What is best light wind kite?

[nenette graf]

I go for Contra BOw 14m for below 80kgs ... weight of my friend..he was screamin while shredding on a 8kts wind , can't believe it can pull him so easy and it justicfied that description of featherweight:-) To see is to believe!!!!

[danix]

Phree... I would seriously think about a 19m Speed 2. I use a quiver of Ions 15,12,9 and 7 and recently brought a 19m speed for the lightwind days when I can't keep a LEI in the air.
I was a bit intimidated by the bridles and stuff and thought there might be relaunch problems but the kite is soooo easy to fly, relaunches easier than my Ions, youve just got to take a bit of care when packing down with the bridles but its no hardship. The performance you will get out of the 19 speed is amazing. I can fly the 19 in 6kts of wind and will keep me up wind on my Glide (Im 70kg). 8-10kt's you can jump and the hangtime is unreal. Th depower is good and although I havn't had it out in anything above 12kts I reckon I could hold on till about 16kts, maybe more.


Hope this helps Dan

[ed nap]

I was out yesterday on a friends sa2 and the water had a glassy shine. (so very light wind) I could get enough hang time to do a dubble frontroll and land with speed. The contras had gone home long befor that.

Get a test on an sa2 and make up your own mind.

Ed.

[prayfawind27]

07 16m Airrush Flow SLE i'm 5'10 165-170lbs and i ride that in 12knots with a 110 Airrush Airforce board,in 15knots i'm boosting big.That kite has sick power.

[DrLightWind]

If U guys go back a page or more confirms my postings are not by accident

That means if you like L.E.I. Type the Contra Bow3 is the winner
& the range is better than what Cab is admiting on wind-range.
But if you don't like to than Foil Type Flysurfer's Speed 2 is the overall king
Flysurfer's Windrange is damn close, according to my Speed2 12m & 15m experiences.

So I advise in stead of posting boring theories and Farting Histories,
first, some of U guys should start flying all kind of kites to get the "illuminations",
to find out the overall winner in real time what is the best light wind kite!

PS. Why mistakenly addicted to "illuminations" on the screen,
meanwhile getting high on your own putrid gaseous clouds of farts?

[windyway]

Wanted to share this post about Cabrinha quality issues. After seeing it, I looked around and found this seems to be a common experience. WW

Cabrinha Contra (Bow) 14 (Year: 2007)
Kite-surf.com Review by: Bob - 2007-06-15 (6:42 am)
My experience with this product: More than one season

Very good overall performances, not only in light air. Huge range: powered up from only 8 knots and still manageable around 28 knots, no exageration, confirmed low end and high end many times over one year of usage.

Weak points: deceiving upwind ability, slow turning and lots of drag downwind in jumps, even small ones.
One major thumbs down, extremely fragile material and stitches of poor quality. After many years of evolution and improvements, it's the return of the disposable kite, you might have to throw this kite in the garbage after only a few months of usage.
Mine lasted for only about 60 sessions of carefull usage and only about 5 times in its upper range. I've crashed it once on the water after a light wind died and that was it, 3 panels have litterlaty exploded and ripped apart... Awfully unbelievable!
And Cabrinha is claiming their kites are not warranteed against crashes on the water... Hello? In what world are you living Peter Cabrinha?

[chemosavi]

If U guys go back a page or more confirms my postings are not by accident

That means if you like L.E.I. Type the Contra Bow2 is the winner
& the range is better than what Cab is admiting on wind-range.
But if you don't like to than Foil Type Flysurfer's Speed 2 is the overall king
Flysurfer's Windrange is damn close, according to my Speed2 12m & 15m experiences.

So I advise in stead of posting boring theories and Farting Histories,
first, some of U guys should start flying all kind of kites to get the "illuminations",
to find out the overall winner in real time what is the best light wind kite!

PS. Why mistakenly addicted to "illuminations" on the screen,
meanwhile getting high on your own putrid gaseous clouds of farts?

Good kind doctor, This is what I originally wrote:

In the old days they called them witch doctors and they kept the balance of the good and evil in all people.

Sometimes a war would crop up and the males could go out and relieve their stress by chopping off somebody's head negating the need of the witch doctor. Nowadays we rely on stupid violent movies to fullfil our primative urges while others take up kiting and imitate what it feels like to be a piece of spagetti in a colander and still fullfil the "primative" urge.

When the wind is down and we're motionless, disgusted slobs stuck in the putrid, gaseous cloud of our own farts in front of an electronic screen we tune into KITEFORUM in the ridiculous hope of obtaining the same thrill.

And here I must ask you, who or what gets your blood to move like it does when you're on the water,

THE WITCH DOCTOR, that's who.

Jezuz, I think i need to go puke now............

[DrLightWind]

Good kind doctor, This is what I originally wrote:

Jezuz, I think i need to go puke now............

I hope you don't mind if I'm using some of your expression with mine?
Anyway it's funny I make a kick out of it, cause I like some of your sayings the way you say it.

CU: DrLightWind

[mv]

Ram lovers keep circulating their lies. We know ram lovers are prone to exaggeration and just plain misinformation eg see the following thread: Ram airs jump 8m in 8 knots ("The future is bright, the future is foil")

Ram airs are NOT better light wind kites than inflatables. Modern inflatables perform MUCH better than ram airs in light winds.

If you read any of the threads on this forum, even some from Toby himself, you will see that inflatables outperform ram airs in light winds. eg I think it was Toby who described how a Rhino2 20m was staying upwind while equivalent Titans were drifting off downwind.

Ram airs are inferior light wind kites because they:
1 Have excessive drag, compromising the Lift/Drag ratio
2 Turn VERY slowly
3 Have incredible inertia. The Speed 2 19 contains over 11kg of air in its pockets, compared to about 3kg in the Waroo 20m.
4: In wind dropouts, you're much better off with an inflatable.

Despite what anybody tells you, you won't really have fun on any kite (ram air OR inflatable) unless the wind is over about 8 knots. This is the starting point for BOTH ram airs and inflatables, but because of the reasons I've outlined above, inflatables are vastly superior. And this is just the starting point. You won't really be having fun until it hits about 10 knots on an inflatable OR a ram air.

For the definitive light wind comparison, check out the thread on the light-wind show down in San Diego.

Ignore the lies. Ram airs are aerodynamically inferior compared to inflatables.

PMU,

Have you ever used a foil kite?

[kiterpimp323]

Liquid Force 19 Assault or the 14 Havoc. So good in light wind. I hear they will have a 16 Havoc next year. If the 14 is as good as it is I can't wait for the 16.