Slingshot Rally 12m. I am thinking a specialist lightwind kite might make it easier.
Thanks for the advice. I think the problem is I am not really at the stage where I can work the kite and go down wind, not easy to balance! I am in the process of buying a zero strut kite which will probably help a bitrobclaisse wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2019 12:29 pmWe had a client on one of our foiling camps with a 12m Rally and it wasn't an easy kite to keep in the sky in underpowered conditions, so downwind is going to make it even worst.
One tip to try when using a heavier kite that requires more input to keep it flying, is to ensure you are already going fast across the wind before you bear off downwind, so you'll carry that initial speed and already have some good apparent wind affecting the kite. Now when you bear off things will change but at least you'll give yourself the best chance - you'll probably have to fly the kite aggressive to keep the power up and maybe cant the board over to maximise that power transfer from the kite to the foil. If you had a foil kite or a lightweight LEI then you'd be able to cruise downwind more with less speed and a more neutral balance between the foil, you and kite.
What we probably should have asked is what foil you are riding, as that will also have a big impact?
Thanks. I think being efficient and going downwind is something I will have to work on. Maybe I will try going on a broad reach when going downwind and stay on the foil!Peter_Frank wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2019 2:37 pmYou are riding too slow downwind
Ride with more speed, not as deep, and any heavy kite will hang just fine
Of course it is easier to recover a lighter kite if you make a mistake or get slack lines, but if you ride with more speed you will have more line tension, and also get faster downwind even with a more pinched angle.
But in really low wind you can gain working the kite in sinus curves indeed (looping not good unless you want to ride in a deeper angle, but this is a lot of fun also), works great with a "normal" heavier kite, as long as you keep the lines tight.
And this is, as you say, something you can not fully do yet - but it will come quite fast as you have to, in order to avoid the walk of shame downwind on the beach, as a lot easier to go upwind when new to foiling and light winds.
Also bear in mind, if you use "short" lines only 21-24 meters, everything gets really difficult with a normal LEI kite.
This is another reason (but not the primary) why I use 30 m lines when kites bigger than 10 m2, and 26 meter as the shortest when small kites.
If your Rally is about to "fall" for you, then with longer lines you can simply downloop the kite, sheet it fully out, and it will recover no matter how heavy it is
Wont say you should not get a lighter kite - you should - but you got a lot more options than you think, with your current Rally
Peter
Downloop it, it’ll be so much fun to ride
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