Flysurfer Soul

[Breze]

The solution of the pic above: I would pull in the left stearingline(untwisted side) a few meters, to flag out the kite. With some luck the wind flattens-untwist the right side.

[FLandOBX]

I also like this one due to people being oblivious or we just thinking we are cooler than we are

(There are UFO's everywhere.....but only when our backs are turned. )

[Kristan]

I have a dilemma.

I had a couple of water sessions with my 12m Soul. I was pretty amazed by its performance, it was pure joy to ride it on a TT. Yet I had some concerning moments. Whenever some inconvenience happened I couldn't just let the kite go by throwing out the bar. Yes, kite lost some power and fell on the water, only to fold, get blown off deeper into the wind window, to unfold and relaunch itself, pulling like a mofo, while I'm trying to catch a breath and coughing out water after another fall. Leaving the kite unattended would keep that cycle over and over again, becoming a trouble for me and other kiters around. Plus I still could not get used to transitions, they are too powered and throw me off the board sometimes. Besides, whenever I wish to take a break riding the choppy water, I can not leave the kite at the edge and let go of it, like I do that with my LEI, so I have to hold the bar and the board at the same time, leaving me with no free hands to access my water flask.

In a month I'm going on a vacation where I'm going to kite a lot. The thing that concerns me is that a lot of the spots there have very narrow shore lines that don't allow to fully backstall the kite for the line length. And these spots are a bit wild, with few LEI kiters who have no bloody idea how to land foil kite. But these spots allow to self land LEIs.

I'm on the crossroad. To keep the Soul and grow into it or get rid of it and swap to LEI. On one hand Soul has unmatched flight characteristics and easy floaty jumps, but it feel like it's on a way higher level than mine. On the other hand there is LEI with its ease of use, safety and comfort in situations that Soul doesn't provide, yet has subpar performance, narrower wind range and not that great for snowkiting, especially in extreme cold temperatures.

Or maybe there are the ways to negate the difficulties that I have experienced with my Soul?

[kiter4fun123]

I have a dilemma.

I had a couple of water sessions with my 12m Soul. I was pretty amazed by its performance, it was pure joy to ride it on a TT. Yet I had some concerning moments. Whenever some inconvenience happened I couldn't just let the kite go by throwing out the bar. Yes, kite lost some power and fell on the water, only to fold, get blown off deeper into the wind window, to unfold and relaunch itself, pulling like a mofo, while I'm trying to catch a breath and coughing out water after another fall. Leaving the kite unattended would keep that cycle over and over again, becoming a trouble for me and other kiters around. Plus I still could not get used to transitions, they are too powered and throw me off the board sometimes. Besides, whenever I wish to take a break riding the choppy water, I can not leave the kite at the edge and let go of it, like I do that with my LEI, so I have to hold the bar and the board at the same time, leaving me with no free hands to access my water flask.

In a month I'm going on a vacation where I'm going to kite a lot. The thing that concerns me is that a lot of the spots there have very narrow shore lines that don't allow to fully backstall the kite for the line length. And these spots are a bit wild, with few LEI kiters who have no bloody idea how to land foil kite. But these spots allow to self land LEIs.

I'm on the crossroad. To keep the Soul and grow into it or get rid of it and swap to LEI. On one hand Soul has unmatched flight characteristics and easy floaty jumps, but it feel like it's on a way higher level than mine. On the other hand there is LEI with its ease of use, safety and comfort in situations that Soul doesn't provide, yet has subpar performance, narrower wind range and not that great for snowkiting, especially in extreme cold temperatures.

Or maybe there are the ways to negate the difficulties that I have experienced with my Soul?

I would still say that there must be some production issue with your soul. Have you contacted flysurfer for a check?
I now got around 12-16 hours on my soul12m (snow and water in shifting conditions, from 8kn foiling to 26kn overpowered - rigging down to a smaller kite)
and I must say it's the most stable and easy flying kite I've ever owned during 16 years of kitesurfing.

[Kristan]

There are no stability issues anymore, kite flies like a charm, it appears that it's rather turbulent winds and breaking down in the lines have caused previous issues.

For what I have now is no deal of Soul only, but I guess it's more like standard behavior of most of foil kites. Soul probably has it in its own way, but still...

[foilholio]

I feel foils are far superior for launch and landing than LEI. They definitely require more skill to fly and in general. I guess you need to weigh the benefits. I can actually enjoy the difficultly more. More challenge makes it less boring. In some regard I am tempted to surf with a race kite lol.

[Kristan]

I feel foils are far superior for launch and landing than LEI. They definitely require more skill to fly and in general. I guess you need to weigh the benefits. I can actually enjoy the difficultly more. More challenge makes it less boring. In some regard I am tempted to surf with a race kite lol.

I have more confidence in self landing/launching of LEIs, rather than foils, because I managed to do it even in nuking conditions around 25-30 knots. Plus there are anchor methods of self landing, which doesn't work for foils.

Challenge is good, but I think it's good when it happens more often, rather than twice in a month, if I'm getting lucky.

[PurdyKiter]

I feel foils are far superior for launch and landing than LEI. They definitely require more skill to fly and in general. I guess you need to weigh the benefits. I can actually enjoy the difficultly more. More challenge makes it less boring. In some regard I am tempted to surf with a race kite lol.

I have more confidence in self landing/launching of LEIs, rather than foils, because I managed to do it even in nuking conditions around 25-30 knots. Plus there are anchor methods of self landing, which doesn't work for foils.

Challenge is good, but I think it's good when it happens more often, rather than twice in a month, if I'm getting lucky.

Kristen,
I am in a similar funk re: my brand new Soul. I am a competent foil boarder, all Clouds for years. But on almost every transition smooth toe or healside carve I'm coming out of the turn with a ton of too much juice. I've found some relief in reaching up grabbing a float and pivoting the kite rather than a simple bar turn. Somewhat surprised that my new 55cm Ozone Foil Race 17m lines bar doesn't rotate the 12m Soul quicker even when I "fishing pole" turn the bar.
And.... In 2 sessions I've got 2 crashes and a trunk for of a heavy wet kite. I can't explain but there was clearly enough wind. The wingtips had taco'ed together and were on top of each other and would never clear after 25 minutes of trying all the tricks in clean wind.

Solution: I'm either looking for a smaller 10m or 8m Soul... or I'm giving up.

[cor]

It is very different in the carves than with a LEI.The Soul has a lot of power in the (down-)loop. I would not try to pivot the kite on the spot but in fact turn it very slowly and let it PULL you through the turn instead of turning your board and then pulling the kite to you, because that is why you get too much juice and probably get pulled over the board.

[elguapo]

I feel foils are far superior for launch and landing than LEI. They definitely require more skill to fly and in general. I guess you need to weigh the benefits. I can actually enjoy the difficultly more. More challenge makes it less boring. In some regard I am tempted to surf with a race kite lol.

I have more confidence in self landing/launching of LEIs, rather than foils, because I managed to do it even in nuking conditions around 25-30 knots. Plus there are anchor methods of self landing, which doesn't work for foils.

Challenge is good, but I think it's good when it happens more often, rather than twice in a month, if I'm getting lucky.

Kristen,
I am in a similar funk re: my brand new Soul. I am a competent foil boarder, all Clouds for years. But on almost every transition smooth toe or healside carve I'm coming out of the turn with a ton of too much juice. I've found some relief in reaching up grabbing a float and pivoting the kite rather than a simple bar turn. Somewhat surprised that my new 55cm Ozone Foil Race 17m lines bar doesn't rotate the 12m Soul quicker even when I "fishing pole" turn the bar.
And.... In 2 sessions I've got 2 crashes and a trunk for of a heavy wet kite. I can't explain but there was clearly enough wind. The wingtips had taco'ed together and were on top of each other and would never clear after 25 minutes of trying all the tricks in clean wind.

Solution: I'm either looking for a smaller 10m or 8m Soul... or I'm giving up.

i had a kinda similar experience(but maybe not as competent on foil)...
"d" clouds were great for foils.. accepted that theyre turrible on TT...but i couldnt make them usable with a surfboard.(upwind was just too poor to justify keeping)
the 12m soul was my gateway to foil kites
i bought it for twin tip use...and i love it on a twin tip...but it was just too much for me on a foil.
i ended up buying 6m and 8m souls too (kept the 6m for foil only(so far)..didnt need the 8m)

the 6m soul is awesome on a foil(for me) bc of its range makes it almost a 1 kite quiver on a hydrofoil

i can handle the 12m soul much better these days(but its not my 1st choice on a foil)