Kite for 6-10 knots

[evan]

The super important part of all this is a board with lots of volume and low weight. You can have a kite as big as you want, but if you have a low volume board, you won't leave the water.

in my opinion It is surface area that gets you going, not volume. My 155x50 low volume board gets me going in the lightest breeze. What I like is that you can waterstart with your feet in the straps and board under water to resist your kite better and not drift downwind when trying to keep your kite in the air. You also get a better acceleration and peak power because you can resit the power of the kite before the foil kicks in.
With a floaty board I am always struggling to find grip for the waterstart.

As for kites, the latest ultra Light foilkites beats every kite out there. They just keep flying when everyting else has dropped out of the sky. I normally race on short lines, limiting the low-end. But was astonished at the rediculous low-end i could get up foiling with just one dive on 25-30m lines and my 17m Peter Lynn Aero UL. All other kites had dropped in the water while i the feeling i could even handle a few knots less wind.

[abel]

Get a Kitech 12m kite. Trust me. We are a group of foilers at the beach and everyone tried everything. Cloud kites, Storm Voyager, Race Foil kites, but the only guy who kites and actually has a blast in 6 knots is the guy with the Kitech 12m. Now we all are getting one. Check out the video. Thats 6 knots and 12m
.....
You will thank me. I promise. Kitech is about to release their V5 of the kite in 2 weeks. Ask Laszlo from Kite Hydrofoil Miami about it. Best kite and you can use it all the way up to 18-20 knots easy. The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering.

Hey Lit,
Thanks for the recommendation. Seems quite convincing (though I still have to overcome my personal preference of LEIs over foils ).
Can you please elaborate further why the 12m is your consolidated better option. For such light winds I would consider the 15m,..no?

[Peter_Frank]

Get a Kitech 12m kite. Trust me. We are a group of foilers at the beach and everyone tried everything. Cloud kites, Storm Voyager, Race Foil kites, but the only guy who kites and actually has a blast in 6 knots is the guy with the Kitech 12m. Now we all are getting one. Check out the video. Thats 6 knots and 12m
.....
You will thank me. I promise. Kitech is about to release their V5 of the kite in 2 weeks. Ask Laszlo from Kite Hydrofoil Miami about it. Best kite and you can use it all the way up to 18-20 knots easy. The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering.

Hey Lit,
Thanks for the recommendation. Seems quite convincing (though I still have to overcome my personal preference of LEIs over foils ).
Can you please elaborate further why the 12m is your consolidated better option. For such light winds I would consider the 15m,..no?

I think it is personal preference, as he writes:

"The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering."

That is exactly how I feel about the foil kite sizes too, prefer a 12 m2 over a 15 as more fun and agile, and maybe the same peak power eventhough less raw power (but this is another advantage for some of us).
But others are different in that respect, so very split depending on who you ask.

PF

[abel]

Get a Kitech 12m kite. Trust me. We are a group of foilers at the beach and everyone tried everything. Cloud kites, Storm Voyager, Race Foil kites, but the only guy who kites and actually has a blast in 6 knots is the guy with the Kitech 12m. Now we all are getting one. Check out the video. Thats 6 knots and 12m
.....
You will thank me. I promise. Kitech is about to release their V5 of the kite in 2 weeks. Ask Laszlo from Kite Hydrofoil Miami about it. Best kite and you can use it all the way up to 18-20 knots easy. The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering.

Hey Lit,
Thanks for the recommendation. Seems quite convincing (though I still have to overcome my personal preference of LEIs over foils ).
Can you please elaborate further why the 12m is your consolidated better option. For such light winds I would consider the 15m,..no?

I think it is personal preference, as he writes:

"The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering."

That is exactly how I feel about the foil kite sizes too, prefer a 12 m2 over a 15 as more fun and agile, and maybe the same peak power eventhough less raw power (but this is another advantage for some of us).
But others are different in that respect, so very split depending on who you ask.

PF

Maybe for beginners a 15 is better given that 'nimble maneuvering' is yet to be achieved, while raw power is more "friendly" for beginners?

[Pedro Marcos]

As a beginner you would easily become overpowered with the 15m as soon as you start foiling and building apparent wind.

[Kitemanmuc]

Get a Kitech 12m kite. Trust me. We are a group of foilers at the beach and everyone tried everything. Cloud kites, Storm Voyager, Race Foil kites, but the only guy who kites and actually has a blast in 6 knots is the guy with the Kitech 12m. Now we all are getting one. Check out the video. Thats 6 knots and 12m
.....
You will thank me. I promise. Kitech is about to release their V5 of the kite in 2 weeks. Ask Laszlo from Kite Hydrofoil Miami about it. Best kite and you can use it all the way up to 18-20 knots easy. The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering.

Hey Lit,
Thanks for the recommendation. Seems quite convincing (though I still have to overcome my personal preference of LEIs over foils ).
Can you please elaborate further why the 12m is your consolidated better option. For such light winds I would consider the 15m,..no?

We all are afraid of the foil at first . Like i was saying, we are a group of about 10 foilers and everyone was afraid of the foil kite at first, myself included, but the Kitech made the transition really easy. The race kites still scare me a little. But the kitech gives me the confidence i need to kite in very marginal winds. Just remember when you started kiting and setting up your own kite and launching seemed scary but now you are auto-pilot? Same thing with the foil kite and the Kitech makes it easy. Ozone just came out with their own version of low AR easy relaunch foil kite, the Hyperlink and I think we are going to start seeing more and more. The Kitech is very good too and much lower price. If you want to demo the Kitech i am sure you can. Laszlo from Kite Hydrofoil Miami sometimes sends his kite out for demos.

[Kitemanmuc]

Hey Lit,
Thanks for the recommendation. Seems quite convincing (though I still have to overcome my personal preference of LEIs over foils ).
Can you please elaborate further why the 12m is your consolidated better option. For such light winds I would consider the 15m,..no?

I think it is personal preference, as he writes:

"The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering."

That is exactly how I feel about the foil kite sizes too, prefer a 12 m2 over a 15 as more fun and agile, and maybe the same peak power eventhough less raw power (but this is another advantage for some of us).
But others are different in that respect, so very split depending on who you ask.

PF

Maybe for beginners a 15 is better given that 'nimble maneuvering' is yet to be achieved, while raw power is more "friendly" for beginners?

How are your kite flying skills? If your kite flying skills are good go with the 12m because when you go for a start in 6-8 knots you will loop the kite to get going and once you are out you will be perfectly powered. The 15m sort of gets the size where it lumbers. It doesnt have enough power to get you out of the water by sending it normally, but cant give you too much power if you loop it to start. Once you are out, you will get over powered quite quickly. Its a matter of preference. I prefer the 12m and im 190lbs on a race wing. You cant go wrong either way Like Frank says. Personal preference and depends on your kite handling skills a if you like to be powered or not.

[Mossy 757]

A 15m will let you really push back against the kite, load up the front wing, wiggle up forward into your foot straps and hike upwind HARD. You can crank deep downwind in the light stuff and feel like the kite is a lot more solid than a smaller wing.

A smaller kite like an 11m or 12m will take more swinging around to get you up, require longer lines, and will never really "load up" in the truly light stuff and force you to be more upright on your foil not hiked out really hard, you'd just end up teabagging yourself in lulls that way.

I think the difference is whether you prefer to ride the foil, powered by the gentle tug of the kite OR you prefer to fly the kite like a giant powered up wing, with the foil in the water just to keep traction on your lines.

When I only liked flying inflatables, I was more of the former. Once I got into flying foil kites and learned how to ride them super powered up, I became the latter. Plus, foil on foil is the most elite sailing you can do without being a billionaire, so there was that inherent attraction towards that side of the sport for me.

[abel]

I think it is personal preference, as he writes:

"The 15m Kitech works too but, we all have found the 12m to be the better option. Its faster allowing for easier flying and more nimble maneuvering."

That is exactly how I feel about the foil kite sizes too, prefer a 12 m2 over a 15 as more fun and agile, and maybe the same peak power eventhough less raw power (but this is another advantage for some of us).
But others are different in that respect, so very split depending on who you ask.

PF

Maybe for beginners a 15 is better given that 'nimble maneuvering' is yet to be achieved, while raw power is more "friendly" for beginners?

How are your kite flying skills? If your kite flying skills are good go with the 12m because when you go for a start in 6-8 knots you will loop the kite to get going and once you are out you will be perfectly powered. The 15m sort of gets the size where it lumbers. It doesnt have enough power to get you out of the water by sending it normally, but cant give you too much power if you loop it to start. Once you are out, you will get over powered quite quickly. Its a matter of preference. I prefer the 12m and im 190lbs on a race wing. You cant go wrong either way Like Frank says. Personal preference and depends on your kite handling skills a if you like to be powered or not.

I'm quite good at maintaining kites in the air almost at sea evaporation pressure forces .
I'm struggling against light winds since I started fourteen years ago; initially had a 22m LEI monster. Since five years 14 was my biggest.
Now I'm on twelve but want to reach the <10 knots barrier with the hydrofoil.
Given that I have a 12 LEI single strut, I'm considering the 15 foil for a lulling 6-10 knots range, but having doubts because the recommended preference for a 12.
Perhaps the proper learning curve would be starting with the 15 and after acquiring better skills go down to the 12?
Will the 15 assist crossing a 3-4 ft break better than a 12 in the lulling 6-10 knots onshore conditions?

[abel]

As a beginner you would easily become overpowered with the 15m as soon as you start foiling and building apparent wind.

At under 10 knots??