New guy planning a purchase. Opinions?

[xtremewinds]

We can help you, first come to our school in Aruba get a clinic both. We starts where your skills are, durin your progress of learning you are going to use different equipment, after you are ready this can take maximun a week due here we have wind every day, you are going to be able to kite upwind perfect, little jumps, and know all about equipment pros and contras. Contact us to www.xtremewinds.com

[stone]

I'm holding out for Greg 'n' Yuri's beaver-shootin kite-fishin delta safari tour. (catch and release when you snag a fisherman)

[tanker223]

Yuri... based on the name of your school i assume that the salad comes tossed.


NewB- Good luck. Talk to whatever school you go to, and don't let them sell you on a certain brand. There are a lot of good options. Talk to the locals when you get out here... I know we appreciate your open attitude.

And careful with the kiting addiction. You will quickly sell your soul for a new kite.

C

[windhorny]

AHAHA... nice one! Didn't think about that.

[EvanOR]

Newb,

As everyone's mentioned, make the commitment and go through the lessons as necessary until you are reasonably proficient and have some basic board riding skills. As a beginner you'll have no frame of reference and won't be able to discern which brand/style of kite and board will suit you best. These days almost everyone makes great gear, so choosing who to go with is more a matter of personal taste - all kites will pull you along the water but how they feel and react is quite different. Just like any other product, you also need to consider customer service (both locally and from the manufacturer), warranty and tech support, build quality, durability and resale. Try before you buy..If you'd like to try any Ocean Rodeo product please feel free to contact myself (I am OR's US Sales Manager) or my local retailer Windydevil.com. We're confident you'll be happy with our products......if not, just give 'em back:
100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee

[NewBkiter]

Thanks Evan!

[kitenaked]

Keep playing with the trainer until you get in the water. Can only help you once you decide to get wet.

[NewBkiter]

Weee! Ok, so I got wet yesterday. I had been temped to do some body dragging but not unless the wind was from offshore as I haven't had any training and the trainer kite is not an enclosed cell so if it goes down in the water it would be hell dragging it back in.

It started with shore winds so there was a wee bit of turbulence at the bottom of the wind window and the winds were a bit weak but enough to get the kite up and work on keeping it up in light wind. Periodically it would pick up just a hair and I'd get to dart the kite around with some power strokes.

Then the wind changed like BAMMO ](*,)

Offshore and strong. It felt a bit more chilled as well which was to be expected from the winds cutting across the ocean. I looked out to see if there was a cloud wall or ... one of those nasty sea storms coming in. While there was an overcast and some dark clouds off in the far distance there were no black clouds.. no wall clouds.

Hell yeah I thought!

The beach didn't have but a couple people on it and no one near where I was flying. I had to wade out a bit because the width of the beach was less than the length of my lines. Then it occured to me that if I was to park that bad boy in neutral and swim out a bit I could get this tiny little trainer kite to drag me in. :shock:

I walked out till I could not longer touch then swam just a little further then turned around and started doing crazy eights across the wind window. the bar was under water, my legs behind me and there was movement. I was surprised that I didn't seem to feel as much bar pressure in the water compared to out of the water then I realized that since I am moving with the kite the pressure will be less.

I did that a few times to get a feel for it. Again, with the trainer kite there wasn't much going on but it was still fun darnit! My son had a blast watching too. Again, daddy, again!

That was my day!