Flysurfer Soul

[PurdyKiter]

OK.. I guess I finally have to jump in.
All foil-boarding... larger Moses 633 and 695.
My Soul life could seem a bit bi-polar as my setup is: 4 Clouds and 2 Souls. It's almost like have two different sports. The Clouds of course are my super fast and quick fun kites that I've been on for many years and love. Instant loops, drift like a dream. OK... Now in 2019 I after reading 60 pages here I purchased an 8m & 10m Soul. I use these for my light wind kites as I've recently sold my larger 10.4 Cloud. I of course agree that the slower response is different but so far it's a delightful experience. The feeling is so entirely different than the zippy fast Clouds, it's nice break. The Souls of course have much more lift when I bring them to noon and want feather light switches & tacks. So fun. And.... coming from all LEI kites for 15 years I'm starting to understand the water relaunch with not so many rescue swims. So far the 10m still scares me with over-powered in 9mph winds. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, as sheeting out builds more power?
Thanks for all the Videos. Been watching "Adventure Logs" and Gunnar's mostly.

[slide]

does sheeting out mean full power , with the depower strap flat

[tkaraszewski]

So far the 10m still scares me with over-powered in 9mph winds.

It's not overpowered. My favorite conditions to ride my 10m on are around 15 knots, and I ride it up to 20 before it's really feeling overpowered. You're just used to riding super under-powered on your clouds. Holding down the 10m Soul in 15 knots of wind on a hydrofoil is pretty straightforward if you're used to it.

Sheeting out doesn't really build more power, it causes the kite to fly forward and accelerate, which will yank you forward if you do it mid-downloop or something. What bar are you using? Is it tuned correctly? Try pulling on a few inches of depower and see if that makes the kite more comfortable for you.

[PurdyKiter]

Sheeting out doesn't really build more power, it causes the kite to fly forward and accelerate, which will yank you forward if you do it mid-downloop or something. What bar are you using? Is it tuned correctly? Try pulling on a few inches of depower and see if that makes the kite more comfortable for you.

Yep, That's me. Toeside downloop sheet out screaming. It's a learning process as it's a different animal than a Cloud. Up until this week I've been on the Ozone Foil Race Bar but I've traded it in for the standard FS 2018/19 green 50cm bar. Waiting on wind. The Ozone bar was 55cm, so I hope 50cm will work.

[Tomlutz]

So far the 10m still scares me with over-powered in 9mph winds. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, as sheeting out builds more power?
Thanks for all the Videos. Been watching "Adventure Logs" and Gunnar's mostly.

Souls are difficult and scary to handle in gusts, but they have an incredible wind range and can be safe in much stronger winds if you allow it to fly far to the window edge. Sheeting out doesn't mean immediate power, first it accelerates and by creating apparent wind the Soul suddenly just yanks you through the air. As this happens with some delay (Souls are particularly little responsive), it is already too late to stop it if it hits you. Sheeting in too late makes the yank only worse. To reduce this effect you should fly the Souls with shorter lines (maby 17m), this way they have less distance and time to create apparent wind and are (or at least they feel) more responsive. - Tom

[TomW]

I'm not on souls, but hyperlink. I've found that using the depower trim actuchanges the power of the kite, and it's not just changing the AoA. It seems to change the profile or " base power". And kite maintains same turning reponsiveness. Of course I am trimming out in light winds and trimming in at top end. I can even rig the rear lines on pigtail knots to give more range.

[tkaraszewski]

Sheeting out doesn't really build more power, it causes the kite to fly forward and accelerate, which will yank you forward if you do it mid-downloop or something. What bar are you using? Is it tuned correctly? Try pulling on a few inches of depower and see if that makes the kite more comfortable for you.

Yep, That's me. Toeside downloop sheet out screaming. It's a learning process as it's a different animal than a Cloud. Up until this week I've been on the Ozone Foil Race Bar but I've traded it in for the standard FS 2018/19 green 50cm bar. Waiting on wind. The Ozone bar was 55cm, so I hope 50cm will work.

I've been flying my 10m on a 52cm bar and it's been just fine. The sheet-out acceleration yank can be super helpful to get up on foil when waterstarting in light winds. You just need to practice on the kite to get more comfortable with it.

[MasonJ19]

While on the subject of the soul, I have just started flying one purchased a 12. I need some assistance I'm not that experienced I did a bit kiteboarding with lei kites a few years a go and am just getting back in to it. I wanted a foil i could use on all terrains. Anyway I took it flying today and it just didnt want to turn at any sort of pace and was actually quite difficult to fly. I had pull the lines to get it to turn properly! The bar was just so unresponsive. It also kept kind of bouncing at 12 right above my head wanting to front stall all the time, the lines would go slack and then it would go back to normal position (still quite high in the window). If that makes sense? I also found it was probably more responsive turning to the left than to the right, but still slow!. It wasnt a light wind issue because the wind was there. What do you think?

[Adventure Logs]

seen a couple of your vids , and I could do with some advice , last year I got new 6,8,10,12 souls , after kite landboarding since 2003 -I had a health issue and in 2012 my kiting became little and often and only when I could get a lift - run it on to December 2018 , oncolodgy tell me braintumour and spots on my lungs all shrunk back to nothing and have been like that for 2 years , so I can drive again and live again , and hence the little van and my new flysurfers ,
... I have a lot of experience with old flysurfers , and I always take the safety off and back stall and use a landing line across the balls to stake ,and that works fine with the souls too ,I just need a bit more practice as my spatial awareness is not what it was but i'm on it
.with my flysurfers in the past I would set up how I do with flexifoil blades -brakes on a stake and flag out the kite to sit nicely in the wind downwind,some times place some sand on the trailing edge so it didn't blow up and unstabize the kite sitting there , but with the soul the trailing edge of the kite keeps blowing up and I just can not get it to flag out and sit nicely on the ground, before I can get air into the kite and before I can get to the front to place some sand on the front , and I have tried again and again -why won't that work? any ideas on that one

so I did think about 5 sand bags laying on the trailing edge evenly spaced and just walk back slowly to part inflate and when we have cobra we are away , i'm use to part inflated kite take off
I know there is the 10 degree flat take off ,but when I take off downwind , I get tension on the lines , and I walk round and every step I take will take power away on take off which I do to the side and up with no power I like to keep it simple with 4 lines and less tangles

Hey thanks for the feedback and awesome news that your health is mending. Depending on how old your Flysurfers were it could be due to the change in safety systems. Flysurfer use to use a FDS safety which is basically a fifth line safety. More lines/drag and possible damage to your kite(less attachment points to the canopy), but it worked better. Around the Speed 3, they switched to the FLS(front line safety) which is a cleaner safety but the kite is prone to more spinning and flapping. You use to be able to buy an aftermarket kit for the speeds if you wanted to revert back to the old system, not sure if there's an aftermarket conversion out there for the Soul but it wouldn't be too difficult to build one. Basically if you pull to safety, keep your lines on the ground and just don't let it sit there. Usually if I'm going to let my kite site for awhile, I'll fold over a good portion of the upwind wing tip and sandbag it. Helps reduce the flapping.

=Jason-

[Adventure Logs]

So far the 10m still scares me with over-powered in 9mph winds. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, as sheeting out builds more power?
Thanks for all the Videos. Been watching "Adventure Logs" and Gunnar's mostly.

Souls are difficult and scary to handle in gusts, but they have an incredible wind range and can be safe in much stronger winds if you allow it to fly far to the window edge. Sheeting out doesn't mean immediate power, first it accelerates and by creating apparent wind the Soul suddenly just yanks you through the air. As this happens with some delay (Souls are particularly little responsive), it is already too late to stop it if it hits you. Sheeting in too late makes the yank only worse. To reduce this effect you should fly the Souls with shorter lines (maby 17m), this way they have less distance and time to create apparent wind and are (or at least they feel) more responsive. - Tom

I highly disagree. I think the Souls are one of the best kites in gusty shitty wind. Perhaps your hyperlinks are so mellow on performance and you just aren't use to it

OK.. I guess I finally have to jump in.
All foil-boarding... larger Moses 633 and 695.
My Soul life could seem a bit bi-polar as my setup is: 4 Clouds and 2 Souls. It's almost like have two different sports. The Clouds of course are my super fast and quick fun kites that I've been on for many years and love. Instant loops, drift like a dream. OK... Now in 2019 I after reading 60 pages here I purchased an 8m & 10m Soul. I use these for my light wind kites as I've recently sold my larger 10.4 Cloud. I of course agree that the slower response is different but so far it's a delightful experience. The feeling is so entirely different than the zippy fast Clouds, it's nice break. The Souls of course have much more lift when I bring them to noon and want feather light switches & tacks. So fun. And.... coming from all LEI kites for 15 years I'm starting to understand the water relaunch with not so many rescue swims. So far the 10m still scares me with over-powered in 9mph winds. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, as sheeting out builds more power?
Thanks for all the Videos. Been watching "Adventure Logs" and Gunnar's mostly.

What's your weight? Being overpowered at 9mph on a 10m???? I think just more adjustment is needed. It's true that the Soul's are much more grunty but personally I really enjoy and depend a lot on that to help with transitions and messups. What lines are you using? As others have said, going with shorter lines will help reduce the power spike. There's a big big difference in handling between the Clouds and Souls so it's expected to have a little bit of a learning curve. Keep at it, you'll end up loving them. The 6m Soul is by far my most favorite kite on a hydrofoil. With different length lines it has a huge range and is just a blast to fly. I've used it so much the graphics are wearing off and have yet even had to adjust the bridle.

=Jason-