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hi guys

My name is Amitai, 22 years old from Israel. I'm a total beginner and my story goes like this:
I wanted for a long time to get into this sport. I thought for a long time what to do if i should get lessons or first get a trainer kite. Finaly my decision was to buy a trainer kite. I wanted a small LEI kite (2-4m) like the Ocean Rodeo Rise 2m or the Ozone Uno 2m but I didn't get them because the prices are just too high. So I thought what shoulld I do what should I do and I bought a second hand Epic Renegade 3G 5m which is very similar to the 4m ozone (size wize). Yesterday I was at the beach with my friend and we tried to launch the kite. the wind at that time was about 10-12knots. the kite just didnt want to launch. no matter what we did. It was very frustrating. I'm sure I did every thing correct with the lines.
what do you think? was it the wind or something else?

many thanks
rhin0

Not enough wind. That kite was designed for heavy wind and probably won't fly well until its up over 12 knots. When using it in light winds it will be easy to over sheet and stall it.

Did you try hot launching it? 10 to 12 knots isn't very much wind, even for a regular 2-3 meter foil trainer kite. To keep it in the air you would need to fly it around, or it will fall.

To hot launch the kite (is probably safe for a 5m kite up to about 18 knots or so?), have your friend hold it so that it sits with its trailing edge on the sand, leading edge straight up. If there is enough wind, when he lets go it will shoot straight up to 12 o'clock over your head. If it doesn't, take a step backward while pulling the center lines. Once it's in the air you can let go.

It should easily fly in 10-12 knots. Your experienced buddy should have been able to get it off the ground.

Maybe something wrong with set up.

First of all I want to thank you for your quick replys.

Let me try to describe what was going on.
We finished set up the kite and tried to launch it. It flied for a moment and than fell on its nose.
We tried to pull the middle lines but it didnt have any effect.
Then I managed to self launch the kite but right after that I lost control over it (stall?) it got flipped and it fell nose down again.

I believe there are two reasons why it didnt work:
1. not enough wind.
2. kite wasnt pumped enough.

thanks

sounds like it was really 3-4 knots, wait till it is 10 to 12 knots then practice your flying, and not really good practice to try hot launches either unless in the water

FarQueLot wrote:sounds like it was really 3-4 knots, wait till it is 10 to 12 knots then practice your flying, and not really good practice to try hot launches either unless in the water

with a 5m? nah. safe unless its blowing 20-25+

Well Dylan that all sounds reasonable except for a few things,

Telling people to hot launch when learning is not a safe practice.

From description given this person may have no idea how to judge the wind strength( this could be said for quite a few kiters)- sure I agree that not much harm could follow but a 5 m flown aggressively can develop enough power to hurt, and this person has not had any lessons- which he has stated then reactions and skills are basic, maybe even detrimental.

Personally I think a trainer kite is a waste of time for most. Two good lessons with a small kite (7 to 9 m) in reasonable winds will give better results than any time with a trainer IME.

Most kites are hard to fly under 12 knots unless experienced, and working out wind window and power zones can be very difficult as well as understanding wind effects.

The money spent on a kite that will have little use would of been better spent on a couple of lessons then if kiting is for you go and get some kit and learn - generally takes 2 weeks(14 days to be competent)
luv
F

if you took a lesson you would know.

For sure the Renegade 5m would fly in 12 knots. Sub 10 knots it might have trouble though so you were probably just overstating the wind.

Also beginners almost always over sheet kites, and in light wind the last thing you want to do is over sheet. Over sheeting will cause the kite to backstall though, but you said the kite was just stalling frontwards.

Getting a 5m Renegade is about as useless as those other trainers though, because unless you are 50 kg you'll probably never use that kite on a board, it would have to be blowing 35 knots.

Also that 5m kite will be extremely fast and twitchy, small bar inputs will cause the kite to zip across the window.