North rebel, fone bandit, airush vapour, ozone catalyst, best bularoo, slingshot rally, core GT would all be good kites for you.

C kites are more high performance kites, they have less depower and are suited to riders who ride freestyle or wakestyle alot because the lines go slacker when unhooking. a 5th makes the kite more stable and can also be used for relaunch. 5th sometimes replaces a bridle like in the airush vapour x, it can be flown 5 line or 4 line with a bridle.

shi thouse said...

From a previous post I was after advice on a good beginner kite that had good depower and launch abilities. Obviously not after anything super high performance for my first.

My weight - 107kg.

A kite that was recommended was the 12m Cab Switchblade ('08 or '10) however there have so far been very few listed in the for sale section.

Would love others opinions on alternative brands/styles that would also suit my above needs.

Cheers

P.S. What is the difference between a C kite and bow kite and is the purpose of the 5th line style kite to improve depower and can it be after market fitted to 4 line kites (excuse my ignorance - never fully got the message from my instructor)

You need at least a 14M kite on the east coast and a 12M on the west coast.
You have to ask yourself why there are only a few brands that are persisting with 5th line kites and all the rest use 4 lines and single or double front line flagging/total depower systems?

No 5th line should not be fitted to modern bow/SLE/Delta/Hybrid kites that have perfectly safe and functional single or double front line flagging systems.

5th line is not superior (But good designed 5th lines systems do work well to depower the kite fully - IF and WHEN the chicken loop safety release is operated), Otherwise its is just another method of fully depowering a kite, and it is also used by some brands to help support the kite and obtain greater depower from the kite. The 5th line system can tangle badly around the kite if the lines go slack and the kite rolls through the lines, the kite can be damaged when this happens and the kite also becomes unflyable and the 5th line needs to be operated, and then relaunch will be mostly impossible. (4 line kites can be flown and relaunched safely after the kites has rolled through its lines).

Most 4 line kites use 4 equal length lines, so they are inexpensive and easily replaced. All 5 line kites have complex unequal length line sets and must be replaced with expensive original brand lines that can be hard to obtain.

Good 4 line kites that I use, teach with and that I know have easy relaunch and good primary "let the bar go 90+% depower" include;
Cabrinha Switchblade, Crossbow, Convert, Slingshot Rally, RPM, and REVs, Core kites, all models, Ozone Catalyst 2010/2011, Airush Lithium, etc, etc. others will add their favourites.