Hello all, first post to this forum.
About me: 37yo guy from Finland, been kiting for a couple of years now. Guess i could say i'm progressing (trying first jumps etc.).

To the point. A friend of mine is seeking for a used kite for his wife. She is a beginner, around 165cm and 55kg. She's been practicing with a 10m naish ride and 138 airush switch which is a bit problematic since she can only use those in really light winds. The other problem is that she is short so she is struggling with depowering the kite.
Now she has a smaller board, 130*40 Shinn monk but a smaller kite would be good.

Conditions we are riding in are a bit gusty and choppy. Sometimes small waves. Wind speeds vary from 8 to 15knots.

Any suggestions for a kite that: Has a small chicken loop, a lot of depower with small bar throw, is stable and forgiving and preferably cheap as a second hand kite?

KIT33R said..
"The other problem is that she is short so she is struggling with depowering the kite."

Others can give advice on kites but can I suggest a seat harness or Dakine Nitro shorts with built in harness instead of a waist harness purely for the reason that, for short people and assume short arms (myself included), when wearing a waist harness the bar is considerably further away from you and you will be overreaching when it is furthest out. Getting the hook lower makes it more manageable. You can get aftermarket small chickenloops for some kites (Cabrinha).

+1.

Go to a store and try different seat and waist harnesses. Hook yourself in and measure differences in throw length.

This is assuming she isn't already using a seat harness of course...

Hi, I have had to design bars for short arms.

There are a few things you can do if your a tweaker, if your not 100% comfortable modding gear then dont mod your gear :)

1) If its an above bar de power, You can ad an extension to the de power strap, making it easier to grab, add some Velcro so it does not flap around when not used.

2) If your bar travels too far up out of reach you can shorten the de power line, but take care you dont limit your de power too much or amount of de power available

Give her a 3m UNO trainer kite. Safe as houses.

below the bar ( BTB ) depower is available on a few different kites now.
It is a bit of a fluff to use but you get used to it, and adapt.
I have it on my ocean rodeo and my previous Slingshots can be bought with above or below the bar depower
Trying to sell a kite in a couple of years that is specific to girls only ( check that colour scheme ) could be a problem.

My 8m Rally would be an ideal kite, I sold it for $300 bucks.( to a girl learner )

Bruna Kajiya did a girl specific kite/bar setup with Airush too

www.airush.com/2016/kites/diamond-bar/

Hi Tab,

Have a look for a second hand North Neo. The Neo is stable, grunty and super user friendly. The North bar system also allows the rider to set the trim/depower setup to suit their own needs. You can move the trimmer closer to the rider to give more trim but less depower, or any other configuration. This can be done in seconds on the beach.

DM

Thanks for all the advice, it's really helpful.

I think I'll recommend her trying the Nitrous shorts as it would bring the bar closer than her current waist harness.

Tweaking the gear with shortening the depower line is probably not an option as it would limit the amount of total depower.

Naish Alana bar sounded good at first but: if the bar has smaller throw than regular ones, it limits the amount of depower as much as shortening the depower line. Am i correct?

I'll have to check Ozone Reo and North Neo as a combination of Dakine shorts and a kite that offers a lot of depower with small bar throw really sound like a perfect solution.


Cheers, tab