Howdy all,

I'm still in the newbie stage but finally getting to the stage where things are starting to click and my initiall "like" for kiting is now becoming a "love" . Got out for the first session of the season this week and only had to do the walk of shame 3 times in a 2 hour session, so I'm at the stage where I am trying to fine tune things for a longer, smoother and easier ride.

I see all the good guys cruising around with only 1 hand on the bar and / or letting go and spinning the bar to uncross lines after a trick. I feel like I am constantly holding very tightly on to the bar and having to use quite a bit of strength for the most part to keep the bar close enough to me to have enough power, and to be able to keep everything under control. I'm after some advice as to whether this is normal, or whether it has something to do with my kite setup, my technique, or all of the above.

If it is relevant - I'm riding with a 12m Naish Boxer SLE. The main line from the chicken loop has a stopper ball half way up which I am a little reluctant to have locked in as I'm worried that I won't be able to depower enough in an emergency.

Any advice would be most appreciated - thanks in advance

Make sure you check your lines tuning, sounds like your front lines might be longer than your back lines and therefore you're flying your kite over sheeted which gives you very little depower. It's either that or your flying your 12m in too strong winds for your body weight.

Have an experienced kiter help you out or better even take a refresher lesson.

Actually, it sounds like your kite is underpowered - possibly due to oversheeting and/or incorrect trim - as 12m should get you going well in 20 knots. Get some advice on how the kite is trimmed and the line lengths.

Also try going downwind to get some board and kite speed. Here are some tips for going upwind kitesurfing-handbook.peterskiteboarding.com/progression/going-upwind

Or its because your kite is a pile of rubbish maybe... Just no-one wants to say it out loud

The pulleys on the ends of the bar work for you in giving you more movement of the steering lines at the kite for less bar movement, but the price you pay is that it takes more force from your arms to sheet or steer the bar.

That's why you hardly ever see pulleys on the ends of bars nowadays.
I used to have Cabrinhas with pulleys on the ends of the bars and it was more of a workout and very difficult to steer with one hand.

I think the Boxer can be switched to 1:1 from 2:1 which I presume you are using now? by moving 2 lines from the centre lines connection out to the steering lines connections. That would mean the bar would be lighter but you would have to move it more to get the same steering and sheeting as you have been getting with the 2:1.

Deecee your kite is quite old and was a bit on the low performance side for that design (pulley bar). Its true it probably can be converted back to 1:1, but be careful that you do it properly. There are things to change on the bar AND on the kite, if you only do the bar the kite will fly very badly. From memory though your kite actually flys better in the 2:1 mode, when you switch it to 1:1 the bar pressure becomes a lot lighter, and the bar throw much longer, so it gets a lot harder to "feel" the kite.
No harm in trying the conversion but upgrading to a kite that does not have pulleys will give you much better results I reckon.

For anyone still following this thread, all has been sorted and the solution to my problem has been fixed. Big thanks to James and Milada from Alliance Gear who spent some time with me yesterday to get me going (2 of the nicest people you'll ever meet by the way!!!)

The line lengths checked out OK but then we simply switched from a 2-1 setup to a 1-1 setup and what a difference. I messed up the first couple of runs out cause it was like flying a completely different kite from before. The bar pressure was significantly less (held on with one hand to clean my nose for the first time ever!), the kite turned faster and it was more powered up than ever before - we actually moved the lines down a few knots to compensate for the extra power.

So the moral to the story for all you newbies like me still out there....

1) get on these forums. There are awesome people out there with masses of experience and knowledge to share.

2) don't be afraid to have that extra lesson or session with your instructor. Just when you think you are getting the hang of things it's probably a good time to have a freshen up so you can start learning more of the intermediate type stuff like tuning the kite and little changes to help when you're on the water.

3) get out and enjoy!!!!!

For it's age, irrelevant of what some might say the Boxer SLE is quite a good kite. We always suggested people flew them in the 1:1 setup. We even went to the level of removing the pulleys from the bar for some people as the kite was so much better in 1:1.