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Light wind, another approach ...

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RickI
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Light wind, another approach ...

Postby RickI » Sun Jun 05, 2005 4:29 am

an OLD one, larger boards.

When there isn't a lot of wind, I prefer to go with the smallest kite that will work with one of the larger boards that I keep for such conditions. I like the lighter bar pressure and faster kite response of the smaller kites.

Case in point, this morning I go to the beach do a wind check. At around 10 am the hand anemometer says it's about 15 mph. It looks like I will be OK with a 13 m kite trimmed for mid to max angle of attack and a 130 cm twintip. I go down and the wind eases off, a lot. I figure why not a screw around a bit and barely ended up planning during downstrokes. Not a lot of fun.

Image

Summer comes to SE Florida and this was STRONGER than expected for this traditional transition between spring and summer patterns. This station is normally pretty representative of the Delray launch. Today's wind may have been a couple of mph higher. Normally, it's dead calm and raining frequently in early June here.

I land, go back to the car look at my 18 m kite and decide nah, let's do a "retro" session with the 13 m. I grab an almost 7 year old, long directional kiteboard that I threw in the car for just in case and walk back to the beach at around noon. I trimmed the kite for max angle of attack at the pigtails. I can't tell you how many guys have said, "my trimming strap does the same thing." Not in my case, it can make a huge difference in low and high end performance (hint). More about this HERE If I had something with as thin a leading edge as a Hellfish, I might feel differently about the larger kites but for now the big boys that I have owned are a bit slow.

I go out, body drag out past the inside wave zone barely turning the kite one handed in lulls, it was pretty light. I then proceed to ride down south about a mile and back around four times. No problems with planning now and because I need less power to plane, I can lock the kite in most of the time with less sinusoiding. I weigh 190 lbs. currently. As you can see from the wind or more aptly breeze graph the wind clocked to the east. So, started to head north after I worked about 1/4 to 1/2 mile offshore. I ended up about 7 miles north, turned around and headed back.

Image
The fourteen mile run, round trip.

So, with a 130 cm TT in light wind, going a city block on plane was tricky. With a long direction kiteboard 14 miles, actually quite a bit more than that with the early 2 mile R/T runs, no problem. The wind must have come up a bit during the longer run because at times I was almost fully depowered with the kite at the zenith. Still, what does it take to overpower someone on a 130 cm board vs. a long directional kiteboard with a much greater wetted surface area? Remember it takes significantly less power to plane a board with more wetted area once momentum is developed than something a lot smaller. Another thing about all that planning area is that the board is FAST. Substantially faster than a TT even under somewhat larger kite power.

Long directionals are generally heavy, tricky to jibe and can be ackward in the air during jumps. Also, not all directionals perform equally well. I have gone through quite a few over the years and the performance differences are surprising. Some guys can't stand larger directionals and if that's the case you have to rig big to try to be able to power your shorter board. For quick responsive riding there is nothing like a shorter TT board IF there is enough wind when the big directionals are best left in the past. If not ... bigger can be better, true story!
Last edited by RickI on Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:49 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Postby panchito » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:26 am

Thank you.

I love my LFT 167.........I love it :thumb:

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Postby kootsie » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:13 am

Thats why I never get rid of mij 160. :D

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Postby Dax » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:42 am

You don't need to go big, just get a skimboard. Cheaper, smaller, lighter. :thumb:

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Postby RickI » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:28 am

Dax wrote:You don't need to go big, just get a skimboard. Cheaper, smaller, lighter. :thumb:
Skimboards do offer some nice low end performance particularly edging close to the wind in better conditions. However, not super low end at least in my case. Several times I have gone to the beach, generally in areas without much in the way of waves, i.e. Florida Keys with a 130 cm TT, a 141 cm skimboard and a old 181 LWD TT. I cart all this stuff along when the wind is a bit variable and on the ligher side. Consistently, again at 190 lbs. and ranging between a 13 m and 18 m kite with varied trimming at the pigtails, the improved low end goes from the 130 to the skimboard with the 181 having the best low end of the three. I would like to try a longer skimboard for comparison. Also, lighter guys may experience better low end with the skimboards as well. Finally, if I use one of the old long directionals it blows all the above boards away for improved low end performance. Increased line length can also substantially improve planning if not jumping performance too. You can't beat the substantial reduction in power required to plane and the increased ability to glide through lulls without sinking with larger boards, if you are lacking wind.

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Postby InMezzoAVoi » Sun Jun 05, 2005 1:57 pm

Hi RichI,
Yes you are right and for this my bigger kite is a 14m!! with my Autopilot 6'6" ( good lightwind board and waveboard imho of course and now they are cheap!! ) i can go upwind with low wind around 12knots ( i'm 78kg) ....with 14 knots i'm a Ferrari!!:-))..really impressive the speed.( try to believe)
above 14knots i use a mutant 5'4" and a 9m kite from 16knots.
I have also a 135x39 tt but after learned to go toeside ( or to jibe ) with the mutant and the directional i left to use the TT.
I'm always in the waves and i think that a mutant or a directional are a better choice.Learn to use it and you will forget TT..imho.

good wind

Fabrizio

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Postby lesbian horse » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:04 pm

offtopic aimed towards rick.

Whats your opinion of clinton bolten doing teathered jet ski lifts at the velocity games. Infront of the public and tv cameras. Aswell as it being posted up for download on the bestkiteboarding site.

I can see it now, noob buys 21m kite off bestkiteboarding, attaches himself to speed boat, harness line snaps and he kills himself.

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:29 pm

lesbian horse wrote:offtopic aimed towards rick.

Whats your opinion of clinton bolten doing teathered jet ski lifts at the velocity games. Infront of the public and tv cameras. Aswell as it being posted up for download on the bestkiteboarding site.

I can see it now, noob buys 21m kite off bestkiteboarding, attaches himself to speed boat, harness line snaps and he kills himself.
Without "in your face" warnings, perhaps even mention of some past accidents, I think it isn't a great idea.

Pro riders may do this however, particularly at competitions when there is no wind. The did it at the Islamorada Invitational four years ago and one day this year.

Then there was Neil Hutchinson's serious accident during a waverunner towup a couple of years ago. You can read all about it at: phpbb/viewforum.php?f=131

under "Towing to Oblivion."

Kiteflix has the video clip of the accident but it also has a warning to go with it. Neil's appearence post accident is a fair warning in itself.

Consider the tethered man-lifting sequence shown in Power Zone I, this is going back years. Still, it is a classic video all the same. The guys are tethered manlifting in high wind. There have been at least two fatalities involving guys doing tethered manlifting in recent years, one in the UK and one in Oz. The later two guys tied themselves off to rugby posts. The guys in Maui did it over the water, despite that you can get killed or maimed on impact with water, assuming you come down in water. Beyond that there has been a tradition of manlifting fatalities using kites going back over 1000 years.

Then there is the coverage of guys emulating paragliders with our gear. Kiteboarding gear is far more prone to failure and breakage under load that purpose built paragliding gear. You don't want to load up kite gear while you are over something that can mess you up, land, high over water, boats, etc.

Pro's will be prone to do "don't do this at home stuff," photographers will want to capture it and show it. Just be sure to use the most effective warnings that you can come up with IF you decide to show this stuff.
Kids and other impressionable minds might be watching ...

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Mon Jun 06, 2005 3:30 pm

I put this post up for a few reasons. Among them as a reminder of critical kite system attributes that go beyond kite size and performance for the upcoming lightwind evaluations. Also for folks considering some distance kiteboarding, e.g. the Florida To Bimini Crossing.

Hitting the ultimate low end can involve more than kite attributes, rider weight and board size factor in, in a big way. Of course big boards make doing some tricks hard to impossible, so if certain tricks are thrown into the evaluation that may serve to level the playing field. Putting everyone on the same board and having weight classes (?), could level things even more.

For guys considering distance riding, I would spend more than a little time trying out some different boards and kite sizes during your practice prior to the event. You may be glad that you departed from your normal riding setup for a long run. The dynamics can be fairly different.

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Postby ed257 » Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:22 pm

If the Hellfish is the real deal, it would be perfect for the surfboard cruising due to it's light weight it is less likely to fall from the sky.

E


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