Advice for flying a LEI

[sedluk]

I have some experience on the foil board and I am feeling more comfortable up on the foil. I prefer using a foil kite, either a Speed 5 or Sonic 2.

Sometimes I launch at a location that requires a water launch and I know that it is possible to water launch a foil kite but would rather get better with my LEI.

I am finding that when I am using a LEI, I am using my Boost 2 kites. I naturally drop the kite down to around 9 or 3 o'clock. This works great with my foil kites, they still have very good steering and I rarely get them wet.

I find that when I do this with the LEI, I find that when the kite gets depowered, the steering gets sloppy and the kite feels front heavy and want to drop into the water. I have been working on keeping the kite up a little higher but wanted to get some advice from other people riding foil boards.

I assume other people are experiencing this, one idea is try an even smaller kite so that the kite is depowered less. The trouble is the wind is up and down, often I would be unable to get going and if I drift to shore, it is all trees and I have to water land and walk in the water along the shore back to the water launch site.

[DukeSilver]

To water start I tend to do figure 8 or infinity sining keeping the kite high. I use this to get me up out of the water and on to the board and sort out my foot positioning. I then do a shallow dive of the kite to get me going forward. As a general rule, I definitely tend to keep my kite higher in the air when foiling as compared to TT or SB.

[gbrungra]

Consider line extensions?

They give the kite a bigger window to work with, while still staying high enough.

Also, if you are kitibg with a tree-lined shore and light wind, the extensions may help you reach higher to cleaner breeze.

[Peter_Frank]

Consider line extensions?

They give the kite a bigger window to work with, while still staying high enough.

Also, if you are kitibg with a tree-lined shore and light wind, the extensions may help you reach higher to cleaner breeze.

Good advice

Many, actually most here use 25-27 m lines as std for foiling (opposed to 20-22 m for other boards), I do even with small kites 3.5 and 5 m2, and for really light winds 28-32 m.

Will solve the issues you describe, with LEIs

PS: Curious as to why you fly your kites at 3 and 9 o'clock, that is almost touching the water ?

PF

[DukeSilver]

Consider line extensions?



Many, actually most here use 25-27 m lines as std for foiling (opposed to 20-22 m for other boards), I do even with small kites 3.5 and 5 m2, and for really light winds 28-32 m.

Will solve the issues you describe, with LEIs

I must try the 10m line extensions I got with my 3.5 Cloud. Will be interested in the difference it makes.

[socommk23]

I have some experience on the foil board and I am feeling more comfortable up on the foil. I prefer using a foil kite, either a Speed 5 or Sonic 2.

Sometimes I launch at a location that requires a water launch and I know that it is possible to water launch a foil kite but would rather get better with my LEI.

I am finding that when I am using a LEI, I am using my Boost 2 kites. I naturally drop the kite down to around 9 or 3 o'clock. This works great with my foil kites, they still have very good steering and I rarely get them wet.

I find that when I do this with the LEI, I find that when the kite gets depowered, the steering gets sloppy and the kite feels front heavy and want to drop into the water. I have been working on keeping the kite up a little higher but wanted to get some advice from other people riding foil boards.

I assume other people are experiencing this, one idea is try an even smaller kite so that the kite is depowered less. The trouble is the wind is up and down, often I would be unable to get going and if I drift to shore, it is all trees and I have to water land and walk in the water along the shore back to the water launch site.

Lei kites are just inferior to foil kites. They have too many drawbacks where foil kites excell. (Anti pumpy post, just with less practice)

[sedluk]

I may not actually be flying them at 9 and 3, but sometimes they end up at 9:30 and 2:30. Then if I let up on the bar for a moment, the LEI is probably in the water. The foil kite just keeps flying if you momentarily let up on the bar pressure.

[bigtone667]

I have some experience on the foil board and I am feeling more comfortable up on the foil. I prefer using a foil kite, either a Speed 5 or Sonic 2.

Sometimes I launch at a location that requires a water launch and I know that it is possible to water launch a foil kite but would rather get better with my LEI.

I am finding that when I am using a LEI, I am using my Boost 2 kites. I naturally drop the kite down to around 9 or 3 o'clock. This works great with my foil kites, they still have very good steering and I rarely get them wet.

I find that when I do this with the LEI, I find that when the kite gets depowered, the steering gets sloppy and the kite feels front heavy and want to drop into the water. I have been working on keeping the kite up a little higher but wanted to get some advice from other people riding foil boards.

I assume other people are experiencing this, one idea is try an even smaller kite so that the kite is depowered less. The trouble is the wind is up and down, often I would be unable to get going and if I drift to shore, it is all trees and I have to water land and walk in the water along the shore back to the water launch site.

Lei kites are just inferior to foil kites. They have too many drawbacks where foil kites excell. (Anti pumpy post, just with less practice)

I disagree with that. There is a trade off in using foil kites or LEI.

If you are racing, a foil kite is a must. An LEI won't cut it for speed or upwind capability.

But if you are free riding why would you bother unless you were aiming for 5 knots. Bridles, tangles, have to tune the system, drift issues.

Of course you need to fly an appropriate LEI........plenty of LEI's being designed for foiling with great depower, drifting, light wind capability.

[sedluk]

I am not really interested in having a discussion about LEI kites vs foil kites. I learned to hydrofoil on some nice beaches that made is easy to use a Speed 5 kite. The kite handling was super easy and I don't mind the bridles ect.. I am not out to convert anyone to foil kites.

My point was that leaning to hydrofoil was much easier for me because I used a foil kite. I later tried my Boost 2 kites and was surprised at the difference. Here again, not out to make judgments of kites but I found it to be much more difficult. Then I watched a popular video that explained why, that when you use a LEI kite on a Hydrofoil. You almost fully depower the LEI while hydrofoiling and it reduces the handling.

This helped me understand why I was finding it more difficult, but I have not come across much advice on how to deal with it. That is what I am after, just some friendly advice on how to deal with flying a LEI while hydrofoiling.

I can get up and going on the hydrofoil about the same using either kite, but once I get flying across the water the LEI needs to be very depowered. Maybe I just need a lot more practice and that is not a problem, I am having fun learning but there might be some useful tips out there and I am sure that it would help others in similar situations.

[salvino]

Consider wave type LEI kites as they respond to steering inputs well when very depowered. Also drifting quality.
I've been on HF for one year using Neo kites-awesome. Now that our water is warming I'm going to try Chrono foil kite. So I'll be going thru reverse process