9m v 10m Soul

[joe f]

Does anyone have experience of both these kites?

The 9m is a newer kite and I have read / heard people talking about faster turning / less lift on the 9m. Is there really much of a difference or is it just a reflection of being a smaller kite? I am not interested for twin tip, just lighter wind foil board and then heavier wind on strapless surfboard.

Cheers,
Joe

[Janus]

Don’t know the difference between 9 & 10, I got the 10.
Light wind foiling for me, 72kg, is with the Soul 12m, 6/7Kts. The 10 needs 8kts for me.

So what is light wind and heavier wind for you?

Waveboard and Soul 9 or 10 is not very appealing to me, to much grunt.. I had a nice wave session with the Soul 6m in 20kts but you definitely has to put it on shorter lines to reduce the spike.
Foiling with the six is fine from 12/13 kts.

IMO the Soul is a very nice kite but not a wave kite.

[xoen]

Don’t know the difference between 9 & 10, I got the 10.
Light wind foiling for me, 72kg, is with the Soul 12m, 6/7Kts. The 10 needs 8kts for me.

So what is light wind and heavier wind for you?

Waveboard and Soul 9 or 10 is not very appealing to me, to much grunt.. I had a nice wave session with the Soul 6m in 20kts but you definitely has to put it on shorter lines to reduce the spike.
Foiling with the six is fine from 12/13 kts.

IMO the Soul is a very nice kite but not a wave kite.

What kind/wing size of hydrofoil are u riding?
thanks

[Janus]

About the same low on a Nobile Freeride (700cm2) and my current Ketos WaveXL (790cm2)
Have a 1200cm2 Kool too but it’s maiden flight must still take place.. hopefully in 1,5 week.
But for my current foils the Peak4’s are heaven..

[joe f]

So what is light wind and heavier wind for you?
IMO the Soul is a very nice kite but not a wave kite.

Sorry - was a bit vague!

I have got Moses 633 that I have been using with Soul 10m and 6m. I had a twin tip for occasional boosting and bigger winds, but haven’t really enjoyed that for a while so recently bought a Duotone Voke. It is a surfboard but not very ‘wavey’ and designed for freestyle rather than shredding waves. That suits me as we don’t get any waves where I live. I also recently got some Peak 4s (5m and 4m) which I absolutely love on the foil board.

I can’t see myself using the Voke until near 20kts, so I should probably just get an 8m LEI but I really do like travelling without pumps and I tested a Neo 10m on Saturday and didn’t really like it. Much preferred the soul.

I foolishly sold the 6m soul. That was brilliant on the voke as it is quick. I have been very tempted to get an 8m Peak 4 for 10kts foiling, but I think the soul is probably a better bet until the 5m peak comes out (which is around 12kts for me). My thinking is that a 9m Soul would be a good option for 15-25+kts on the voke and will have a fairly similar bottom end to the 10m on the foil board. I think a 7m soul would be more fun on the voke, but I would much rather have 3 kites than 4.

So...... options are:
1) Keep 10m and get smaller kite for voke (7m soul?)
2) Sell 10m and get 9m soul to replace it (this is why I am interested to know if there is actually much difference in the way they fly - Olly Bridge talks about the 9m being much better for looping, so it must be a fair bit quicker?), but accept that higher winds will be a bit tougher and it will be slower than the 7m.
3) Sell the 10m, get a Peak 8m for foiling and a smaller kite for voke. The downside of this is that the voke will then only be big wind toy. At least with a 9m or 10m soul, I can get out and cruise around in lighter winds if I fancy a change from the foil or the water is v shallow etc.
4) Get an LEI (probably 8m) for the Voke and deal with the pump factor

I think I like the 9m approach as I won’t be losing much on the bottom end (and don’t really chase super light wind), but the 10m has felt so much slower since I have been enjoying the peaks.Will the 9m feel more lively?

[joe f]

Feels a bit odd replying to my own question, but I went with option 2 and hope that it may be helpful to share some thoughts on the 10m v 9m Soul question.

In a nutshell, I think the 9m is brilliant and I am really happy with it. I used it for the first time yesterday on the Duotone Voke. That certainly isn’t an obvious pairing but it worked really well. It wasn’t super windy (probably 15-18kts?) but it was powered nicely and the combo was pretty quick. I topped out at 38km/h but was surprisingly constant at mid 30s. It was the first time the kite had been in the air and I could feel it improving during the session. It was choking a bit to start with (much more than the 10m) but it started to bed in and was lovely to fly. Ripped upwind and was definitely more nimble in the air than the 10m. Mission one (fun on the Voke) accomplished.

The wind was much lighter today, so it was foilboard time. I was out on the 5m Peak to start with and was loving it as usual. It was pretty light (an LEI tumbled and couldn’t relaunch) and on the edge of the bottom end of the peak so I thought I would try the 9m Soul. It was really impressive. Again, definitely faster to turn than the 10m and I never felt the irresistible surge of power that the 10m used to dish out. I loved that on the twin top but it could be a handful on the foilboard. It was light, but I feel much more confident hanging on to the 9m in more wind.

In a nutshell, I am really happy with it and am looking forward to spending more time on it. It does feel a bit different to the 10m, but in all the ways that I hoped it would for me. It feels like a bigger 6m than a smaller 10m if that makes sense. It could just be the smaller size, but it does feel as though the design brief was slightly different to the 10m (I.e. it was for Olly to do well at the KOTA) and it suits me down to the ground.

[juanpasala]

Sorry I didnt see the post earlier.
Main difference between 10mt and 9 mt soul is the cell count, which from the 10 mt onwards is at 41, compared to the 35 cells of 9mt souls and smaller.
This effectivelly results in a lower aspect ratio, which actually means faster turning, more drift but a little bit less grunt percentagewise if compared to sized 10 and bigger.

[hayes]

Hey Joe, it’s Jon, ive got your 10m haha funny seeing you posting about souls here!
I’m glad you went with option 2 and sold me your 10m, it’s wicked! Had a couple sessions now both a bit underpowered but the potential is amazing, can’t wait for more wind!
Glad you found the 9m a good replacement!!

[joe f]

Hey Joe, it’s Jon, ive got your 10m haha funny seeing you posting about souls here!
I’m glad you went with option 2 and sold me your 10m, it’s wicked! Had a couple sessions now both a bit underpowered but the potential is amazing, can’t wait for more wind!
Glad you found the 9m a good replacement!!

Hi Jon! The 10m is still an almighty kite and I am really pleased you are enjoying it as much as I did. Get in 20kts+ and you will be smiling for days.

[joe f]

Sorry I didnt see the post earlier.
Main difference between 10mt and 9 mt soul is the cell count, which from the 10 mt onwards is at 41, compared to the 35 cells of 9mt souls and smaller.
This effectivelly results in a lower aspect ratio, which actually means faster turning, more drift but a little bit less grunt percentagewise if compared to sized 10 and bigger.

Thank you. I did think it drifted a bit better than the 10m but it was too light to really draw any conclusions.

I normally find lower aspect more grunty but the 9m definitely felt less spikey when compared to the 10. I personally prefer that on the foilboard. It could just have been the light wind though Definitely single digit knots wind at times. Plenty of power though.

I will always get on the peaks as soon as possible but I am really happy with the 9m soul as the light wind kite. I would still like to try the 8m Peak but think that the soul is a better bet in the bigger size.