Hi Kiters,
Following are my details before I ask my question.
Weight : 190 lbs
Kiting Skill : Beginner-intermediate. Can ride both directions and also ride upwind, but not with much confidence, and not perfectly. Only TT freeriding for now, and near future.
Kiting Location : In-Land lakes of Minnesota (pretty inconsistent and Gusty winds at times). And No great launch locations, so always have to drift launch and self-land the kites.
Question:. Can I have Airush Ultra as my main go-to kite (12m) ? Usually, I had seen that people only use this for Hydrofoiling, or Lightwind TT riding, or Surfing Waves at the most.
For now, short-term goals are to get better at TT freeriding and possibly learn some old-school jumps. My board skills are pretty bad, so I don't think I'm close to learning to Foil yet.
Why would I want this kite for regular, or high-wind TT riding? Instead of a 3-strut or 5-strut kite? Coz I loved the way it rides. I already own a larger-size Ultra, for LW kiting. When I rode that, I realized I like the following 4 things:
1. That smooth pull, and manageable power, rather than the Truck-Like strong pull of the Slingshot Rally's, which I seem more intimidated by.
2. Ease-of-use,. Such easy flying feeling.
3. Light Bar Pressure, yet it felt the feedback from the bar was good.
4. Stability - it might sound funny, but something as simple as getting into the TT board straps (in the water), while keeping kite stable at 12 seems like a Herculean task to me. So something that's so stable in the air will help. (UNLESS I'm wrong in this point, and Ultra is NOT known for its stability, then please do let me know).
My concerns with proceeding with Ultra 12m as main kite is :
1. Will learning to jump on a 1-strut kite be too tough for beginner-intermediate guy? I keep hearing about those smooth-landing capabilities and forgiving nature of big-air and how kites for jumping. Wondering if I can have that with single-strut like Ultra.
2. The strong-winds and gusts : but this doubt had been clarified by reviewers and some local kite school folks. Saying Ultra handles very well, when winds pick up strong, or during gusts. Still wanted to hear it from the larger kiting community here.