Hey bro's,

i'm loving my speed on flat water or roosting on the landboard. You can crank up to speed and blaze mighty airs in marginal winds.

In light winds on lumpy seas with big surf i'm finding the speed to be very annoying. The chop and swell slows you down so you cant get speed to boost. the slow turning and completely non existant down wind ability is a real pain in the waves. also when you do ride a wave upwind the extra speed powers the kite up and tears you off the wave face.... grrrrr.

I've come to the conclusion that it really is a flat water or land kite.

PS I'm using a mutant TT.

My real question is this. Those who use the speed in ocean swell,chop, waves. What boards are you using? would a different board help me get the most out of light wind speed 3 flying. ?

maybe a foil board or race board perhaps? something that can build speed over the chop and swell.

Give me your thoughts.

I'm using the 15m Speed3 with a 3 fin race board. Upwind is awesome but you are right, you have to keep board speed and line tension up without letting chops or waves slow you down. With a twin tip you might try letting your knees absorb the chop and then pushing down on the back sides of the chops to tense the lines.

Your best bet to go downwind on a twintip is to try for big air. With the 17m Speed 1 on flat water I could downloop the kite into the powerzone and then edge against it like I was riding upwind and go extremely fast downwind.

I am having mixed luck going downwind with speed 3 especially on the raceboard. When I lose line tension, I just fall right into the water, and it takes a minute to build it up again.

yeah i do all the absorb the chop push down the down side thing. Yes i also loop downwind. which is fine unless your on a wave and the wave is pushing you faster than the loop..... then its tack upwind or have an expensive pile of fabric get washing machined in the surf. The other day it was a strange situation were i was over powered but still couldn't easily jump because of the wind/swell/chop combo. Well i could jump but becuase i didn't have the board speed i'd just stall and splash down.

Chop and waves is all we have here - how big are yours?

Have you done a mixer test and checked your SPL length?

line lengths and mixer are sweet.
yes let me clarify a little more. On mild days with small swell Its not as frustating. On a big swell day is really what i'm talking about. say 3m+ swell.

The other day would have been 3+ wave faces me to double me height. probably the biggest face I was on 1.5 head height.

You get swell then chop on swell. which makes a continious high speed very hard.

I do when I go on vacation in New Brunswick and also in Cuba. Here in the St-Lawrence we also get some nice wave and big chop; my Speed 3 12m works fine. The other speed are too big for that.

But by no mean it is a wave kite. It isn't a good drifter and you always have to keep tension on your line. But you can chase big wave and use them as a takeoff-ramp; If you can time yourself to boost and take off from the wave at the right time you will get some massive air and hangtime.

Lat year I was using a nobile NHP but this year I am using a Monk Forever. Very good to get a lot of speed in the chop, you also cannot lose your edge before take taking off.

SPL = spare parts line = the bright yellow lines that go through the pulleys... they can shrink A LOT and bork up the handling...

3 METER swells? How much wind you get with that surely you should be on a smaller kite anyway?!

yes 3m swell. its not uncommon round here. usually on a smaller kite in those conditions. not always. i've been out in 6m swell this year. not on the speed.

bridle pullies and lines are replaced. as Ian bar and lines. mixers is also done. its not a note set up issueas it flies sweet in the flatwater and on age land.

I was out only the other day in 2m swell on the 21m in about 15-18 knots.

was really quite good fun!

Standby to Jybe! LOL