Windrange soul 10m twintip

[moon80]

Hello guys,

I'm currently using LEI kites (7, 9, 12) and I was wondering about getting a Flysurfer Soul 10m to replace my 9m and 12m Fone bandit (with a twintip).

My question is quite straitforward: would a 10m soul cover the windrange of my 9m and 12m LEI kites combined (especially on the low wind range) ?

For information,

• I weight 70kg
  I can use the 12m from 12 - 20 knots range
  I can use the 9m in the 18 - 30 knots range
  My board is 138 by 40.5 cm

Many thanks in advance to those who will take the time to answer

[edt]

I don't think you want to cover more range just because it's a foil. The thing about a foil is that it has more depower so if you sheet out on a tube kite you might go from full power to 1/2 or 1/3 power while on a foil kite if you sheet out, you can go from full power to 1/4 or 1/5 power.

However, flying the kite around sheeted way out is no fun. a 10m soul will get you riding in about the same wind conditions as you use on your 12m, but this is just my opinion, in winds that you normally fly your 9m kite you would want a 6 or 7m soul.

Kites fly best close to their optimal range. Just because you can sheet the kite way out doesn't mean it's fun to ride that way. I think if you want to go with a 2 kite quiver get an 8m and 11m tube kite, sacrifice a little bit at the top and little bit at the bottom.

[Adventure Logs]

Depending on your skill, yes the 10m Soul will cover that range. If you don't have experience with foil kites, it will take some time to be able to ride that upper range with comfort and confidence. As reference, I use to ride my Soul 15m at 25kts and I weigh 80 kgs.

[jakemoore]

10m Soul and 7m Bandit a reasonable quiver especially with 2 boards but 10-8 is better.

The low end should beat the bandit 12 if you can pair the kite with a flat fast board and flat water. Or with a hydrofoil a 10m soul should beat just about any tube kite. In waves and bay swell on a surfboard or twintip the bandit will have better low end.

30 knots is doable with a 10m foil kite but I would not recommend this to somebody new to foil kites. Launching will be exciting. It’s going to be a pain to land. Anticipate a lot of maximum edging hard and crawling upwind to control speed.

For me foil kites become less desirable somewhere between 20 and 25 knots especially considering the consequence of a botched launch or landing. And in that wind you don’t benefit as much from the upwind performance. If gusts accompany a shift the kite is out of the window. It’s doable but less fun. The jumps are floaty but it’s tough to ride with enough speed to edge hard and go high. And again the flogging bridles on landing are a pain.

[SolarSet]

flying Soul overpowered is not comfortable experience since it will be fully depowered and on the edge of WW, if you never flown foil kite you may think that kite will overflow you. Soul 10m flys probably like LEI 12m, you wouldn't fly your 12m LEI when you can fly 9m?

First of all try foil kite few time and see if you like extra hassle that comes with foil kite and many people jump on hype train (including myself) and after number of sessions they realised that hassle with foil kite is not worth it and went back to LEI

[nothing2seehere]

I'm a similar weight to you. With a larger twin tip (I borrowed my 90kg mates regular boar) I can do small (4m) jumps and one footers in about 13-14 knots of wind. On my regular twin tip I've had my 10m soul out in gusting 28knots or so. I'd say that its less comfortable over 25 knots but you can hold it down even at your weight. I'd say that the top end is something close to a regular 10m but the low end is closer to a 12/13m.

However, launching and landing at anything over 20knots is not for the faint hearted! Easy to get a tip wrap on launch and even landing with a helper will get line tangles. I have a wind shadow at my launch spot (which helps a lot for landing!) but grass (which is awful for launches as you get dragged 20m down the field). You get more grip on sand so it might be easier but its still the problem area.

The 10m is a good kite but its always better to change to my 10m LEI when the wind is strong enough. I get a lot of overlap between the kites so a 12m might be better but I'm currently keeping it for hydrofoiling. Also, the loops aren't fun. Its nicer to throw a couple of landing loops on an LEI than get the same smooth landing from just diving the kite.

[jbrodin]

For me 10m Soul and 9m lei is all I need. The Soul can get me going on tt from 12 knots, I switch to the lei from 20 knots and up. I traded the Soul for a 11 Chrono now, but the divisoin remains the same.

[moon80]

Thank you all for your answers !

I got interested in the soul (and foil kite) mainly because:
. I travel a lot and it seems to be the perfect kite to cover a large wind range while not taking space or weight (i love the idea to have a backpack under 10kg with all my stuffs)
. I do freeride and bigair and it seems to be a perfect match for that

For the moment I think i'll go with 10m soul (and different lines extension) and 8 or 9 LEI.

Just by curiosity, what would the wind range of a 12m soul with a twintip ?

Thanks again !

[jbrodin]

I had a 10 Soul and 9 lei. It's a perfect combo. I traded the soul for an 11 Chrono, but from what you write a 10 soul is a better choice. The 12 has barely better low-end, at the cost of less speed, fun and ease of use/handling. Just take pracautions with landing and launching. With the 10 soul i alwsys launched and landed with full depower. You can even flag it out quite well by grabbing and pulling in on the clam cleat. A lot of people claim that launching with depower makes the kite unstable and hard to control. Not so with the soul 10. It just wants to go to the edge of the window when you tug the front lines. This trick is also super helpful if the lines go slack and the kite fall into the power zone - the kite then catches and it can yank you like a bull stung by a hornet unless you get as little tension as you can on the back lines.

Thank you all for your answers !

I got interested in the soul (and foil kite) mainly because:
. I travel a lot and it seems to be the perfect kite to cover a large wind range while not taking space or weight (i love the idea to have a backpack under 10kg with all my stuffs)
. I do freeride and bigair and it seems to be a perfect match for that

For the moment I think i'll go with 10m soul (and different lines extension) and 8 or 9 LEI.

Just by curiosity, what would the wind range of a 12m soul with a twintip ?

Thanks again !

[BalsaMichel]

FS Soul 8, 10, 12: My thoughts over the last years:

Soul (1+2) 12:
- The ticket to go on spots with changing wind conditions (lakes)
- When wind catches up a bit I have to switch to a smaller kite very early, when it´s getting gusty already somewhere at 20 kn, right there where the "magic sessions" happen (hate this)
- Don´t like this size so much because it´s a bit too sloooow turning.
- Nice jumping even at low wind although I always need to adapt to the low turning speed after switching from Soul 8 for example

Soul (2) 8:
- The fun machine, fast turning, looping, jumps are really easy.
- Easy to ride and stable, only foilkite I´m borrowing to others without doubt, realized it comes back with cold beer very often
- Versatile, works with small/big TTs, Skimboards...
- Quite powerful but of course not really a low wind kite with TT. If 10-12m tubes are going to shore I will have to as well
- Hunts a bit in a windrange where I prefer to ride tubekites because of gusts and lack of qualified landing helpers

Soul (1) 10:
- Maybe the best tradeoff for TT between power and turning speed (but could turn a bit faster).
- Covers a wide wind range in combination with two boards
- Good combination with a 8m or 9m tube for example

Micha