I have been saving up my pennies for my first depower kite to use with my buggy and a ATB. The more i look into kite surfing I'm thinking for as long as it takes me to save up for a kite maybe I should lean to wards a inflatable and use it for land and water. Do any of you LEI users have any favorites that you recommend for a beginner that can take a bit of a beating? I'm not looking to get into high wind radical moves just mostly cruising.

Find a local kitesurfing school, see what equipment they use, might ever get to try one.
Wave kites make good beginner kites; stable and will take the beating
Low to mid aspect Bow or Delta shape

To name the few:
Best Bularoo or Kahoona
Ocean Rodeo Rise
Ozone Catalyst
Slingshot Rally
Naish Bolt
Airush One or Lithium

Do not forget the PL twin skin kites, auto zenith is a huge help during learning, Venom 2 or Synergy or even Charger..

Flysurfer Pulse2 or its replacement Unity are great beginner kites (closed cell foil) .
You will appreciate fast and easy set-up and packing (no pumping), self launch and landing with either of these two brands

Consider used; it will hurt way less if you put a $300 kite into a tree, fence or bushes than your $1500 new baby !!!

Good luck

So you can use closed cells in water? How about getting wet and relaunch? I'm thinking the autozenith sound like a good idea for me.

the beating , lei's are tough but get ugly quick.

Peter lynn stuff is more suited for ALL and quite durable. the ARC type is a favorite, phantom to newer are great performers. though i use lei as well they are a handful on land not the best beginner choice on land.

harnessed with a strop ? if so the step to depower is easier if you have.

others like HQ, flysurfer as well.

PL has lei now i have yet to jump on them and new PHantom also. lots of choices.

ATM, a tube worthy of note, RPM by slingshot . safe versatile unit. tubes will take a bit of time to get used to for fun, safe use on land.

try and get a try on something.

IMHO an PL arc or a Flysurfer Pulse 2 would fit the bill.....both are great all terrain kites...... I would go the way of the used market here as this saves coin and can allow you to purchase a second kite for your quiver once you are over the learning curve of your first depow or allow you to try sell buy and try your way through a few styles until you land on what you like.

An 8m Pulse 2 would be a great kite to start out with in the buggy and on the ATB. On the water it would be a good size to get used to kite control and body dragging. It would be your higher wind kite on the water once you have progressed. You could then add either a 12m or 14m Pulse 2 depending on your size as a second kite. These also make super snow kites. Very easy to set up and launch. Very easy to solo land. Just a great first depow kite. Again this is IMHO. You could easily get 2 used Pulse 2's for the price of a new Unity.

If you go arcs I think a 13m Venom II or a 15m Synergy would be great to start on. One thing I learned from a very experienced arc flyer long after I had purchased many arcs and was struggling to fly them was to go with a bigger arc in low winds when learning. This is kind of the opposite of what we are taught when we learn to fly a fixed bridle where we are told start with a small kite in low wind. Once I bought into his method I have progressed much quicker.

The biggest thing you can do to help you on with your decision is to see if you can meet up with some kiters that will let you have a go at the different types of depow out there...... check them out...... see them fly.....

+1 for the PL ARCs

First time Depower with a Scorpion 16m (not the best for newbies) but there are lots of good people here to help get started.
Also some good readings on the web for ARCs.

The "Auto-Zenith" really helps to prevent beating up the kite even though, in the beginning, it happens mainly do to bad piloting, :/


Regards
João

Any one have any input on an old Bomba?

I have a charger on order for just what you are talking about lol

Quote:

Originally posted by eggy Any one have any input on an old Bomba?

re: PL Bomba