TractionKiting.co.uk

Hi,
I know Blade kites are great,eveyone is ALWAYS reminding eveyone else! Thats ok,im fine with that,the facts are all in place,it ticks all the boxes,hell i own one! a Blade mk3 4m and i love it!
So,whats my problem i hear you ask?
As i own the 4m i feel it would be the wrong choice to get the 'king of kings' 4.9,size being a bit to close for my second kite.But, is there ANY other makes of kite i could get that is anywhere near as good? I'm ONLY interested in LIFTY kites,i have been told about the Pansh Ace 5m,but am also told they are of poor quality and unstable? also the Peter Lynn Twister 2 ive heard is lifty and finally the HQ Crossfire 6.5,but can get NO info on this kite or its qualities atall?

Any help/suggestions much appreciated guys Steve.

The Crossfire was almost built as an entry level race kite in my opinion, I have flown a couple and they are fast through the air but had to be moving to get the best out of them. They were advertised as freestyle kites but I didnt find them that way inclined, they had to be "flown" to get the best out of them.
The old Ozone Haka was a lifty kite and you could probably get one for a good second hand price.

The Blade 2 4.9 was my most favourite kite but I sold it, didnt like the 4.9 Blade III as much.

Welcome to the forum

O.

The thing is i am new to this wonderful sport and have the Blade 4m,if i got the 4.9 do you think the 4m would EVER seen the light of day again? Has buying the 4m first ruined my quivver before it has started? Would the 4.9 being that it IS so great TOTALY put my 4m into early retirment?If this is the case should i go for a different make of bigger kite thats lifty/floaty like th Blade,maybe an ACE or TWISTER??

Cheers guys Steve.

You will never end up not using a certain size of kite for example, I have a 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, 7.5 and 9m set of kites, the reason is so I can go out in most wind conditions, sometimes the 4.9 will be too big and so you step down to the 4.0 or even step down to a 3m.
It really depends what you want to do with the kites, is it just for standing on the beach doing jumps or are you looking at moving in to buggying and / or land boarding?

I tend to recommend that you stick with the same make if you can and if you are happy with what you have, the reason is a 4.9 or 5.0m kite in a different make/model may only give you the same amount of pull as the 4.0 Blade does or visa versa a 5.0m kite may give you way to much pull compared with the 4.0m you have, if you stick with the same make and model then you know the sizes are going to be relevant to each other, the 4.0 gives you less pull than the 4.9 in the same wind conditions.

Hope this makes some sense.

O.

Hi,
thanlks for the reply.I want to get into jumping first then on to landboarding [hopefully]
What you said really makes sense,thanyou.

Another thing for you to consider in your size choice:

I have a 6.5m blade mk IV. The mk IV has a variable angle of attack setting in the bridles. It allows you to set the kite up so that it will give more pull and lift whilst sacrificing a tad of airspeed and a touch of stability (although I've not noticed it). If you go the other way the kite becomes a bit more docile and allows it to be flown in higher winds. As always there is a 'normal' setting which is a mix of the two extremes.

The point I'm making is that if you were to buy a 4.9 Mk IV or even new Mk V then it would be more flexible in itself than your 4m Mk 3. They also lift a lot more and are better with stability and upwind performance (IMHO).

As Owain said you will never NOT use a particular size of kite - you will probably adopt a favourite. For me it's the 6.5m blade. I've had it out in 10mph winds on the high lift setting thinking im fairly powered up and also on the 'normal setting' in 28mph winds (that was a huuuuuge empty beach on Tiree though and I was getting thrown around a bit with it but I reckon if I'd changed to the docile setting it would have been a bit better).

The other thing as well is if you are looking at jumping, I wouldnt go smaller than the 4m, even the 4m is a tad on the small side for jumping. The 4.9 used to be my minimum kite size for getting air simply because it gave softer landings

O.

Fair point. The smaller kites do drop you a bit... Especially those 3M Busters... They give fairly hard landings .