Hey guys, I'm new to traction kiting and this forum so i think i better introduce myself.

My name is Dan and I'm currently living in Bulls in the Manawatu, but am often in CHCH or Blenheim. I've had a stunt kite since i was a kid, but i recently got a Peter Lynn 3.9 viper. I know it's probably not the best to learn on, but I'm looking at getting a buggy built in the near future, and at some stage i want to get an SLE and some surfing gear and give that ago.

I currently kite out at Scotts Ferry beach or, when I get clearance i use the Base Ohakea grass runway.

Dan

Ps. Here is a photo the misses took the other evening at the beach...

hello jnumbaz.

good to see another kiter in the lower north island.

I'm live in new plymouth and landboard. once a month or there abouts i travel to wellington on business. I always marvel and the massive smooth rolling hill paddocks around bulls. Any way sometimes i manage to get a flight in somewhere down the coast himatangi, waiteri, foxton, waikanai....
so one day we may be able to Tee up a session.

ps i'm keen as mustard to hit the ohakea runway! Wind on at the right direction and you could get some mental speeds on the tarmac! you could also boost some massive air off the tarmac too....

you should get in contact with Plummet (David) from the Naki - hes down your way often and im sure would be keen to catch up.

Welcome to the forum!

Ooo! me too! i'm in ohakune, got to paint the house before the cold kicks in, but keen to kite round there sooner rather than later. can you get out mid-week or are weekends better for you??

haven't you been painting the house for a couple of years?

Err! maayybe. :roll: but im doing it now!

Hey guys, cheers for the welcome!

Yes the OH Airfield does seem to lend it's self to some epic buggy runs, however there are some quite substantial hoops to leap through before getting clearance, especially for visitors. With time however....

Anyways, I need to get me a decent buggy/skills before subjecting myself to near takeoff speeds 3in from the ground!

theres an open kiting day once a year at ohakea. Its organised as a fun day for kids etc single line kites etc. However i believe they do set aside a portion of the runway for buggiers/boarders.

So..... If you find out when that is an give us some notice i will be keen to vap along. Last year i found ouit the night before and it was too late... also the wind forecast was poo so i flagged it.

Hopefully this year.

Gah! Thats right, I Had completely forgotten about that! It's usually organized to coincide with Fathers Day weekend in September. I'll get the word out when that's confirmed.

Hey if your in Blenheim anytime, give me a yell. I've got a 4.5m bullet and have been getting into some landboarding but there doesn't seem to be anyone else around here with a power kite...

Ahh mate, had i known you earlier i would have come flown with you when i was in Blenheim earlier this year. Next time ill be sure to get in touch with you.

Sweet 8)

hello jimmy F from blenhiem. good to see you on the nz forum.
how long have you been kiting? whats your flavour?

Hey Plummet, I've not long started landboarding, just before Christmas in fact. Just down on the local soccer fields with a 4.5m bullet. Your probably more likely to recognise my nick name "Mitch" from the flexi forum

Hey mate, i'm actually in Blenheim from Monday for 3 weeks for work. I'll have my kite with me so i'd be keen to check out the local kiting areas.

Hi Dan
Dixie here and I live in Palmy, into landboarding and kitesurfing, me and a friend head out to Foxton estuary if I'm surfing, we are both well past intermediate so if you want to join us your most welcome. I pretty much landboard anywhere, the hills are my favorite, I'm flying Flysurfer and Flexi Blades and also own a Venom.
PM if you want to catch up some time.
Cheers
Dixie

Greetings all. Good to see some other buggy fliers from the lower Nth Island. I live in Wgtn, but have a place up at Foxton Beach which I make good use of during weekends. My turf is the beach between Foxton and Himitangi Beach (yup...that's a 11.5km run in one direction )

Gotta get me a gps *sigh*

It's OK...but needs to have 2 things happen at the same time...a dead-on Westerly and low tide. Off-shore sux because the dunes make the wind really unstable..and have done a superman impression with the 4.9 when the kite luffed in a dead spot, then snapped open. It must have looked impressive/funny, but hurt like the proverbial..apparently got some "awesome air man!!" (Thanks Mr surfer...now go away!)

Using a PL Comp XR with either the 2.2 or 4.9m Reactor. I also have a couple of Flexis (8' and 10') that I play with when the tide/wind is wrong.

So if anyone is down that way on a weekend and you see a yellow/green reactor on the beach with what looks like an old phart trying to be young again attached to the end..that'll be me.

Regards all.

i'm on the landboard but have been known to go as fast or faster than the
buggiers so will be keen on a session some time! ps i'm in wellington once a month on business do you know of any closer beaches that are worth while. i know about waikanai up and have done some static stuff at lyall bay... if theres any other spots around wellington i'm keen to know.

For speed runs, about the closest I can think of is Paraparaumu. More orientated for a WSW wind, and loads of space when the tide is heading out. I don't suppose you were out and about at Foxton just on a month ago were you? My place is very close to the beach at the river end and I did see someone having a crack with a landboard.

not me... i was at foxton on last thursday late afternoon....

So i sessioned himitangi on saturday with the board. That place is freaking sweet at low tide. Unfortunatly there wasn't enough wind for the 4m viper to really get going, but i could imagine in a decent westerly I could get to Foxton in no time.

No more headway on using the airfield in the weekend; i've gotta wait until they finish the directives for using blokarts before even asking for approval. at the moment I'm limited at using a grass patch at the end of one of the thresholds.

Wasn't much better down at the Foxton end either....wind was very flakey but just needed a bit more blow to get any solid runs. This weekend looks a bit shot as well *sigh*...leaves me no excuse to not get that landscaping done that I got promised to do

Bugga!

Hey Dan,
You still around, I'm fit again after a long lay off and keen to get back out on the kites. Let me know if your keen to get out any time.
Cheers
Dixie

SHANENZ :
that would be me bro on the landboard at foxton. think i met you yesterday jus after my tyre blew and i was packing up.

looking like a cracker today.....

butch

butch wrote:


Be down around 2-30 looking at a house, if I see your kiteup I'll come and intro myself
Cheers
Dixie

Hey butch, saw you shoot past the car park at the beach, looked like fun, What size kite were you using? Where did you end up?.
I'm just about fit enough to start again now so I will see what next week brings in the way of wind and I'll catch up with you
.Cheers
Dixie

Dixie,

Hey bro. Yep it was fun.

Started on a 9m but felt like i was gonna die, so switched to a 6 access and made it all the way to the Tangimoana river mouth & back.
Took me 17 mins to make the 12km to Himitangi and made it to Tangimoana in 33 mins. Was blazing along. The 6 was fully maxed, awesome fum.

Sorry i missed ya, maybe next time.

Butch

Hey Butch..
Just got back to Wgtn Had a good run up to Himitangi yesterday after I saw you... got thumped crossing that stoopid little stream just sth of Himitangi, but good fun. It got a bit scary with me spending a lot of time side slipping and getting generally out of shape (thinking the 4.9m might have been a bit big!)

Managed to get a couple of runs in this morning though..died off from 45km/hr to about 30km/hr just on lunchtime...so got the 2.2m out and headed towards Himitangi again. It was blowin wickedly up there and got a 60.4km/hr top speed...on the 2.2m!!...lol

See ya again soon.
Cheers.

ahhh... I'm so jelious. i had a nice 25 knots westerly but got rained out.... bummer.

wowa fulled maxed on the 6 that must have been like 40knots......

right well my weeked windows are opening up for a little while so if theres low tide mid day and westerly preticted i'll be keen to make the jaunt down if you guys are getting together for a session.

keep me in the loop.

I saw ya on the beach Shane, bout 1 when i got backl home and walked accross the dunes to check out the conditions. by the time id walked back over , got me gear and walked back youd gone. Nevermind, next time. Next westerly im keen to get further than the tangimoana rivermouth, maybe to Santoff forrest.
Had to walk about an hour home yesterday when one of my rims disintegrated and flew off bout 6 km out of Foxton.... gutted.

The wind picked way up around himitangi and by tangimoana i could hardly hold my edge and had the mean back leg burn. Better strengthen that baby up if im gonna make Paraparaumu in the summer.

Butch

I left for 2 reasons..

1. Even the 2.2 was giving me a hard time..I've only been doing this since last summer, so gettin dragged sideways at 60 k/hr was just a bit too scare factor in my kitebuggy infancy! (gimme a motorbike at 240 any day!!)...and

2. I either have the weakest abs (or ab..) on the face of the planet..or I just don't have the buggy set up right...I'm sure it's not supposed to hurt this much the day after!!..lol Next time I see ya, maybe you could have a looksee and see what I've done wrong..or just tell me to harden-the-@#$&-up!

Sorry to hear about your walk back..mind you..them little wheels of yours have to spin that much faster...now wonder they fly apart..I've seen bigger ashtrays!!...lol

Catch ya on the weekend.

abs eh ?

im guessing your holding the handles with out a harness or hard wire system ? that would do it every time , good speed too ...

the 3.8 reactor is missing from your quiver that is the best reactor of all and worth every cent. i had a 2.2 and 3.8 for a while and loved them .

if you get up to auckland at all give us lot a yell and we will gather the troops for some buggy fun and show you our setups which might help.

reactor 2.2 40kmph win speed upwards
reactor 3.8 28 kmph upwards
reactor 4.9 22 kmph upwards

i got away with a yak 6.0 and reactor 3.8 step down and then the 2.2 for higher winds

and now back to your regular program.........

I'm working on the bank manager for the 3.8...lol

I feel doubly shameful now!!..I was using a backstrap last year when I first started, but then got a PL seat harness + pulley spreader bar... I think it's got more to do with the way I have seat set up..I seem to be in a way-too-laid-back seating position. Not so bad if I'm doing short work, but on longer runs it's a bit of a killer. (PL XR Comp MKII standard setup)

And now...back to my sit-ups

jimmy post up pictures of your hardwire to the buggy/quickrelease set up. looks like shane needs one.

ahh the walk of shame.... downer. thought you were fitting up the 10" wheels?

ps shane when you see my wheels yourl go ahhhhh.... those bad boys are definatly not ash trays.

congrats on the reactor 3.8 get a nice new set of 20m lines for it 220/110 if the front lines pop it will tear apart the rear bridles and those lines must be getting on a bit, you just got my old kite , sold to feral in v good nic

im crap at posting pics, hook over to www.popeyethewelder.com and you can see some pics under buggy friends. see you out there one day... maybe the moose meet in october ?

Cheers Jimmy,
I'll give it a once-over when I get it. Have got a brand new line/handle set that came with the 2.2...I'm just swapping the 4.9 lines between the 2 kites if I need to change.

Cheers for the link..will have a look at them a maybe see where I might be able to tweak my setup.

Quick question though....The line that links the handles together and runs through the spreader pulley..how long should it be? (I don't have big ape arms...contrary to what they say about ex-army people).

Just looking at the pics on the site, the line looks way shorter than what I have...which might also explain why I get so bloody uncomfortable on the long runs...having to hold my upper body forward far enough to reach the handles!?

Thoughts?

the smaller kites need a shorter loop,

i think 50cm for the 4.9
45cm for the 3.8
and 40 cm for the 2.2

start with a 45cm one and try it , it does depend on your arms

a longer one will have the advantage of no hurt fingers getting sucked into the pulley.

the one on the 3.8 is one of mine, give it a go


one note DONT use hollow core rope as a lanyard only solid core, the ozone ones are the best i have used so far.