What is your 100% fun low end?

[Starsky]

OT

Buggy, no thanks. I'm sure its fun for a lot of people, but I'm always looking for that sideways stance carving sensation, and I just cant imagine lugging that thing out when I can just throw a board in the trunk. All the usual suspects went through a landboard stage here way back when the addiction was new. We were looking for anything that would get us more sessions. Might just be our location, but the grass is always lumpy, full of gopher holes, rocks, and usually just too small an area. The wind is crap, obstructed and holey making big airs way too risky, and there are no beach options without a tree line making it a tiny narrow strip of usable sand. Besides, If there is a beach..... there are waves. Anyway, tried it, as did a bunch of others. None of us stuck with it. Routinely see used landboards pop up on the regional kite sites and crack a smile knowing someone else has just gone through the same stage.

The only novelty fun I will go back to on the right days are a 3m trainer with either a skateboard on good surface, or skates on good ice. Those can be fun, unhooked tooling around, but they cant hold a candle to good snow or water. Scratch the itch, but I cant say I have ever caught myself daydreaming of either.

The foil is simply the best answer yet. The feel of carving that wing with the subtle vertical component of flight is exactly the type of sensation I'm seeking. To me its simply better than wheels on ground. Good snow can give you that bliss, but its so rare. Good waves are probably my favorite, but also rare, Slicks can be amazing, and foiling kind of combines aspects of each in conditions that on any other board can only be described as choppy and or underpowered.

Doors, 21m kites, even the North Nugget, These are evolutionary dead ends compared to the mutation that is the foil. Thank you Carafino, thank you Philippe Caneri, thank you to the race scene, the French and to Greg Drexler. Thanks to all of you for leading the way. I am diggin what you have done for us.

[PullStrings]

Enlighten us on your 100% fun in 9 knots set up.... What size kite?

You are asking the wrong question
It's similar to foilboarding
It's all about the board first and foremost
Then how much practice one gets to ride 9 knots
The weight of rider
The type of water fresh or salt
Type of wind steady or up and down
Then finally the kite size ( usually it is 5 sqm more than a foilboarder in that wind)

Some hate big kites but will put up with one meter long mast water starting up to their chest
Some prefer 4 1/2" inch Quad fins but will put up with big kites and water start calf deep

[PullStrings]

now when I ride nothing but a Drifter 5.5 and my custom Lift when everyone else is out there on Zephyr 17M and SB.
I ride the 5.5 exclusively.
But they still sit on the beach and look

Talk about your 100% fun low end wind speed please.
You are on a 5.5 sqm correct ?

Here my expert foilboarding friend puts up a 8 sqm to ride in 13 knots ....so how come people w/17 + surfboard envy you...there is plenty of wind for everyone
So you ride in "............" knots

[Regis-de-giens]

My personnal feedback, knowing that I weight only 60 kg and have a large front wing (Ketos Easy):

- As soon as My Speed2 Silver Arrow 15m stays in the air, I have plenty (almost too much) of power once above the water ; it correspond to approx 6-7 knots according to wind meter and local wind record (even if at such low values figures are not accurate, my second wind metter was giving 5 knots ...). I made a short video as it is easier to deduce the low wind speed from the glassy water :
https://vimeo.com/160720130
Enough speed and traction is present with this low wind and huge kite (look at the full trim and slack rear lines at the end of the video with same wind) , however I do not have the skills for any transitions so I stop and re-waterstart.

- But such a large foil kite is very long to rotate, hence fun is higher with my speed4 lotus 10m, which I can use from 7-8 knots

Again, low weigth and light wind large foil wing.

[Starsky]

You are asking the wrong question

Am I? I was pretty specific... You dodged.

My biggest kite is a really quick 12m..... Haven't owned a bigger in 6 years. Now I can rig a 9m in 14 knots. There isn't a 17m on the planet that doesn't feel like a tanker in comparison. What good is a nimble board when your limited by the pace of your kite?

It's similar to foilboarding
It's all about the board first and foremost

No its not. I have a number of boards, love em all, but they need the right kite. In fact, my nimble surfboard.... 9m max. My TT..... preferably C kites. I have no desire to foil with an 18m. Took strutless agility just to get me on a 12m. Beside, its not even about a board anymore. Its wings and you really cant offer a valid opinion on what its like to ride em apart from it doesn't look appealing to you. I get that part. Didn't look like much fun to me either. Most vids look like paint drying, thankfully its very experiential and full of nuance that you just cant understand from the sidelines. You don't have to get one, but until you put in the time to learn it your input on the subject is well, out of touch with reality.

[plummet]

EDIT: username is bullet here.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2387989&p=877162&hi ... tb#p877162

Might seem fringe to NZ but there are loads of guys doing all that in the UK and the US...

I've never once seen carl the bullet post anything about kite buggying sand dunes!.. and he's a prolific uploader of video's. Hes a free styler on flat beaches in the UK. I also haven't seen him post up longboard skating vids either, but I suspect he probably does that too.

I can't recall any US or UK buggiers discussing riding sand dunes.

Seems like your talking it up out your arse when you don't actually know what ya talking about.

[PullStrings]

Didn't look like much fun to me either.
Most vids look like paint drying

Hey after seeing it in person for 2 years the novelty has dried out.
Your fresh water season is real short so you need to maximize your time on the water so that sport is for you .

[plummet]

OT

Buggy, no thanks. I'm sure its fun for a lot of people, but I'm always looking for that sideways stance carving sensation, and I just cant imagine lugging that thing out when I can just throw a board in the trunk. All the usual suspects went through a landboard stage here way back when the addiction was new. We were looking for anything that would get us more sessions. Might just be our location, but the grass is always lumpy, full of gopher holes, rocks, and usually just too small an area. The wind is crap, obstructed and holey making big airs way too risky, and there are no beach options without a tree line making it a tiny narrow strip of usable sand. Besides, If there is a beach..... there are waves. Anyway, tried it, as did a bunch of others. None of us stuck with it. Routinely see used landboards pop up on the regional kite sites and crack a smile knowing someone else has just gone through the same stage.

The only novelty fun I will go back to on the right days are a 3m trainer with either a skateboard on good surface, or skates on good ice. Those can be fun, unhooked tooling around, but they cant hold a candle to good snow or water. Scratch the itch, but I cant say I have ever caught myself daydreaming of either.

The foil is simply the best answer yet. The feel of carving that wing with the subtle vertical component of flight is exactly the type of sensation I'm seeking. To me its simply better than wheels on ground. Good snow can give you that bliss, but its so rare. Good waves are probably my favorite, but also rare, Slicks can be amazing, and foiling kind of combines aspects of each in conditions that on any other board can only be described as choppy and or underpowered.

Doors, 21m kites, even the North Nugget, These are evolutionary dead ends compared to the mutation that is the foil. Thank you Carafino, thank you Philippe Caneri, thank you to the race scene, the French and to Greg Drexler. Thanks to all of you for leading the way. I am diggin what you have done for us.

Oh yeah, you definately need the right beach for landboarding. Riding rocky strewen goffer holed grass in gusty inland field. I wouldn't do it either.
Truth be told i've done landboarding to death. Been doing it for 11 years. But there is still a place for it for me and thats 12-16 knots on the on the beach jumping boulders and big puddles. It is still more fun that grovelling along on a TT in those winds.

Yep. Buggies are a pain in the arse to transport. Again you need the right terrain. They do offer the fastest speed you can do on a kite however! So its good for the speed junky. Also if you have the luxury of sand dunes then it takes kiting 3d. 3D is super cool. Thats way waves are fun, Snow kiting i'm guess is super fun.

I'm hunkering for the 3d nature of a hydrofoil when i can afford one. However my local is not ideal for hydofoil, rocky shore with boulders randomly scattered around the place usually heavy swell. But I do see a place for the hydrofoil on balmy seabreeze days with buggar all swell... mmmmh.

[Flyboy]

I get your stoke man, from feeling the same way about it. I have been in the same position here on the Gold Coast from when I started and had to go through the learning process.. to now when I ride nothing but a Drifter 5.5 and my custom Lift when everyone else is out there on Zephyr 17M and SB. The video below is from Feb this year and I ride the 5.5 exclusively.

But they still sit on the beach and look, but refuse to try it.. it baffles me . Fortunately there's a couple of mate now starting, on different brands.. each to his own

http://youtu.be/HxcTDraVuzM

Nice video, but I've got to tell: you live in a shithole ... you need to get out!

What you can do & when you do it & why, surely has a lot to do with your local situation. If you live on Maui, you might reach a point at which you would only choose to go out & & surf/kite/windsurf when it's double-overhead. Living somewhere with a long, hard winter, that first spring session mowing the lawn in 15 kts, is heaven. There are no absolutes.

[Sir V]

I get your stoke man, from feeling the same way about it. I have been in the same position here on the Gold Coast from when I started and had to go through the learning process.. to now when I ride nothing but a Drifter 5.5 and my custom Lift when everyone else is out there on Zephyr 17M and SB. The video below is from Feb this year and I ride the 5.5 exclusively.

But they still sit on the beach and look, but refuse to try it.. it baffles me . Fortunately there's a couple of mate now starting, on different brands.. each to his own

http://youtu.be/HxcTDraVuzM

Nice video, but I've got to tell: you live in a shithole ... you need to get out!

What you can do & when you do it & why, surely has a lot to do with your local situation. If you live on Maui, you might reach a point at which you would only choose to go out & & surf/kite/windsurf when it's double-overhead. Living somewhere with a long, hard winter, that first spring session mowing the lawn in 15 kts, is heaven. There are no absolutes.

Yeeah FlyBoy, I know I live in hell LOL.. recovering from Rotator Cuff repair on 2nd shoulder so I have a couple of months off and season is disappearing quickly... so no probs.

Yeah PF, low end is another universe on on HF.. until a kiter 'feels' the sensation of no wind and still there you just cannot explain to anyone, so you just go out and say

We all know that secretly you want a HF Plummet.. get into it boy

V