[ricki]

My point about the flat kites is to not necessarily pick a small one up for use as a trainer BUT to consider buying a full sized one when you are ready for moving into kiteboarding. The flat kites seem to have a number of advantatges over conventional C kites, all that power dumping for a big one when you are ready to go on the water with a full sized kite.

For an undersized trainer, it seems like a very small flat kite, although it will provide valuble insight into how flat kites handle would likely be a fairly expensive learning tool prior to moving to a full sized kitesurfing kite. This may change in time.

Starting with a trainer like one from SS is the way to go. You DON'T want to mess around with a full sized kitesurfing kite onshore but want to save that for smaller, less powerful foils and perhaps a 5 m LEI.

I haven't used four line trainers that I can recall anyway. Four line foils flown on handles offer some advantages for reverse launch as opposed to a two line foil flown on a bar. Then again, very few guys use handles for kitesurfing these days. So, I am not sure that I would bother with the four line foil trainers.