Ketos Foilers - What boards are you riding

[Tony]

I'm thinking of adding a smaller board to my Ketos-130. Thinking the 107 but wondering after reading all the posts in the 'Small Pocket Board' Thread if that is the right choice. I notice that the mast attachment point seems a lot further forward than on comparable sized boards, does this require a super narrow stance?
Is the aggressive scoop an issue on the 107 size?

What are people riding for small boards?
Anyone riding the 107? If so, any feedback?
Other suggestions?
I know I could use the plate adapter and open up the options but really like the one-bolt-attachment.

Thanks
Tony

[Pierrot]

I started to ride the 107 last season and it is an awesome little board. For me stance is great and you can actually have quite a wide stance without it feeling weird because of the rocker/scoop. It is so light that you can really feel the difference when riding. Also very good when touching down and the good thing is that it forced me to work on my flying foot switch

I kept my 130 ketos board for light wind days where board size makes a difference, but I have been using the 107 most of the time last season.
Now, if I could only have one board I would go for the ketos 118, this is for sure the most versatile option.

[jakemoore]

I know I could use the plate adapter and open up the options but really like the one-bolt-attachment.

I drilled a hole in the centerline of a foil-skim board so I fix the box adapter more permanently and just remove the one mast screw.

I think it would be cool if there was a track/plate mount board that had a centerline slot through the board to allow easy use of a Tuttle or KF box adapter.

Alas I use almost exclusively my Ketos 118 board and only rarely wish to use a bigger board to chase light winds.

[Peter_Frank]

Hi Tony, you probably know what I like, but being an engineer and working with, and loving, these kinds of statistics, here are my rough ones from the last 1½ year taken from my log, since I had both small and medium and big wings since that time.
Have simplified it for easy understanding, only distributed my (too) many wings over 3 sizes, and not taken the days with many different kites and wings into account - but doesnt matter for the distribution.
Might not interest many as im am old an odd and do not fit into much maybe, but here it goes, number of times used, meaning what I honestly believe is the right board for the job, my weight around 77 kg:














Took all the logs and found the average kite sizes used with each board(size), no matter which wing used on these:




Meaning, for my liking, seen in retroperspective, if I only were to have one board, it would be the 118, or if it existed, an 123 cm board ha haa

It is quite evident though, that for the 118 I mostly use the medium wings around 800 cm2, and with the 130 cm board, mostly the big wings

First time I saw this in "numbers" myself, because you asked, but of course I had an idea

Friends of mine, heavier, having the 130, also use the 107 or something similar, in order not to be too close to the 130.

Peter

[Tony]

Thanks all for the feedback.
I'm 80kg without any clothes/gear on.
Ideally I could test-drive the 107, not likely to happen though.
In hind-sight maybe I should have got the 118 instead of the 130.
I'm very happy with the 130 but think I'd also be be comfortable with smaller and curious see the difference.

Peter,
How much difference do you notice between the 118 and 130? What makes you take one vs the other?
Nice to see the data like you have, wish I was better about tracking my rides.

Jake,
You say you don't feel the need for larger than the 118, what about smaller? Do you enjoy riding your smaller skim, notice much difference from your 118?

Pierrot,
Sounds like you would not give up the 130 and go with the 107 only, is that correct? I don't have an issue with two boards except when traveling, then I only want to pack one.

Funny that so many on here are riding 'tiny' boards and only 'tiny' boards. Also seems the Kanaha Shapes boards consider the 3'6" (107cm) a big board for intermediate/beginner riders.

Wonder what the market is for the Ketos boards, picking up a 118 seems like it might be too close to the 130 and I'd end up selling the 130 assuming the 118 is the do-it-all.
I think I might be able to demo the SS Micro and attach my ketos with KFBox adapter. Maybe that would give me an idea what the 107 would be like.

Not in a rush but am on the list for the new short fuse, probably shipping next month and might be a good time to add a board and save a bit on shipping.
Something to think about.

Tony

[jakemoore]

My skim is bigger 10 cm longer and 10 cm wider. Rectangular and completely flat except a few cm nose kick. And it really only helps me to get a little more line tension for waterstarts in the lightest winds. If I touchdown with it it has more glide but also sucks to the water surface more. The bottom shape of the Ketos board is so nice in comparison.

Short fuse?

[Huib]

I have the Groove Wave carbon with a KF box. I don't like an adaptor for the mast.
Previously I had the Groove Skate naked 120cm but the Wave feels much more dynamic and smaller. It has also more scoop then the Skate
With the Skate 120cm I had the need to take a smaller board. With the Wave totally no longer, while it is 123 cm long.
I (87kg) am very happy with this combination and I don't know any better combination (for me).
Most used kite is the Cloud D2E 3.7m +4,8m in combination with the 1200cm2 wing.

[Mitaka]

Currently I am riding my Ketos 1200V2 Kool foil with 84 cm Kanaha Shapes inspired custom board and I am super happy with it. I kept my Ketos Pocket 107 for light wind but I never used it this summer! From 8 knots I can comfortably water start with my 84 cm board and I do not foil in lower winds. After getting used to the 84 cm, the Pocket 107 seems to me extremely big, the difference in agility and weight is very noticeable. But have in mind that I am 63 kg. Most very experienced strapless riders I know (even one much heavier, above 100 kg) ride around 90 cm boards with big wings.

When ordering my Pocket 107 I asked Anne to move the KF box as further back as structurally possible and the distance from the centre bolt to the tail of my customised KETOS board is 19 cm which is much better for big wings and appropriate even for strapless riders with very wide stance. Probably I will sell this board soon, it is like new.
I ride with narrow stance and the distance from centre bolt to the tail of my 84 cm board is 14 cm. For this summer I plan to build a new board and reduce this distance to around 12 cm which would be the minimum for the original Ketos KFbox middle.

Forget about the Ketos plate with small boards. It adds weight but the biggest problem is the substantial drag it adds which is big disadvantage for waterstarts and touchdowns. All mast, originally designed with plates, have much less and reasonable drag. I have a Ketos plate and I can recommend it only for beginners with big boards. It is nonsense to use this big volume plate with high performance foil and board. This is why I build my own board and did not buy Kanaha shapes since Horati refused to build a board with KFbox and advised me to use his board with plate.

[Pierrot]

Pierrot
Sounds like you would not give up the 130 and go with the 107 only, is that correct?

If I had to keep one I would keep the 107 over the 130.
I was not able to try before buying the 107 and was afraid it would be too small. But it is definitely not an issue.

Also i built 2 homemade boards - 1 that I leave in the TCIs and another one in Britany - to avoid having to carry a board everytime I travel there. And I « copied » the shape of the ketos 118. Perfect for a 1 board quiver.
Only regret is that my home builds are heavier than the original ketos one...

[Peter_Frank]

Snip...

Peter,
How much difference do you notice between the 118 and 130? What makes you take one vs the other?
Nice to see the data like you have, wish I was better about tracking my rides.

Snip...

Tony

I use the 118 when more wind, meaning smaller kites and more safe conditions in terms of wind, and find a big difference in the 118 and 130 in general, the last one starts so much earlier and easier to handle in lulls too, no matter how big the wing is.

Took all the logs and found the average kite sizes used with each board(size), no matter which wing used on these:




Makes perfect sense with my intuitive feeling.
In marginal wind the 150 is used, 12 and 15 m2 kites, in average wind around 5-7 knots.
The 130, the most used, is often with a 10 m2 meaning in 8-10 knots of wind average.
And when windy, 13-14 knots average, the 118 is used with a 7 m2 kite average.

The rare supersmall skimboard sessions are with a bit bigger kites, as a lot more power needed to start, compared to the bigger boards.
Also only used in less wind, as NOT good in waves (we GOT waves or chop when windy), where the 118 excel bigtime - no doubt the best of all Ketos sizes for that IMO

It IS average, meaning I use all sizes of wings on all boards, and kites from 3.5 to 15 m2.
Except for the 150 Hover, only used with 12 and 15 m2 marginal wind kites, opposed to the other boards where every size are used depending on the day.

Peter