How are strutless kites doing ?

[Slappysan]

I have a C2 17m and a LF Solo1 12m that I use for foiling.

- both are very light in the air, the C2 can fly in 5-6 knots, the Solo in 7-8 knots.
- C2 17m can foil in 7 knots, hold ground on Paipo in 8-9 knots (deep water relaunch in 8-9 knots)
- Solo 12m can foil in 8-9 knots, hold ground on Paipo in 11-12 knots (deep water relaunch in 8-9 knots)
- both suffer flutter when you loop them, but it's worse on the Solo
- Solo behaves like a regular kite in most regards, very user friendly
- C2 behaves almost like a hybrid between LEI and foil kite and requires different techniques
- Bar pressure on the Solo is a bit too heavy for me
- C2 17m packs way smaller than the Solo 12m
- Maxflow valve is better than the C2 valve, but C2 is still decent
- Greg from BRM is a nice guy and very helpful

[Peter_Frank]

We have no strutless kites here

Maybe just a coincidence, no importer, no trend etc etc.

And maybe because most hydrofoilers here, almost all, uses foil kites for light wind both racers and freeriders - and the latter use their smaller LEI kites for waves or TT riding too, so not that much sense in none or one strutted kites

A few light one strutted kites though, but again, some tend to be replaced by foil kites instead, and keeping the tougher smaller kites for more wind.

Or just around here this trend is seen and very different in other spots nowadays, I dont know but curious now as I started this thread just over 2 years ago and it seems the strutless are really popular at other regions in the world reading here.

And the hydrofoil craze with specific easy "floating" light kites are just beginning to appear and might be the new trend from now when not racing ?

Interesting

Peter

[BWD]

I just extended the limits of my strutless experience in two ways, and have to say I am still satisfied.

2 weeks ago I took some timed runs with a directional board over a 80-100 degree TWA course with my 7m cloud in 20-25 kts, average speed on 2km course (4 runs, both directions) was 22.5 knots. And of course it was faster running downwind, but I did not have a course to measure that (or GPS ), so no polars or Vmax to report.
This is not the normal purpose of the kites, but it was fun to see speed is still there if you want it, though it is not record chasing.
Normally I just want to play with the swells and waves, but I was happy to see that the clouds can go fast, if sized right (generally one size smaller than normal lei).

Last week I packed a couple of clouds and 2 surfboards into a bag along with other stuff and got on a plane to visit some warm islands.
One day I did a downwinder that ended with a good hike up and along some limestone cliffs and hills.
It was really quite nice to take this walk with a 5'10" surfboard and a 12m kite that each weighed about 2.3kg!
My wet harness probably weighed as much.
Not only was the light weight nice on the hike, it was crucial to keeping kite control near the cliffs and reef in gusty, fluky side-off winds, adding confidence in a kite adventure at a new location. My only complaint about the kiting, my fins were too big!

[aeberl]

I am a satisfied user of a 10m Trip. Looking into buying an extra kite for hydrofoiling so I thought I would give this topic a kick. How are strutless kites doing in 2016?
BRM has obviously paved the way for this concept. Hydrofoil users are happily using the strutless kites because of their light weight. As far as I know there are currently a number of brands offering strutless kites.

1. BRM http://boardridingmaui.com/wind-cloud.html
2. Naish Trip http://www.naishkites.com/product/trip
3. RRD http://www.robertoriccidesigns.com/equi ... otion-mki/
3. Gong http://gongsupshop.com/epages/box1707.s ... 20Ailes%22
4. Storm http://www.stormkites.com/produkte/voyager-2/

The latter two are french brands, not a lot of information available in English, the kites seem to be well priced and relatively popular in the French Hydrofoil-scene.

Airush had a zero before. In their current lineup there is no strutless kite
Liquid force went tried to develop strutless but ended up with just a single strut http://www.thekiteboarder.com/2014/03/l ... echnology/

Who can tell me which strutless (or strutpoor) kite is most suitable for hydrofoil and why? Please tell which kites you have tried/compared. I know foilkites have some advantages over LEI, but they are not affordable enough for me.

I don't know about any other strutless kite than the BRM 9m C2. It is the only thing in my quiver that I bother to set up. If the wind is not right for my 9 and I have to pump up my bigger strutted kite, I'd rather be surfing or having a beer. If you do not have a BRM cloud yet, you might be able to feel how they compare to common strutted kites by performing the following test:
1.- Take two 1kg bags of beans and duct tape them onto the tips of your fastest kite (one on each wing tip, half way between the front and rear line attachment points)
2.- Take it for a long session
3.- Just before you are done for the day, take the beans off the wing tips and take the kite for one last spin (less 2kg, should be the same wind conditions)

The rest you can figure out by yourself......

I exclusively ride waves, hip to double overhead, 6' common thruter surfboard, 83kg dry. The 9m C2 performs nicely starting at 16 knots and by the time it gets to 25knots I am ready to pack up. 18-20 konts should be the sweet spot for my conditions.

[bigtone667]

I am a satisfied user of a 10m Trip. Looking into buying an extra kite for hydrofoiling so I thought I would give this topic a kick. How are strutless kites doing in 2016?
BRM has obviously paved the way for this concept. Hydrofoil users are happily using the strutless kites because of their light weight. As far as I know there are currently a number of brands offering strutless kites.

1. BRM http://boardridingmaui.com/wind-cloud.html
2. Naish Trip http://www.naishkites.com/product/trip
3. RRD http://www.robertoriccidesigns.com/equi ... otion-mki/
3. Gong http://gongsupshop.com/epages/box1707.s ... 20Ailes%22
4. Storm http://www.stormkites.com/produkte/voyager-2/

The latter two are french brands, not a lot of information available in English, the kites seem to be well priced and relatively popular in the French Hydrofoil-scene.

Airush had a zero before. In their current lineup there is no strutless kite
Liquid force went tried to develop strutless but ended up with just a single strut http://www.thekiteboarder.com/2014/03/l ... echnology/

Who can tell me which strutless (or strutpoor) kite is most suitable for hydrofoil and why? Please tell which kites you have tried/compared. I know foilkites have some advantages over LEI, but they are not affordable enough for me.

My thoughts: I have a slow freestyle foil and a Cloud C2 works brilliantly well with it. I have a quiver on Chrono V1's, and in the gusty conditions I am kiting in, the Cloud is more forgiving (and it floats better).

[foilholio]

Wow the gong strutless looks pretty cool. Higher AR kind of like an FX with no struts. Anyone ridden one?

https://vimeo.com/140241373

[tautologies]

I'm pretty excited to see the new BRM kites coming out these days.
The ones I have are wave machines, and people who say they don't work have not kited them. I can see why people love them on foils, but I don;t think that is the only place to use them. I have a friend on the 12 trip that he uses as a light wind kite, and the thing goes early as hell.

Foil why don't you order a gong one and let us know how it works? Just a heads up, I tried ordering a SUP from Gong way back, but they will not deliver to the US.

Anyways this seems to work fine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVZdihwMcfs