Fractured Axel

Am about to be the owner of an Eolo Neox -- and (re)start my trick learning. Yay!

My (vintage) Benson Phantom which saw me good what must be 20ish years ago has been brought out of retirement after I was pestered into helping a newbie fly his new kite. It still flies - and like riding a bike - it all came flooding back. Including the fact that I always found it really hard work to Axel....

Hence the upgrade to a 'modern', more nimble kite...

So - the rub:

It would seem from my research (far easier with YouTube these days -- long gone the Ascii Art descriptions in Usenet's rec.kites and Ron Reich's book) that a good Axel is the stepping stone to most other tricks...

Is there a 'recommended' ladder of tricks up which I should push myself? In terms of which ones do I need to perfect first before it's worth planting the kite on tricks that are harder...?

Cheers!

-Craig

Iam pretty new to this sport myself but for me I just wanted to be able to do the Jacobs ladder. So Once I had mastered the basic kite control, stalls etc I moved onto the individual moves of the JL starting with flare to fade. I think it pays to spend some time making sure you can get the moves consistantly rather than just hitting them as a one off. Learn to hold a good fade, rise and fall etc and get a consistant axel.(Still trying to master axels myself). These seem to be the start of so many other more complicated moves.

There is no offical ladder as such. Look HERE for a useful guide to the degree of difficulty of various tricks with animations.

That Neox should be a great kite to learn tricks with! ( I nearly went for it myself!)

Oh dear. Looooooots of new tricks. :-D

@HawkerHunter - I know what you mean about wanting to do one particular trick... it was the same for me with 3-ball juggling and the Mills Mess... I saw it - and knew I just had to learn how to do it...

I'm still a precision/team-guy at heart... Don't get me wrong - I'll be working hard to get some tricks under my belt, but no matter how dextrous a fluttering trickster is, I still get more of a buzz from a spot-on team show...

-Craig

Look no further than the Fractured Axel Tricky Wiki

http://fracturedaxel.co.uk/wiki/tiki-in ... onal+Index

mobius wrote:

Look no further than the Fractured Axel Tricky Wiki

http://fracturedaxel.co.uk/wiki/tiki-in ... onal+Index

Yup - just found that! What it needs is a merging of the two... Animations along with instructions would be perfect.

As I say - it's a lot easier than the old ASCII art descriptions from rec.kites back-in-the-day when I was downloading Usenet feeds on my (WOW!) 9600 bps modem... :D

Ok chaps.

I've managed to re-piece together Harvey's neox -- and am puzzled by a new addition: the T-Piece about a third of the way down the leading edge. From photos it would appear that it's designed to stick out - and therefore presumably is there to catch strings during a wrap-type trick?

Am curious as to the dynamics involved and implications on the kite -- assuming I right, that is. If not - am I missing a couple of rods? ;-)

-Craig

You are right - the sticking out T-pieces are yo-yo stops - they stop the lines slipping down the leading edges when flying 'wrapped-up'.
Don't worry, you're not missing any rods.

Cool.

[ mental note to self... Turn t pieces back round having turned them inboard to avoid them catching on strings]

Although when I'm out tomorrow I will be lucky to get it to axel, let alone yo yo.. :)

crayfish wrote:

Cool.

[ mental note to self... Turn t pieces back round having turned them inboard to avoid them catching on strings]

As they are probably the usual rather simple fittings Eolo use,they'll turn inwards after the first contact of leading edge to ground,anyway.
The way I fly,this is not necessarily a bad thing as I have occasionally caught flying and bridle lines on them

Have a look at these
http://en.eolo.com/kite-tutorials/frees ... nimations/

and these
http://www.prismkites.com/lounge-training.php

Stan (cool handle... have you met my bro? Ken Spar :-) )

Thanks for the excellent links -- just what I needed to get things going!!

-Craig

crayfish wrote:

Stan (cool handle... have you met my bro? Ken Spar )

Living in Wales,it was almost "Dai Neema"

Craig, sorry I missed your question and I hope the tricks are going well. The yo yo stops are pretty standard on virtually all modern trick kites. I see you have been given quite a few links for tutorials. The trick or treat DVD is very good too and is available from Tim @ Benson Kites,

Cheers, Harv