Going downwind fast should result in almost the same leaned over body posture as going upwind...you're essentially tricking the kite into thinking it's going upwind by going so fast that the apparent wind shifts forward, this forces you to keep tension on the front lines by hiking out. This is how you can go at 160* to the wind downwind, you need to keep the speed on. If you touch down or slow down or raise the kite high, you'll have to ride more crosswind to keep the kite powered up.WH Lithuania wrote:I tried it at the lake. Elf Joker 7 11m has massive wind range. It was like 7-20 knots and there were no probs handling it. Except for sure on low wind downwind angle wasn't impressive.
Actually I'm not sure that I mastered downwind course. I feel that I ride downwind much lower angle than I ride upwind, especially in lower winds. I go for several seconds straight upwind and then I spend few minutes to come back downwind. I simply pull bar and position kite near 3 or 9 in the window. There should be some better method.
Yeah, also keep in mind he's referring to a surfboard or twin tip, not a foil. You need to be going fast through the water with a foil to go downwind quickly.WH Lithuania wrote:Looping foil kite in light wind should be forbidden
If looping a kite was the fastest way to get downwind it would be the standard in course racing. It's not...it's a novel way to go downwind when free riding, but it's not faster.foilholio wrote:HUH? Looping a foil kite can be very effective in light wind. You can probably go faster by getting more speed and parking the kite but a good flying technique on the kite will keep pretty close. I am talking about quickest arriving directly downwind. One technique I like is to sort of edge sideways against the kite while it loops in almost the side of the window, riding is almost straight downwind. It feels like it's faster than the wind. There is probably a dynamic soaring component to it as the loops tend to work better in one direction than the other.
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