Looking to buy a big kite 15m or more

will use for doing downwinders on the sunny coast on the light wind days

to make the DW more interesting hope to be able to loop the kite

can a big kite be looped,say 17 or 19m

biggest kite I own is a 12m and the biggest kite I have ridden is a 13m,once

was thinking maybe a big Ozone Edge but I dont think it would loop very good,too much of a wing shape

my mate has a 17m Blade fat lady,Am well pleased with it

small leading edge and thin struts and built light as but I dont like the bar it came with ,is too short for a big kite

or maybe a big foil kite,is it possible to loop one of them

If you see anyone loop a 19m make sure you get it on video.

Also just stick with your 12m and get a bigger board or even a surf board for the downwinders.

New juice would be a good option. or zephyr.

17's loop no problems in the right hands.

... looping a 19m is easy! I used to loop my 18m 2011 Dyno all the time. Sure,,,, it doesn't catch like a small kite so brace for impact but yes its very do-able!

To the original question, if fast upwind performance isn't part of your criteria then the lower aspect kites are the perfect match, like the Blade Fatlady/Epic Infinity/North Juice. For downwinders I found the Epic Infinity brilliant, especially on a surfboard but to get back upwind it takes longer and you need a bit more patience but riding downwind is lots of fun. They tend to be light on the bar too so you can downwind for hours with loops, drift what ever!

The high aspect kites like the Edge/Dyno's etc like apparent wind so always need to be moving because they always want to be right up at the edge of the window, so when you do a lot of downwinding, these kites aren't the best unless you loop the kite. Different story if your on a race board since you'll be moving so fast so they create this apparent wind and you sort of point high to go downwind. Forget drift but loop 'em and its all good so you can do it, just not as easy as the lower aspect kites.

Good luck and test 'em for yourself.

Cheers,

Robbie

Aussie owned brand, wave designed 17m light wind kite that loops, Not high aspect, designed to be light fast and fun on a surf board in 10+ knots, 2015s turning up in a few weeks

I made this vid over a year ago now, has been on here before but if you're interested it shows my 22.5m PL foil in action at Happy Valley
As you can imagine for such a large kite it is pretty slow to turn and to stop turning. There's 2 loops in the vid but have shortened my lines now and loops a lot better.
Cheers

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KiteDesigner said..
Aussie owned brand, wave designed 17m light wind kite that loops, Not high aspect, designed to be light fast and fun on a surf board in 10+ knots, 2015s turning up in a few weeks

Now this I have to try out myself. Any demos up here in Townsville, QLD?

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Loftywinds said...

KiteDesigner said..
Aussie owned brand, wave designed 17m light wind kite that loops, Not high aspect, designed to be light fast and fun on a surf board in 10+ knots, 2015s turning up in a few weeks

Now this I have to try out myself. Any demos up here in Townsville, QLD?

Sounds like the perfect light wind surf kite for the Sunny coast. Hope you can get some demos out soon KiteDesigner.

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toppleover said..

Loftywinds said...

KiteDesigner said..
Aussie owned brand, wave designed 17m light wind kite that loops, Not high aspect, designed to be light fast and fun on a surf board in 10+ knots, 2015s turning up in a few weeks

Now this I have to try out myself. Any demos up here in Townsville, QLD?

Sounds like the perfect light wind surf kite for the Sunny coast. Hope you can get some demos out soon KiteDesigner.

I am working on getting some demo light wind strutles and strutted 12m and 17s to play with up to QLD for demo and to play with, its taking longer than planed though

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AUS116 said..
I made this vid over a year ago now, has been on here before but if you're interested it shows my 22.5m PL foil in action at Happy Valley
As you can imagine for such a large kite it is pretty slow to turn and to stop turning. There's 2 loops in the vid but have shortened my lines now and loops a lot better.
Cheers

how many knots was that in,sick audio_Radio Birdman?

thanks for the replies

was well impressed with the TRX

and the PL Foil kite videos

looks like the foil is going in 5 kts

have been a few very light wind days here lately

most people have been kiting but only my mate on his 17m Blade was really having fun

others would go out on 12m-15m kites but they would struggle to stay upwind and would come in after 30 mins

but my mate stayed out for hours catching waves

real big kites go alright for catching waves if the wind direction is ok,just park and ride

and pull the depower before you get on the wave

his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

I flew it on the beach for a bit

guess its the same difference between a 7m and a 12m

will look into getting a big kite once I get back to Oz

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gokid said...
his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

Ah yes, you'll find that with a 5m difference

15m & 19m edge up forsale, check the seabreeze adds

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default said..

gokid said...
his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

Ah yes, you'll find that with a 5m difference

Select to expand quote

gokid said..
thanks for the replies

was well impressed with the TRX

and the PL Foil kite videos

looks like the foil is going in 5 kts

have been a few very light wind days here lately

most people have been kiting but only my mate on his 17m Blade was really having fun

others would go out on 12m-15m kites but they would struggle to stay upwind and would come in after 30 mins

but my mate stayed out for hours catching waves

real big kites go alright for catching waves if the wind direction is ok,just park and ride

and pull the depower before you get on the wave

his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

I flew it on the beach for a bit

guess its the same difference between a 7m and a 12m

will look into getting a big kite once I get back to Oz

I was standing in knee deep water yesterday with my 17m fat lady doing down loops in 8 or so knots (not enough wind to drag my 100kg around sadly), but tt turns brilliantly well.

I have the 17m TRX as well, so I will let you know which is better.

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bigtone667 said..

default said..

gokid said...
his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

Ah yes, you'll find that with a 5m difference

gokid said..
thanks for the replies

was well impressed with the TRX

and the PL Foil kite videos

looks like the foil is going in 5 kts

have been a few very light wind days here lately

most people have been kiting but only my mate on his 17m Blade was really having fun

others would go out on 12m-15m kites but they would struggle to stay upwind and would come in after 30 mins

but my mate stayed out for hours catching waves

real big kites go alright for catching waves if the wind direction is ok,just park and ride

and pull the depower before you get on the wave

his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

I flew it on the beach for a bit

guess its the same difference between a 7m and a 12m

will look into getting a big kite once I get back to Oz

I was standing in knee deep water yesterday with my 17m fat lady doing down loops in 8 or so knots (not enough wind to drag my 100kg around sadly), but tt turns brilliantly well.

I have the 17m TRX as well, so I will let you know which is better.

A good option available for the TRX is you can upgrade the older 2013 and 2014 kites to something improved and more powerfull like the 2015 TRX kites with a $60 production bridle upgrade, contact me for the 2015 upgrade, adds performance improvements and a lot more power for all the TRX kite sizes

hey gokid, I have an infinity v2 and i did my first backroll kiteloops on that kite. Big kites are the easiest to learn basic tricks with because everythings in slow mo.
With loops this is not necessarily a good thing but this does a tight loop and drifts good for riding waves. My mate has the OR 17 flite and this kite is faster and drifts better. I never tried loops on it so can't say but it's defo faster. Having said that I demo'd the infinity V3 and that was faster than mine so hard to say which is better, I would guess the V3 has better low end but that's just a guess, it is bigger than the V2 by about 1\2 a meter. Infinity's stay upwind sick. They kill core xr's and contra's, we've tested them same day same rider same board. No comparison infinity wins, but didn't have the flite at this test. never had trx either so can't comment on that but it sounds like a sick kite.

It's worth remembering that speed of kite is worth meters and the flite is fast.
this was borne out in an example of some old kites my m8 and i took out yesterday, same wind, board, rider etc.
One was a fast (relative to the other kite, there are much faster....) pivoty 2011 9m neo and the other a much bigger bit slower 2010 10m cat. Huge sweep running in waves and the 9 held ground where the 10 was losing ground. It was just too slow to work when the waves bogged you down. So apply this too your 16-17's.
The bars on the flite is a broom stick which is awesome and the V3 has a 50cm+ bar which works. Flite is lighter pressure. Nige from ECC is up on the sunnie so you should be able to get a demo easy. I reckon once you ride the OR you won't look back, but if you ride the Trx also i'd love to hear your thoughts.
The 17 edge i rode was not my cup of tea, just a truck and very slow, undoubtedly good at what it does though, which is win races on race boards.
demo days are happy days

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bigtone667 said..

default said..

gokid said...
his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

Ah yes, you'll find that with a 5m difference

gokid said..
thanks for the replies

was well impressed with the TRX

and the PL Foil kite videos

looks like the foil is going in 5 kts

have been a few very light wind days here lately

most people have been kiting but only my mate on his 17m Blade was really having fun

others would go out on 12m-15m kites but they would struggle to stay upwind and would come in after 30 mins

but my mate stayed out for hours catching waves

real big kites go alright for catching waves if the wind direction is ok,just park and ride

and pull the depower before you get on the wave

his 17m Blade was SO much more powerful than my 12m

I flew it on the beach for a bit

guess its the same difference between a 7m and a 12m

will look into getting a big kite once I get back to Oz

I was standing in knee deep water yesterday with my 17m fat lady doing down loops in 8 or so knots (not enough wind to drag my 100kg around sadly), but tt turns brilliantly well.

I have the 17m TRX as well, so I will let you know which is better.

Both are great kites looking at the video of the TRX and flying my mates fat lady on the beach,

be interesting to see which kite you like best

The TRX is worth a look at if you want a fast turning kite. But if your looking for bottom end, forget it.

Works well looping down wind but thats about it.

Don't have too much good to say about them at all. I was that dissapointed in the kite I gave it away.

Much better low end kites out there.

For a lite wind kite you should try the Griffin 17m Argo as a lite wind kite . I'm 70 kg's and can ride 8 knots in around 3ft surf with surf board and 6 knots flat water (lawn mowing )
12 to 15 knots I'm trimming the kite to stay with the wave other wise it's trying to pull me away from it . I find the Argo has a bit more grunt for the lighter winds it still loops really well for a big kite and with added line extensions it's even better in light winds .

For the red thumbers
My mates and the locals in my area can vouch
For my light wind riding .

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KSSALTONA said..
Test the 15.5 liquid force solo. The best light wind kite I have used.
Im sending the 12m up to Townsville to give you an idea of what they can do

When Steve? Winds have been hit and miss. Had a great 20knot weekend but it's all but gone now for another week at least. Send us a LW as well if you can pack it into the same bag.

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pattiecannon said..
hey gokid, I have an infinity v2 and i did my first backroll kiteloops on that kite. Big kites are the easiest to learn basic tricks with because everythings in slow mo.
With loops this is not necessarily a good thing but this does a tight loop and drifts good for riding waves. My mate has the OR 17 flite and this kite is faster and drifts better. I never tried loops on it so can't say but it's defo faster. Having said that I demo'd the infinity V3 and that was faster than mine so hard to say which is better, I would guess the V3 has better low end but that's just a guess, it is bigger than the V2 by about 1\2 a meter. Infinity's stay upwind sick. They kill core xr's and contra's, we've tested them same day same rider same board. No comparison infinity wins, but didn't have the flite at this test. never had trx either so can't comment on that but it sounds like a sick kite.

It's worth remembering that speed of kite is worth meters and the flite is fast.
this was borne out in an example of some old kites my m8 and i took out yesterday, same wind, board, rider etc.
One was a fast (relative to the other kite, there are much faster....) pivoty 2011 9m neo and the other a much bigger bit slower 2010 10m cat. Huge sweep running in waves and the 9 held ground where the 10 was losing ground. It was just too slow to work when the waves bogged you down. So apply this too your 16-17's.
The bars on the flite is a broom stick which is awesome and the V3 has a 50cm+ bar which works. Flite is lighter pressure. Nige from ECC is up on the sunnie so you should be able to get a demo easy. I reckon once you ride the OR you won't look back, but if you ride the Trx also i'd love to hear your thoughts.
The 17 edge i rode was not my cup of tea, just a truck and very slow, undoubtedly good at what it does though, which is win races on race boards.
demo days are happy days

Yeah but all this talk of kites and their sizes means squat when riding a **** small board. So give us the loe down on board specs used too and recommended.

Yesterday at Rosebud there were 3 17 meter Ozone Zephyr, one 15.5 Solo Liquid Force kite and other kites on winds from 8 knots to 20 knots. When the wind dropped below 10 knots only the 17 meter and the Solo 1.5 meter were having a great time. All other kites including me (14 meter Ride) were mowing the lawn or waiting for the wind to pick up. I am thinking of buying the Solo after what I saw yesterday.

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billykiter said..
If you see anyone loop a 19m make sure you get it on video.

Last year, I was doing small back roll kite loops with my speed3 21... until I ballsed one up and was under the water when the kite looped, breaking pigtails and damaging the kite.

It's possible to loop big kites, just not always the smartest idea. Downloops are piece of cake but you only have to complete 180 degrees, so they don't count....

I was fortunate to spend quite a bit of time on two new 15.5m and 12m Solo kites and rate them highly (1 week in FNQ... 6 hours kiting a day). Demo this kite and decide for yourself, but it really does not feel like a first generation product.

The Solo has amazing bottom end and was as fast off the breeze as my current LF NRG (higher profile). This is no beginner's kite. Others on the trip threw them into effortless loops (jealous of their skills).

My dilema is whether the trade off the NRG's big boost for increased versatility and ease of use of a Envy/Solo...

Am looking forward to trying the new Envy before deciding... bring on the new season!

This question has been raised many times, in brief summary the answer (unless you want to race) is ALWAYS zephyr

I have an old zephyr 17 and its the go to kite. It can hold me up until 20knots (i am 90kg).

Love to try the LF Solo 15.5 could be fun. Trying to find a kite that freerides, drifts for wave play and does old skool jumps is hard no one kiet can do it.

Only gripe with the LF would be the bar if they had above the bar depower that would be great. The CPR bar is a good loking bit of kit though.