Hello, I have been kiting a couple years and if I can keep kite up in air I can ride with no problem. My issue is relaunching...my husband has had me practice it and he says you need to sheet out more but I'm at my finger tips and have to let go of bar and then of course, it comes back down because now I can't steer it up. I'm 5'1" but can't believe I'm the only small person trying to ride. Is there a trick for relaunching in the water when I cannot fully sheet out?

Thank you

katfrise said..
Hello, I have been kiting a couple years and if I can keep kite up in air I can ride with no problem. My issue is relaunching...my husband has had me practice it and he says you need to sheet out more but I'm at my finger tips and have to let go of bar and then of course, it comes back down because now I can't steer it up. I'm 5'1" but can't believe I'm the only small person trying to ride. Is there a trick for relaunching in the water when I cannot fully sheet out?

Thank you

Are you using a waist harness? If yes try a seat or shorts type harness, this lowers the connection point of the chickenloop on your body and makes it easier to reach the bar.
Remember that when the kites is LE down in the water in front of you the lines should be crossed, a common mistake learners make is to rotate the bar 180 so the lines are not crossed but then the bar sides are incorrect and you end up pulling the wrong side line.

An alternative is to look into a compact throw bar, Ozone make one for kids and shorter people.

katfrise said..
Hello, I have been kiting a couple years and if I can keep kite up in air I can ride with no problem. My issue is relaunching...my husband has had me practice it and he says you need to sheet out more but I'm at my finger tips and have to let go of bar and then of course, it comes back down because now I can't steer it up. I'm 5'1" but can't believe I'm the only small person trying to ride. Is there a trick for relaunching in the water when I cannot fully sheet out?

Thank you

As others have said, if you can't reach the bar, then that is the problem you need to sort out. Some bars you can get shorter chicken loops, or use a different harness. I am not sure about the harness difference though as when you are floating in the water there will not be much difference in distance between a waist or a seat harness. When you are riding, sure it will usually be closer with a seat harness, but not in the water.

Hey, being short does make an issue around reach. My wife and daughter are short and learning to kite, and I've been on the hunt for the right gear. I found the Naish Fusion bars with below the bar (BTB) trim are an excellent bar - and cheap 2nd hand 2015/16. I was originally planning to use my clickbar with smaller freeride loop, but the Naish BTB has a shorter connection distance, plus has a solid lockable bar travel limit adjuster which means the bar never goes out of reach. It also has a trim adjustment at the loop, so it's easy to access at all times. Definitely use a seat or shorts harness to gain extra reach. Lastly, find a kite that will work with a short bar travel or use the most forward wing tip connection point - that will give U the shortest bar throw for any given kite.

We have this one, which has the trim cleat incorporated in the emergency release, making everything very compact: 2015 Naish Fusion

images.app.goo.gl/FcXjE3Zgofxj26z6A

katfrise said..
Hello, I have been kiting a couple years and if I can keep kite up in air I can ride with no problem. My issue is relaunching...my husband has had me practice it and he says you need to sheet out more but I'm at my finger tips and have to let go of bar and then of course, it comes back down because now I can't steer it up. I'm 5'1" but can't believe I'm the only small person trying to ride. Is there a trick for relaunching in the water when I cannot fully sheet out?

Thank you

Pull the trim in then try it again.

Whenever my kite falls on it trailing edge I just grab the depower line and fully depower it, then give it a massive pull to get the kite to fly up while you can still reach the bar, then when it is in the air just power it back up

Hi katfrise, I second the suggestions for seat harness and short throw/compact bar/small chicken loop. My daughter has been learning to kite and these have been instrumental in making it easy. All the best

Zigs said..

snalberski said..

Zigs said..
Whenever my kite falls on it trailing edge I just grab the depower line and fully depower it, then give it a massive pull to get the kite to fly up while you can still reach the bar, then when it is in the air just power it back up

In that situation (lying directly downwind on the trailing edge) it is much easier, quicker and effective to simply grab both front lines around the cleat or splitter and yank/coax the leading edge
up, hot launch style.

Yeah that's what I do
If you have your board on you can do a water start as the kite goes up as well

Also when I relaunch my kite when the leading edge is down it pretty much always falls on its trailing edge, but it only happens with the one kite (10m 2012 north evo) I read somewhere to depower it lots. It still falls back. Is it something to do with that model of kite. Or what am I doing wrong?

Your bar may need calibrating, it sounds like it is choking possibly from over sheeting in.

snalberski said..

Zigs said..

snalberski said..

Zigs said..
Whenever my kite falls on it trailing edge I just grab the depower line and fully depower it, then give it a massive pull to get the kite to fly up while you can still reach the bar, then when it is in the air just power it back up

In that situation (lying directly downwind on the trailing edge) it is much easier, quicker and effective to simply grab both front lines around the cleat or splitter and yank/coax the leading edge
up, hot launch style.

Yeah that's what I do
If you have your board on you can do a water start as the kite goes up as well

Also when I relaunch my kite when the leading edge is down it pretty much always falls on its trailing edge, but it only happens with the one kite (10m 2012 north evo) I read somewhere to depower it lots. It still falls back. Is it something to do with that model of kite. Or what am I doing wrong?

Your bar may need calibrating, it sounds like it is choking possibly from over sheeting in.

How do I calibrate my bar, and I thought I was choking it so I depowered it heaps and let the bar the whole way out. The kite flies fine once it is in the air though.

Calibrating the bar is done by when there is a variation in line lengths... usually between the pairs of front and back lines and mostly to compensate for stretch/shrinkage in pairs of lines. To check roll out your bar as if your setting up your kite. Anchor the ends of the line including pigtail to a single point ... a hook or some sort or a loop of chord (old dyneema or kiteline works well) on a fence or post.
Make sure all ends are evenly anchored. Pull on the bar to tension the backlines and with your other hand pull on the chicken loop to tension the front lines. When you apply equal tension to both front and back lines the bar should be 1 or 2 fingers distance from touching the top chicken loop rotor. If the distance is more than 2 fingers it may mean when you pull the bar fully in it oversheets and loses power. If the bar hits the rotor before the lines tension up appropriately that could indicate undersheeting when the bar is pulled fully in.
To adjust that distance I simply reposition the knot in my depower line. If you cant or dont want to do that using different combinations of pigtails will make up the difference required on either the front or back lines. I think fixmy kite make adjustable pigtails, which are also easy to make. Most brands will have pigtail sets with multiple knots pre set.

katfrise said..
Hello, I have been kiting a couple years and if I can keep kite up in air I can ride with no problem. My issue is relaunching...my husband has had me practice it and he says you need to sheet out more but I'm at my finger tips and have to let go of bar and then of course, it comes back down because now I can't steer it up. I'm 5'1" but can't believe I'm the only small person trying to ride. Is there a trick for relaunching in the water when I cannot fully sheet out?

Thank you

I'm more of a newbie than you (also female) and a fair amount taller than you, but I haven't switched from a seated harness to a waist harness for that exact reason. I can reach really well with the seated harness because everything is just shifted down. I don't think I could reach the bar sheeted out on a waist harness. That said, I see a lot of women with waist harnesses so they must have some trick that I don't know yet!