Lightwind strategy - advice needed

[Slappysan]

So 5-10 mph is very light wind, and as such your 14 Park is probably useless as it will fall out of the sky once it lulls to 7 knots. You will need a 0 or 1 strut LEI kite or a foil kite.

I'm 165 lbs.
I foil in 6 knots with my BRM C2 17m.
I foil in 8 knots with my LF Solo 12m.
I skim in 8 knots with my BRM C2 17m.
I skim in 9 knots with my LF Solo 12m.
I only skim if the tide is setup for shallow flat water, skimming in chop kills my knees. I also ride a finless skim which helps quite a bit on low end due to reduced drag.
If it's 13 knots or more I'm riding my surfboard.

Riding a foilboard isn't that hard to learn, but the combo of LW kite control and learning to foil will be quite difficult. I would recommend learning them separately.

By the sounds of it you have access to nice waves with 7-9 knots of onshore breeze, if that were me I would get a BRM D0 13.4 and a large wing wave hydrofoil like the Cloud IX P27. That gives you fun wave foiling with your kite and the ability to paddle foil surf if it's not windy.

[Mossy 757]

Does it make sense to start learning to foil now, or I should I wait to be a better twin tip kiter in order to start foiling effectively?

You sound like you're about where I was when I started foiling. It took me about 10 hours of practice before I could ride both directions without instantly falling, but from there it was pretty intuitive. The biggest impediment to learning to foil is if you still have a hard time flying the kite. If you can go out and have a session and feel comfortable never even looking at the kite because your muscle memory is dialed in, foiling will be much easier than if you still feel like you're fighting the kite to get it to do what you need.

[evgentz]

[/quote]

The biggest impediment to learning to foil is if you still have a hard time flying the kite. If you can go out and have a session and feel comfortable never even looking at the kite because your muscle memory is dialed in, foiling will be much easier than if you still feel like you're fighting the kite to get it to do what you need.
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I can’t say I never look at the kite, but I definitely don’t look at the kite much. Mostly I fly it by the feeling and only occasionally would look up at the kite.

[junebug]

Hi guys,

Thank you for the awesome insight!
I think I am interested to go with the foil board and perhaps a foil kite.

Follow-up question. How good of a kiter I need to be to start foiling? I am very comfortable going up wind and riding waves across and along the wave, but only starting now to learn jumps. I have made some progress with the toeside but need to perfect the technique, for now it is far from good especially with left shoulder forward. But I hope in 2-3 sessions I’ll be a lot more comfortable riding toeside.
Does it make sense to start learning to foil now, or I should I wait to be a better twin tip kiter in order to start foiling effectively?

Cheers and thanks again, what an awesome forum!

You’ll be fine learning to foil with your current kite skills. If you have only ridden a twin tip previously, learning the footwork to change stance with a foil will take you longer than if you have ridden directional boards, but it will come with practice.

Whatever your experience, you will not want to learn to foil in underpowered conditions, so start with the same size kite you would normally ride in the middle to low end of the conditions on a twin tip, i.e., maybe around 11-13kn on your 14m. Once you get the hang of foiling (typically 3-8 sessions) you can start pushing the light wind threshold, but it is very difficult to learn foiling while also flying a kite that is at the absolute lowest end of its range. It would also be very, very difficult to learn to fly a foil kite while learning to foil, but if you want to get out in the lightest winds (sub 7kn), a big foil kite is the way to go eventually.

Check out the foiling sub-forum. There’s a lot of great information there for beginner foilers.

Enjoy the journey....

[Mossy 757]

Hi guys,

Thank you for the awesome insight!
I think I am interested to go with the foil board and perhaps a foil kite.

Follow-up question. How good of a kiter I need to be to start foiling? I am very comfortable going up wind and riding waves across and along the wave, but only starting now to learn jumps. I have made some progress with the toeside but need to perfect the technique, for now it is far from good especially with left shoulder forward. But I hope in 2-3 sessions I’ll be a lot more comfortable riding toeside.
Does it make sense to start learning to foil now, or I should I wait to be a better twin tip kiter in order to start foiling effectively?

Cheers and thanks again, what an awesome forum!

You’ll be fine learning to foil with your current kite skills. If you have only ridden a twin tip previously, learning the footwork to change stance with a foil will take you longer than if you have ridden directional boards, but it will come with practice.

Whatever your experience, you will not want to learn to foil in underpowered conditions, so start with the same size kite you would normally ride in the middle to low end of the conditions on a twin tip, i.e., maybe around 11-13kn on your 14m. Once you get the hang of foiling (typically 3-8 sessions) you can start pushing the light wind threshold, but it is very difficult to learn foiling while also flying a kite that is at the absolute lowest end of its range. It would also be very, very difficult to learn to fly a foil kite while learning to foil, but if you want to get out in the lightest winds (sub 7kn), a big foil kite is the way to go eventually.

Check out the foiling sub-forum. There’s a lot of great information there for beginner foilers.

Enjoy the journey....

Agree with the advice to learn powered up. Given that sea state and chop really affect how easy it is to learn to water start, my advice would be to start out fully powered up on your largest kite versus picking a day when you're powered up on your smallest kite. The difference in the chop and the steadiness of the pull from a large slow kite will be helpful. I learned on a 12m Naish Pivot in some mildly choppy water and was glad to have the full power band of the kite. Once I could ride both ways, I spent the majority of my time on my 9m Cabrinha Velocity as it has a very large wind range and good low-end, almost a similar lowend to the 12 if you move it around a lot, and this was very valuable in learning how to foil but not being wildly overpowered as a 12m surf kite leaves MUCH to be desired in terms of depower.

[evgentz]

Awesome! I think I'll buy the board sometime in April, when it's not that cold anymore but still plenty of good wind so I can learn to foil powered up like you guys recommend.

[Kamikuza]

Awesome! I think I'll buy the board sometime in April, when it's not that cold anymore but still plenty of good wind so I can learn to foil powered up like you guys recommend.

Cold is fine, motivation to get it right I learned in winter so summer wouldn't be wasted trying to learn.

"Powered up" is relative -- you want a 12m kite and wind that you can body drag upwind with. Big kite = too slow, too heavy, too quickly over-powered if the wind changes or you get on the board. If ~12m kite isn't an option, go with the kite you can fly the easiest and match it to wind you can just body drag upwind in...

[knotwindy]

Or maybe borrow or buy a cheap directional surfboard and ride that until it warms up. Going from a tt to foil can be done, of course, but from a surfboard is usually easier. You can learn the footwork and the new stance(less back foot pressure) and jibes without the foil hassle. For most people I have seen this is an easier transition. But whatever works for you is great.