Stop this thing

[cor]

I tend to agree with deniska on that one. At the very beginning I always rode underpowered but I switched back to powered very quickly. In addition, here are two benefits deniska did not mention:
-You get used to deal with overpowered situations on a foil which later also helps a lot with jumping and any other kind of powered situation like gusty winds etc.
-When learning tacks, the lift of a bigger kite helps a lot.

[bragnouff]

There's also a mental phase to go through. For so many years, you've been conditioned to ride more or less 90 degrees to the wind at all time. These are the angles that aren't necessarily the easiest to handle on the foil. Once you expand your horizons, going deep downwind and hard upwind, it makes riding powered much more doable. You can't really control the actual wind strength, but you can have a good grasp at controlling the apparent wind.
That's for a freeride perspective of course. If you're on a race course, just suck it up, and train harder for next time.

[plummet]

Well i dissagree with you guys. I have great benefit running a kit just powered or underpowered for a month or so while learnt how to control speed and power. Then slowly upped the power again once i had a handle of the jandle.

[MattyM]

In fairness, during those early stages, the safest bet is to head gradually further and further upwind, fully sheeted out and kite high.

As you progress though, bearing away is the best way to slow down as you will lose power that way. But until you have the balance to do that, it may result in a hard wipeout!

[Flyboy]

In my experience, riding underpowered as a beginner is hard: moving the kite to generate power results in uneven power surges which are difficult to control without developed balance skills on the foil. Having more power allows you to park the kite & have more consistent pull. Od course, too much power is also tricky ...