galewarning wrote: ↑Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:15 pm
Agreed. Wide boards require a lot of pressure to hold an edge. Learning to ride a TT is all about edging. Through an unusual set of circumstances, I acquired a Slingshot Glide. Not my intention to buy a 'door' type TT board, but I've come to appreciate the Glide's design of being long, straight and relatively narrow. You get more planing surface area thru length, not width. The longer of the two models is a 159, which I own, is only 40.X cm wide, about the same width of the 135 I normally ride. The shorter 149 cm Glide is actually a half cm wider than the 159. The long and straight edge of the Glide allows it point pretty high and doesn't require a huge amount of energy to hold an edge. The Glide is my fast-planing, lightwind session saver...
gilana wrote: ↑Fri Mar 30, 2018 6:04 pm
Im going to fly in the face of convention again.
Big boards suck to learn on. They get you planing allright! but kiting is almost never planing, its on the edge.
A 50cm lever is a hell of a thing for the new kiter to edge.
A big board will result in more faceplants during learning, absolutely. I would rather a student fall backwards ass first 10 times than one faceplant.
Forget the obsession with "getting up" that will come automatically.
You will land up going downwind uncontrollably fast on a big board, unable to edge-up and fly the kite low...
In clean steady winds, the kiter uses edging almost exclusively, and there is little need for flattening the board into what would be considered a flatter/pure planing interaction with the waters surface. Narrower boards plane (and hold kite power) better when not as flat (more on edge) and have a wider range of kite power they can handle because of the hard edging allowed by them. Unfortunately, a longer waterline is not conducive to overall efficiency at planing speeds. Longer waterlines create more drag than shorter ones at planing speeds, while the opposite is true for displacement hulls at less than planing speeds.
In dirty winds, with streaky or long lasting lulls, the kiter should attempt to maintain speed through the lull to make it to the next gust. Wider boards plane more efficiently when flat than narrower boards, but the edge is much more touchy with regards to a gust pulling you off of the narrower edging angle they can handle.
Planing requires a separate skill set from edging. Your "point of sail" becomes extremely important in planing, along with the Δ (change) in this angle appropriate for the change in kite power over time. Essentially, (gaining) more kite power means you should head upwind while planing and slightly edging more with the increase in kite power. When kite power is reducing due to a massive lull, you should be flattening the board to the surface of the water and "bearing off" wind. The latter allows you to maintain apparent wind speed via your speed/momentum, and at the same time, proceed through the lull to the next gust.
Wider boards plane better when flat (planing) because they are more efficient in maintaining speed when kite power is being reduced.
Wider boards are more sensitive to the edging angle - flatter means the ability to hold speed longer, but too little edging (or a sudden gust) means the kiter is pulled off that slight edge and is forced to head downwind.
Wider boards have a shorter tail, which fits in chop better and allows for easier/quicker fore/aft trim adjustments.
Narrower (longer) boards have less planing efficiency when losing kite power.
Narrower boards are not as sensitive to edging angle, making them better for beginners or those in areas where lulls are not as much of a problem - they can handle sudden gusts, or a riders lack of fine edging skill.
Narrower boards have a longer tail which makes the tail difficult to pressure due to the long lever arm.
My take on narrow (Slingshot "Glide") vs shorter/wider boards (Cabrinha "Plasma", Progressive "Manta", Ocean Rodeo "Origin", vintage Slingshot "Glide", pieces of "plywood") is: Narrow width is more controllable and requires less fine skill
Wider is better for maximum potential to handle lasting lulls, though it requires good kite AND board skills to exploit these capabilities.
I have to stop here as there is an apparent consensus on this forum that I should limit myself to a 500 word count post.