Hi Stin,

It all comes down to how much ''life'' is left in the kite and bar/lines. It takes some experience to properly inspect kite equipment, assess it's condition and value.

If the kite has no repairs and no leaks and the lines aren't frayed anywhere that's usually a good first sign. A good question to ask is approximately how many sessions has the kite done ? Most people will be able to give you a rough approximation like 50, 100, 150 + etc.

What decreases the life span of a kite the most is leaving them flapping in the wind on the beach exposed to the sun for a few hours every day, which a lot of people do when they take breaks between sessions. If you buy a kite from someone who kites almost every day and left the kite flapping like this for a few hours every day, it will most likely be towards the end of its life even after only 1 year. The easiest way to inspect this is to put the canopy between your eyes and direct sunlight and look for signs of fabric deterioration (i.e. light poking through the fabric), the first signs of weakness usually show around the trailing edge area (where the kite flaps the most). If the fabric looks and feels weak this will greatly increase the risk of tearing the kite upon impact (hard crash in the water). Same for lines, if they are starting to fray anywhere, it's a sign they will most likely break soon.


At the end of the day $700 for a 7m top brand kite with bar is less than 1/3 of the retail price, so if it has at least 1/3 of ''life'' left in it or more it's probably worth it. For $500 the kite would be ''well used'' i.e. someone who has used it over 150 sessions.

hope this helps,
Christian

sorry to piss on your parade
but it sounds too steep from examples ive seen recently, theres some rippers around $500-600 mark, you just need to be patient

Tell her she's dreamin mate.
$350 based on your description.
cheers

Thanks guys, I'll see if she agrees with 350$, I'm not very patient. I'll do better with my next purchase. I still need an 11m kite since Nelson Bay (NZ) doesn't have a lot of strong wind. Man this sport is expensive! But windsurfing was just as bad and not very travel friendly.

Cheers