Market for Hydrofoil Wave Foil kites < 4 sqm

[Horst Sergio]

Reading some posts in the last time I asked myself:

Is it just me looking for really small foil kites particularly made for riding waves with a hydrofoil?

As for serious wave riding with partly downwind speeds up to 15 knts it is easy to see that you will require a minimum of 20 knts to allow the kite to drift with you.
In my case just having windwaves in small european seas or even lakes running mostly not longer than 10 - 100 km you better have 25-30 knts to produce a rideable nice wave of 1-1,5 m.

Unfortunately those 25 - 30 knts are where even my smallest kite (2,5 m²) starts to become to big, especially when riding it unhooked, which for me started to be the only relevant way to ride a wave on the hydrofoil. For sure for other heavier riders at better wave spots (rest of the world ) can be happy with around 4 m² but myself will need something like 2,0 m² in the future, so ...

having a look on the market I found:

- Ozone: Hyperlink1/2 starting at 5 m² so: nothing
- Duotone: Kapa actually starting at 7 m² maybe smaller sizes in the future as I understood the designer, so let's hope for a 2 m² , even if not very likely
- Peter Lynn: Nova 4 m², to big for most of my conditions, but maybe somebody happy with it in the wave?
- GIN Kites: Marabou 4 m², pretty sure hybrid is the future for this category, so honour to GIN, but 4 m² is to big to buy the pretty expensive model blind, asking for a test but didn't get response
- Flysurfer: Peak4 3 and 4 m², 3 m² is the best I have, but often to big and a bit of risk to sink it, even if nearly not relevant for me.
- ConceptAir: The one and only in the market seriously offering a wider range of kites I am talking about, the honour goes to Ben :
o Wave in 2,3; 3,0; 4,5 m² ; very nice but no doupt single skin or hybrid has more potential
o Pulsion in 3,69 m²; not tested
o Firefly in 2,5; 4,0 m²; like the 2,5 m² and still tinkering with line length and profile/mixer settings as Ben was so kind to give me the hint that the camber can be pulled out a lot.

That's it, isn't it?

Even if I grant a lot the honour and market all to Ben, I just wonder: Aren't there any other relevant models around, any other brands interested, any other kiters looking for such small kites?

To me riding a wave produced by an only 10 km long lake in my backyard is one of the best sports ever done, not requireing long travel, big risk or anything else just the right kite.
Hope anybody feels the same.

[LONG]

I've the same problem....The 4 s.m. nova is too powerfull and it's the smallest i have.
Only Concept wave seem to be the answer, but it's not easy to get it at reasonable price (import fees....)

[Huib]

Also LEI kites smaller then 4m2 are hard to get. I am glad with living in Europe that I have a Cloud D2.8 and 3.7m.

[Slappysan]

I would just buy a 2.2m BRM Cloud (I know that's not the easiest thing to do from Europe). For me the real big deal about single skin kites is in lighter winds, if you are riding in 20 knots a Cloud will work just fine.

[jatem]

Riding wind swell with the peak 3m is my favorite pastime, definitely the most fun size of peak. I'd like a smaller size, it gets a bit powered up in 35+ knots.

[jakemoore]

I agree there is a market there - super fun conditions to ride. For me it’s Marabou 6 and Peak 3.

Hyperlink 5m is a super kite but it has a pretty strong power spike in the way Peaks do not. Scaling down that design to a smaller size is not the answer IMO.

Even the closed leading edge of the Marabou can leave you swimming in in real waves.

Ozone has a 2 line single skin trainer that may be the ticket?

[gozokiteboarding]

I got deal on a 5m FX and it works great!

[slingshotucf]

go shorter lines, it'll be faster but it will knock some power off. You might even find you can go bigger with the shorter lines.

[drsurf]

100% agree with you Horst. I'm similar weight to you and ride a surf foil, (Moses 633). I mainly use a Peak4 3m for stronger wind and Peak4 5m for the light wind days and regardless of the fact they're not designed to be water relaunchable, the phenomenal drift, power and responsiveness makes them my kite of choice. However in winds over 25 knots I could easily go smaller than 3m and would love to see a focus on small kites for surf foiling.

It seems that the advent of surf foils has gone way ahead of kite design. The fact that you can get large hydrofoil surf wings which only need a tiny kite means that the focus is now on designing a great range of kites dedicated to this purpose. If they can put Peak4 characteristics in these kites I'm sold.
Given that surf foils are probably the easiest hydrofoil to learn on I think there's quite a market out there as more people start foiling and realise their kite quiver needs to be revised. The fact that small kites like the Peak4 are inexpensive helps as well.

Have fun, Dave

[foilholio]

Pansh has the Genesis 2019, new model, in 3,4 and 5m. People have managed to get them to make custom sizes, I believe flysurfer has done the same.

As to adjustment, shorter lines are the big effect. You can fly smaller kites straight off the bridles, maybe handles are an option. I can say like that you will have no problem with a 4m even up to 40knots on a hydrofoil. Otherwise yes less camber will make a kite handle more wind.