What 14-15m kite feels most like a small kite? Lightness, turning speed, but still has power for LW?

[TomW]

Get a really light weight/LW 3 strut kite. A one strut or no-strut kite will not be good at upper end.
I had really good experiences with my Core LW kites. I had a XR2 17m that was really good.

Took up Hydrofoiling AKA one of these: and sold all my big kites.

carl-oskar-utomhus-rollator-lufthjul.jpg (3.11 KiB) Viewed 875 times

[PinkNorthPride]

If you can find one, the GTS3 was an awesome LW foiling kite, seen it out in conditions even foils were struggling, but the guy was a good foiler. They must be about used and being a Core and used in light wind likely still in good condition .

[Matteo V]

Honest and simple answer. None!!!

Good answer on the surface, but there is more to it than that. How you fly the kite is more important.

Lots of slow reacting kites can be made to turn faster on the same bridal settings by trimming the kite to be more powered up in light winds.

Normally, in light winds, you want to depower the trim strap (shorten front lines) to avoid stalling the kite. But once you master light winds with a more "parked" kite, you should try to make the kite susceptible to stall. On almost all kites in light wind, a stalled kite will turn faster (and different). The key is to have the kite stall on the half of the kite you are turning, while the other side has attached flow over it. The concept is simply - stalled side flies backwards, attached flow side flies forwards.

There are many issues and "wrong instinctual corrections" that you must get the feel for (doing right) when flying a kite like this. But the reward is worth it. While flying static on a grassy field or wide sandy beach (no board), try first to oversheet the kite and induce a stall. Once you find the trim setting that induces a stall in light wind, focus on stalling the kite to a per-determined point in the window, then sheet out to reattach flow. This gives a boost of power from the back of the window. Once you get this concept, then move on to 1/2stall turning by using that same point on the bar throw, and turning the kite with the pulled in side of the bar below the stall point, and the let out side of the bar above the stall point.

The above is a description of the skill most of us that have flown foil kites for many years were forced to learn due to the nature of foil kites. Most "inflatable" only kiters do not have this skill as it is not completely necessary when the winds are high enough with modern fast-turning kites. Personally, I believe those without this skill are missing out on half of the potential of a kite.

That said, there are some kites that do not seem to advantageously access this 1/2stalled turn. I like Slingshot gear, but I cannot make a Rally do this. Of all the kites I have flown, all but the Rally have exhibited some performance differences that can be exploited with a 1/2stalled turn.

[lightwind]

I tried North Juice couple of times and could say that is quite responsive for a 15 m kite. Not hard on the the bar and still powerful enough.

[Slappysan]

Honestly fast turning isn't the key, what it sounds like you want is probably a a Flysurfer Soul 15m or even 12m. But you said your heart is strapless SB and the Soul will just pull you up up up off the board all day so that's not going to work.

I would say get a LF Solo 17.5m and you'll have fun.

[ShaveTheWhales]

Bang your 12m up with helium

[BWD]

If you want a nimble kite, it just cant be that big. A 10-12m cloud or other surf kite can pretend tobe agile, until it runs out of airspeed across the canopy. Probably same for the mid aspect foil kites in 9-10m size range.

Before i took up hydrofoils i built a 5’ x 22” x ~1.5” board with a round nose and big square tail, maybe 2“ rocker in front and 1” in tail. Quad controller fins.
This with 30m lines got me going fast and upwind in 10-12 knots, and holding ground in 8-10 with a 12m cloud, or 8-10 / 6-8 knots with 17m cloud.
Its most common use though was in 12-14 knots with lulls, with 9m kite, in weaker summer sea breezes that might or might not die. I weigh ~82kg.
I called the board my “antifoil” that season. It truly worked great but I built it cheap and heavy. Now I have a sweet potato 5’6”x22” which is less efficient due to its overly sculpted bottom shape. The potato does soak up chop better though. Some time i’d like to build a lighter weight version of my antifoil.
Seen sideways, rights itself if you click through (toby?!):