iriejohn wrote: ↑Sat Sep 29, 2018 6:35 pm
Matteo V wrote: ↑Sat Sep 29, 2018 4:13 pm
Personally, I am coming off about a 3 year stint of kiting on a 5.5m (at 100kg) while 90kg kiters are still on 11-12m kites.
Assuming you and other kiters are using the same type and about the same size of board what make and model of kites are you using which enable you at 100kg to kite with kites roughly half the size of kites being used by lighter riders around you?
I know you like the simple answer, so you could attribute my using smaller kites simply by my model being Best "Kahoona's" circa 2011 (all dead now) to 2013 with up to 2015's waiting around for my current ones to die from old age/usage. And I will say that using all the same model kite really lets you feel the huge differences between years that make them feel almost as different being another brand/model.
But that is not the whole story. I passed the "big guy - small kite" onto another rider out on the coast and he made it work with different kites. Though Kahooha's are "grunty", there are much more grunty kites out there. So the kite is not the most important part. The root of the situation is
how you ride, NOT
what you ride. I like(d) to generate lots of speed without caring about upwind for the first 10meters of travel or so. Once the speed is generated, I maintain it while turning more upwind AND FINDING THE SWEET SPOT OF SHEETING ANGLE ON THE BAR FOR EVERY ANGLE OF TRAVEL for even more power via apparent wind. DON'T JUST SHEET IN! Maybe my background in foil kites helped me with this concept, but it is soundly rooted in the physics of airfoils. There is
one angle of attack to the apparent wind at the kite that yields maximum efficiency/power. It sounds simple, and most kiters are actually (or making an attempt at) doing that, but the degree to which you do that is the key. Or put simply, there is much more room for development of skill than I , or other "smaller kite" kiters have achieved.
My skill development history saw me riding powered to overpowered as a beginner on kites sized for my weight or larger - just like almost everyone else. But I developed the smaller kite feel by flying my biggest kite (13.5m) in winds that saw me walking (or not even being able to launch) upwind because there was not enough. I believe this slowed down the dynamic intricacies of being underpowered so I could build the instinct to apply that skill when the wind was higher and my kites were faster/smaller. There is something to be said for the differential speed involved between the 2 medias which we leverage against (water speed, vs wind speed). There is no question that some of the low differential aspects do directly translate to high differential aspects. Though most of the properties are significantly different to require some distinctly different adaptations in technique. And, sometimes I was just "too chicken" and wound up on a smaller kite out on the water - thus I had to make them work.
Some kiters ask me why I loop my kite so much and the easy answer is that I am using a smaller kite than they are and I weigh more. But the detail of it is that I like to have power/pull EXACTLY where I want it (remember you can only pull on a kite string, not push) and I like to match quick turns with quick redirects of the kite. If I want to turn the other direction quickly, a normal sized kite holds up that turning speed. Or rather, the kite is still turning to the other side while I am already on the other tack if I am powered/overpowered. And that is the park and ride look and feel. With respect to wave riding heel side to toe side while powered or overpowered, either:
1. Rider turns, then turns the kite and waits for the kite to get to the "right spot" to pull in the desired direction
or
2. Rider turns at a slower rate to match the turn rate of the kite
Neither of those suit me anymore. I like to instantly redirect the kite (as much as a minimum size kite allows), and match my turn to what
I WAN'T - not what a bigger kite
dictates. My style looks alien to "park and ride" style, but I like it and this feel really suits my mentality. Or rather, it makes things interesting for me as there is lots going on at a high rate of speed. This rate of speed blurs the "thought" typically associated with "park and ride" and turns it into "pure reaction without thought". That is where I go to my happy place.
But should you wish to dismiss my explanation as "egocentric", I will say that there are many kiters out there with a MUCH greater potential than I have. I am not a quick learner. My skills are due to putting in the time, sleeping on it, and making lots of mistakes - some of which I may never overcome. And that is where I am cautious about "selling" my style to others. The way I typically package it is that I am an advocate of "instinctual flying feel". This allows most average people to ditch the academics while out on the water, and just go for feel. Not to say that the academics are useless, but rather you just don't have time to "think" about every movement out on the water. Especially when a portion of continuous brainpower must be put into the safety aspects of riding/other riders/bystanders.
To get to the point I got to with smaller kites, you really need to get out there on them and deal with the frustration at first. Then try new stuff with your trainer kite. Your trainer is the smallest AND fastest kite you have. If you can recover a continuous loop without looking at the trainer, you have a beginning to moving down to smaller kites. But like any learning, you will have some frustration. And that is how you know you are learning.