Foils are awesome. People who criticise them often either lack experience with them or were not shown how to handle them properly. There are not many people around that would have the experience myself and my team at Kitepower have with foils, we were the original Flexifoil importers, but prior to that flew foils from several other brands, including Quadrifoil, Peter Lynn, etc. Spent many hundreds of hours landkiting and early days kitesurfing on them. Kitesurfed on them because their performance was vastly superior to the early inflatables. safety systems on the early ones was crap or non existant, worst injuries I've received have been on foils, these I'd attribute to poor design, no safety, and the tendency then to want to hang on and ride out anything that mother nature threw at us, over confidence.
Major downsidesBridles - drag, tangling, wear of bridles, tangling of bridles, extremely complex internal structure of some brands like Flysurfer, which means costly and time consuming repairs if they do have a cell/rib blow out. Turning speed and efficiency. More difficult to repair if they sustain major damage, and most repairers are not familiar with foil construction and repair. Auto zenith on 4 line PL Arc style kites
Major upsides - superior aerodynamic efficiency (but not by as much as some people imagine), longevity if handled well. NO BLADDERS!
Most suitable for - land/snow, but closed cell types definitely useable on water, more for freeride and intermediate rider use, not good in waves. Auto zenith on 4 line PL Arc style kites
Inflatables are awesome! Totally rock for water use. Both can be used for land and water, early ones were crappy in performance and safety. Still have some early years kites, and hope to have an inflatable nostalgia day early next year.
Results visible as market dominance, and in kiting events are starting to separate the two types of kites, both in the market and in the minds of users. Inflatables dominate water kiting (and foils dominate at least in performance on land and snow), simply because they work better, better for racing, better for wakestyle, and better for waves. Inflatables have superior water relaunch, inherent flotation and turning speed with simple 4 or 5 line control systems of modern post 2006/07 models and in particular post 2010/11 kites.
Will work on land and snow, but best suited to water though (but once flying on land performance is at least equal or possibly better than foils).
Major downsides - Ground handling issues on snow, and puncture risk and ground handling issues on land other than sandy beaches. Bladders are prone to punctures, single skin construction is prone to faster wear if left exposed to wind and sun.
The pump.
Major upsides - vastly superior performance on the water for most aspects of kitesurfing, better relaunch and simple effective safety systems. Simple and easy to maintain rigging. For water use, they offer the most simple plug and play experience for all users.
These are all foils, some are 2 line, some 3 line some 4 line, and range from beginner to advanced high performance snow/land kites.
