yeah the 4 line trainer is the one! it will also cross-over to a snow kite later on if you move into that when the snow comes (and its windy).

as already mentioned the 4 lines and LEI are what you are working with once you progress so a foil is irrelevant after 5 mins! (unless you want to buggy ...

besides the hockey helmuts with duc tape.... (which i'm sure are original's so if i got one of those it wouldnt be original...unless i used another color duc tape?)

what is everyone using? i have been meaning to get one for ages, all the ones i have tried dont seem to work for one reason or ...

i dont know the launch @ where you were.... we made a un written rule at my previous kite beach where by we asked all kiters to not hook in until your well into the water. so you launch your kite unhooked with the kite by the waters edge (and your board) and then hook in once your on the water ...

sound on this clip is a telephone interview with the guy flying the kite after the event....he mentions the big black clouds over head and how he just keeps getting sucked up. had some skydiving skills so he was trying to pick his spot to land and get out of the thermal. he landed hard but walked ...

if you havent seen this clip yet its worth a sticky beak <peek>

http://www.naish.tv/home_tv.html click on serious airtime

if you scroll to orewa sessions and shoal bay are probably to 2 best to check out....we kite in shorts downunder......

http://www.windsurfing.co.nz/goodies.html

cher bro

well for each occassion there can be different scenarios..... beyond a doubt from my experience the safest practice is to wrap your lines around the bar, pretty tough to do with no safety hooked on your harness. so (as a suggestion if it ever was to happen again...) you could land the kite leading ...

kitesurferdale has some good advise for coming back to where you started from. to add to that....if your having a hard time controling your speed you often end up downwind faaaaaast, so get your ass in the water (physically) when you feel like your going to fast and control your speed if that helps ...