By Alexis Jamison

Power kites are kites which are large in size and created to allow for a great deal of pull to the user. This allows them to be used for pulling people and things, such as surf/snow boards, roller skates, landboards and even small buggies. They are used for lifting people higher in the air to do tricks, stunts, or to help someone out of a jam. They can also be used simply as larger kites to fly in the sky such as for competitions. Power kites have their origins in the nineteen seventies when people began experimenting with power kites to create a new way to move through the sky. Nowadays, power kites come in several different varieties and in all shapes and sizes, depending on what you want to use them for. They come in sizes starting at one and a half meters square and going up to twenty meters square-the larger ones are best used in lower wind speeds. Power kites are also known as traction kites.

Trainer kites come in different types as well, and these types vary by usefulness in a given situation. Foil kites are used for land based kite recreation, such as snowboarding and landboarding. Leading edge inflatable kites are designed to have bladders with air to hold their shape. They are best used for water sports because the air cells allow the kite to float and they deflate very slowly. They are between five and eighteen meters square. Supporting edge kites are simply leading edge kites with more support so they are more easily steered. Power kites can also have different support structures, generally in the amount of guide strings they have (between two and five), handles or a bar, and control systems, such as whether or not they have brakes and how well they turn. All in all, power kites come in a variety of forms and you can easily find one to suit your needs and what you intend to use them for.

The use of Trainer kites should come with lessons, especially if you are going to be doing things like surfing or boarding. These recreational activities require a certain amount of training and instruction in order to use safely and it's a lot easier and quicker to learn how to use the kites with training rather than through trial and error. Many recreational centers as well as stores which specialize in power kites offer instruction in their use and they generally advise you take at least some instruction before starting out on your own. It's also advised that you spend some time simply flying your kite in order to get a feel for it rather than diving straight in. This way, you're prepared for your lessons and will be able to do a lot more with the instructions you're given.

Power kites are an excellent way to get extra hang time when you are surfing and boarding and power kite surfing is a popular twist on an already popular sport. Power kite boarding is a little newer, but no less popular for it. If you enjoy the thought of flying through the air with nothing more than a kite, then power kites may be the perfect thing for you to use.

By Robert G Murray

Amongst the myriad of terms that describe kiteboarding kites lay a few that cause great confusion. The terms traction kite, trainer kite, and traction-trainer kite are often thrown about freely, yet no one ever clarifies their definition. What exactly are these types of kites, and how do they differ from each other? Without further ado, let's clarify this issue.

A traction kite is any kite that provides a lot of pull for the user, regardless of size. A small kite used in high winds can be a traction kite, provided that it fulfills the former requirement; a large kite in low winds is also a traction kite, because it certainly generates a lot of pulling force. A kite can vary anywhere between 2 m2 and 100 m2 and be considered a traction kite as long as it provides enough pulling force - its size does not matter.

A trainer kite is a small kite that varies between 1 m2 and 3.6 m2, and is used to teach kite handling basics. A key requirement with this type of kite is to not be so powerful that it overwhelms the user - it needs to be small enough to be safe for an inexperienced flyer. Any kite that is too powerful, usually anything larger than 3.6 m2, is not considered a trainer kite.

So, what is a traction-trainer? A traction-trainer is any kite that is small enough to be a trainer kite, yet is large enough to generate large amounts of pulling force; trainer kites that range between 1 m2 and 2 m2 are too small to do this in most conditions. However, trainer kites between 2 m2 and 3.6 m2 can easily produce massive amounts of power and can be classified as traction-trainer kites - kites in this size range are commonly used to pull snowboards, skis, rollerblades, and landboards.

It is easy to see how traction kites, trainer kites, and traction-trainer kites can be confusing. Each term describes a kite that fulfills different requirements, and these requirements only overlap in a very narrow range - the size range between 2 m2 and 3.6 m2 that defines traction-trainer kites. Outside of these sizes, traction kites and trainer kites are very different things. With that, we understand the difference between these types of kites!