Kitenuovoman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:53 am
Drift Better upwind Better Jump Better relaunch Better ..
good rider still prefer tube kite for All disciplines(exept race hydrofoil...) whyyy??
I think it's simply because there are not many pro riders that invested the time to exercise on Foilkites and also, those good riders are all under contract with a kite company that mostly produces tubes. Olly Bridge showed us what's possible this year and with foilkites advancing more and more, I hope we will see more of this in the future.
On the topic, my impressions are:
Does a foil kite drift better: Yes, in light winds for sure and the single skins are on another level anyway. In "normal" TT ridable winds, not. I personally would not use a foilkite in the waves.
Does a foil kite jump better: This is not an easy question because "jumping" is so versatile. My experience on the Soul is: Yes, in light wind (again), it has more lift than a delta shaped tube (like Rebel, Cabrinha). In "normal" winds, it's about the same but it has more hang time.
Does a foil kite relaunch better: Yes, in light wind (again), modern foil kites like soul, Hyperlink V2 or Nova relaunches "better" because simply, tubes do not relaunch at all in that wind range (below 7 knots I would say... It however makes a huge difference if there is flat water or if it's shallow).
There are pros and cons for using foil- and tubekites. In my opinion, it always depends on the conditions.