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There is no 0, 1, or 2. Kiters start with 3.

Force 3

Gentle Breeze. 12-19kph 8-12mph, 7-10 knot, 3.5-5.4 m/s. Billy is out on his SUP and light wind kite. You sit on shore eating sandwiches and wait.

Force 4

Moderate Breeze. 20-28kph, 13-17 mph, 11-16 knot, 5.5-7.9m/s. The instructor get his student in the water. It's enough to relaunch, body drag, but not enough to hurt you if you do an unintentional kiteloop. You open up your root beer and wait some more. Force 3 or force 4 means eat your sandwhich and wait some more.

Force 5

Fresh breeze. 29-38 kph, 18-24 mph, 17-21 knot, 8-10.7m/s. Finally the wind is here. If you are a thin lad you set up your 12, but a larger lad like myself will set up the 14 meter. Conditions are perfect to try new tricks and get some small jumps in, crashes don't hurt. Force 5 is time to jive.

Force 6

Strong breeze. 39-49 km/h, 39-49 kph, 25-30 mph, 22-27 knot. Everyone gets out a smaller kite, large lads on the 12's, middle sized fellas on the 10's and ladies on the 7's. People start landing the huge jumps. Noobs are told to be careful, might be too much wind for them. Crashes start to be painful. Force 6 means hang on tight bitches.

Force 7

Moderate gale. 50-61kph, 31-38mph, 28-33knot, 13.9-17.1m/s. People go rooting through their trunk for their smallest kite, large lads on the 7's , and little fellas and ladies on kite trainers. The sand is getting kicked up into people's eyes and there start to be kiters on shore looking at the angry sea and not even bothering to pump up. Bad crashes are able to break ribs. gale force 7 time for large lads to open up your 7m

Force 8

Gale. 62-74kph, 39-46mph, 34-40 knot, 17.2-20.7m/s. Ruben Lenten pumps up his kite and everyone else watches from shore.

There is no 9, 10, 11, 12, kitesurfing for fun ends at force 8.

My beaufort scale goes 12m, 9m, 7m. If the wind is below 12m then there is always land boarding...

Lives2fly wrote:My beaufort scale goes 12m, 9m, 7m. If the wind is below 12m then there is always land boarding...

Your beaufort scale isn't useful to other kiters because we don't know how much you weigh or how lit you ride. Could be BF 5,6, and 7, or BF 4,5, and 6 no way to tell.

That's why i added the chart it's a way to translate kiting experience into wind speed.

well I kite beaufort 2 landboarding with the 15m speed.

and am pushing past 8 into 9 on me 6m reo. form me the fun does not end at 8. but its pretty freaken intense when it cranks past 40knots

one of the many reasons i started kiting instead of windsurfing was there seemed to be less technical noise back then. i prefer it simpler so i have

big kite
usual kite
little kite

seems to work fine for who ever asks "what are you on?"

or if you only have 2 kites and married

big kite
little kite
wife's little kite

knotwindy wrote:one of the many reasons i started kiting instead of windsurfing was there seemed to be less technical noise back then. i prefer it simpler so i have

big kite
usual kite
little kite

seems to work fine for who ever asks "what are you on?"

or if you only have 2 kites and married

big kite
little kite
wife's little kite

hehehe,

I have
15m huge kite
13m big kite
10m usual kite
8m small kite
6m storm kite
1.5m skateboard kite!

Allow me to recommend "Defining the wind" by Scott Huler. I know that the author would
be interested in a serious Beaufort scale for kiters. I was a windsurfer when I read it and
corresponded with him about it but was too slack to ever actually create one.
http://www.scotthuler.com/defining.html

edt wrote:

Lives2fly wrote:My beaufort scale goes 12m, 9m, 7m. If the wind is below 12m then there is always land boarding...

Your beaufort scale isn't useful to other kiters because we don't know how much you weigh or how lit you ride. Could be BF 5,6, and 7, or BF 4,5, and 6 no way to tell.

That's why i added the chart it's a way to translate kiting experience into wind speed.

It wasn't a particularly serious post but I weigh 80kg and am just freeriding so far riding a 136x40 or a 142 x 42 at the low end.

I ride the12 in 14 to 20kts
the 9 in 20kts +
the 7 once it hits high twenties 28 or so depending on how gusty it is.

I have never found the beaufort scale particularly useful apart from "don't bother going on the water until its steady force 4" which is good advice

beaufort scale that actually matters:

not windy
windy
really windy

Nice on EDT. One variance on your Beaufort scale would also relate to whether you are kiting in a location with either cold or hot windflows due to the differences in air density. A 20 knots in a cold windflow would require a smaller kite relative to a session in 20 knots with a warmer wind flow (like the carribeans or Egypt etc).

Just my 5 cents worth