It’s maybe been 14 years since I flew one of these bars, being at home for a longer period of time than usual got me digging through the mass of antique equipment in my garage and wondering what would be fun to relive.
This bar was a classic, Shaun and myself wanted to make our 4line kites fly like a 2line kites after watching one too many Lou Wainman Maui videos. Shaun Craike was my kiting buddy at the time, we were the only two kids in the area that kited and we were out there every single day trying to learn wakeboard tricks in the waves. Thinking back to that time I can’t believe how persistent we were, there are no good flatwater spots around here and all the tricks we ever learned we learned in between waves, or off them (a story for another time). To be honest, I don’t even remember now if it was something Shaun and myself were serious about or if it was all just a big laugh, but this bar got a little bit of service between the Pulley Bar to Chicken Loop cross over phase and then quickly retired. I do remember one time giving my kite connected to one to Keahi at the (2006?) Caloundra National titles and it threw him onto a rock and he hurt his foot (He’d need to qualify that for me, but I remember something along those lines). Trying this thing out again was actually super fun, it made me realize just how easy kiting has become! You forget that not that long ago gusty wind was a real issue and when the wind picked up you really had to hold a good edge or you’d get out of control. I don’t think I can even describe just how different that is to people without them trying it themselves. If you want a small taste of it though, rig a stopper ball up on your bar and pull it the whole way down so you have zero depower, ride that around for a full session and see how you feel! hahaha.
Honestly, this thing was a blast and worked super well on the AMP (even better than I remember) but I’m sure 15years better kite tech certainly helped things. Will I ride it again? Maybe. Will I ride it often? Probably not.
— Alexander James Lewis-Hughes.