Let's talk about our favorite kites for fast/powered riding.

[tkaraszewski]

So, there's lots of discussion of small, drifty, lightly powered kites lately.

What about those of us who like to go fast? I've been riding a quiver of Flysurfer Souls most of this season so far, and I've enjoyed them. The problem is that I'm planning an extended boat trip to the Caribbean, and while I know that drift launching a foil kite from the back of a boat is *possible*, I'm not sure it's really ideal for a daily driver in a place where I might be kiting more or less by myself with not too many people around.

So I'm interested in the kites with performance closest to the Soul that are inflatable, and hopefully that can compete with it in light winds down to 8-10 knots at least. The Ozone edge seems like it might be the best option performance wise. For light wind, the new aluula Ocrean Rodeo Flite in 12m would probably be pretty unbeatable. I also have 7/9/12m Cabrinha Apollos that might be just as good as anything currently available, especially for everything above 10 knots.

What do you ride? What do you like? What would you like to try?

[grigorib]

Fast/powered are Edges and 2017 Turbines (5/7/9/11). They go fast, edge upwind like mad, boost you to the moon and deliver great hangtime. HA wings at their usual pretty much. Yet they don’t work for looping/downwinders as loop power is through the roof, just a bit over what I personally was looking for. Those are not aforementioned fast turning / nicely drifting wings either so when I was in a narrow channel going directly downwind with kite sweeping through wind window at tornado power and flying to the far opposite wind window edge - it was far from ideal.

Apollos are same club yet relaunch of those in light wind is underwhelming

[tkaraszewski]

Apollos are same club yet relaunch of those in light wind is underwhelming

Relaunch on the Apollo in light winds is worse than my Souls. If the wind totally dies though, the self-rescue is still better on the Apollo.

[TomW]

You should just get that OR flight in Aula in 12m and use the apollos in 7 and 9.

[plummet]

I have 12 chrono, 10 edge, 8 enduro, 6 reo, 4 uno.

I prefer the 12 chrono to the 10 edge in lighter winds as it stays in the are and is much more likely to not end up in the water. The 10 edge, though fantastic when powered up doesnt not relaunch well in light winds or and its heavy an falls out of the sky early earlier than low aspect kites. Sub 13 knots is frustration if you drop the 10 edge as it wont relaunch, for that reason I usually go straight from chrono to enduro.

The enduro has reasonable performance in all aspects, however it is not a high speed firecracker like the edge. A smaller edge in higher winds would be interesting on the foil. That said I would still go for the enduro over the edge as it can run more dynamically deeper downwind looping through waves for powered wave riding, The edge is more a speed and boost machine and definately not as good down wind unless you want to just haul broadreach at max speed,

[Dave_H]

I have Souls, Flites, and an Edge in my quiver for foil boarding. For what you are looking for, the OR Flite may be a good LEI choice to compliment the Souls. The Flite relaunch is very good, even in light wind. The one thing that I had to get used to on the 12m Flite was the very fast turning speed even on lowest setting. My Flites are the dacron versions, so I can only imagine the new Aluula ones would be even better. My experience with the 9m Edge is similar to what others have mentioned with it not being very friendly for light wind relaunch.

[HendrikVdP]

If you want to go fast , go high aspect for sure.
Since you already have your appolo’s why not use those ?

Relaunch on a 4 line high aspect in light winds will be junk yes, but we invented a solution for that in 2006.
The 5th line !

I ride on a low aspect surf foil, light wind kite is a 15m mono, but under 10 knots the 5th line always goes on.
Saved my ass multiple times.

With a bit of work, and minimal investment just add a 5th line to one of your bars and you’re set.
Release can remain on one of the front lines , just got to make sure your 5th is slightly slacked and you’re good to go !

[Nem0]

So, there's lots of discussion of small, drifty, lightly powered kites lately.

What about those of us who like to go fast? I've been riding a quiver of Flysurfer Souls most of this season so far, and I've enjoyed them. The problem is that I'm planning an extended boat trip to the Caribbean, and while I know that drift launching a foil kite from the back of a boat is *possible*, I'm not sure it's really ideal for a daily driver in a place where I might be kiting more or less by myself with not too many people around.

So I'm interested in the kites with performance closest to the Soul that are inflatable, and hopefully that can compete with it in light winds down to 8-10 knots at least. The Ozone edge seems like it might be the best option performance wise. For light wind, the new aluula Ocrean Rodeo Flite in 12m would probably be pretty unbeatable. I also have 7/9/12m Cabrinha Apollos that might be just as good as anything currently available, especially for everything above 10 knots.

What do you ride? What do you like? What would you like to try?

If you are happy with Flysurfer why do not stay with them. Here you can buy the Boost3 very cheap!
https://www.kite-elements.de/gebrauchtm ... es/boost3/

[tkaraszewski]

You should just get that OR flight in Aula in 12m and use the apollos in 7 and 9.

This is actually a pretty good solution that only has me buying one new kite.