relaunch

I tried my mates 12m lift (which is still quite a high aspect ratio I belive) and his old Naish 10m Aero... and the stability and relative ease at which it flies has got me even more Jack of the X2 (which is probably fine in the hands over the more experienced).. so I have decided to by another 12m, possibly a Pilot or similar.... any suggestions?

Thanks again for your advice!

Cheers
Chris.

Hey BAron,

I reckon that you have to go a long way to beat an 06 Flow. The 06 has much better upwind than the 05 and fits all the criteria you set forth. A Pilot will be great too, but the Flow has as much ease of use and has more top end performance and boost capability. I think that most of the late model kites are pretty easy to use and most again are moderate aspect, just need to be aware as some don't pull upwind particularly well, but are grunty like crazy.

I reckon this year, the learner intermediate kite to beat is the Flow. Don't take my biased opinion, Fly one and see why.

Good winds,