Hmm, I didn't hear anyone mention splicing in a soft shackle to the head of the halyard? I've done that on my last two halyards and its worked great! Very clean. I do the soft shackle first and then strip the core out of the cover to make sure I get the length correct and then cut off the extra cover to provide the tail for the kite.

Here is the youtube link for the integrated softshackle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRKOkYqWpug