I have to agree with you on all of this. You seem to have changed your tune to "it is not the best, but it is fun". That is what it is really about - doing what you want to because a kite allows you to use such wide range of devices to perform such a wide range of riding styles/feelings. Top end performance can be debated and pretty much decided upon. The best "feeling" is completely subjective and can never be nailed down, even for yourself as it is likely to change for you.Greenturtle wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2018 6:35 amI don't feel held back by adding the longboard to the quiver of kiteboards. On the contrary it opens possibilities to more styles and conditions. Such as catching small unbroken swells with kite depowered, then getting upwind again, when only few minutes before, barely holding ground on 160cm door. (Maybe you guys use bigger ones?)
Riding longboard with kite is similar to surfing it, move feet around on the board a lot to dial in. As for upwind drive, move feet forward keeping the nose down. Then engage the full length of the rail.
It’s cumbersome compared to door, no question, and its very slow compared to foil, but it does some different things, and needs very little power to shine.
I really only bring it up because a lot of people already own one. Or can be purchased cheap at a garage sale. Not true for foils.
I like all kinds of boards pretty much equally for what they do (including door), and love changing up during sessions as conditions or mood changes. I like to foil too but don’t always like being limited to deep and weed free water, and I personally can’t ride one in the surf.
On a side note: Doors and other large surface area boards have kind of hit a wall on length up around 160cm. A major limitation is the centered stance and the limits of leverage over the effective tail length it imposes. For a time, it seemed that the direction of LW TT's were going to shorter lengths with wider widths. Reverse or "snowboard sidecut" boards seem to require more length. And that is likely why both standard sidecut TT's still exist and have a following, along with reverse sidecut TT's.
I would love to try out a "Surfdoor" as I have no experience with reverse sidecut on a surfboard.