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What's your favorite lightwind kite?

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foilholio
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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby foilholio » Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:21 pm

Longer lines more low end less top end, and the reverse is true. I once ran 60meter lines and the lowend was very noticeably improved. The kite became like a little toy in the sky that just happen to drag, drag and drag. Pendulum jumps for the wind were off the planet, absolutely no chance of landing, but very fun. The hassle of setup and landing the kite destroys the experience though. Even with 30 meter lines trying to find space to land becomes much harder.

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby bigtone667 » Mon Jan 04, 2016 3:04 am

lovethepirk wrote:
14ToeSide wrote:19M Edge w 32M Race lines. About as good as my Speed 4 Lotus 21.
My 17m Contra has 22m lines...will 10m extensions noticably help?
The longer lines will allow you to spend more time through the power zone, so your bottom end will be improved a lot.

The turning speed however will start to suck big time.

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby foilholio » Mon Jan 04, 2016 6:34 am

I think you mean its slow through the window? turning is barely affected. Unless you mean the turning is slow because there is more sponge or stretch in the steering lines? Which you could compensate with more bar movement.

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby sedluk » Mon Jan 04, 2016 1:29 pm

I will give you my take on line extensions.

I like to use them on my Flysurfer 21m Speed 4. I find that in light winds there are two problems, the first is getting up on plane. The second is staying up wind. I think that line extensions can help a little with getting up on plane. You can sweep the kite in a bigger arc and it will spend a little more time in the power zone. Line extensions can help with that extra pull to get you moving and on plane.

After you are up and moving, the Flysurfer Speed 4 really likes apparent wind. It provides a nice steady pull and you can gently edge and make a little progress up wind. I don't think the line extensions have much effect once you are moving. Maybe you can work the kite a little more but it would be subtle. You will have enough wind to move fast enough to stay up wind or you won't.

So without the line extensions, there might be enough wind to get going if you could just get up on plane and moving. With the line extensions, you have just barely enough to get moving and once you get moving you can really get a nice pull from the kite when it is moving.

I also like line extensions on my 18m Flysurfer Boost. The Boost is a little faster and you can move it around a little faster to get started. I find that the bigger difference is once you get up on plane, the Boost likes apparent wind but it just does not have the pull of the 21m Speed 4 when moving. I find the same thing with my Ocean Rodeo 17m Flite. I can get up on plane but will not have enough wind to consistently stay up wind.

Interestingly, I do not like the feel of line extensions on small kites. Just does not feel right to me.

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby knotwindy » Mon Jan 04, 2016 4:12 pm

yea, less than 3M makes very little difference and when the kite is parked there is no difference unless you just happen to get the kite into a bit more wind higher up, also very unlikely most places.
When you start to turn the kite there is more hesitation because you have to take up more slack in the longer lines. Once the kite is turning, it turns the same speed and it does spend more time pulling across a bigger wind window.
So, with shorter lines you have to sine it more to get going. With longer lines with slower reaction you have to sine it less to get going. Once going, no real difference except, for me, longer lines have slower reaction time and I prefer quicker and am willing to sine shorter lines to get that.
I just get a board that planes faster and use "shorter" lines usually.
of course, YMMV

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby Cristiano_Leandro » Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:28 pm

LetsFlyaKite wrote:
Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:00 am
Looking to get a new lightwind kite. But right now, I think my ears are going to start smoking if I think anymore about this because there are too many choices out there. From what I've gathered here is the run down of the research i've done

Slingshot Turbine -

Pros : Superior low end pull starting at 5 knots (probably the best lowend I've read
about)
Great upwind
Great Relaunch

Cons: Slow turning makes it bad for kiteloops
Everyone around here has them and I don't want to look like everyone else

Naish Fly -

Pros : Supposidly a fast turning kite great for tricks

Cons : Needs 10 knots of wind to be able to ride a twin tip and have fun (that's 5
knots more than the turbine!)
Reviews saying upwind on this thing is not that great
not digging the cheesy graphics at all

Epic Infinity V4 -

Pros : Twintip riding at 8 knots
Decent turning speed

Cons: other kiters in the area saying they don't like it
it's expensive as shit!

Blade Fat Lady -

Pros : Looks like a very fun decent turning kite with speed

Cons : Not enough reviews have been done on this kite.
Can't stand that this kite is called a fat lady


Cabrinha Contra -

Pros : twintip riding at 9 knots
Great upwind

Cons : It's expensive as shit
it turns slow very bad for kiteloops

Ocean Rodeo Flite -

Pros : Very light kite 8-10 knots for a twintip
Fast turning good for kiteloops

Cons : no power through the turns which is bad for kiteloops





Basicly what I want is a kite that I can take out in the lowest windspeed possible that turns fast and I can practice tricks on. With at least good upwind and relaunch. Right now I'm leaning toward the Naish Fly, because I understand that anything under 10 knots is going to be a little boring on a twintip anyway. Basicly I just want to go out there and have as much fun as possible in the least amount of wind.
so hows the naish fly?

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LetsFlyaKite
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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby LetsFlyaKite » Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:05 pm

Cristiano_Leandro wrote:
Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:28 pm
LetsFlyaKite wrote:
Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:00 am
Looking to get a new lightwind kite. But right now, I think my ears are going to start smoking if I think anymore about this because there are too many choices out there. From what I've gathered here is the run down of the research i've done

Slingshot Turbine -

Pros : Superior low end pull starting at 5 knots (probably the best lowend I've read
about)
Great upwind
Great Relaunch

Cons: Slow turning makes it bad for kiteloops
Everyone around here has them and I don't want to look like everyone else

Naish Fly -

Pros : Supposidly a fast turning kite great for tricks

Cons : Needs 10 knots of wind to be able to ride a twin tip and have fun (that's 5
knots more than the turbine!)
Reviews saying upwind on this thing is not that great
not digging the cheesy graphics at all

Epic Infinity V4 -

Pros : Twintip riding at 8 knots
Decent turning speed

Cons: other kiters in the area saying they don't like it
it's expensive as shit!

Blade Fat Lady -

Pros : Looks like a very fun decent turning kite with speed

Cons : Not enough reviews have been done on this kite.
Can't stand that this kite is called a fat lady


Cabrinha Contra -

Pros : twintip riding at 9 knots
Great upwind

Cons : It's expensive as shit
it turns slow very bad for kiteloops

Ocean Rodeo Flite -

Pros : Very light kite 8-10 knots for a twintip
Fast turning good for kiteloops

Cons : no power through the turns which is bad for kiteloops





Basicly what I want is a kite that I can take out in the lowest windspeed possible that turns fast and I can practice tricks on. With at least good upwind and relaunch. Right now I'm leaning toward the Naish Fly, because I understand that anything under 10 knots is going to be a little boring on a twintip anyway. Basicly I just want to go out there and have as much fun as possible in the least amount of wind.
so hows the naish fly?
I didn't like it. It has an "Octopus" system that is supposed to inflate all 2 struts that failed, and then when you deflate it you have to manually deflate the struts. And one other thing I didn't appreciate, and this is the biggest reason why I sold it, is because Rob Naish publicly said on youtube that it was a "17 Meter".

Now keep in mind there is no number written on the side, but, when you pull this kite up close to a 17M you can clearly tell it's really a 15. So I pretty much bought the kite thinking Rob Naish was being honest, when in reality he was trying to make it seem bigger than it really was to sell it. And all these other features that he said about the kite like "Faster turning", well that's because it's a 15M and not a 17M kite. Any smaller kite will turn fast. They just wanted to make you think it has the low end of a 17 when really it doesn't. And that's why they didn't write a big "17" on the side of it. Here's the video of him "Telling" everyone about it.

When I found this out I was very dissapointed, and decided to sell it. I was not impressed with it at all.

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby Matt_TYRCZ » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:19 pm

Fly is not good light wind kite .
Kite has to be higher aspect . Core LW 17 m much better

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby POACHER » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:42 pm

Curious to see how the 2018 Fly is. It's supposedly a redesign this year with different leading edge profile, better upwind, turning speed, etc.

On Naish's website it lists it as a 17m.

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Re: What's your favorite lightwind kite?

Postby keegster17 » Wed Apr 26, 2017 8:39 pm

I am one for Ocean Rodeo Flite 17m. Turns great, light, I don't like the valve to pump it up, to cheap, however probably for weight reasons. I bought this with bar as well, it turns faster than my switch Element 13m. Nice kite.


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