How often do you swim in @ <10knots ?

[Pedro Marcos]

What its possible to not have enough power to foil and still have kite flying?? I didnt know that was possible. There isnt much reviews about the chrono UL. What are your thoughts on it?

Definitely, I have never experienced myself, or seen it with a foil kite, that it was not possible to ride when it could be kept in the air though.

Only when using too short lines, or racewings, I have seen the good ones being able to "hang" in the air, but not sufficient to ride.

With good (light) LEI kites it is more pronounced - these can often hang in less wind than possible to ride.

The answer is "YES, you can fly the kites in less wind than you can ride", pretty often

When hydrofoiling started, then we said the first years: "As long as a kite can hang in the air, you can ride".
This is not true anymore, the new foil and strutless LEIs has pushed the "hang" limit a lot

PF

Im in the market for a foil kite since my lightwind weapon currently is 17m LEI, TS. I can still ride hydrofoil when the kite has to be looped constantly to keep it in air. But one mistake and im swimming. So a lighter kite would be nice. This chrono UL seems like a dream. But you say its possible with other kites too to be underpowered while kite is flying. So is it worth the extra buck to get UL kite?

If you buy a R1V2 it is build with the same lightweight material as the UL, and you now find lots of used R1V2 for sale, the diference is that at least in the big sizes the Chrono turns much better then the race foils (i only tried the R1V1 but i imagine that the R1V2 wont turn much quicker). But yes, in marginal winds the diference between the UL material and the "normal" makes a very big diference, not in terms of starting earlier but in terms of flying better and in less wind.

[cwood]

Definitely, I have never experienced myself, or seen it with a foil kite, that it was not possible to ride when it could be kept in the air though.

Only when using too short lines, or racewings, I have seen the good ones being able to "hang" in the air, but not sufficient to ride.

With good (light) LEI kites it is more pronounced - these can often hang in less wind than possible to ride.

The answer is "YES, you can fly the kites in less wind than you can ride", pretty often

When hydrofoiling started, then we said the first years: "As long as a kite can hang in the air, you can ride".
This is not true anymore, the new foil and strutless LEIs has pushed the "hang" limit a lot

PF

Im in the market for a foil kite since my lightwind weapon currently is 17m LEI, TS. I can still ride hydrofoil when the kite has to be looped constantly to keep it in air. But one mistake and im swimming. So a lighter kite would be nice. This chrono UL seems like a dream. But you say its possible with other kites too to be underpowered while kite is flying. So is it worth the extra buck to get UL kite?

If you buy a R1V2 it is build with the same lightweight material as the UL, and you now find lots of used R1V2 for sale, the diference is that at least in the big sizes the Chrono turns much better then the race foils (i only tried the R1V1 but i imagine that the R1V2 wont turn much quicker). But yes, in marginal winds the diference between the UL material and the "normal" makes a very big diference, not in terms of starting earlier but in terms of flying better and in less wind.

This has been my gripe on the 15m speed5.....just too heavy to stay in the air. The 15m sonic 2 will stay up. I just replaced my 12m speed5 with an 11m sonic2 and will likely do the 15 too. I love the speed5 grunt when its windy enough and extensions really help but its just too heavy at the margins.

[Tone]

About 15 sessions with my Ozone Chrono V2 Ultralight 15m, swim count still in zero. The kite still keeps flying when ive no power to waterstart at all, so ill just bodydrag/kiteloop to the beach.

What its possible to not have enough power to foil and still have kite flying?? I didnt know that was possible. There isnt much reviews about the chrono UL. What are your thoughts on it?

Definitely, I have never experienced myself, or seen it with a foil kite, that it was not possible to ride when it could be kept in the air though.

Only when using too short lines, or racewings, I have seen the good ones being able to "hang" in the air, but not sufficient to ride.

With good (light) LEI kites it is more pronounced - these can often hang in less wind than possible to ride.

The answer is "YES, you can fly the kites in less wind than you can ride", pretty often

When hydrofoiling started, then we said the first years: "As long as a kite can hang in the air, you can ride".
This is not true anymore, the new foil and strutless LEIs has pushed the "hang" limit a lot

PF

When you're >110kg there is definitely a point where a kite will fly but there isn't enough to my ass out of the water to get the foil going.

I can fly my sonic in 2 knots ish and even with a loop the kite won't pick me up out of the water. The UL kites will fly in vapours but unless they are flying faster through the window they won't pull any more, not really anyway.

[IWB2]

Turbaani,
If trying to push the ultimate low end then getting the Chrono V2 Ultralight over the Chrono V2 would be recommended IMO. For ultimate light winds the UL version is incredible. I have been forced to self rescue roughly 4 times with the Chrono V2 Ultralight 15m and this was probably in the 4-6kt wind range. My mistake would be getting caught in a heavy lull/wind dropping at the wrong time ie botched tack. Ideally i like to see wind speeds in that 7-10kts range when using the 15m kite. The ultralight material definitely makes a huge difference in so many areas. With my Chrono V2 11m the wingtips start curling when i start pushing the lightwind limits and that is around 8kts. Ideally i like the 11m from (9-14kts but push to 15kts). I am certain that if the 11m was the ultralight model, the wing tips would not curl so soon thus getting an extra knot or two, and then not back stalling as easy when being pushed. Also it would allow one to get back to land more easily when in that super light wind. For lightwind foiling the UL model is a huge advantage which you dont realize until you try to push the limits .

[Turbaani]

Turbaani,
If trying to push the ultimate low end then getting the Chrono V2 Ultralight over the Chrono V2 would be recommended IMO. For ultimate light winds the UL version is incredible. I have been forced to self rescue roughly 4 times with the Chrono V2 Ultralight 15m and this was probably in the 4-6kt wind range. My mistake would be getting caught in a heavy lull/wind dropping at the wrong time ie botched tack. Ideally i like to see wind speeds in that 7-10kts range when using the 15m kite. The ultralight material definitely makes a huge difference in so many areas. With my Chrono V2 11m the wingtips start curling when i start pushing the lightwind limits and that is around 8kts. Ideally i like the 11m from (9-14kts but push to 15kts). I am certain that if the 11m was the ultralight model, the wing tips would not curl so soon thus getting an extra knot or two, and then not back stalling as easy when being pushed. Also it would allow one to get back to land more easily when in that super light wind. For lightwind foiling the UL model is a huge advantage which you dont realize until you try to push the limits .

Thanks for the insight. Yeah pushing the low end is definately important to me. We get alot of 6-10kts seabreeze days with warm and sunny weather.