Hands free foiling?

[Benicia Wind]

Has anyone figured out a way to control the kite without holding on to the bar? I can get maybe up to 10 seconds of hands free foiling before I have to grab the bar. It's 10 seconds I can pretend to be surfing a wave. 10 seconds of freedom. I can sort of control the kite by heading up or downwind but it's not very reliable. One idea that I haven't figured out how to do yet, is to slightly bias the bar so that when it is resting on the stopper, more center line tension steers the kite up and less lets it fall. Maybe some kites just do this already?

[Peter_Frank]

Yes, Peter Lynn kites did that, ARC and later models - they went up to 12 when left "alone"

Can anyone tell if the newer ones do the same?

Could be great for hydrofoil surfing indeed

PF

[jumptheshark]

Put your kite in a tree just the right way. That's what I did, and on the right day, I can foil one direction for ages without holding the bar.

I'm mostly joking. Last year I had a line catch a tree. The kite was over the tree on the other side, but in the aftermath it loopped about a thousand times in one directions. Had to cut the lines to get it down, but the kite was visually unscathed. Its a 12m srutless kite so not a lot of structure and I think it warped it permanently. Straightened out the bladder and it still pulls to one side. Have to ride it with the rear lines trimmed unevenly to get decent riding out of it. It loops with more power in one direction, and definitely tends to one side. Not totally terrible, but enough to notice. In steady wind, with it pretty high in the window, it will just stay there and resist the normal tendency to eventually turn down that all LEI kites have. Straight line riding only I'm afraid, as turns will alter its position in the window and kill the equilibrium.

In truth, its not a great trait!

I rode arcs ages ago, and hated having to have my hand cross the centre onto the other side of the bar when riding one handed/toe side in order to keep it from drifting up. Moving to LEI's that naturally fall and need input on the top of the bar was something I appreciated.

[ronnie]

[fun2kite]

Yes, my Venom II (Flying Mattrass ) used to just sit in the air when left alone.

Yes, Peter Lynn kites did that, ARC and later models - they went up to 12 when left "alone"

Can anyone tell if the newer ones do the same?

Could be great for hydrofoil surfing indeed

PF

[Slappysan]

Keahi has it nailed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijm5vsyIyh0

[Peter_Frank]

Really amazing

But above is still not a kite that can be ridden hands off at all, it does not seek up - pure luck and extreme skill of course

Also when left "hanging" at 12 our kites actually dont turn to one side as easy as when you ride hands free where it can not be at 12, but you have to set it at 11 or something, and match your surf speed and turns to match the kite which is not easy, nor good...

PF

[merl]

Yes, Peter Lynn kites did that, ARC and later models - they went up to 12 when left "alone"

Can anyone tell if the newer ones do the same?

Could be great for hydrofoil surfing indeed

PF

Arc nerds called this "auto zenith".The later models managed to reduce this effect so that the kite would just stay where you put it when you let go of the bar - so even better for hands-free surfing. But I doubt they would work well with a foil for other reasons (poor depower, tricky relaunch,...)

[Regis-de-giens]

The pulsion from conceptair is really good at this game. It has almost an autozenith and combined to excellent drift with rear slack lines when you surf the wave downwind.
I regularly can ride handfree more than 30 seconds and could envisage a gibe handfree . It has a slight tendancy to go to the zenith when you sheet out so with a bit of training i sometimes manage to change the height of the kite still handfree by just changing my upwind angle.
Ps : i like to use a floating bar stopper to keep bar at half power stroke and go in whichever upwind angle without loosing speed