My progression, some help needed please

[abel]

Hi Abel, it was pretty variable wind as usual in spring, wind increasing with approaching low pressure, and I had a low peninsula to windward. I'd say it was mostly 12-14 then some 16 gusts.
My sessions, advice here, and from my instructor in Mexico was to not go out underpowered, but use I kite 1 size down I would use on surfboard. this has worked best for me. My best 2 sessions were when I was well powered.
I can then keep kite higher and speed is actually slower, crashes not so hard because kite is high. It's also easier to kite a bit off wind/downwind. Again kite can be kept high and you don't over run kite. I can lean on kite more too.
In low power I'm having to keep kite lower and pressure on foil to windward to build apparent wind and speed.
I'm also still surface riding at times to rest and get past gusts.
I was getting some good runs, looking up, watching water for gusts ( much better view with head 70 cm higher!) Bearing off in gusts, turning up wind in gusts keeping kite high, learning how to control power. The kite is totally sheeted out and depowered, so have to use kite position and board direction to control power. Like back in 2002 when we had 6" of bar depower that dumped about 20% of your kite power.
The wind waves were about 50cm yesterday, so just flying straight over worked, keep altitude so board cleared wave top and didn't breach in troughs.
By runners, you mean? losing speed control, go too fast and crashing? yes had a few hard slams going back towards shore on my weak side and with the waves.
Overpowered? Yes, absolutely in those gusts, but managed to control power with kite position and point of sail most of the time. That felt like a big step in confidence and learning.
The other 2-3 things were the slalom turns, moving foot position during flight and pumping / maneuvering the foil with leg movement, and surface jibe at low speed.
Now I'm going to work a week in Tokyo, so next chance is Saturday April 29...

Thanks for the the details, that quite confirms my feelings about keeping the kite high.
Yesterday I had another session with the 12 V3 in 8-10 knots.
I feel it works nicely in the low range and a bit too strong on the upper end. Anyhow, it's the low end which interests me, and it does the job.