Rigging your kite for newbies and seasoned kiters

[jjm]

I was referring to how it is done at SI. It looked like you need to place the kite over the lines, and think special attention is given to what at SI would be the left side of the kite.

[kitebored]

I learned the way where the kite is downwind of the bar, so you're looking at your kite from the front when you're rigging.....


If you do it this way at SI there are a few things to keep in mind.

#1 Lots of slack

#2 Rig the side closest to you first

#3 When you rig the far side of the kite be sure that the lines passing around the kite's LE go UNDER the kite and not over. If they pass over, this is when they get crossed and you have your outside and inside lines all messed up.


I used to have a lot of problems rigging at SI and keeping this in mind has fixed them so far.

Hope this makes sense and helps... also hopes SI starts blowing again soon.

Brian.

[jjm]

So, bar remains right side up (Red, yellow, whatever to the left). When attaching the far end of the kite, it would be front line attached first, crossing over the steering line?

[feixaq]

When I rig sidewind at SI, I put the bar upside down as if you were to rig downwind of your kite, walk out the lines to the kite, then connect the back (steering) pigtails first, and then make sure the front connections go "under" and the back connections without crossing the lines (i.e. front lines stay in the middle).

[Pablito(guest)]

Ummm, at SI your kite is never downwind of your bar, because the wind is directly onshore; the beach is perpendicular to the wind. In theory, you can rig your lines either direction on the beach (Kite north, bar south or vice versa) but everyone does it the same direction.

Otherwise, everyone seems to be on the same page.

Hey, there was plenty of wind at SI on Tuesday afternoon!

If you had a 20M kite...I was lit up on Kitopia's North Rhino, going upwind against the flood.

[sflinux]

The only wrong way to rig a kite is to reverse your front with your rear lines. You do that, and you have a kite with no bar control (you'd have to pull what is now your front line on your bar to turn your kite). If you wrap/tangle/cross your front with your your rear lines, the fact is your kite will still fly properly, only you will have more friction in your lines.
What you are describing is the difference between launching upwind or downwind relative to your kite. You should be proficient in both. There are times when one is more ideal than the other. And Charlie is right, the only difference in rigging, is flipping your bar when you launch downwind of your kite. The way to double check this is if your stearing lines and pigtails are color coded so they match. If you forget to flip your bar, your kite will still fly properly, only your sheeting system/powerlock system will be upside down.
With newbies, the accidents I've seen is they flip one/both of their front lines with their rear lines. You basically have a kite that will turn one way and not the other, or a kite with absolute no bar control at all. Every kiter needs to come up with a way to rig their lines so this never happens. I prefer to rig my back lines first (have them drapped wide from the tips), then attach my front lines on the inside of the drape. With this method, there is no worry about tucking one under the other (either downwind or upwind). Just find a method that works for you and stick with it.
As far as launching upwind or downwind from your kite, it depends on the beach. I believe the safest is to have your kite pointed towards the water, so you can keep your kite low and go. But beaches like Alameda do it differently.
As far as side launches (self launches), you should have an idea of where the wind window is even before you rig your lines. For side launches, I typically rig downwind from my kite (bar upside down) (lines up to 45 degree angle from my kite). Then I can flip my kite over, and walk from downwind to the edge of the window. Works for me.
-bric

[kitebored]

So, bar remains right side up (Red, yellow, whatever to the left). When attaching the far end of the kite, it would be front line attached first, crossing over the steering line?

that should work for you, so long as you're going around the front of your kite when you attach the red (left, whatever) lines.

[consumer]

the problem with kitebored's method(its the method i generally use at large beaches) is that when you attach the lines to the tip furthest away from the bar, you need to not only make sure the lines go underneath the kite, but youre dragging the bar across the sand to get the two lines to reach. the problem with this is it can sometimes very rarely, cause your other back lines to wrap around the bar in some fucked up way.

I just rig the kite from behind at si, flip the bar over backwards, so ie. red is on the right side.

front lines go on the inside, backlines on top on the outside.

[Pablito(guest)]

YEah, that's the problem. If you place your kite closer to your bar so that the lines go past the kite, you don't have that problem

[Guest]

If I understand the original diagram, the red lines are going to different sides of the kite in each drawing. Thus the only 'wrong' way is to follow the instruction in the bottom of the diagram with the red line attached to the right side (as you face the kite) of the kite--assuming one is using the nautical red on the left for the bar. Did I miss something? Thanks