the art of the loop!

[cwood]

Standard move with Souls on low end of their ranges. Biggish with half sheet. Small with lots of sheet and you choke and pinwheel the kite....zero power....useful in a downloop gybe sometimes because of the power they generate otherwise.

[cor]

An easier option with the Soul is to backstall it till close to the water, let the lines go and let it accelerate upwards, lifting you onto the board. Haven’t tried it on a LEI but it works well on a foil kite.

This can't be more effective or easier than a downloop. If you have enough wind for the soul to accelerate that quickly upwards, there is way more power in the loop and also, the kite is flying already in the right direction when you are done with the loop.

I get up on my board as soon as the Soul 10m is flying stable (meaning without looping it to keep it in the air). Love how consistent the pull is so that it is very easy to get up on the foil.

[Regis-de-giens]

My two cents : loop direction has a great impact in low wind with a large foil kite: if you pull on your future front hand , it is a bit more technical, but you generate a bit more pull to be lifted on the board vs pulling the rear hand.
Pulling on the rear hand is better to generate speed (hence the good feeling to reach planning very rapidly) but a bit less efficient.
Also if you need to start in a shalow water area, in less than 1 meter, ( rear foot on ground), looping forward (i.e. front hand pulling) allows you to start foil at 45 degre to avoid touching the ground in low winds.

[cglazier]

... if you pull on your future front hand , it is a bit more technical, but you generate a bit more pull...

True but pulling with the front hand means your loop will tend to pull you backwards. This can be awkward.

At least with a backloop (pull with your back hand), even if it doesn't get you up foiling it at least gets you moving in the right direction and a second backloop will work.

CG

[jumptheshark]

All kinds of nuance to it. You can pull the back hand loop when the kite is central in the window so it loops in back ( direction of board travel ) half of the window and ends up with a near full side to side run deep through the window in the direction of travel to get you foiling and gaining apparent wind.

Then again, I don't have a swivel and generally don't rig unless its 10 knots, so most of my start up loops are after a quick glance at the lines to see what direction I should be looping to unwind!

[Regis-de-giens]

... if you pull on your future front hand , it is a bit more technical, but you generate a bit more pull...

True but pulling with the front hand means your loop will tend to pull you backwards. This can be awkward.

At least with a backloop (pull with your back hand), even if it doesn't get you up foiling it at least gets you moving in the right direction and a second backloop will work.

I must say I also choose my loop direction to untagle my front lines
That is right , with front loop, pull direction is not in favour of acceleration of the rider (but it is in favour of kite turning accelaration, which is more important in the first phase) , and in my experience frontloop works better : even if you generate no speed, you are up on the board (this also gives an improved anti-drag plane to tension the lines and accelerate the kite, more efficient than your ass in the water), a bit downwind which is good for the next acceleration to come , kite well tensioned, so rapid: this provides a lot of lift that compensates your 0 speed, so then the following drop of the kite downward accelerates you efficiently to foil-up, even without loops. In really really marignal wind, I do this (front ) loop first to get above the board even if it sinks a little bit, sometimes two (the first being used only to accelerate the kite) , then one or two Standard (back) loop to accelerate (but only once I am ON the board ) this also allows to untangle the kite without turning the bar not any swivel ; the longer the lines, the less the kite brakes during the loop, so the more speed/pull the kite get.

With the Pulsion at least, it can happen that even 1 , 2 ot 3 backloop does not bring on ON the board (becasue traction appears only when kite is low on the water , hence not coherent with be lifted on te board), so it is dead ; front loops gives me more vertical pull (high traction comes when the kite is higher in the sky). Just my thoughts , but I must say that the timing is sensitive, and the difference with just a vertical drop of the kite is not evident is some concitions ( butstill exists with the Pulsion and 20/30 m lines)