resqman911 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:32 pm
Hey guys I’m sure this question has been beat to death but I’m going to throw it out anyway.
I just started kiting in the last couple weeks and love it, but I’m currently using rental gear and would like to get my own gear but dont really want to drop a ton of cash on gear as this will only be able to kite a few times a month and I have quite a few hobbies that share my wallet.
So I’m looking at used gear and I’m not real sure what to look for, how old is too old? I know newer gear has better handling an safety features. Any help you guys can give would be appreciated.
My local beach is Belmont Shores Ca.
Never been to that spot, can’t talk about wind speeds, waves or if a beach is nice to rig. You tell me
In general though:
- buy an all around kite for prevailing wind speeds. Rally/Switchblade for regular winds or Turbine/Contra if it’s lightwind conditions all the time
- don’t buy anything older than 2012. Designs were still worked upon. Newer kites are almost all the same throughout the years for each model which survived since then. eg 2014-2019 Rallys are almost the same except large inflate valve introduced in 2016
- if winds are light or gusty, buy a wide twintip, like a mini-door eg Flysurfer Radical5 144x46. Board width will contribute a lot and add to time on water
- don’t do boots and wakestyle kites unless you’re seasoned wakeboarder
- get a good impact/floatation vest, half-finger gloves, stretchy wetsuit and single-click harness
- unless you’re a smaller/shorter person try to buy a bar with above-the-bar depower. Use a short leash
- UV is a plastic killer. Paragliders have 300 hours safe limit. Kite fabric is thicker but still, if a kite been in the sun for last 5 years (and you’d be able to tell by faded colors) it will get damaged easier upon abuse
- buy a set of extension lines. 7-10m extra length will add 1-3 sq.m of kite size on a light wind day