jkrug wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:04 pm
we must have strange winds here because no one is out in under 10 knots...no one. i often question these claims of foiling in 6 knots, but have seen videos where the water looks very glassy, so there must be some wind above. regardless, i find kiting in extremely light winds extremely annoying. there's gotta be something better to do when it's 'blowing' 10 knots or less. i can skateboard in the pouring rain...but do i want to?
Glassy or not, from 8 knots I can foil with a 10 m2 tubekite.
And with lighter bigger foilkites, 5-6 knots is the very lowest limit for my 77 kg.
Racers with smaller wings than me, but 20 or 21 m2 kites also out in this on occasion.
A few dont bother below 10 knots especially on this forum, but around here, most racers ride from 6-7 knots, and some freeriders too
You can have "cheasy" wind where 10 knots only pulls like 8, or opposite, 10 knots silkysmooth powerful wind, pulling like 12 knots, eventhough you only have 10 knots average measured in 10 meter height, which is the standard used and wind gradient not that important now - it can be both glassy down at the surface, or windchop, still close to 10 knots at the kite, when measured in 10 meters height, so good our weatherstations use this
Roughly, below 8 knots it is tricky and often not doable unless special gear (unless wind is measured on the beach which can be pretty useless), but with light kites you can go lower quite fine.
It doesnt matter if you can pull your transitions off or not, regarding how light you can go when marginal - with good kite flying technique you can ride even if you crash, no problems.
Peter