14m is pretty good I would say depending on the brand.

Don't bother, just learn to ride your 12m better and also maybe get a bigger board.

I would make Relaunch my biggest priority in choosing a light wind kite regardless of brand ...... youll understand when theres F.A wind,its in the drink and your up poo creek

Also you have to practise letting the kite fly on the front lines 80/20 to go back up faster or itll stall on the turn in light winds...

Agree with DM, 12-15 knots with a big kite is awesome for learning tricks and doing floaty boosts. Bigger board will get you going if you do just want to mow the lawn but won't give you the power to do anything else.

You'll get a fair bit of overlap between 12 and 14 but 16/17 might be too big depending what you get. If you're planning on hitting 85+ kg down the track bigger is better...

Each to their own as far as LW kiting goes.
I wanted to maximise any opportunity I could get on the water and went with a 17m Zephyr, my other kite is a 12m Cab SB, and im 105kg.
The Zeph has a very good wind range, top end and handles gusts well, admittedly its a big kite, turns fairly slow, but it gets me out there when too light for my 12m.
So for me its about time on the water and progressing my kiting.

As far as top end goes, it overlaps well with my 12m, as I dont get on my 12m until its around 15knts. And this is why I went with the Zeph over other LW kites.
Yesterday I was at Wello from 10:30am to 3:30pm, spent the majority of my time on the 17m. I only swapped to the 12m at about 1:30-2pm, in retrospect I should have down sized a lot earlier as it did really kick in and some narly gusts came through. The winter westerlies, very gusty, dropping in and out, were a bit of a handful at times, but were manageable on the Zeph.
I'm hopeless at estimating wind speeds, but the 17m was out in gusts well over 20knts id say.
Yes yes i should have been on my 12m in these conditions, but it was changing constantly, and would rather be overpowered on my 17 than under on the 12.
Yesterday's readings from Peel and the Airport below....probably explains why Im so sore today

14 Park ,14 Rpm ,15 C4 all good quick kites compared with most other 14m slugs ,my pick is the 14 Park its quick as for a 14 tons of fun in 12+,yea you can get gruntier kites but grunty usually = slow,im 95kg and the 14 Park is plenty grunty in 12+.

Unless you have good kite skills.

Typo meant to read Rpm.

NO

I'm 83 kg and have a 14catalyst that I love and a 17 zephyr that I learn to love real quickly when the wind is too light for the 14. I recommend them both, but that's for where I ride and what I do. (seabreeze chop at the beaches if it's seabreeze, river if it's easterly). I'd say if you want to do tricks, these kites might not be the go. and the catalyst is just awesome downwind.

someone said the 14 is too close to the 12, and there is a lot of truth in that unless you can afford a 14 and a 17. If you are very very skilful (that doesn't include me) I'd go the 14, if you are just competent, go the 17. People at contacios have a bit of a chuckle when they see my 17 out, and the very good guys are perhaps on a 10 or 12, but I get more use out of the zephyr than any of my other kites.

Darren offered you a demo. take him up on it.

Dazza

no

my 05 15m fuel is my favourite light wind kite.
there is nothing wrong with big kites, you just need to use the board a bit more to keep the kite in the sweet spot

13M Airush Lithium Light Wind, crazy low end power will get you going in near nothing, combined this with a raceboard the other day and was going in sub 8knots. Slightly different and lighter than the on light wind specific Lithium giving better relaunch and power in near no wind.

check it out.

airush.com/2011/products/lithium_lw/

then check out a demo at your local shop.

what is the beasty in the left hand bottom corner on pic 2 and 4?? down Augusta ways?

Jared888 said...

I have a 14m cab contra 08 model it was my second kite after a 12m cab3 switch 08 model and now that I have a couple of new evo's 8m and 10 m I never use the 12m I always seem to step from the 10 to the 14m if that helps

Im' 97kgs and learned to kite in sanuar from a deal jenki from the bali kite shop sorted he's a good bloke and doesnt hassel you also the school furtherest down the coats the original one is the best those guys are patient and respectful and put me on a 15 meter kite as i only had the 12m at that stage, I used one of the other schools the one in front of the mecure hotel and they yelled at me the whole time and left me feeling really inadequate on a 10 meter kite.

def take a big kite to bali bigger the better there winds dont seem to have a lot of grunt even when its 20knts wind density maybe, I finally got a pic of me kitting when wife came done on weekend its a 14m cab contra wind is 15nts gusting to 35nts very challenging bring on summer winds.

Yep looks good for tommorow actually 15knt souterly forcast for margs, here we go again solo no doubt

markass said...

what is the beasty in the left hand bottom corner on pic 2 and 4?? down Augusta ways?

Jared888 said...

I have a 14m cab contra 08 model it was my second kite after a 12m cab3 switch 08 model and now that I have a couple of new evo's 8m and 10 m I never use the 12m I always seem to step from the 10 to the 14m if that helps

Im' 97kgs and learned to kite in sanuar from a deal jenki from the bali kite shop sorted he's a good bloke and doesnt hassel you also the school furtherest down the coats the original one is the best those guys are patient and respectful and put me on a 15 meter kite as i only had the 12m at that stage, I used one of the other schools the one in front of the mecure hotel and they yelled at me the whole time and left me feeling really inadequate on a 10 meter kite.

def take a big kite to bali bigger the better there winds dont seem to have a lot of grunt even when its 20knts wind density maybe, I finally got a pic of me kitting when wife came done on weekend its a 14m cab contra wind is 15nts gusting to 35nts very challenging bring on summer winds.