Flysurfer Soul

[nothing2seehere]

Hi, last year I purchased FS Soul 15m (which replaced my Speed 4 Lotus of the same size). My other kite is Ozone Catalyst 9m. As you can see there´s quite a gap in my kite range, however, it is kiteable. I am thinking of replacing the Catalyst with Soul 10m (if I get a second hand one for a reasonable price). Will I lose some top end compared to the Catalyst? I mean will I be able to kite in such strong winds that were kiteable with the Catalyst 9m? The main benefits I expect is shrinking the gap between my kites and being able to transport my kites in one bag. Thanks

What's your beach like? Launching and landing is the tricky part of foil kite ownership and can be worse compared to tube kites in strong winds (need to be careful with bridle to avoid tangles, more downwind pull launching, less people who understand how to land them and may be slower to offer landing help etc).

I have a grassy field to rig up and land in and whilst it has its benefits, its treacherously slippy when wet ( roughly November to March due to either rain or overnight condensation). I often have to self launch and land my kites due to timing constraints so its worth considering if you might be in that situation when thinking of changing down. For info, my 10m soul seems to be about similar to a 10 - 12m Rebel quiver (for me). I still need my 9m Rebel for days when its really blowing. I'm half thinking of a 7m Soul as I'm really enjoying the 10m but I need to get a lot more comfortable with launching and landing it when its windy before I change over.

Also I don't notice the size difference in transporting kites that much. Sure you don't have a pump but put in the kites weights (grassy field so I'm not filling a sack with sand and emptying out at the end of a session) and you are back to some bulky bags again.

Not trying to discourage you from changing but make sure you understand the problems you might be facing. The best solution is to keep the catalyst and get a 10m. That way you can always be in the sweet spot of one of your kites

[Nem0]

Yep,

My Soul completely derailed after pulled from water, also, was full of water.

Cant be bothered to do more tuning, after number of tries, so will just sell it.

I used to sell the kite with less issues. This were some different times

how did you manage to fill the kite with water? that is almost impossible!

[RomeUtah]

Yep,

My Soul completely derailed after pulled from water, also, was full of water.

Cant be bothered to do more tuning, after number of tries, so will just sell it.

I used to sell the kite with less issues. This were some different times

how did you manage to fill the kite with water? that is almost impossible!

When the wind dies and you are far from shore... it will fill in 30 min weather you like it or not, I have filled both my 15 and 8m gambling on the wind to come back while going for a float.

[SolarSet]

Yep,

My Soul completely derailed after pulled from water, also, was full of water.

Cant be bothered to do more tuning, after number of tries, so will just sell it.

I used to sell the kite with less issues. This were some different times

how did you manage to fill the kite with water? that is almost impossible!

Drop kite leading edge on water & tangle your lines so you can't reverse launch it, wait 20-30min and see how much water it will take. My Soul took like 10l and once my friend helped my to put it on trailing edge with around 10-20liters of water it would not relaunch. Fortunately water was knees deep but I had to drag my kite and board for 1km which took me like 40min to get back to beach.

[slide]

stitching may have stretched, under the strain , i did this to my flexifoil sabre1, in early 2000's pulled it out of the water with water in it ,but that was an open foil kite and i was landboarding , lol , but it flew ok after that, but i didn't have to pull it 1 km though, good luck with that one
and i did it once with a flexifoil blade1 4.9metre , i'd got it second hand and was flying for the first time , it was my birthday present from the wife and i got excited and flew it into a loop and was close to the far end of the beach where the water flows down a bay as the water comes in ,and the tide was coming in and i ended up in the water waist deep after i stood up , that one was a bit scary , i had to take a deep breath as i went in

and i agree if you only gonna have 1 soul , get the 10 , my 10 is my most used one , i only landboard tho

[lopor]

I do kiteboarding and snowkiting, unfortunately have not a good landboard spot nearby (but I started kiting on a landboard as it was the easiest way).

nothingtoseehere: I feel like inflatables are really bulky, so mine 9 m packs into a huge bag Plus I need the pump, a different bar and there you go - big pack size. Also I don´t mind starting/landing a foil kite, I use my Soul 15 90 percent of the time, solely self starting (I could not do so with a LEI) a there is mostly someone to help me to land.

For some reason I don´t like flying a LEI kite, although I had some tangle problems with my previous Speed 4 Lotus in gusts, but the Soul is so much stable, that I can think of flying solely foils. And I already had to drag a kite that sunk to the beach as well, fortunatelly just about 300 meters in a shallow lagoon. But this does not discourage me (it happened because of a chicken stick that fell off my bar - to be honest older FS bars were not good at all).

slide: I will have two kites - one Soul 15 and the second shall be Soul 9/10, still not sure about the size, but there are lot more offers on used 10´s than 9´s (however for US residents I found an used Soul 9 for less than 1000 USD at Captainkirks, comparing it to the prices here in Europe, I think it´s a great offer).

[Nem0]

Yep,

My Soul completely derailed after pulled from water, also, was full of water.

Cant be bothered to do more tuning, after number of tries, so will just sell it.

I used to sell the kite with less issues. This were some different times

how did you manage to fill the kite with water? that is almost impossible!

When the wind dies and you are far from shore... it will fill in 30 min weather you like it or not, I have filled both my 15 and 8m gambling on the wind to come back while going for a float.

Sounds not like a specific mistake of the SOUL!
If you are out in „critical“ wind, stay close to the shore!
If you feel the wind goes down, backstal the kite and wait for the next gust.
The SOUL it the most tightest foilkite I‘ve ever flown!
If you make no mistakes as mentioned in the next post.

[Nem0]

Yep,

My Soul completely derailed after pulled from water, also, was full of water.

Cant be bothered to do more tuning, after number of tries, so will just sell it.

I used to sell the kite with less issues. This were some different times

how did you manage to fill the kite with water? that is almost impossible!

Drop kite leading edge on water & tangle your lines so you can't reverse launch it, wait 20-30min and see how much water it will take. My Soul took like 10l and once my friend helped my to put it on trailing edge with around 10-20liters of water it would not relaunch. Fortunately water was knees deep but I had to drag my kite and board for 1km which took me like 40min to get back to beach.

Same here, not a mistake of the SOUL!
See my last post a minute ago...

[SolarSet]

Same here, not a mistake of the SOUL!
See my last post a minute ago...

of course it's not specific to Soul however, some people try to sell here some BS for example that this kite doesn't take water or if does always drain it, another one is that it always relaunches which isn't true either.
It was windy day and I was on TT however, after jump I think kite overflown me lines go slack and it went tacko-mode and fell to water.

Still like my Soul a lot and not changing it, had some ideas about trying Sonic 3 in same size but if my problems will more likely appear than now with Soul it isn't worth for extra hassle.

[Janus]

There will always be a situation in which you will get water inside a twinskin.
To keep it at minimal water entering as possible you should not resist the float and drift off the kite, wind and yourself on the water.. standing in shallow water or trying to swim upwind will cause extra water entering your kite.