Hi all,
well I promised I'd come back and let you know how I got on with the kite I bought.
I acquired a phoenix and bought a set of 150Ib dyneema lines. I flew it all over last weekend with increasing success in handling and skill as the days went on. Now I'm told the kite is pretty big for a stunt kite and that the winds over last weekend were pretty firm (15mph) at the edge of the wind window I had good stunt control but in the main area the kite was taking BIG leaps and was absolutely exhilirating to fly and dragging me off my 14 stone feet when I was snap turning.
This kite isn't for kids!
I had a few teething problems.
1) One of the strings broke. Apparently 150Ib isn't enough for a wind that strong on a kite that big.
2) I tore the sail. Not a big tear about 1/2" by 1/4" I'm not sure how, but guess it coulda been one of the early lawn darts forcing the support out of its hole and possibly through the sail. Either that or my very poor attempts at belly or super starts.
3) I lost a spreader from the tail edge.
Would I recommend it for a total beginner?
A) As I found the kite quite big and when performing stalls it took quite a lot of work just to get it out, let alone perform any tricks. This could be a big minus for a novice, because I think worrying about point (B) might
cause you to be over cautious and not really get the best out of your kite.
B) Well... if you can easily afford £100 (kite, lines and postage fee) then yeah why not. BUT The size is difficult to cope with for a complete novice and high speed nose darts are likely to cause quite expensive damage. Now if the price tag doesn't worry you then go right ahead.
Overall HUGE fun even if I wasn't quite performing the tricks on the video CD. I kinda wished it had some verbal information like how to set the kite up and how to perform tricks rather than just watching some bloke doing a few flic flacs
I guess I've learned that kiting can be a quite expensive hobby, and as long as when you're starting out you're not too worried about this then the phoenix is ideal as comparitively its still at the lower end of the market.