Wind: 12-13kts
Kite: Ozone Sport 15m
Board: 138 x 43 FLX
Weight: 78kgs
Experience: 1-2 yrs

Difficult to hold ground until 14-15kts. Someone with more experience would do better.

Are you interested in kiting sub 10kts?

Many threads already exist which mention that light wind kiting requires a refined technique and the right kite/board/weight combo.

If it is not going to hit at least 15kts I prefer to go mountain biking or surfing than mess around with kites falling out of sky and swimming back with the bull sharks.

14knots,

131cm TT

10m slingshot rally

1 month experience at the time.

Anything less and the 10m barely gets in the air

However I only wiegh 60kg so its a bit easier

out going river on a twin tip 11-12 knots 10m cab

Wind :10-11
Kite: 11meter
Weight :58kgs
Board : 138x40 tt
Could cut up wind but was difficult .No real wind in hervey bay most of the time .So you got to milk what ever ya get .
Wind : 38kn
Kite : 4 meter
Board : 138 x 40
the highest wind i have been in and had the best time bring that on any time Sweeet

You cant beat this one

Yeah there's been a bit of speculation about the glassiness of that vid, including (with devil's advocate in brackets):

Water is near freezing, so less ruffled by wind (but the board goes through it just fine),

Wind is stronger higher up (but at one point he flys the kite with a wingtip nearly touching the water),

There's some weed/algae in the water that makes it more viscous,

He's kiting on a massive diesel spill,

He's a skilled kiter with the ultimate light-wind setup and it may really be only 6 knots,

Any other theories?

^^^ Good point supafly, most "light wind" kites will let you ride in conditions that they simply won't relaunch in (especially once they get some water on them).

As always, don't ride anywhere you are not prepared to swim back in from...

10-12knots, dropped to about 7-8
17m Zephyr

Caught a tip and kite went down. Half hour effort to try to relaunch- no chance. Drifted 1/2km down beach. Stomped in o'head shories when i came in to beach.

I've only had one session since with the Zephyr and that was about 6-8knots- spent it on the beach working out how to relaunch- the whole jack it up holding both end lines, then invert and crank it. haven't tried it in surf yet

gordknot said...

10-12knots, dropped to about 7-8
17m Zephyr

Caught a tip and kite went down. Half hour effort to try to relaunch- no chance. Drifted 1/2km down beach. Stomped in o'head shories when i came in to beach.

I've only had one session since with the Zephyr and that was about 6-8knots- spent it on the beach working out how to relaunch- the whole jack it up holding both end lines, then invert and crank it. haven't tried it in surf yet

at those light wind days pull 1 front line and the opposite back line . Release the front line while holding the back when the kite has sat on its wing tip. You can find a video at youtube .

... recently we did a quick shootout of light wind kites while on holidays in Bali! We tested back to back a Zepher 17m, Core XR LW 17m and Dyno 18m with another guy on a Speed3 19m but we didn't try this one, he was kiting around us in the same wind.

All the kites held ground and went up wind in the flat water but the report from the riders was the Dyno had the most park power and went upwind better than the others. The only thing is the Dyno didn't turn as quick as the Core or Zepher even though the turning force was about the same.

With a little practice, I used the Dyno in 1/2 to 1m waves and once I got the timing the Dyno was heaps of fun.

The guy on the Speed3 didn't do any better but he didn't do any worse either, but from my vantage point, it was alot slower than all the other kites.

Cheers for now,

Robbie

AndreC said...

11m 08 Bandit, 10-12kn Mini Mal in the waves, tacking upwind. Anything bigger than a 11m for a surf is almost pointless.

Hey AndreC,

Up until April this year I totally shared your sentiment with regard to big kites and wave riding, but I felt 10m was the largest practical kite to use. I changed my mind after trying the 12m Reo at Gnaraloo.

It is plenty fast enough and didn't feel large at all. So long as you planned your down the line run and positioned the kite in the right starting point, then it would easily handle the run. Timing was everything. If however you had the kite in the wrong position to start your run down the line then you just battled with it the whole way and had to adapt your ride to suit the kite rather than the other way around.

I rode the 12m for an afternoon and like I said, once I dialed the technique, it felt like any normal sized surf kite. It wasn't until I jumped onto the 10m later in the arvie that I noticed that the down the line wave riding was so effortless on the 10m that it didn't matter where the kite was, it would just work.

I reckon like me, you may have to adjust your theory by a further meter I had a ball on the 12m Reo.

Cheers,

DM

I have been trying 16m cab swb, 6,3 surfboard with straps or 135,42 rival 70kg's 7 to 10knt's . Thank You everybody for your input and video's !!!!

used my 2010 Zeph, and i think the Dyno had the standard lines? Rob will confirm???

GalahOnTheBay said...

^^^ Good point supafly, most "light wind" kites will let you ride in conditions that they simply won't relaunch in (especially once they get some water on them).

As always, don't ride anywhere you are not prepared to swim back in from...

5th line can help with that though-