Postby bragnouff » Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:03 pm
Short lines are great, it's really direct feeling, it reduces the latency in response of the kite, which is great when timing a boost on a ramp, or if you need to correct the kite position instantly.
I love my GK Trix 7 and 9m on 16m. I prefer the 12 in 20m though.
However, there's a point where you hit diminishing returns. At some point (below 13m maybe), there's just no room for the kite to be downlooped, unless you bring it at 12 o'clock before looping, which defeats the purpose. Specially when waveriding, there are times when you need to turn your kite quickly one way or the other. Restricting your options in that regard is not the best option!
As for using less space on the water with short lines, I'm not really convinced. With short lines, you have a smaller flying window, but therefore you have to use pretty much all of it. The kite has to be spot on in the right place. Put it a few degrees higher and it's out of the power zone, lower, and it's in the water... So when passing or crossing someone, you can't really move your kite out of the way and carry on riding seamlessly until you're clear from the other rider.