Flysurfer Soul

[mr-markus]

When i bought my first Gaastra Jekyll new out of the box, lines were not the same lenght and chickenloop broke 2 times. My new Airush pully line snapped after 1 session. I can keep on telling..... Coming from LEI kites last year and bought a Soul i wonderd if it was the right choice. It is. Minor defects can happen just like this line, it shouldnt be but it happens. Dont give up yet, after a few good sessions you get dialed in.
Cheers

[slowboat]

When i bought my first Gaastra Jekyll new out of the box, lines were not the same lenght and chickenloop broke 2 times. My new Airush pully line snapped after 1 session. I can keep on telling..... Coming from LEI kites last year and bought a Soul i wonderd if it was the right choice. It is. Minor defects can happen just like this line, it shouldnt be but it happens. Dont give up yet, after a few good sessions you get dialed in.
Cheers

Would not call lines breaking “minor defects”. They could have very serious consequences. I have never had a new line or bridle break, and that should be the industry standard.

Tons of people jumped on the Flysurfer soul bandwagon recently. I know of several early durability issues. Unfortunate for a 2000$ piece of equipment used in a high risk sport.

[edt]

There is really no alternative to the capabilities of the soul in the 2019 foil market. I've snapped foil bridles before several times, usually doing kiteloops in extremely gusty conditions, you just have to replace the line. Foil's don't usually completely fail if just one bridle line snaps you can usually limp home with it and fix the line on shore. Once I scrape together $2000 I think that's my next foil purchase. I have to update my tube kites too tho, they are getty really ratty. Foil kites, tube kites, twintip, foil board, it gets expensive when you want to do it all.

[kiter4fun123]

Hi,

You should just replace the line and go on with it. I'm sure there's an explanation why the outer coating of the line broke like that.
I agree that it doesn't happen just like that.

It seems you're kiting on snow, maybe you had icy conditions and line were caught in between sharp ice edges?
You were eager to launch and jerked hard on the lines to get them loose?

Just speculating as it has happened to me... I've also put a fs kite in a tree. Really a shame but all my bad due to overoptimistic launch plans.
Managed to get it down but lines were damaged and actually, one bridle line broke in flight during the middle of one week kite holiday.
But took only 5minutes to repair it with the repair kit and happy kiter on water again

[Kristan]

Yeah, I have replaced the line that was in repair kit. That was an easy fix. Let's just hope it won't happen again, cuz there's only one long and two short lines left.

I know that everyone tired to hear about my Pulse2. But I abused and neglected it like I wouldn't do that to Soul. I dragged it across the fields, both snow and grass, didn't dry properly, sunk into the lake and sea. No lines were damaged, no fabric was torn. Some stretched lines, not airtight anymore, but that's it. So when it came to me that lines of Soul are this fragile, I was pretty surprised. I'm trying to be careful with it, mostly because of the thin fabric, and now I have to be extra cautious because of the lines.

On unrelated note, this kite could really use DLX fabric on the wingtips. For now it only has leading edge protected with it, but the part that is most subjected to abrasion from snow, sand and grass at parking is unprotected and has fragile thin and slippery fabric.

[Mane]

hi Kristan,

i owned a PULSE2 as well and would say that the SOUL is way better in terms of material and workmanship.
Guess you only had bad luck. The cover of those lines could be easily hurt by hard things like stone and else.
This has nothing to do with material.

cheers,

Mane

[Regis-de-giens]

There is really no alternative to the capabilities of the soul in the 2019 foil market.

Hello Edt
Which kite model have you compared it to ? I am always a bit suspicious on such general judgment and know several people prefering other mid-ratio kites for their loop for exemple or low end capacities). Do not take me wrong : I do not say other kites are overall better, and that Soul is not worth its money, but riders diversity leads to diversity of preferences IMO

[markfranklin99]

Hey fellow Soulsters

I have a practical question for you guys (first time post so if it’s in the wrong place please let me know). Brief background on me: kiting since 2001, only ever used foils. Started with Peter Lynns and switched to Flysurfers in 2008. Never owned an LEI so cannot say good or bad things about them. Hydrofoiling since 3 years. Learning the basics for that has taken me far longer than it should have but I started off on the wrong gear. Now on a Moses with a 590 wing and loving it.

Also love the Soul, by far the easiest and most forgiving kite I’ve ever owned (started with FS series of Psychos, Speed3, 4 and 5).

I have only found one problem I have not been able to solve yet, but I’m sure it can be.

This has happened to me twice now, and I’ve had probably had 30 sessions, maybe an hour each or a bit longer. So, statistically, I can’t say this is a huge problem, but when it does happen it is fairly catastrophic, because I can either not relaunch the kite (first event) or it flies crippled with one set of lines behind the kite (second event). (Here’s the track from last night with the long red line in the end showing me limping back to the beach with the crippled kite.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fgs4dgPLz8gtPZmt8

Here’s what happens:
As I fly the foil downwind too deeply and too fast and not paying enough attention to the kite, there is insufficient wind in it and it sinks slowly, and yes, I should be able to prevent it, but there is a lot going on. Eventually it hits the water, but the problem is, it is inverted and I can’t relaunch it.

Has anyone else had the kite sit on the water, inverted, as in inside out, lines facing away from you? How did you relaunch it?

Any suggestions most welcome.

[cwood]

I'm not ready to give up on Soul just yet. It's a good kite in terms of performance and for now I have no substitute for it. Or I'd have to go for 14m LEI kite, but since most of my sessions are rather on snow, I'd stick to foil kites.

But let's face it, Soul needs quality improvement, especially for the price that is asked. For some reason I have not seen people complaining much about this kite... until I decided to pick on those problems, and appears that other folks have similar issues. How are you gonna make improvements if there is no proper feedback or critique? Rely on proriders? You don't make kites for proriders. You make it for ordinary people who wish to freeride without caring about anything. Just like with a brand new car, you just ride it and don't think about it.

People keep thinking that "European quality" is something amazing, high standards. Nope, the reality of life tells that it's not always true. When I bought my CrazyFly Sculp they had the bar with label "made in Europe". And I say that kite bar was a complete disaster. I have plenty of examples, ain't gonna list them all.

Maybe those Liros lines used to be good. But who knows, maybe they aren't as good now, maybe manufacturer switched to cheaper materials without telling anyone? Even if so I can't even imagine what kind of a sharp object could've done that damage to the line. It could've been some dense clump of snow with some icy edges. But... If that's is enough to break the coating on the line you should rethink the lines choice and pick something more robust.

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.

[Kristan]

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.