Teaching on Neo?

[daspi]

I know a bunch of schools use the Neo for teaching beginners. First, what bridal settings are you guys using for teaching?

I ride Neo's for strapless and love them in general. I do say they won't stay very stable at 12 or in any position in standard setting. It requires the riders attention. I think this just comes with the very responsive turn characteristics of this kite. You can flick it with the wrist of your hand instantly, pretty awesome for the experienced kiter. How about for a beginner? I feel a kite that will react to the smallest of input at the bar might be less then helpful to the beginner/progressing rider? Like at the stage where you have to keep the kite at 12 to put the board on. Seems less then ideal. What are your real world teaching experiences?

Thanks!

[galzohar]

I don't have personal experiences but I've seen some schools teach with them and beginners who had a good start with them. I wouldn't recommend wave kites for beginners, though, as allaround kites are probably almost as easy to use and make it easier to progress once you start to jump or ride gustier winds.

[Pierrot]

I have been teaching my son on Neo(s) 7 and 10. Since he is ~10yrs old. Old version, 2018? pre-duotone era.
He is 13 now and autonomous riding back and force. He never complained about the kite and actually prefers the grunt of the Neo compared to my roam aluula.
So I would say the kite is fine for learning…

[daspi]

I know it will work, just looking for input from other instructors who have used them.

[SolarSet]

Some schools would use them because they are cheapest of Duotone and you can get them often on discount, that comment from someone be kiteschools I know. Evo would be way better but it’s rarely on sale.

[Baptiste_FR]

Many schools use the Neo. It's almost an all-around freeride kite. One of the main advantage is its power : it's a very easy "sheet and go" kite which is easy to use for students. It is also a stable kite with very good relaunch abilities (also useful for beginners).

[nothing2seehere]

I have taught a couple of friends on Neos - and still have a couple for teaching with. The responsiveness as a beginner is useful because they would regularly have the kite in the wrong place so having a responsive kite gave them the opportunity to get it back into the right place. They also have a lot of low end grunt and the throw of the kite drops the power easily.

However, I'm talking about teaching adults on the larger sizes (12m/10m in 16-18knots typically). The responsiveness of the small sizes might make it a more challenging experience if in higher winds or for light weight people

[SolarSet]

Are you guys saying that teaching on Neos can be somehow beneficial over using freeride kite? I always though that for teaching it’s better to have too much power than too little not to mention upwind ability