Had a bit of a back to school day with my new (to me) 2012 13m Rebel. I bought this kite as my light wind kite and thought I would give it a go on a light wind day (expected forecast was to pick up by 3-4 knots as over the next hour).

My first mistake was in deciding to rig up and get launched when I wasn't sure there was enough wind.
My second mistake was not coming straight back in when I realised I was just going downwind, as I had just picked up a gust so was keen to have another run.
My third mistake was in letting the kite drop too low when body dragging back in again.

Okay so now I'm in the classic upside down kite sitting on it's leading edge position. No problems, I think, North bang on about how the 5th line will give me unprecedented relaunch capabilities. Its also worth pointing out that I'm in harness deep water so I decide this is the time to have an experiment, so I'm not in a dangerous situation.

What I believe the technique to be:
- grab the front lines and walk/swim towards the kite so it rolls over onto the top of the canopy.
- gently tease one steering line so that the kite moves round to the side of the wind window and then launches.

What happens:
- grab the front lines and walk/swim towards the kite so it rolls over
- gently tease one steering line so that the kite moves round to the side of the wind window, and tumbles over.

Now with my other 4 line kites, in similar wind I would be able to do a reverse launch (quite used to this from land boarding) but the rebel seems to be to higher (?) aspect so this wasn't working.

Now I have tried this technique successfully with Rebels in more favorable wind conditions and its worked. But whats the missing trick in marginal winds?

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weebitbreezy said..
Had a bit of a back to school day with my new (to me) 2012 13m Rebel. I bought this kite as my light wind kite and thought I would give it a go on a light wind day (expected forecast was to pick up by 3-4 knots as over the next hour).

My first mistake was in deciding to rig up and get launched when I wasn't sure there was enough wind.
My second mistake was not coming straight back in when I realised I was just going downwind, as I had just picked up a gust so was keen to have another run.
My third mistake was in letting the kite drop too low when body dragging back in again.

Okay so now I'm in the classic upside down kite sitting on it's leading edge position. No problems, I think, North bang on about how the 5th line will give me unprecedented relaunch capabilities. Its also worth pointing out that I'm in harness deep water so I decide this is the time to have an experiment, so I'm not in a dangerous situation.

What I believe the technique to be:
- grab the front lines and walk/swim towards the kite so it rolls over onto the top of the canopy.
- gently tease one steering line so that the kite moves round to the side of the wind window and then launches.

What happens:
- grab the front lines and walk/swim towards the kite so it rolls over
- gently tease one steering line so that the kite moves round to the side of the wind window, and tumbles over.

Now with my other 4 line kites, in similar wind I would be able to do a reverse launch (quite used to this from land boarding) but the rebel seems to be to higher (?) aspect so this wasn't working.

Now I have tried this technique successfully with Rebels in more favorable wind conditions and its worked. But whats the missing trick in marginal winds?

In light winds the kite will usually not move to and sit at the side of the window nicely.
It usually has to be launched from deeper in the window, so it is a case of bar out, use a rear line to get the kite on its side and tilted slightly back, then let the line go and keep the bar sheeted out enough to get the maximum lift that deep in the window.

Firstly you don't need to "walk/swim towards the kite" just pull some 5th line to roll it over.

Then once it is about half way onto it's back start steering with one of the back lines.
Once the kite has rolled onto a wingtip try to steer it out of the water before it reaches the edge of the window. In extremely light wind I will also keep a small amount of 5th line pulled to give the kite better climbing abilities when it just leaves the water.

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BrisKites said..
Firstly you don't need to "walk/swim towards the kite" just pull some 5th line to roll it over.

Then once it is about half way onto it's back start steering with one of the back lines.
Once the kite has rolled onto a wingtip try to steer it out of the water before it reaches the edge of the window. In extremely light wind I will also keep a small amount of 5th line pulled to give the kite better climbing abilities when it just leaves the water.

Thanks. That was what I was looking for. I was attempting something pretty similar. I'll have another go some time. I guess I was trying to get the kite too close to the side of the window before relaunching in comparison to the wind strength.

Select to expand quote

weebitbreezy said..

BrisKites said..
Firstly you don't need to "walk/swim towards the kite" just pull some 5th line to roll it over.

Then once it is about half way onto it's back start steering with one of the back lines.
Once the kite has rolled onto a wingtip try to steer it out of the water before it reaches the edge of the window. In extremely light wind I will also keep a small amount of 5th line pulled to give the kite better climbing abilities when it just leaves the water.

Thanks. That was what I was looking for. I was attempting something pretty similar. I'll have another go some time. I guess I was trying to get the kite too close to the side of the window before relaunching in comparison to the wind strength.

Good luck, with a bit of practice you should be able to launch a 13m in hardly any wind.