Hey I said I'd happily pay shipping both ways Dimitri - or you could send it to the club and let everyone here have a play ...
Today we had the second day of the comp - the wind meter said 5-6 knots and NOBODY could ride - not even the Zephyrs, Turbines and 17m Edge's. Most of those guys were using raceboards ... and most of those guys were fighting to keep their kites in the air. The Speed3 19DLX was flying but he wasn't going anywhere either. The one guy who tried to ride ended up having to rescue his kite from the bamboo spears on the shore when it fell in a lull.
Later, the wind picked up as the evening thermal came in ... I was riding upwind easily and had a look as I walked past the wind meter - 12 knots steady. I'd come in off the water to tell the organizers that someone had dropped their kite way the hell out there and was self-rescuing ... so send the boat cos he's in for a bloody long float and a longer walk!
Summer ... the wind is all show and no go. It'll be a different story in winter -
not all 5 knots are created equal.
All I'm interested in is - can
I ride when everyone else is riding? All those little skinny Asians?The answer is ... yes - Flysurfer is the Equalizer. The big Xbow doesn't have the grunt.
None of the lightwind LEIs the locals have get them going any sooner than I can (in any given wind) and that, to me, means that the FSer has the edge is sheer grunt.
Raceboards are the exception here - I chased a guy today on a big North board (165?) and a 17m Edge and while I was faster, he went upwind quicker ...
Basically ... what Jankie said
lets go back to arguing about the inherent risks of flying foils, that's far easier to pooh-pooh