tautologies wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:35 am
You cannot possibly be talking about performance and speed etc and then mention you ride the kitefish. I had one. It's not a surfboard...not even close. Its much closer to a skimboard.
I very much am talking about the performance of the KiteFish, though not upon initial usage or a year of occasional usage. This board took time, but I pushed it past the limitations of all of the other "real surfboards" I have ever used. From your above statement, I can guarantee you never had adequate time on this board, or you weigh less than 90kg. I also would not have had adequate time on this board, had I not wrecked my "real surfboards". For me, most of the revelation of the KF's capabilities (at least at my weight) came after I was forced to use it regardless of initially not liking it, strapped and strapless. As for it being a skimboard or being better to use a TT..... no way, not for maximizing the entire possible performance envelope in the waves with a rear foot position over the tail and true surfboard bite from significant fins. Some boards will do some things better or be lighter, but none can do it all at my weight like the Kitefish. And I am very much still open to finding a better platform, and actively looking. Nothing has come up yet, even with some mods of other boards. Though I have not committed to building my own, yet. Twin tips are great and I did like them at one point in time, but that is definitely a "feel thing" though it is undeniable that they do many things to a much higher degree of performance than directionals.
As far as the board being more like a skim???? No, it is nothing like a skim. When I was still kiting and throwing high end skimboards (S-glass - never did carbon, too delicate for my approach) properly sized for my weight, the KiteFish board gave none of the skimboard type performance I got out of even a kitespecific skimboard. This is where I am sure you did not spend enough time on the board. No one comparing the KiteFish directly to a purpose built "real" skimboard would feel any similarities. The rail shape of the Kitefish is completely different from a skimboard, as well as the bottom shape. I also owned the LF TwinSkim. That board was actually close to a skimboard in most areas, though it was too small for me to use as a skimboard without a kite. The real test of if a board is "skimboard like" is if you can throw & ride it (without a kite) the same way as can with an actual skimboard on a thing film of water. In this application, the KiteFish does not work well for lighter riders, and does not work at all for my 100kg. It actually just vacuums to the bottom in the tail because of the "V" in the back and the lack of hard rails all around.
But this board is definitely not a corky surfboard. In fact, most surfboards now feel corky to me, especially bigger ones like the AirRush "Sector" series, strapped or strapless. But my idea that strapless was "better" was
cured back when I was still riding those supposedly "real surfboards". So the LF Kitefish came into my riding much later and I really only came to a few conclusions with it as far as what I still had wrong about kitesurfing.
With the reality of strapless not yielding more performance having already set in, the KiteFish taught me:
1. Durability (at my body weight) is an extremely important factor in having fun and being able to ride anywhere on a directional board.
2. Weight may limit jumping, but it helps at high speeds through chop, and is not a significant factor when you consider it as a proportion of the riders weight, if that rider is heavy.
3. A snappy board like the 2012 North whip is extremely fun, but pushing a less responsive quad finned board (KiteFish is definitely less responsive) can be done with more physical effort on the front side (initiation), with less on the back side (recovery) - evening things out as far as the amount of work you put into the board.
So for those who say I have no credibility because I am riding this directional board, I disagree with that idea, based upon my background.