Looking for a second kite so I can kite in light winds. Any recommendations?

How much do u weigh, and what kite do you currently ride. Have you considered a specialist light wind board like an SS glide. They make a massive difference

surfboard and a 16m!!

boat rope handle wakeboard.
orrr
surfboard.

14mtr Bandit DOS........

16mtr North Rhino if your ..... Bigger than most

86 kg. Hope to get back down to 82 when winter is over.

I use a 15m Ozone Sport. Absolutely awesome, gets you going in near nothing!!

If you are curious about non-mainstream kites, you might want to have a look at Flysurfer Speed2 (and 3 soon) in size 15 or 19m, there are a lot of reviews of this kite on Foilzone and Kiteforum, I can tell you they do an awesome job in term of power delivery & jumping in light winds.

Otherwise, I heard good things about the large ozone's, Flexifoils and F-one Bandit...

bye
Jacques

Hey Foxkiter

Check out the ' 14m Monsoonz 2 ' ultra flat, lightwind inflatible kite. I bought one of these & does warp speed on a 140cm TT board in 10 knots. It has a very high projected area ratio & almost looks like a 'Speed' in the air because of the ultra flat shape..

Normlly relaunch for most kites is in 6 -7 knots doesnt happen - this one just pivots on a dime and goes straight up ! It sure had others pissed last time out when they couldnt even do an assisted launch

If theres enough wind to keep it flying - then theres enough to kite, I call it the Monster Truck parknride but does reasonable F16s at 10 knots too. Read for yourself... I got the blue one

www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=wind-x&e=com

Hey savethewhales, that looks interesting, I like the shape!
Do you know anyone around Sydney who use them?

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Jacques said...

Hey savethewhales, that looks interesting, I like the shape!
Do you know anyone around Sydney who use them?

Fluid do a ultra flat design called a Fluid Torque. I tested the 15m torque out a while back. The amount of grunt it had was scary, I was powered and riding with the kite locked in 10 knots. The ultraflat large kites turn like pigs though, so jumping took a lot of getting used to but as savethewhales said, you can parknride in almost no wind so the turning speed is not much of an issue.

Interesting STW.

Not the biggest windrange around but thats to be expected on a genuine low wind kite.

Onya for giving sumpin diff a go.

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Jacques said...

Hey savethewhales, that looks interesting, I like the shape!
Do you know anyone around Sydney who use them?

Sorry Jacques, I dont know anyone sydneyside. Give StormRider Kites a buzz - he may be able to hook you up ?? I got exellent service from him too

Heres a better pic of it, you can almost see the potential in this kite design - Ive used it from about 8 - 20 knots to see where top end was, id say 8-18 is comfortable. The 2 -1 bar depower works well all the way thru - but maybe I need to eat more Cookies keep me on the water

The struts are thin and straight, they do not attach directly to the kite panels but are via 'infill' panels - looks odd but works a treat and is the grunt machine!




Cheerz

Thanks for your advice boys.

Had a chat to Joe from adrenalin Rush. He recommends going for a bigger deck. Will do much better in light winds and saves some of the hassles that may come with bigger kites more suitable for light winds. I did like what I saw on Monsoon kites though.

M8 does a superlightwind board that i learnt on
(more like a SUP)
if you are going for a total light wind board GET IT
if you want to ride it in more winds try the SS glide from what i've heard its a very stable board and great for beginners

A mal' does a great job (tricky to steer but very efficient), but a SUP is much trickier because steering is so slow.
Hydrofoil boards are also famous for starting way earlier (and overpowered also way ealier) than a usual TT with a same size of kite. Have not had the chance to try that yet though.

cheers
Jacques

Jacques,I see You know a bit about foils do you think I make big mistake by ordering Speed 3 in 12m size as my super light wind kite my weight is only 82 kg and I have super light wind board 139x43 flyboard 09, just cant make up my mind 12 or 15m Speed3 . Im not going to kiteboard in anything less than 11 knots. To make most of the kite Im going to order in delux of course.
Thanks

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if you are not interested in foils, no need to read the below. Peace.
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Hi Cezary,

Lucky you if you can afford a Speed3 in Deluxe version! From experience, the Deluxe fabric being lighter, it makes a significant difference of handling comfort in 5 to 10 knots of wind: the kite has less chance to drop into the water in lulls + it flies easily toward the top of the window making it easier to generate power and keep the flying speed up... Not sure of the exact % but I think the Deluxe kite is about 20-30% lighter than the standard version of the kite, and in light winds this is a massive benefit that you can feel straight away.

Not sure what is your background and what was your biggest kite until now, but kiting in 10 knots of wind can be awesome fun if you have the relevant kite to generate enough power... In regards to size, to my humble opinion, based on the Speed2 experience, it would be a shame for your weight to go for the 12m: for water use and 80kg, that's not a super lightwind kite! (though for land kiting or snowkiting maybe if that's what you are into!?)...

So, I would strongly recommend the 15m or maybe even the 19m. Flysurfer is not claiming they have improved the low en of the Speed3 vs. Speed2, but they are claiming they improved the turning and stability (and I am already convinced it is true, based on the Psycho4 technology which makes it turn faster while depowered)... so the Speed3 15 should be really sweet for 60-80kg riders I think, and the 19m for heavier ones.

I guess it also depends on what other kites you have. For me, about 65kg with one single board (130x39 TT): Speed2 15 (sweet spot 10-15knots), Psycho4 10m (sweet spot 15-25 knots) and Psycho3 6 (sweet spot 25-40 knots), it is really great!

In case you still want to go for a 12m, I would not see much point going for the Deluxe, because it won't get you going in less than 10 knots, and in that wind, it does not matter as much to have the light fabric.

bye
Jacques

Hi Jacques,

Great and informative post I just wanted to ask have you tried the Speed 3 deluxe 15?

Kind regards.

John

Is the deluxe fabric a lot weaker? i.e. is a small incident with seashells going to tear the guts out of it?

if you have to ride in under 11 knots, Jaques is on the money Flysurfer 15m. Almost everyone will agree that anything over 14m LEI flies like sh!t. Kite Addiction have some 16.5m 2005 contras for $100 brand new if you want a cheap kite. Good luck on your hunt.

@ johnnyg, sorry no I haven't tried the Speed3, only read a lot about it.

@ dutchy1985, in regards to the lighter fabric, I only tried the one they called Silverarrow, which was different (lighter) from the current Deluxe fabric. Currently, from what I understand, all Deluxe kites are made out of a slightly stronger/heavier material than the Silverarrow, but the benefit on weight remain about the same because the whole internal structure is also made with the same light fabric (as opposed to the Silverarrow, on which the internal structure was made of the same reinforced material as the standard kite). From the technical specs on their website, you can see that on the Speed3 the weight saving is 35% on the 15m (3.96kg vs 2.57kg)
flysurfer.com/products/?op=showData&glid=44&iframe=0&width=650&mnid=2005

The Silverarrow fabric felt like cigarette paper, scary, but surprizingly had an excellent strenght despite that... though you had to be a bit careful with it, and most second hand Silverarrows I have seen have small holes/repairs.

Now, from what I read from multiple sources, it seems like the current Deluxe fabric is very reliable, Flysurfer actually offers the 6 months free-repair on these (the same they do on the standard fabric kites) and they offer the Deluxe option also for the smaller sizes (hence, for kites designated for higher winds) so I would think the fabric is not far off the standard one in term of strenght (which is excellent).

cheers
Jacques

The Ozone Zephyr will be here on demo in Sydney soon, hopefully next week.
https://www.kitepower.com.au/catalog/product_17592_Ozone_Zephyr_17m_cat_366.html

Flysurfer Speed3 should be available for demo very soon as well.

Other good light wind kites have all been mentioned in previous posts, I've had very good results with the 2009 Ozone Light XC 14M and the Sport+15M

A bigger board will always give you better bottom end from any kite. I've got a couple in demo and some on sale/clearance.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

Take a look at the new kite from Ozone the "Zephyer". Specially designed for light winds.I am pretty sure the guys at Kitepower at Redcliffe will have a demo available with in the next week or so. I can't wait to have a go at this baby.
Disclaimer......hooked on Ozone!

The board is far more important than the kite. A wide flat twintip makes an ideal light wind board. The extra width and flatness counts for at least 2 metres in kite size.

If you are at all handy then make yourself a plywood twintip about 48cm wide and the length of your choice. My old one is 135x48cm.

Just get a sheet of 12cm ply and cut yourself a shape. You can use an existing board as a template and just make it wider. Whack a bit of paint on it and some straps and go riding.

You don't need fins or rocker. The natural flex of the ply gives you a bit of rocker as you ride along.

Fins are only useful if your edging technique is really bad. They create drag and make your board slower.

The only problem with the plywood TT is that it is a bit heavy. There's a fair bit of swing weight on your feet in jumps. I eventually had a custom TT made up to the same measurements as the ply board and it rocks.

Short of a kite raceboard a big twintip is ideal for light wind. If the wind is really light then you will be struggling to fly your kite. Trying to do that and deal with an unstrapped surfboard is way too difficult and distracts your attention from flying the kite. The excessive rocker and fins on a surfboard make them a bit slow for unperpowered riding. If there's enough wind for the kite to fly easily then a surfboard can be fun with a smaller kite

As far as the kite goes my Switchblade 12m with my TT outperforms anything around here in light wind. I've ordered a Crossbow 13 so I am hoping the higher performance kite will give me a few extra knots of bottom end.

One of the most important things in very light wind is to fly your kite faster. You need air speed to generate power so you need to push out the bar and possibly pull in the trimmer. Once you are up and riding with some speed apparent wind will kick in and you will be planing and riding upwind.

Hello everyone,
I just posted my review of the Zephyr on the Gear Review Forum.
Bye Jankie

Hi Guys,

If you live somewhere like Bali which has lots of 7-12 knot wind then the newOzone Zephyr coupled with an Airush Protoy Exile or a North Phantom would be the perfect combo. You'd be happily riding in 8-10 knots whilst everyone sits on the beach spewing!

The costing on the new Zephyr is cheap for what it is ($1699 kite only) and if you couple that up with a Phantom or Exile you're looking at ultimate light wind setup for under $3K, a lot of money if you live somewhere where you'll only use it occasionally like WA, but for somewhere like Bali or North QLD where wind is predominantly light, then it's a sport saver and a bargain.

Cheers,

KH

Co-incidence to see my qustion up again. Followed advice and went for a bigger deck.My phantom arrived today. Can't wait to see how it goes.

Hi Foxkiter,

Congrats, good call. How about writing a review on your new purchase once you get a couple hours under your belt.

Cheers,

KH

If you are in Sydney it's cheaper to get a 6 month membership to cables than buy a new kite...