Matteo V wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 3:38 pm
Some of my assumptions would be:
1. Larger wings will be harder to control if you become overpowered in the kite and not allow you to go downwind with as much control when overpowered.
2. Larger wings will not let you ride with the board on the water downwind in overpowered conditions.
3. Larger wings will have a narrower range where you can "hold down" or "correct" the pitch of a wing.
Any thoughts on my assumptions?
Second what Foil says, you mitigate the "overpowered" factor by riding much smaller kites.
Assumption 2 applies in general - you don't really end up riding large wings on the water at all. They just pop straight up.
Assumption 3 does not apply at all. You ride smaller kites in the same wind range, and smaller kites have a greater available on the bar depower, which give you a wider range. Plus you can often pump through lulls, and pivot turn on transitions without dropping off the foil, which give even more low end range.
The main disadvantage I can think of is they are not that much fun in flat water lake conditions, especially in light wind. For these conditions, a fast wing with a foil kite just looks like more fun to me. I can imagine the new albatross style wings might also be more fun that the 2nd generation bigger surf wings for chilled light wind mowing the lawn flat water sessions.
The bigger surf wings really come alive in swell, and the really big wings become fun in even the slightest ripples of windswell.
Matteo V wrote:
It really seems to me that the hydrofoil world is about at the time kiteboarding was back around 2001. I mean, about every 2 years your wings are obsolete.
That's no lie! Collecting wings is an expensive hobby! And there's plenty of evolution and specialisation still ahead.
tswierkocki wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 5:27 pm
I spent the last year on the Cloud 9 S24 and recently bought the new X22, X24, and X28 wings to figure out the answer to your question for myself.
Just pulled the trigger on an X24 and X32 hybrid set. Looking forward to trying these wings out
Not sure I'll kite with the X32 though. Might get the 28 later.
These look like awesome wings, and the new fuselage design looks like a relatively future proof platform.