windrider1 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 12, 2018 5:53 am
Light wind riding is indeed a skill. I fly only foil kites mostly flysufer so hear are some tips. Since u indicted tht your kites have been tuned and use a big board then the first thing u want to learn how to do is is to depower the kite in very light winds , most lei riders don't understand this concept
This!! It's a tough concept for many kiters to grasp but unfortunately, because the trim line is called "depower", there is a believe that for light wind, no depower is good. For stronger wind and increasing apparent wind as you get up to speed (especially on a foil board), you will want to depower the kite by pulling in on the trim, but for light wind, you also want to pull in on the trim (depower) the kite for different reasons...
Kites generate power through movement and much of that power is passed through to you via your front lines and harness, and not your rear lines arms/bar.
In light wind, you want to trim the kite (more depower) so that you are not back stalling the kite too much. Back stalling is stopping the kite from moving. On light wind water starts with the kite moving down the window falling a sine, or up the window in the direction you want to go following a kite loop, focus on letting the kite move a little faster by using trim (depower) to minimize back stall while at the same time, NOT pulling the the bar all the way to the chicken loop - you will be surprised how much power is available to you.
Too much trim (depower) and you will lose kite control (slack rear lines) - trimming so that little backstall is available can help to reposition the the kite and keep the tips open in really light wind together to help loop the kite quickly with a little tug in the rear line if you inadvertently start a loop late.
- These concepts also apply to LEI's so IMO, learning/flying foil kites in general helps with your kite skills.
- Obviously all the various model foil kites have different sized power bands (where power is produced at what speed the kite is moving through the window). The high aspect ratio race kites have much more powerful but smaller input ranges where (moving) power is produced. Moving from the Sonic-> Sonic 2 -> Sonic Race and the need to learn optimal kite trimming and how large that power band is.
- With narrower power bands, correct bar setup becomes very important.
- For two different kites of the same size and of a similar aspect ratio, lighter bar pressure likely means that more power is being transferred through the front lines/harness... Instinctively, many of us want to feel the power through our arms, and this takes some adjustment to our thinking and thus how we fly the kite... I noticed this with the transition from Sonic 2->Sonic Race.
- Mixing your foil kite aspect ratios between your kite sizes will mess with your kite skills
As an exaggeration, 21M Sonic Race, 18M Speed 4, 15M Sonic 2 since trim behavior, bar pressure, power band will all be different.
- One bar shared across a number of kites? Small adjustments to the kite pigtails (eg extra 1" on rear pigtails) on one or two of your kites may be needed for optimal kite/bar tuning.