Hi all
Well, last weekend I finally got fed up with the lack of wind and/or opportunity to fly, so I made up a rough set of 8' lines of 90# and took my full sail outside to attempt some zero wind / street / indoor style flying.
In hindsight, I think I should have made 12' lines, but it was too late for that. It was the first time I flew a rev at night (done it with power kites) and on such short lines and with no wind at all, but I had a great time - even managed to do a few 360's since there was no wind.
My question is what things should I be working on?
I'm still developing my skills in the wind on longer lines, so I don't have the muscle memory to fly many things without thought yet. As a result my mind was racing in the moment to try figure out what I needed to do. I very quickly fell back to deciding what I wanted to do while I was on the ground, thinking about the inputs required to achieve it and then launching and trying to fly it out. This worked much better (although things were very rough and messy) and even my girlfriend managed to do a 360 and land nicely.
I'll make a rough set of 12' lines to give myself more time to think before my next attempt. Aside from that, given the fact that I'm flying with a full sail 1.5 in little to no wind with the ultimate goal of wanting to do street and maybe indoors, what would you guys suggest I work on?
Watty, I believe you're required to reply to this 
Paul covered the most important part of street kiting, and that is safety. I do not recommend street kiting in any populated area, until you feel you are really up to the task.
The best place to start would be indoors. Take whatever you want to use on the streets into a gymnasium (or whatever type of indoor space) and practice. Pop in the headphones, play around and experiment. This area is your "control". Here, the conditions are always perfect (unless someone opens a window or something), so you must use this perfect space to get accustomed to the difference in flying style.
The next step would be to take it outdoors to a place that would not normally seem ideal to fly a kite, and is not very populated. I liked to go fly my Rev 1.5 on 30' lines in the front yard. This takes away that perfect "control" space and throws in the variable of nature. The front yard is beautiful for this because, unless your front yard is park, it is somewhat confined, and the wind is inconsistent. This allows you to take what you learned indoors, and learn how to use the bits of wind to your advantage. You can often combine the style of flying indoors with flying outdoors. If there is a breeze blowing in one direction, there is no sense in fighting it. Fly to that part of the wind window and play there. A lot of the time, street kiting can be all about keeping up with the changing wind, and changing with it. The heavier the wind, the more difficult this is.
After you can confidently fly in these two spots while listening to music and not thinking about where your hands are, or whatever, then you might be ready to fly in town. If you are flying around people, you do not want your mind to be focusing on where your hands are, but where the kite is, where all the people are, and how you are going to fly without touching anyone.
Now onto line sets,
The shorty-short lines can pull off some crazy cool stuff, but can be very difficult to manage, and really limit how much space you have to fly around obstacles. Lately, I have been using 20 foot line sets indoors the majority of the time, because they give me a lot more room to fly precise maneuvers. Unfortunately, a lot of indoor flying venues do not have enough room for a 20' line set.
For street kiting, there is an extra variable to keep in mind for selecting line sets. This is the wind. Shorter lines will be easier to use in heavier swirling winds because you can move from different parts of the wind window more quickly. If the wind suddenly starts blowing into your face, it is much easier to turn around on 8 foot lines than it is on 30 foot lines. Honestly, if I can get away with it, I love to use 30 foot lines for street kiting. This length gives me plenty of room to play. unfortunately, there are those situations as Paul mentioned earlier where the wind is a tad crazy. The 30 foot lines could become a problem in these conditions.
I hope this helps,
~Spencer "Watty" Watson
