one strut vs strutless

[Regis-de-giens]

and now even Storm will had one strut (sorry I am French) to its Voyager stuttless... in French we say in that case "CQFD" for "ce qu'il fallait demontrer" which means a kind of "the original question is now is solved". A bit provocative but I must say that for more than one year now i have been fully in love with the single strut kite to cover hf and TT freeride.

[TomW]

I think my North Mono 12 goes upwind at least as good or better than my Core XR3 12m in moderate wind. In higher wind the Core wins.
I've been out in really light and following kite and I can't get it to fall out of the sky.
On the beach it's nearly impossible to self land, it just wants to stay flying even in 8 knots.
The Mono 12 weighs 3.2 kgs. North states the 9 Mono weighs 400g less than 9 Neo which is basically the same planform.
Interesting is my 5 strut 2010 RRD OBSESSION 9 weighs 3.0 kgs. It's pretty light even with some Italian style bits.

[max]

The GONG strutless is high aspect compared to Cloud, so they will never match those for turning speed. But GONG relaunches easy and builds massive apparent wind speed and power.

my thoughts and experience also.

On the 9m with the foil, I am amazed with the bottom end and also how slippery it is through the air but it requires a bit more finesse through the turns . . . probably need to get used to the higher aspect turning style.

[max]

All the GONG kites I own have just average turning speed, but they have excellent direct feedback, while maintaining very soft sheeting pressure. So I love the compromise they have chosen.

Just one more comment I feel I should make.

The poor turning (as I saw it) that I was experiencing was more a factor of my skill i believe.

If the kite is turned while still moving forward well, it turns far better than I thought, especially if the wind is on the light side. The inconsistent results I was getting was more the turning while touching down before gybing. All that goes away once you can air gybe so that the kite is still moving forward as the turn is initiated.

Had my best ride ever with the 9m Gong yesterday.


If you are still following this Dwight,

have you used the 9m Gong on surface boards ?
Did you choose the batten option with your Gong?

[Peter_Frank]

But a 9 m2 is not a "light wind" or at at least not a marginal wind kite, I assume we agree on that right ?

Many pretty normal kites will work great, when talking 9 m2 winds - but of course some of the too heavy "Russian Tank Built" like the Parks and similar, wont work well

Most kites will though

PF

[Dwight]

If you are still following this Dwight,

have you used the 9m Gong on surface boards ?
Did you choose the batten option with your Gong?

I've used all my strutless with tomo surfboard. It works well. Mine don't have the batten option. Although now that I have their new wave kite, I doubt I use use the strutless wave riding anymore. FYI I was riding Cabrinha Drifters before I switched to all GONG kites.

[max]

But a 9 m2 is not a "light wind" or at at least not a marginal wind kite, I assume we agree on that right ?

I suppose technically not light wind kite . . . even Gong kites say that the 9m is for medium winds however on my setup . . . the 9m is great as long as bottom is around 9/10 knots on a zeeko foil and carver wing and 118 pocket style board.

As long as it can water start me, it works fine from there on. At least that is my experience.

I have used it when other speed foilers rigged their 15/18m foil kites.

[max]

I've used all my strutless with tomo surfboard. It works well. Mine don't have the batten option. Although now that I have their new wave kite, I doubt I use use the strutless wave riding anymore. FYI I was riding Cabrinha Drifters before I switched to all GONG kites.

I do not have the batten option either but they say that it does improve top end without affecting other characteristics.

I use NEOs for the wave riding at this stage. Have not tried the 9m Gong strutless or the C5 clouds out on the surfboard yet. The drifters are great kites so a mate who has them tells me. The Gong waves look nice but are only just out i thought.

[Regis-de-giens]

But a 9 m2 is not a "light wind" or at at least not a marginal wind kite, I assume we agree on that right ?

I agree, and even if you can have partly a common wind range with the 15/18m foil kites , it is on their high end and with a very high or low angle to the wind like competitors right ? while you were certainly closer to 90 degree to the wind ... not the same "job" ; in lighter winds closer to the low end of 15m foilkite you will suffer from power lack (waterstart/upwind). In my case even with my light weight and large HF wing, my 9m LEI (one-strut) is way less powerful during waterstart and I easily lose 3+ knots compared to my 12m foil kite (or larger stutless to stick to the topic)

[max]

I agree, and even if you can have partly a common wind range with the 15/18m foil kites , it is on their high end and with a very high or low angle to the wind like competitors right ?

I suppose it all depends what type of riding you want to do.

For sure their angles are higher but it is not like you need the extra few degrees on a foil to stay upwind. Off the wind is really where they are heaps faster but again, depends whether straight line speed is what it is all about for you.

You do not ride a large carver wing if that is what is important to you. I suppose the kite size is matched to the riding style. I like smaller faster more agile kites.