just hook it onto the centre line that runs through the bar (the black plastic-coated one). there should be a red ring between the bar and the chicken loop. attach the leash between the ring and the chicken loop. the ring stops the leash clip from messing up the bar when you unhook (which at your stage and on a xbow3 you should avoid).

the flagging ring is only relevant for self-landing in dodgy conditions. if you must attach to it i suggest doing it at the end of your session, still in the water with kite at 12. that way you can transfer the leash from centre-line to flagging ring with minimum risk, although if your arms are less than four feet long, you'll need to grab the centre line (below the bar with the bar right out) to pull the ring within reach.

xbow3 is excellent for learning at early stages, great relaunch and depower but as soon as you're comfortable holding ground upwind and riding toeside i'd suggest a lighter bar-pressure, faster-turning kite if you can afford it. meantime, enjoy that seven-strutted 2:1 beast.

there's heaps of depower on the bar when you push past the stopper. enough to take care of basically any situation other than breaking a front line, but if that happens it's a 50/50 chance that its your flagging line anyway.

you can also put it on the flagging ring if/when you have to self-launch and are not confident/experienced with this.

you can ride with the leash on the flagging ring if you really want but you'll just have the twisting issues mentioned in first post.

check your gear for wear regularly, check your lines aren't twisted when you set up and you can avoid most of the scenarios that would require instant flagging (broken and twisted lines).

and keep asking questions and practising launch, land and safety techniques in light wind on a beach with lots of clear space until you're clear about what to do if the sh!t ever does hit the fan.

DANEgerous said...

This is something I've been thinking about for my Naish. Could you not use an off cut of kite line (or similar), and run it down through the bar and attach on the end of it. Or am I missing something that would make this an obvious hazard?

Yes, you are missing something. Whatever you attach to the flagging line must pass through the bar otherwise it will get stuck on top of the bar and you may well have a spinning out of control kite and will need to completely release.

It may be possible to rig a below the bar depower system, but not a flagging system. The depower system will be as effective as the primary safety you kite was designed to have, when the bar is released, if you have a Boxer/Cult08/09helix08/08/09.
It is simpler to just clip your leash around the silver centre lines, between the bar and chicken loop.
The primary safety still functions, your primary safety is to let go of the bar, same with the Cabrinha SB3 (and all IDS and IDSX kites).

Primary safety is let go of the bar, there is not need to have the leash clipped to a flagging line, above the bar, all the time and in fact it is not recommended.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve