Hi i have been thinking about trying out snowkiting and am ready to take the plunge and buy some gear i dont know what exactly i should pick up since i have never actually had a kite in the air. I recently saw a used ocean rodeo bronco 6m come up for sale in my area the kite is said o be in great consition and it also comes with bar and lines for $245 canadian. Is this size large enough to pull me i am 180lbs and have been snowboarding for years so i aslo am leary to buy a kite with to little power to be really fun. Would this be a good purchase? Any advice, pros or cons i would greatly appreaciate it. Thanks

Hi Rick,

I recommend buying a training kite and learning the basics before moving onto a larger kite. Believe me, a trainer will provide plenty of challenge. Once you have mastered the skills of kite control, then consider taking an introductory lesson. There's a list of trainer kites on the "How To" page:
http://www.snowkiting.com/howto.html

- Eric

Good to hear that you are interested in my favorite way to enjoy the snow and my all time favorite kiting experience! I can't wait to get off of the water and hit the hills this winter.

Dito on the trainer kite. If you can score an HQ Rush Pro 250(with the reverse relaunch 3rd line), you will have a great trainer kite experience. This kite is my skateboard kite and is a blast to cruise around with in open parking lots. The reverse relaunch is not really applicable to inflatable kites, but does teach you the principles of depower foil kiting.

Your concern about to little power is not really an issue on the snow. On the water you must have enough power to kite in a given wind speed, but that is not the case with most snow conditions. On the water you have a "planing release" speed that must be over come by the kite. This is around 10mph of board speed. If you are below this, the resistance of the water that you are sitting in is too high to allow you to do anything but get dragged downwind.

On snow, especially on skis, you need many times less power to start moving and even edge upwind. With a snowboard, you do need enough power to get up off of the ground, but I can do that with a 3m depower kite in about 15-18mph of wind and I weigh 100kgs (220lbs). So a 6m kite is not undersized for 90% of the snow conditions you will encounter.

In deep powder, you may find that you would need a similarly large kite as you would use on water. At my weight, I use a 12.5m foil most of the time in powder conditions. But on frozen lakes and most wind blown plains, the snow will be wind blow hardpack that you can really enjoy underpowered.

If you are on a frozen lake with thin snow and just learning, you need to make sure you have a smaller kite. Along with some knee pads, a smaller kite will keep your knee caps in one piece.

The overall wisdom of snowkiting is that you use a smaller kite until you become advanced. And even then, you can still get away with a smaller kite than you would use on water.

I agree, a trainer kite is probably the best place to start.

My first kite was a Beamer 3.5 which is and I quickly learned the meaning of "hot launch".

When the wind is between 10 and 20 mph this 3.5 meter kite is great for learning.

followed your advice about trainer kite and I am so happy about it. Thanks.

Good to know that someone listens. I did not listen to this same advice and I insisted that my retailer supply me with a kite that was too big to be a trainer. Now that kite is just sitting around for parts and I am the proud owner of 2 - 250 Rush Pro III's, 1 - 350 Rush Pro III and a 350 Hydra. I use all of these trainers but my original 4m traction kite that I purchased as my first trainer is useless.

Any ideas on how to stop the following mentality? - "I just want to try the sport and not invest a lot of money in it with a trainer and a big kite. So I will get something in the middle".

I could not stop me from doing that or thinking that way.

Get a trainer first. Keep the trainer. Use the trainer again once you are good with a full sized depower kite.