9m v 10m Soul

[dsundaram]

I bought a 10 m soul this year and its my favorite kite. I am older, 56, and I love the incredible upwind ability, great wind range and super soft landings on jumps. I can't compare it to the nine but have to say,... I almost never ride my tube kites anymore. I think you are a winner with either size kite.

[keegster17]

I am curious on these two kites as well. I have 18m, 12m, and 9m. My friend got the the most current release 10m Soul, and i really liked it. I ride freestyle and go for big air only, and the 10m i found was great. The 9m i didn't love at first, as i found i was landing harder than the 10m. I am about 175lbs maybe 180lbs in full gear. I am just debating if the 10m is more my style kite in high wind versus 9m. I did start to get use to the 9m, it flies very low in the wind window and wants to go. I feel this kite is a nice kite for those who like a active fast turning foil kite. It also has more drift i think than 10m, so for a foiler, might be better than 10m. I also wonder if 9m is not as good in gusty weather than 10m, this rumor has gone around regarding 9m, but is it true, and if so, would it stay true if you change PMA.

[Skywalker7]

What sort of wind speeds do you guys feel comfortable in launching your 9m & 10m Souls?
Do you have an upper limit before you decide that it’s too windy to launch safely?

for sure I would get out my phone to film anyone launching a 9mtr soul in 30 knts of wind, that's over 35mph, the soul is not weak in the grunt department,
I would keep one eye closed though, as I dislike horror films,
blimey it was less than that at rossy a few days ago and guys on Ttips were complaining of being overpowered on 9mtr lei kites, and they are easy peasy to handle.

I am 95 kg and I was using the Soul 10m comfortably untill 30-35 knots if the wind is constant and maybe a bit more on the Soul 9. Untill 30 knots there is no problem of launching. You need to make sure that you preinflate the kite and you are picking up from the side of the windwindow, The trick is that you keep the kite inflating close to the ground and when it did then you direct the kite to 12 o'clock or preferably just till 11 or 1 o'clock. In strong wind I tell all of my foil kite user friends that they should ask somebody to hold them when launching. The main mistake what people used to do that they depower the kite because the fear from the power of the foil kite but a depowered foil kite does not inflate well and does not open its wingtips. The rigth way to do is to not to depower the kite and to ask somebody to hold us and to pull just enough bar that the wings tips does open.

The 10m Soul has a bit more performance and the 9m has more manuverability and it is easier to loop which is important when jumping very high as for the landing some down loops and heli loops needed. I think it does worth to learn to launch the Souls in stronger winds as the 30-35 knots territory when the small sized Souls strats to produce the 15-20 m plus jumps quite easily.

[lopor]

Just for info
I found the 9mtr soul has reinforcement round patches at the bridle attachment points at the high stress points, check at the attachment points near to the velcro air vents, nice reinforcements missing on my buddies 10mtr soul, he was impressed and took his 10mtr soul to a paraglider center and had them modify his 10mtr to match the 9mtr,
I checked my ozone foils and was pleased to see these reinforcements in place, never noticed them before.

That doesn't surprise me since 7/9m are an addition to the orginal run on the Souls. Id call those two the Soul 1.5s. Love to get some pics of the attachment points.

=Jason-

Are you guys sure that older Souls do not have those rounded reinforcements? I just checked my 2019 15m version and 2020 10m version and these are present (did not unfold the kites, just checked a random attachment point at the trailing edges on packed kites).