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Lightwind strategy - advice needed

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evgentz
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Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby evgentz » Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:35 am

Hello all,

I live in Salem MA, my go to location is Nahant. It's an awesome place but the summer light wind is killing me. I have two little boys and so traveling to Cape Cod or other places isn't feasible anymore.
I am exploring light wind strategies. I am 185lb, I have a 14m kite (and some smaller kites) and a 144cm and 136cm boards.
What is the best option to get the most out of my location?
Learn how to go on a foil board?
Light wind kite and a big board?
Large foil kite?

Would love to hear pros and cons, pricing consideration, how cumbersome is large 17 or 19m kite, how much time is expected to be invested etc.

Thanks,
Evgeni

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Slappysan
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Re: Lightwind strategy

Postby Slappysan » Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:41 am

What exact kite is your 14m?
What types of wind do you actually get? LW can mean different things to different people
What types of beaches do you have access to? (shallow water / deep water)

evgentz
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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby evgentz » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:34 am

I have a 14 Naish Park.
In the summer time we rarely get days > 12mph. Most days with some wind will be 5mph-10mph. So I am looking at the tactics for the lowest kitable wind possible.
The Dog Beach (facing Revere bay) is shallow water in low tide, shallow to deep in high tide, always some chop.
Long beach (open ocean) is waves, shallow to deep water, but not lagoon like flat water, I have nothing like that here.

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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby matth » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:48 am

Go with the foil board if you are limited to North Shore riding in the Summer. Nahant/Revere/Dog have a good group of foilers who catch the summer seabreeze winds, which are pretty boring on a TT and big kite. I get plenty of rocking days in the summer , but you have to be able to get out at odd times or chase it to the cape and south shore.. Another option would be a light wind surfboard or skim board, they are more fun than a door style TT and a new skill set to learn, I just bought a Shinnster myself... One last thought, have you tried Sup surfing? much more fun than you would think and Nahant is perfect for catching waves on light wind days...


By the way , I will be a Dog around 9am.....should by 9m conditions.....woohoo

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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby grigorib » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:55 am

evgentz wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:35 am
Hello all,

I live in Salem MA, my go to location is Nahant. It's an awesome place but the summer light wind is killing me. I have two little boys and so traveling to Cape Cod or other places isn't feasible anymore.
I am exploring light wind strategies. I am 185lb, I have a 14m kite (and some smaller kites) and a 144cm and 136cm boards.
What is the best option to get the most out of my location?
Learn how to go on a foil board?
Light wind kite and a big board?
Large foil kite?

Would love to hear pros and cons, pricing consideration, how cumbersome is large 17 or 19m kite, how much time is expected to be invested etc.

Thanks,
Evgeni
At 185lbs a 17-19m wing would suck. A 160-170cm door board with wide wingtips might be a good twintip option but I doubt your 14m kite is a lightwind wing unless it’s a OR Flite. Even then it’s below borderline small LW wing for your weight. Naish Park is not a LW kite - at 14m size it’s just a freeride kite for big guys.
You can extend lowend of any kite by hooking it up on longer lines (or using line extensions) though.

Foiling on a large foil wing is right and probably the best thing to do but there’s learning curve so you won’t be able to ride it off the bat - consider 3-4 “wasted” learning sessions to start foiling. But they will pay off for sure and you’d enjoy riding 12 knots winds.

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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby slowboat » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:37 am

Anything above 10 MPH is a good wind day once you become a foiler

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Archer77
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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby Archer77 » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:46 pm

evgentz wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:35 am
Hello all,

I live in Salem MA, my go to location is Nahant. It's an awesome place but the summer light wind is killing me. I have two little boys and so traveling to Cape Cod or other places isn't feasible anymore.
I am exploring light wind strategies. I am 185lb, I have a 14m kite (and some smaller kites) and a 144cm and 136cm boards.
What is the best option to get the most out of my location?
Learn how to go on a foil board?
Light wind kite and a big board?
Large foil kite?

Would love to hear pros and cons, pricing consideration, how cumbersome is large 17 or 19m kite, how much time is expected to be invested etc.

Thanks,
Evgeni

HI Evgeni!
a summary from my experience reading here on the forum

possible steps in order from light wind to very light wind:

- door board (160x48/50cm or bigger) + (your) 14 mt LEI kite
- light wind board (150x48 cm) (or door board) + 17 mt kite
- foil board + 9 or 12 mt LEI kite
- foil board + 12 mt foil kite see perhaps the Ozone hyperlink that is easier to start foil kite experience

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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby RalfsB » Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:00 pm

My non-foil light wind setup is a big flat surfboard (kind of peanut alaia but a foam/carbon construction) size is 180x49 cm (like 5'11'' x 20''), it glides much easier than anything else (but foil). The trick in light winds usually is to get going, I have a 12m fast turning kite, usable down to about 9-10 knots of wind. If it is less wind, I use a 17m kite with a long bar (for faster turning) and line extensions (abot 35m lines total) for a longer power stroke.

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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby Mossy 757 » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:42 pm

You'll increase your number of rideable days the most and for the lowest cost by adding a foilboard to your gear. Adding a super light wind kite for 8-12 knots might be cheaper in some cases, but generally won't add the same number of rideable days that a foilboard will.

I see your journey looking something like this:
-Add foilboard, learn in powered up conditions, then once you can ride it add another 20% more riding days to your calendar
-Add a large foil kite, 13-18m depending on what you get. This will expand your foilable days by 5-10% on the low end, but will also add a brand new dynamic to your sessions as the experience will feel very different than a 14m Park.
-Decide if you really need your 14m Park anymore because you ride your foil a lot and never take it out of the bag anymore, you either ride your lightwind gear or you ride your high wind gear with a twin tip/surfboard and the Park just doesn't really fit in that schema anymore.


Maybe another option is to look at your whole quiver, get max value by selling ALL of it while it's fresh, then just reboot to gear that covers the windrange you're going after (since your current situation obviously does not given your original post). In that case, I'd recommend your "main duty" twintip or primary board for powered up riding, a main kite for powered up riding, and a foilboard/foilkite for everything else.

Max wind: Smallish Inflatable + Twintip
Medium wind: Smallish Inflatable + Foil Board OR large foil kite and twintip
Light wind: Foil kite and Foil Board

^that covers a 30 knot wind range at your body weight

evgentz
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Re: Lightwind strategy - advice needed

Postby evgentz » Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:56 pm

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!


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