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.