Longboard surfing

[bludger]

Well following earlier tips about short boards, we have been playing with a 9'6 mal (no bindings, launch like a wakeboard) in light winds. Its great, I think there is an opening for long cruising boards - (very mono directional) very mellow and forgiving

[mopman365]

Hi,

What was your low-end like. I've gone out in 6knots on an 8.4wipi and 9ft mal. That's about 5knots more low-end. Still have to try it with my 16FA (19.4)...

[Guest]

sounds a bit like windsurfing to me!

[mopman365]

Probably. Still better than walking around on the beach with your baggy pants

[BLOWN AWAY]

I like it... i've got a 7ft6in MiniMal surfboard at home and it's a different sort of fun cruising around in pretty flat water in light winds. I also have a couple of windsurfing "shortboards" which may do the trick, just need to move the footstraps forward. I've also tried using my 2.6m C Quad and a 4m long windsurfing longboard (yep one of those hoary great heavy things!!) but there wasn't even enough wind for the kite to fly...... and C quads need less wind than LEI kites...

I think Old style lightwind kitesurfing belongs in a category of it's own like waveriding, wakeboarding (bindings and 2 line kites etc) and slalom kiting (speed runs etc)...

[RickI]

I've got a 7'6" directional and a 9 ' tanker surfboard with a full deck pad for light conditions. I normally rig up 40 m lines and pick a larger kite that can still fly fast enough to generate good apparent wind and have at it. Waves tend to bump up the power requirements substantially so if you can do the super low end stuff in sheltered water even better. I am not sure what my low end is. I do know that if you aren't very careful in maintaining forward speed on the kite it will fall out of the sky like a rock at the super low end. Wind junkies and wind lust, not a pretty sight but it beats sitting on the beach, sometimes!

[Peter_Frank]

I use a 9 foot Malibu in the summer now and then, with a pretty small kite (important, as the big kites dont fly well in 5-6 knots).

Works great, and you can even waterstart on those, without footstraps !

Have tried windsurfers too (footstraps moved, or no straps), but they dont work very well, because even small waveboards have too little rocker, and too straight hard edges - so the edges will bury in the water and you cannot steer to regain balance.

A Malibu with rocker and round edges, can be controlled from almost every part of the board - works great.

It is so cool to be able to walk around on your board, and find the perfect trim for you.

When jibing, you got a whole deck in front of you, to play around with different techniques...

And you can sail backwards on the nose, quite easy really.

Just remember to wax the board thoroughly and all the way to the edges and nose !

[mopman365]

What?! Peter-No-fun-in-under-12-knots-Frank rides a mal in light winds!

I agree, lots of fun without straps and smaller kite is better.

[Peter_Frank]

André - are you from Cape Town ?

If you are (or others here...), you might know my surf buddy here from Denmark, who moved down there 9 years ago, and got married too down there:

Peter Pedersen

He is a good surfrider, good windsurfer, and has taken up kitesurfing too now.

And best of all, a really relaxed and friendly guy

[bludger]

Well, its good to see that its not all show and go- especially when there is no wind, although surfing on the wake of a wakeboat is pretty nice - but i object to the comparison with windsurfing - barefoot you can gently cut through the water - i had not tried nose riding