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Flysurfer Soul

For all foil kite riders
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Janus
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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby Janus » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:40 am

Kristan wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 5:53 am
As I've mentioned I handled Soul with care and did nothing extreme with it, so I'd rather say it's not my fault that the line broke, but the quality of the line is poor. I'm not ready to replace mixer lines every three sessions. Of course it's easier to go for LEIs, but I've bought FS kite for it's praised quality. I had an option to buy the foil kite that was twice cheaper than Soul, but less performing. Yet I've chosen to save a bit more money and buy a quality product with good performance, just to find out that the quality isn't there to begin with.
Quality of the line is good imo, no visable wear on my lines, only some color change..
Did you check the pulley's? lines should run through them very easily and lines must not cross..

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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby Kristan » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:08 am

Janus wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:40 am
Quality of the line is good imo, no visable wear on my lines, only some color change..
Did you check the pulley's? lines should run through them very easily and lines must not cross..
It was Z line that doesn't go through any pulleys.

With every kite preparation I lay down the mixer the way so I can see it clearly if there are twists. Sometimes I spend way too much time sorting the lines, it even takes more time than to set up and pump LEI kite. So I think that line damage was caused by external factor. Yet there was nothing sharp enough to cause such damage, other than clumps of snow. And I think that snow should not be the factor of lines damage.

cwood
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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby cwood » Thu Jan 24, 2019 12:39 pm

Kristan wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 5:53 am
cwood wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:55 am
Maybe tube kites are a better solution for you. I have owned at least 10 FS kites and flown them in every possible condition you could imagine...they perform beautifully and are durable. When I have had a rare problem FS has taken care of me. Those mixer lines are consumables and its why you have spares. Your damaged sheath is either from an abrasion or a stuck pulley. It's like a BMW owner complaining that their brakes were done in 10k miles....performance vehicle, soft compounds and aggressive driving....you wear the brakes you pay to replace. Tube kites are simpler to deal with and have fewer complexities and they perform as such. If the ROI of the extra complexity isn't there for you then maybe just use tubes.
As I've mentioned I handled Soul with care and did nothing extreme with it, so I'd rather say it's not my fault that the line broke, but the quality of the line is poor. I'm not ready to replace mixer lines every three sessions. Of course it's easier to go for LEIs, but I've bought FS kite for it's praised quality. I had an option to buy the foil kite that was twice cheaper than Soul, but less performing. Yet I've chosen to save a bit more money and buy a quality product with good performance, just to find out that the quality isn't there to begin with.
No doubt frustrating.....but, across those 10 FS kites, thousands of sessions, I have broken and replaced exactly 1 of those lines EVER. Every one of my spare parts kits are intact. All of my sessions are aggressive boosting focused with thousands of boosts (abrupt steering inputs). I would suggest that the line is the best that can be purchased that has the desired attributes for that function and doubt very much that it is a place a global manufacturer that can buy in huge bulk would skimp.

Either you got something with a flaw (likely impossible to tell) or something happened in handling, perhaps sharp ice or something obstacle related. Regardless, they include spares because of the type of wear....install it and move on.

As a rule I generally check pulley rotation when I set up a kite for launch to make sure sand hasn't jammed them....although you say this was not a pulley line.

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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby kiste » Sat Jan 26, 2019 4:26 pm

I really do not know which size to buy. I have 85kg and currently sold everything besides my 8 and 6 LEI kites and i think about buying

a) 10m Soul
b) 10m Soul + 10 LEI
c) 12m Soul + 10 LEI

I ride strapless, foil and twintip (in this order)...
Foiling up to 12-15 knots maybe, then switching to strapless (hopefully in waves), then at 20 knots sometimes switching to twintip for boosting.

Soul should become my main kite for foiling, because my 10m does not start that well below 11 knots ;)
Maybe i can use the Soul also as a "wave kite" (the 10m then) with short lines in winds up to 15 Knots (not that many waves anyway at this). Is the 12m to big for foiling / wavekiting in winds up to 15 Knots?

Thanks for your advice :)

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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby mr-markus » Sat Jan 26, 2019 5:14 pm

12 and 8 Soul. Covers huge range. I weigh 86 kg got the 12 and 8m. just TT rider btw.

Jason aka Adventure Logs has the same setup ask him for details.

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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby cwood » Sat Jan 26, 2019 10:01 pm

kiste wrote:
Sat Jan 26, 2019 4:26 pm
I really do not know which size to buy. I have 85kg and currently sold everything besides my 8 and 6 LEI kites and i think about buying

a) 10m Soul
b) 10m Soul + 10 LEI
c) 12m Soul + 10 LEI

I ride strapless, foil and twintip (in this order)...
Foiling up to 12-15 knots maybe, then switching to strapless (hopefully in waves), then at 20 knots sometimes switching to twintip for boosting.

Soul should become my main kite for foiling, because my 10m does not start that well below 11 knots ;)
Maybe i can use the Soul also as a "wave kite" (the 10m then) with short lines in winds up to 15 Knots (not that many waves anyway at this). Is the 12m to big for foiling / wavekiting in winds up to 15 Knots?

Thanks for your advice :)
I only foil and like to be very well powered /jacked for boosting. The souls have fantastic depower so you can ride them into a much higher wind range than you would think. I weigh 185 lbs and ride mainly a race wing.
8m - 22 to 30 kts - probably ridable @ 12 - 15 kts
10m - 18 - 25 kts - probably ridable @ 10 - 12 kts
12m - 12 - 19 kts - ridable @ 7-8 kts with extensions (27m lines) and some looping
15m - 5 - 15 kts
Last edited by cwood on Sun Jan 27, 2019 12:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

tomtom
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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby tomtom » Sat Jan 26, 2019 10:59 pm

Soul is very good kite. But not for strapless SB. Complete different riding characteristic. Slow turning and no mid windows depower.

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omg
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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby omg » Sun Jan 27, 2019 8:07 am

Can you loop say 12m (depowered) that there is not much pull like LEIs do, or does Soul have strong pull all the time during a loop?

Basically what I am after here is that on many strapless surfboard grabbed tricks you need to loop the kite at the end/landing of the trick and if there’s heck of a pull from the kite when looping it, it makes life much harder. I don’t think many too many ppl are thinking abt pure wave riding with Soul sizes above 6m or so.

Thanks!

kiste
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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby kiste » Sun Jan 27, 2019 9:24 am

cwood wrote:
Sat Jan 26, 2019 10:01 pm
kiste wrote:
Sat Jan 26, 2019 4:26 pm
I really do not know which size to buy. I have 85kg and currently sold everything besides my 8 and 6 LEI kites and i think about buying

a) 10m Soul
b) 10m Soul + 10 LEI
c) 12m Soul + 10 LEI

I ride strapless, foil and twintip (in this order)...
Foiling up to 12-15 knots maybe, then switching to strapless (hopefully in waves), then at 20 knots sometimes switching to twintip for boosting.

Soul should become my main kite for foiling, because my 10m does not start that well below 11 knots ;)
Maybe i can use the Soul also as a "wave kite" (the 10m then) with short lines in winds up to 15 Knots (not that many waves anyway at this). Is the 12m to big for foiling / wavekiting in winds up to 15 Knots?

Thanks for your advice :)
I only foil and like to be very well powered /jacked for boosting. The souls have fantastic depower so you can ride them into a much higher wind range than you would think. I weigh 185 lbs and ride mainly a race wing.
8m - 22 to 30 kts - probably ridable @ 12 - 15 kts
10m - 18 - 25 kts - probably ridable @ 10 - 12 kts
12m - 12 - 29 kts - ridable @ 8-9 kts with extensions (27m lines) and some looping
15m - 5 - 15 kts
You Ride the 12m on the foil up to over 20 kts?? Maybe you wanted to write 19? So you say: 12m on the foil at 15 kts should not be a problem? I have a bigger wing so maybe the windrange shifts a little bit to the lower end.

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Re: Flysurfer Soul

Postby andylc » Sun Jan 27, 2019 10:33 am

Soul 12m and 8m for me is an excellent combination with enough crossover, this is for twin tip riding. The one feature it has, which you have to get used to, is a lot of power in the loop, so for instance if you're doing a downloop transition you need to really get it looping quickly and with the bar right out, or it will really yank you - I ended up skidding straight across the beach once early on because I didn't realise how far it would pull me in the downloop. For this reason it's not going to be the best strapless option, and I'm considering getting a 10m LEI so I have both options available, maybe a Pivot.
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