A one-strut kite about 10m for morning foiling and lighter wind waves in Perth on the cards. (I also want to annoy the 'belts and braces' conservatives on the water who get all threatened by anything newish .) I've found the Naish Boxer, Airush's Zero and Ultra and the Liquid Force Solo. Any others? Thanks, in advance.

Why have any struts?

My Notus Air 8m is and has been my foiling kite from 11 kts to low 20's then keeps on working sweet in the waves then is remarkably useful with the TT.
i have become a one kite quiver Kiter.

I am new at the sport but have a naish trip 12m and that thing flys in 6 knts and can get going with my north nugget in 10 knts it is a very fun kite super light too top end towards 18 knts and it is a handfull

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bigtone667 said..
Why have any struts?

I take your point, and I have nothing against the idea of a no-strutter, but thought that if I'm also going to take it into surf a bit of rigidity for a tad better relaunch would be wise given the speed at which our seabreezes can pick up during a long downwinder.

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kitepac81 said..
I am new at the sport but have a naish trip 12m and that thing flys in 6 knts and can get going with my north nugget in 10 knts it is a very fun kite super light too top end towards 18 knts and it is a handfull

Do you weigh 15Kg?

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RAL INN said..
My Notus Air 8m is and has been my foiling kite from 11 kts to low 20's then keeps on working sweet in the waves then is remarkably useful with the TT.
i have become a one kite quiver Kiter.

What do you weigh? If you don't mind sharing

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kiteboy dave said..

RAL INN said..
My Notus Air 8m is and has been my foiling kite from 11 kts to low 20's then keeps on working sweet in the waves then is remarkably useful with the TT.
i have become a one kite quiver Kiter.

What do you weigh? If you don't mind sharing

92kg

Single strut Kites are great for foiling in my experience but definitely NOT essential. Longer and thinner lines will provide much more benefits than just reducing the amount of struts on a kite!

I have a 5m Single Strut kite which gets me going in anything at or above 12 knots on my hydrofoil, even @90kg. If I try it with normal 24m Lines bar with standard line thickness it just doesn't work AT ALL, unless it's at least 15-18 knots.

Long thin lines makes you realize how useless large kite can be, unless of course you're trying to tackle sub-10knots conditions, in which case you have no choice to use a large kite.

I wouldn't recommend using a NO strut kite unless you are a VERY skilled pilot, i.e. you NEVER crash the kite no matter what. They are painful to relaunch due to the lack of structure, as soon as any water gets over the canopy it's often game over in light winds.

So many kiters are looking for the ''perfect'' light wind kite, where they could actually just keep what they already have and build a custom long line bar with thin RACE lines. If you haven't already tried 30m+ thin lines in marginal winds, the results might actually blow your mind!

Christian

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cbulota said..
Single strut Kites are great for foiling in my experience but definitely NOT essential. Longer and thinner lines will provide much more benefits than just reducing the amount of struts on a kite!

I have a 5m Single Strut kite which gets me going in anything at or above 12 knots on my hydrofoil, even @90kg. If I try it with normal 24m Lines bar with standard line thickness it just doesn't work AT ALL, unless it's at least 15-18 knots.

Long thin lines makes you realize how useless large kite can be, unless of course you're trying to tackle sub-10knots conditions, in which case you have no choice to use a large kite.

I wouldn't recommend using a NO strut kite unless you are a VERY skilled pilot, i.e. you NEVER crash the kite no matter what. They are painful to relaunch due to the lack of structure, as soon as any water gets over the canopy it's often game over in light winds.

So many kiters are looking for the ''perfect'' light wind kite, where they could actually just keep what they already have and build a custom long line bar with thin RACE lines. If you haven't already tried 30m+ thin lines in marginal winds, the results might actually blow your mind!

Christian

Now that's advice I will follow. Thanks.

I use a ozone race bar with 32 meter race lines with my best ts 17 meter kite and it does make a big difference in light winds.

Hey Christian,

What is the trade-off using the thin lines?
I wouldn't imagine it is durability since racers need reliability to get to the podium.
Is it longevity, Cost?

Over to you :)

Cheers
Paul

Hi Paul, the only trade off of thin lines is the breaking Strength.

Some number from Ozone:

Standard Lines:
500kg front lines
300kg back lines

Race Lines:
300kg front lines
200kg back lines

I've been super happy with durability so far. I've been using Older Airush Lines that used to be thin by default many years ago for some reason. I was lucky to find some brand new sets of those on some old school discontinued bars, they are pretty strong! Although I would advise against using them for riding twin tips in strong winds with a heavy kiter, doing jumps and loops etc, these lines are not designed for those purposes.

35m length seems to be the sweet spot for me. I tried 50m lines 2 days ago, wasn't great, too much drag.

hope this helps

Christian

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alverstone said..
A one-strut kite about 10m for morning foiling and lighter wind waves in Perth on the cards. (I also want to annoy the 'belts and braces' conservatives on the water who get all threatened by anything newish .) I've found the Naish Boxer, Airush's Zero and Ultra and the Liquid Force Solo. Any others? Thanks, in advance.

Iv'e been using the North Mono 12m kite for 12 months now and love it! Very light and relaunches no problem. Plenty of imfo on Google if you want to research further.

Loving my little 4m uno for stupid high winds! Was foiling a 30-40 knot storm the other day.

Freaken fun!

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cbulota said..

I wouldn't recommend using a NO strut kite unless you are a VERY skilled pilot, i.e. you NEVER crash the kite no matter what. They are painful to relaunch due to the lack of structure, as soon as any water gets over the canopy it's often game over in light winds.

So many kiters are looking for the ''perfect'' light wind kite, where they could actually just keep what they already have and build a custom long line bar with thin RACE lines. If you haven't already tried 30m+ thin lines in marginal winds, the results might actually blow your mind!

I have a few BRM Clouds and you only need "skill/patience" when re-launching the larger kites (>10m) on flat water. If you drop a large Cloud into a wave, you are probably swimming in. The smaller Clouds are a different proposition altogether, they maintain tension across the rear of the kite, so it is rare to drop the canopy onto the water and hence they re-launch very easily (flat water and waves).

My experience with strutless kites is very positive and I can't see myself ever using a strutted kite again at this stage.

Long lines are a big tick. I always have a 20m bar and 30m bar with me. Often makes the difference between a session or not.
Haven't tried race lines yet, but I have an Ozone Chrono Bar I will give a swing with the Clouds.

Nov 5: After much waiting, and Kite Addiction's Dan giving up his claim on the beastie, my 2018, 10m, one-strut Naish Boxer arrived last week. Pulls like a train. Flew in 10-12kts, allowing my first session on it to be a foil in the Swan River on Sunday evening. Very happy. I have 2m line extensions, and 5m ones on the 7m Drifter I use when it's just above 15kts for the foil. I find the absorb some the gustier conditions, and reduce the kite bucking about when water starting, too. I use a single strap at the front (north-south), but got told how some place it across the board (east-west) for a toehold when water starting, allowing more of a strapless style once up. Will be trying that ASAP.