Kiteforum.com

15-18 knots of wind, gusty, 16m lines on a 50cm ozone race bar. Delta Hydrofoil race foil and board.

Good kite, nice and simple. Launches easily, fills incredibly quickly, bridle is simple to rig up. Tuned perfectly right out of the bag.

Good sheet and go pull, less depower than my race kites, but good bar feel overall. Absolutely no funny business with tip tuck or deformation, very steady and stable in the air. I was a little bit surprised by how slowly it turned, dropped it on the leading edge during a downloop, but it relaunched very quickly by grabbing both rear lines and reverse launching it.

Boosts well, puts you back down on the water very easily, didn't over fly my head or get behind me during the landing.

Overall, steady and easy to fly, fast downwind but a little slower upwind than my race kites.

Fun kite for someone to get into flying foil kites, a hydrofoiler who wants to learn maneuvers and needs the extra float of a foil kite during the transitions, or for boosting without worrying about having to redirect the kite strongly to prevent a collapse. Good all around freerace type kite, very impressed.

The most noticeable difference from my race kites was how much less depower was available in the bar throw, even with the trimmer fully pulled. I was on the 11m model and felt very overpowered a few times, then switched to my 15m Elf Joker 7 and felt perfectly powered for the conditions, so it's definitely one you could rig a bit smaller than normal.

Very interested in how the 15m performs in the light stuff!

Had pretty much the same impression, not the same windrange as modern race kites for sure, but overall and price to value just fine.

Didn't you feel a 55 cm bar with 18-20 m lines would fit better?

More bar length yes, but I rode 20m lines with another kite the other day and hated it, I prefer 17m or less with foil on foil.

I gave it a go at the same time after coming off my 15m Sonic 2. It was a pretty good kite!

Going upwind it was noticeably slower than the race kite (as expected), but other than that it did all the foil kite things well with no bad behaviors (no tip tucks or collapses at all). Going downwind it was very fast.

It was definitely more grunty than the race kite. On the larger race kite I could just edge hard when hit with a gust going upwind, but on the Lecca-Lecca it was hard to turn that gust into upwind speed.

The only issue I had with it was that the bar pressure felt too light to me. That could just be my personal preference though. It floated me through the tack nicely like other foil kites, but I had difficulty feeling where it was during the tack because of the low bar pressure.

Interested to see how it goes in really light wind. Overall though, a nice kite well done!

I'm very interested to hear a review of this kite with a surf foil like a cloud9 24 or 27 or what I have is the LF Impulse. I am a bit concerned with the report that there is less depower. It is very easy to get overpowered with the big wings.
ATM the biggest kite I like to use is a 10m OR Flite. Sometimes a 12m if its really light but my lower limit is 8 knots steady if there are lulls or I make a mistake my session is done. I am looking for a kite I can use down to 6 knots but also something I can stay on if the wind increases to 10 knots.

Laughingman, stay tuned for a review while on the surf foil. I have the slingshot H2 wing to test with the 11M minima.

I’ve only had it out for it out for a short session on the twin tip so far. Very stable and easy to fly, especially since I’ve never used a foil kite before.

Will keep you posted

VB705 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:23 pm

Laughingman, stay tuned for a review while on the surf foil. I have the slingshot H2 wing to test with the 11M minima.

I’ve only had it out for it out for a short session on the twin tip so far. Very stable and easy to fly, especially since I’ve never used a foil kite before.

Will keep you posted

Awesome. thanks!

Laughingman wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:38 pm

I'm very interested to hear a review of this kite with a surf foil like a cloud9 24 or 27 or what I have is the LF Impulse. I am a bit concerned with the report that there is less depower. It is very easy to get overpowered with the big wings.
ATM the biggest kite I like to use is a 10m OR Flite. Sometimes a 12m if its really light but my lower limit is 8 knots steady if there are lulls or I make a mistake my session is done. I am looking for a kite I can use down to 6 knots but also something I can stay on if the wind increases to 10 knots.

I've been using a Hyperlink 9m UL all spring and summer. Probably 30 sessions so far. Bought a used Sonic 2, 13m for lighter winds. I'm 75 kg, dry on Moses 590 Freeriding wing. Been on it 6 hrs on the water. It has a lot of range, 7- 12/14 knots. That said, it turns so slow, it's a cruising kite. Not sure that's what you want on a surf foil.
The hyperlink is great at solid 10 knots to 18. That's a magic kite.

TomW wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:21 pm

Laughingman wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:38 pm

I'm very interested to hear a review of this kite with a surf foil like a cloud9 24 or 27 or what I have is the LF Impulse. I am a bit concerned with the report that there is less depower. It is very easy to get overpowered with the big wings.
ATM the biggest kite I like to use is a 10m OR Flite. Sometimes a 12m if its really light but my lower limit is 8 knots steady if there are lulls or I make a mistake my session is done. I am looking for a kite I can use down to 6 knots but also something I can stay on if the wind increases to 10 knots.

I've been using a Hyperlink 9m UL all spring and summer. Probably 30 sessions so far. Bought a used Sonic 2, 13m for lighter winds. I'm 75 kg, dry on Moses 590 Freeriding wing. Been on it 6 hrs on the water. It has a lot of range, 7- 12/14 knots. That said, it turns so slow, it's a cruising kite. Not sure that's what you want on a surf foil.
The hyperlink is great at solid 10 knots to 18. That's a magic kite.

Hi Tom

Yah so what is good for a surf wing in 6 knots? Great question.
I don't think I need anything more then a 12m, I believe the 12m I have would be fine for power if I could keep it flying. This is why I am looking at foil kites because there are few LEI kites that will perform as good as Flites, maybe Clouds or similar but even these kites I bet will have difficulty in less then 8 knots.
- A fast kite will be helpful I don't need much power once I am on foil, so something I can fling around and loop to make power to water start is good.
- a kite that will turn well even when depowered so I can keep using that kite up to 10 knots
- a kite that is light weight so it hangs in the air through the lulls
- and it would be great if it would relaunch in 6 knots but I understand that is more skill then design.

FYI I am 80kg

I bet the 590 is quite different then the Impluse I would say the 633 would be similar...? The impulse has quite a long cord and a fat front edge. see attchment

laughingman,

A Hyperlink 12UL will fly in less wind than any 12m Lei. But not sure it will have power enough. But it will definitely have more power than any 12m Lei. My 9m replaced my 12m North Mono. Low end is solid 8 knots, but not really fun until 10. Hence I bought 13m race kite..

A friend flew his Soul 8m today with me, similar weight and wing. He said he had plenty of power.

You should ping Famousfrank in Germany.