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seanblakley
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Postby seanblakley » Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:38 am

Hey,
I took you guys' advice and bought a smaller kite to start with; a Naish R3 17. I also bought a Naish Aero 20. I plan on learning on the R3 and in a few months advancing on to the Aero and selling the R3 (or I may keep it for high wind). I got these 2 kites new for $1300. As far as I know this is a very good deal. They come with one set of Naish lines and bar and such; I'll just switch the bar to the Aero when ready. I still need a board and harness though; I am still prety confused as to what board to get. All I know is to get a large non-directional. I'm 6'6" and 265 lbs if that helps anyone to help me out with a board.

thanks a lot guys,
Sean

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: seanblakley on 2002-08-20 04:40 ]</font>

jever98
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Postby jever98 » Tue Aug 20, 2002 8:18 am

An R3 17 is a big kite. But may be if you use it in light winds and since you are quite heavy yourself, you will be able to work it out.

As to the board: if you have surfed or windsurfed before, you will be doing fine on a directional initially. May be something in the 6'-6'6" range. The advantage is that you can get this kind of boards pretty cheaply at the moment, people are getting rid of them again.

If you have more of a wakeboard / snowboard / skateboard background, then go for a larger twintip. May be something in the 6' range.

Be aware that you will outgrow your first board fairly quickly. So don't go for something too fancy, but rather get something 2nd hand, use it for a while, sell it on and get a nice board after that.
Hope it helps,
Cheers
Nico

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Toby
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Postby Toby » Tue Aug 20, 2002 9:26 am

IMO there is no difference between the 17 and 20 sqm kite.
Better would have been a 14 and 20, since the 14 is still good to handle.

Regarding the board I would start right away with a twintip, since if you start on a directional or twintip doesn't matter, since you have to learn it anyway. Maybe on a directional you will be riding earlier, but on a twintip you will progress faster (no jibes!)

Enjoy it
Toby

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Postby Guest » Tue Aug 20, 2002 11:19 am

dude...where do you live and how light does the wind blow there that you would say that you bought the smaller kite's and then tell us they are 17 and 20m?!? And how hard is it going to be blowing when you say that you will switch down to the 17 when it is blowing hard? BOTH of these kite are too big for when it's blowing hard, unless it just never blows above 20 there...and 20 is too much for any neginner on either of those kites. DO NOT fly either of those kites when it's blowing hard right now!!

You should sell the 17 and get a 14 like Toby said. You'll be much better off.

Boards...on a directional, you will be up and riding and having fun much quicker. You will probably do much better with it in light winds than you will a twintip too(lighter winds are safer for learning in). You will prbably have a much easier time getting back upwind with a directional board too. The jibe will more than likely hinder your learning curve for turning around as said, but you could always just learn to turn the board around without changing your foot stance and ride the other direction toeside too, and not even spend ANY time learning to jibe right now. That IMO is easier and quicker to learn than the jibe.
A twintip will probably feel pretty slippery under your feet at first, and take longer to learn to get up and stay up on than a directional. If you are used to wakeboarding, this may not be an issue for you. You may also find it much more difficult to get upwind or even back to where you started from. Changing directions on a twintip is quicker and easier at first because you can just fly the kite the other direction and follow it without turning the board at all. However, even when riding a twintip, you will still want to learn to ride toeside eventually, so that you can carve your turns as opposed to just changing directions...it's inevitable. If you do start with a twintip, I would advise a large one.

Maybe you should consider a Morph board. A board that can be configured to ride as a directional or a twintip. With it, you could start out with it in directional mode and learn to get up and going fairly quick and get used to the feeling of having a board under your feet and a kite over your head. As you progress, then, if you want, you can switch it to a twintip...or you can just switch it to twintip to try out the twintip feeling. Whichever, with a Morph you will have both board types available to yourself at any time just by changing a few fins.

Hope this helps...

Johnny

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Postby Dwight » Tue Aug 20, 2002 11:52 am

I ride with some big boys, so I have some understanding of what you will need. The 20 and 17 will feel almost identical in power. The 17 may become your everyday kite and then you'll be looking for something much bigger. The strongest pulling big kite I know of that's still fun to use, is the 22.5 Rhino. You can find them used for cheap. You are lucky in that you will be able to buy big boards and kites cheap that normal weight people don't like.

For a board, you need a huge twin tip. The RRD asymmetrical 180 TT was hated by regular weight guys, but loved by big boys. The 180 Olry Wipika is another board like this. Both of these can be bought cheap used because they were way too big and floaty for normal people. You will be able to hold onto kites that scare others. Just take it slow until you have the kite control.

seanblakley
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Postby seanblakley » Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:20 pm

Well, my instructor im Miami said to buy a 12.5 to start out with, and the R3 is about that projected. Rarely gets above 20 down here plus I plan on gaining another 20lbs or so overthe next few months. Thanks for you advice guys. Where can I find used boards online? I figure my instructor knows what he's talking about in the conditions down here, so I'm not too concerned with the kite size. I got the Aero not so much for better power, but for better handling and jump ability later. Thanks a lot guys!


-Sean

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: seanblakley on 2002-08-20 23:22 ]</font>

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:30 pm

Dwight, consider yourself blessed to be in the land of good, consistant winds! I weight a whopping 178 lbs. and was underpowered on my Orly 175 twice last week with an Airblast 11.8 m (close to 16 m) on 30 m lines in the open ocean with wind in the low to sometimes mid teens. That is slogging along, drifing downwind, etc. I whipped out the trusty, now almost antique four year old 7'6" Fox directional and was tooling along fast, staying upwind easily and doing the odd jump. Sometimes, bigger is better, frequently down here in fact. For someone almost 100 lbs. more than me with a similar sized kite, I suspect he is going to need a pretty large board. Larger than the Orly's unless winds are well into 20 mph or perhaps even more. The converted 9 ft. surfboard comes to mind again.

Becalmed in a lightwind paradise, ugh!
Rick Iossi

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Postby Dwight » Wed Aug 21, 2002 12:05 pm

On 2002-08-20 23:30, RickI wrote:
Dwight, consider yourself blessed to be in the land of good, consistant winds! I weight a whopping 178 lbs. and was underpowered on my Orly 175 twice last week with an Airblast 11.8 m (close to 16 m) on 30 m lines in the open ocean with wind in the low to sometimes mid teens. That is slogging along, drifing downwind, etc. I whipped out the trusty, now almost antique four year old 7'6" Fox directional and was tooling along fast, staying upwind easily and doing the odd jump. Sometimes, bigger is better, frequently down here in fact. For someone almost 100 lbs. more than me with a similar sized kite, I suspect he is going to need a pretty large board. Larger than the Orly's unless winds are well into 20 mph or perhaps even more. The converted 9 ft. surfboard comes to mind again.

Becalmed in a lightwind paradise, ugh!
Rick Iossi
I'm 184 myself.

Hey, not too long ago you could buy NEW sky pirates for $300.00. Naish was closing them out. If I lived in Miami I'd own one for sure.

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Postby RickI » Wed Aug 21, 2002 2:35 pm

Yes, Stonker has some incredible directional closeouts as well. Good epoxy boards, I picked up a Stonker 205 cm directional a while back for an excellent price.

It is nice to have the ocean to myself on the marginal wind days when all the guys with the popular smaller twin tips and wake designs can't deal effectively with the lighter conditions and waves.

Enjoy all that wind up there Dwight. I hope to try some of it over Labor Day weekend.


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