Indoor Rev: introduction by John Barresi

Transcript

1. ›

   The indoor Rev and its sail area

   0:00

   Welcome to our first indoor Rev tutorial. Behind me you can see the actual indoor Revs, as well as a B2, or Rev 2-class size, that has been custom fitted for indoor flying. We will do some later tutorials on the B2 class, because it is a lot smaller and trickier and some of the techniques you use to fly it are a little different. In this first series, we are going to cover the indoor Rev specifically. It is made especially for indoor flying, and what makes it so advantageous is the huge amount of sail area it has compared to the very low weight of its frame. It is very, very light, and because of its large sail area it creates a great deal of pressure, and that is what allows it to fly.

   I am going to work under the assumption that those of you watching may never have seen or been introduced to the dynamics of indoor flying before.

2. ›

   How a kite flies without wind

   0:57

   So what I want to explain first is how a kite flies indoors, when of course there is no wind. The simple way to look at it is that wind, as we experience it outside, is air just like the air I have here, except that it is in motion because of the elements, pressure and temperature. Indoors the same air exists, but it is not moving. If the wind is typically moving like this, then indoors we will move ourselves to create that same amount of wind. You might be surprised to know that it takes no more than one to three miles per hour of walking speed to let a kite fly indoors. That is then accentuated by the additional pull we can give to build up the pressure, and you will see that come into play as we go through the different tutorials.

3. ›

   How the controls work

   1:45

   Here is how the indoor Rev works. I will give you a side view of the kite so you can see it. When you pull on it, it pressurizes, and you can see the sail bow outward, particularly here in the center near the V, as it cuts and grabs the wind, just like that. Once the kite is pressurized, that pressure has to go somewhere. When we pull our top lines slightly more toward us, like this, the pressure goes out the bottom and the kite flies forward. If we pull the bottom tips a little more and pressurize it, that drives the wind up off the leading edge and the kite flies backward. And if you use just one turn control, the kite will of course spin and rotate. That is the basic principle.

4. ›

   Flying from a chair

   2:36

   When you become very adept at indoor flying, you can actually be stationary, in a chair or on your knees, and fly in place, just by keeping the kite in the right range of motion around you so that you can always pull away with your hands, driving the kite into a new position from which you can drive away again. With enough practice you can fly without a lot of movement, so it becomes very casual. It is a sort of mysterious concept when you first start learning, but with some of the dynamics we will describe in the tutorials, I think you will find it comes to you pretty readily.

5. ›

   Handles, knots and hand position

   3:12

   The other thing I want to show you is the type of handles we are using. These are the traditional indoor Rev handles: fairly straight, with the slight bend as usual, then the leaders on top and the series of knots we use for adjustment. For those of you getting your first indoor Rev, I would suggest starting on the last knot, with usually one knot below it. You will typically want to hold the handles near the top of the foam, but as you spend more time and get comfortable with your kite, you will develop your own style. That is a good place to start.

   When you make inputs, they are going to be fairly small, like this. When you fly, also make sure to keep your hands well in front of you. You do not want to spread them out a great deal. The indoor Rev does not respond as well when you spread them more than about this far, unless you are doing a deep slide or something I will show you. For general flying, keep your hands in front of you and not too far apart, because if you pull too far apart the kite ends up turning sideways. As we described, we control the kite by angling it: if you turn it completely sideways, it has no pressure, so you can put in all the turn input you want, but if you have pulled too far, the kite will not respond.

6. ›

   Indoor handles compared with outdoor ones

   4:44

   Now, having covered that, I also want to show you the outdoor handles that are available through Revolution. They have a really nice finish on the top. I will put two of them side by side so you can see the difference: there is quite a difference in the angle of the handles and in the overall length. They produce different levels of response in your kite. I think the indoor handles make the brake lines a little jumpier, a little touchier, and I look at them rather like controlling a marionette. With the outdoor handles, the indoor Rev responds a little more like an outdoor Rev. But do not be fooled: it is a completely different animal.

7. ›

   How to use the series

   5:32

   One more thing: in the various topics we will cover in this series, some things may feel partly left unanswered in one tutorial and then another. The trick with indoor Rev flying is that the skills are so interrelated that if we covered every aspect of a skill in one video, we would end up talking in circles and covering twelve different items in one video anyway. So I really recommend that you browse the entire series as it becomes available. For example, watch the whole series, go and practice, then watch it again in a different order, and you will start to see how one aspect relates to another and feel the gaps being filled as you apply it, review it, apply it and review it again. Practice is the name of the game.

   That is our basic introduction to indoor Revs. We will get into more detail on the basic controls when we are actually flying. Other than that, I just ask that you enjoy the tutorials. I always welcome feedback, and you can find the entire collection on learnkites.com, with an additional reservoir of videos in the KiteLife subscriber section. As always, we thank you for your support, and I hope you learn lots from what we are showing you here.