The best thing for light wind is a wide flat TT. Mine is a 135x48cm custom TT I had Cardboards make to my specs.

It was based on a plywood board I made and rode for several years. The Cardboard is much lighter.

You could get quite a good result by just plonking some straps on a sheet of 10-12mm marine ply. (Strapless could be fun but a bit limiting.) The natural flex in the ply gives you all the rocker you need when it is loaded up.

A good light wind TT is liking adding an extre 2m onto your kite without the negatives that brings.

The wide board can get a bit skatey if your technique is off, particularly in chop and toeside carves. It does help focus your technique and when you get it right it is magic.

I had a magic session on Sunday. The only one riding for the first hour and having perfect, glassy small waves all to myself for most of the second hour. Bliss!!!

Finless is also good in light winds, although some small fins do make the board more forgiving.

As you probably know, avoid rocker in a light wind board.

Surfboards are bad because of too much rocker and too much fin drag.

Raceboards go faster upwind and at a higher angle but are too hard to ride in really light conditions.

A standard commercial lightwind TT can be almost as a good as a flat, wide TT. They are generally a bit long and flexy to be really good in light winds.

I have never tried a Door style TT. Lots of people say good things about them.

If I had to have only one board and kite it would be my light wind TT and a 10m bow kite.

Gorgo said...



Raceboards go faster upwind and at a higher angle but are too hard to ride in really light conditions.

You must be doing something really wrong or you have only tried really bad race boards

You should give the Airush Sector a go if you find it hard to ride that in light wind then you must be really struggling to ride anything!



EPPO next time you are in Perth drop in and see us at Airborne and we might be able to hook you up with a demo

Damo said...
...

You must be doing something really wrong or you have only tried really bad race boards

...

I have tried the 2009 and 2010 North race boards over a period of several weeks.

By "hard" I mean you have to tack (or gybe) them to turn around. In borderline light conditions you are struggling to just keep the kite flying. Add to the trying to turn with a board that doesn't really want to turn and riding toeside or swapping feet or whatever and you have a recipe for disaster.

On several occasions I have been riding with guys on raceboards. The wind drops out and they muff a gybe and drop the kite and they are swimming.

In extreme situations I have sat in the water flying a figure-8 pattern until the wind picked up and I could ride back to the beach.

On another occasion a raceboard guy rode 6km upwind then back again in the time it took me to get 2-3km in one direction. Raceboards are amazing upwind.

The North boards also had a habit of rounding up into wind if you mistimed your power stroke which is also a bugger in light winds.

While we're at it. Raceboard = big, expensive, fragile, slow downwind, not very turny. Mega-sharp fins of death!!!!

I am told all the good guys tack raceboards and that it is easy when you get good at it. I am still somewhat interested in some form of freeride race board. Maybe when they get cheaper and smaller and some sensible fins on them.

... I have a lot of fun on an underground 146 x 44 and its a great light wind board for the heavy guy and even better for a lighter guy, plus it is still good when the wind picks up too. For a bigger board, it is quite lively and smooth through the water handling chop no worries. I'm not a fan of the older straps but the new ones look good!

Good luck,

Robbie

If I was going to go for a light wind TT board it would be 149.5cm long x 44.2cm wide and 29.3 on the tips.
40mm fins, 35mm constant rocker, 7mm double concave, medium flex, wide stance, orange graphic so I dont loose the bugger. And a handle just cause Im a kook rebel.

how about a skimboard?

super fun in the light.

^^^^ How do you stop the kite from stalling when the wind drops out?

I didn't thumb anybody.

In light wind the kite is more likely to stall and drop backwards out of the sky. It happens when the bar is pulled in too hard in the middle of the window, or when the kite comes too far forward in a gust, or simply when the wind drops off to almost nothing.

The solution is to push the bar out and possibly even reach over and pull the front lines to pump it back up into the air. If the kite has already stalled you can down loop it, or let it drop backwards into the middle of the window, then turn it and send it through the middle of the window at speed. All this requires the bar to be pushed out.

You also need air speed to generate power. It is common to push the bar out, generate speed on the down stroke, turn the kite and ease the bar in to convert the speed into power on the upstroke.

I think having a locked chicken loop would work to get more power out of a relatively small kite in moderate winds. I doubt if it would help to get more power out of a larger kite in light winds.

Gstar said...

Lol old school! Can you even buy those loops these days?

The reason these work is because once you dial in the "right" amount of power and lock it in, the kite flys better because you are not mucking around with the sheeting all the time.

Generally for light winds the "right" amount of power is not pulled all the way in (stalls too much), but just short of that to let the kite fly

If you are serious about finding the RIGHT lightwind twin tip I would seriously recommend you try the new Shinn King George before spending your hard earned.
Its only just arrived in Oz so I havent had a chance to try nit myself yet but first reports are all very favourable with suggestions that it rides like a regular twinny - with very few of the 'big board' drawbacks of similar sized options in the past.
Woodys Kite Surf & SUP have the King George available for demo for anyone wanting to test it out.

see : www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/Review/No-I-shall-have-mistresses-King-George-II-Quote/

Gstar said...

Add a harness line and ride double hooked (kite trimmed to max power,) You'll get your extra low end 2 knots. Will improve your board skills too, learning to brake and accelerate using only the board primarily as the sheet system is "locked out."

Not really a skill for learners but great to try in low wind, and as I said it will extend the low end of the kite as a stiff unsheeted wing is more efficient (correctly trimmed.)

If you do go this route then you'll save the cost of a new board. Make sure you get a harness line for kiting and not windsurfing as the kite versions have a QR. My LF kite has the option to ride "double hooked" without the harness line by using the pull down stopper to lock the chicken loop in the full power position. I use it a lot when the wind is marginal, it makes getting up wind, moving with a decent current, quite effortless.

for the sake of my ignorance, what does "double hooked" entail exactly ?
also, what is the difference between this and just being fully sheeted out ?
thanks.

au_rick said...

Gstar said...

Add a harness line and ride double hooked (kite trimmed to max power,) You'll get your extra low end 2 knots. Will improve your board skills too, learning to brake and accelerate using only the board primarily as the sheet system is "locked out."

Not really a skill for learners but great to try in low wind, and as I said it will extend the low end of the kite as a stiff unsheeted wing is more efficient (correctly trimmed.)

If you do go this route then you'll save the cost of a new board. Make sure you get a harness line for kiting and not windsurfing as the kite versions have a QR. My LF kite has the option to ride "double hooked" without the harness line by using the pull down stopper to lock the chicken loop in the full power position. I use it a lot when the wind is marginal, it makes getting up wind, moving with a decent current, quite effortless.

for the sake of my ignorance, what does "double hooked" entail exactly ?
also, what is the difference between this and just being fully sheeted out ?
thanks.

It's like riding with the kite unhooked but hooked in.

^^^ As much as I love that video of Lou that's not what we mean - Gorgo the old fuddy duddy remebers...

I meant something like this (ps: you have no idea how long it took me poking around on google to find a pic with a mainloop on it ):

au_rick said...

for the sake of my ignorance, what does "double hooked" entail exactly ?
also, what is the difference between this and just being fully sheeted out ?
thanks.

I have never heard it called "double hooked" before - in the dark ages we used to call them "main loops"

Imagine riding whatever bar setup you currently ride in the way you normally ride it hooked in (anything with a chicken loop that is), pulling the bar in to a point most of the way in (almost full power but not quite) and then locking the bar off there. So your chicken loop is still connected, and if you want to depower all you do is pull the bar in (power up) enough to flip out the main loop.

When you don't want the loop it hangs down limply (!) out of the way of everything.

It's not like riding unhooked as once you get the hang of it with the right setup you can cruise around all day and not actually do that much work with your arms, as you are only exerting force when you turn the kite rather than running the kite straight. Admittedly this is less of an issue these days as even the "heavy on the bar" kites are not as haevy as they used to be...

This isn't "the answer" to making your 9m a light wind machine, but it sure does help (in my experience).

Ta will try the hooked in version like the old days (yes I remember), think I have one of those somewhere in the shed. Will look into the boards recommended as well.

Eppo

Had a great session this arvo down at Contacios on my 08 Spleene Zone.
They are a fantastic board, might be hard to find one though.
(link below of someone elses Zone)

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/General/Got-my-Spleene-Zone-today/