alford wrote: ↑Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:43 pm
Thanks for the responses. I realize both are do- all kites with some wave ability but not pure wave. To me grunt is a kite that pulls more than its stated size would indicate, a10 that pulls more like an11 or 12.
Ok well I guess I have to give my opinion on this. At one time I took all my kites, put them on the ground on a grid, and measured the exact square meters of all my kites. Some of my 10's were 11m in size, some of my 12's were 11 in size, North kites were pretty much on target but all the rest of my kites were off from anywhere from a half meter up to a meter difference. Without fail a "grunty" kite was a kite that was mislabeled. So a 12m that felt really grunty always measured at 13m in area. And also without fail a kite that was super fast for it's size was low. So a 12m that was incredibly nimble for it's size always measured in at 11m. There's a reason a 10m kite is "grunty" and it's almost always because it's really an 11m kite.
Now other handling characteristics, like how it loops, how it pulls in turns, how far back it sits in the wind window how high it jumps, how it drifts, how well it catches you in a kiteloop those things are due to kite design. But "grunt" is something I think the kite manufacturers like to run an angle on. Depending on how a kite is being marketed, "Grunty", "Wave", "Fast", they will either move the size up or down from the stated kite size printed to give it those characteristics. So a wave kite will be shaded down in size, a 12m wave kite will really be 11m and a kite that is supposed to be grunty, a light wind 12m kite might measure 13m.
So my advice is don't get too stuck on the printed size of a kite if it feels like a 12m but has printed on the kite "13m" just treat it like a 12, what matters is how the kite feels, not what is printed on the kite.
How can you know ahead of time that's the question. One answer is just demo the kite, but you can't always demo.