Kites from Another Planet

We have a good range of kites available in stock, in a choice of 1, 2, or 4 lines. Single-line kites are great for kids, because they give a good effort/fun ratio, but for older kids (i.e. adults)  2 lines or 4 line kites will provide lots more entertainment.

What's The Difference?

A single line kite mostly just goes up and down, without a lot of control. 2 and 4 liners can be made to climb and dive, which means you can use them to do tricks or pull a buggy. 4 line kites are more controllable than 2 liners, with the extra lines going to the trailing edge of the kite to give finer control. This is handy for getting the kite into the best section of sky for generating power, and also means you can do tricks that involve spinning the kite.

Safety

Here' the serious bit - kites are lots of fun, but like most things that are, there's potential for injury. Follow the basics, like not flying around lightning storms, Ben Franklin style, or near power lines, numpty style. Don't fly kites near lots of people - kites can travel at high speed, and if you're learning, may get out of control quickly and slice bits off spectators. If you're buggying, become competent with the kite you plan to use before sitting in the buggy, and protect any appendages that may get damaged in contact with Planet Earth. Don't let kids fly big kites on windy days, and although jumping can be a real hoot, don't use a kite for parascending or paragliding. We can help you do that really safely, see the paragliding pages.

The Stock

At the moment, we've got a few different brands in stock - World famous Flexifoil has a wide range of 2 & 4 liners, with the 2 line choice including stunt kites or parafoils. Their stunt kites have carbon fibre frames, and perform in winds of up to 30mph so if you can't fly your paraglider, you can still have some fun trying to master these. Parafoils are not as finely controllable as stunt kites, and are often used for pulling buggies but are still good fun on their own. The parafoil range can be stacked, so you can add more kites and more pulling power as your skills develop. Flexifoil's range of 4 liners starts with the Skytiger, a good, solid traction kite, and a new addition to the range is the Blade - in sizes from 2sqm up to 9sqm and flyable with 2 or 4 lines, it's a zippy turner that provides excellent traction.

In addition, If you buy a Flexifoil kite from us, you get free spare parts for the first month - just when you'll need them.

There's a selection of single line kites as well, ranging from the smallest mini box kites to spinning UFOs, with the well known Pockite in a couple of different sizes. These kites are a good present for kids as they spark an interest in kites and other things that fly.

The chap who developed kite buggies as they are today, is Peter Lynn, from the country that gave you the Four Minute Mile, split the atom and invented Vegemite - New Zealand. He's recently developed a new type of kite, the C-Quad, which is a 4 liner, but is a single surface kite. Other kites like the Parafoil, Skytiger and Blade are double surface kites, that rely on air entering the front of the kite to keep the aerofoil shape necessary to create lift. However, this can cause problems if the kite gets wet when you're at the beach, or learning to kite surf , because the top and bottom sufaces can stick together. Peter Lynn has developed this single surface kite which is very manoeuvrable, and for its size, generates a lot of lift. It comes in sizes from 2.2 m up to 8.2m and magically folds away into a circular carry bag.

Flying Toys

We also have a great range of flying toys in our toys section