Hello kiteforum posters!! I have tried the search, however could not find an answer to my question.

I own a 14m Naish Helix and apart from a few niggly things, overall I am very happy with it.

One thing I am struggling with is with the relaunch... I know I am really surprised 'cause that is supposed to be the MAJOR benefit of the SIGMA shape. The naish website and the manual say that all you have to do is pull one of the rear lines and the kite will pivot on one of the leading edge points and immediately relaunch. It's not working for me!

What happens is that the rear trailing edge corner twists and the kite tries to rotate, but it cant. It slowly moves to the edge of the window where I am expecting it to come up and it doesn't. So I pull the other side and wait for it to move to the other side of the window and again, it doesnt want to lift. I have tried pulling more and less line hoping that that would help. (BTW - Whilst I'm doing this, I have completely let go of the bar and just pulling on the rear line).

I was struggling for so long one day in really deep water that I decided to try old school style. I let go of everything and swam like hell towards the kite. Only then did it move right to the edge of the window and relaunch. I was so lucky!! The wind had pushed me almost 250m down wind before I got it back up. Luckily someone rescued my board otherwise I would have lost it for sure.

Has any one else experinced this? Is there something else I should be trying?

In the review by TheRussian, he states that the relaunch technique is "pull the other one". Not sure how to do that!

I think what the Russian means is to pull one rear line untill the kite starts swimming towards one side of the window and as it picks up speed pull the other rear line. The kite should then pivot and turn onto its ear properly. Usually even in light wind it can relaunch directly in the middle of the window by doing this but sometimes you have to wait for it to swim to the edge before it goes up.


Hope that helps..

Been riding a 9m Cult exclusively in the surf and have had the same issues particularly in lighter winds-also solo launching on the beach in lighter winds-besides that, GREAT kite.

PKA

when I mentioned pulling the other one (no leg jokes thanks), to relaunch if the kite is downwind but to your left, pull the righthand side rear line and the tension "should" bring the kite further to your lefthand side (visa-versa for the kite to your right).

When I relaunched my 14m I didnt seem to have any issues, although I have a bit of upper body strength and could be pulling it harder than some would expect... so to speak

Have you had a look in the manual, as I seem to recal there is a detailed piece on relaunching there

Just one thing to add is that the Helix & possibly the other sigma kites (especially in smaller sizes) need to be pumped very hard, as a softer kite affects the flying & possibly the relaunch as well.

Russian can you be more specific about pumping? how hard? 7 psi or more? isn't it a bit dangerous to pump kites too hard? stitches could break and so on....

I read whats in the manual and all it says is to pull on one of the rear lines and the kite will launch immediately. Just out of curiosity, am I better off being verticle on the water add some resistance to the kite to make the lines a little tighter, so should I lay more horrizontal to that I get pulled downwind, thus less tension on the lines?

kitesurfar, I pump my kite up pretty hard. I do a ping test. I flick the main bladder with my finger and pump until I get a nice tight drum skin type sound. So far stitching is holding up.

I don't have my 2008 Naish kites yet, but I always pump up my Naish kites untill it gets hard to pump more air into them.

I never had any problems. I am using Naish kites for 2 years now.

(Don't try this with Cabrinha )

The more tension in the lines the better it will re-launch-so the answer is yes-feet on your board and board on edge to provide resistance is the best method-always a hassle to re-launch in the surf if there is a strong downwind current-unless the wind is sufficiently strong enough to compensate.

PKA

as for pressure, following a docussion on this exact subject with the uk importer, I pump them up as hard as possible without snapping the pump

Exactly what I've been told.

PKA