Well, sometimes you say you do not seek marignal winds, but sometimes you give advices to even improve low end of the bests light foil kites ... you need to choose my dear ! Personally on this topic I focuss on comment linked to your second optionkitexpert wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 8:13 pmI don't know, or is the opposite true If wind is very low there is a risk it will go near zero and it is game over no matter what kind of kite it is. Of course it has some interest to push the limits, but it is not for great majority of kiters, including hydrofoilers.Regis-de-giens wrote: So IMO marginal wind flight ability allows you to either reduce your swimming risk
Personally I just don't want to push the envelope too much (if I do I prefer to do it on the snow/ice, then I can go to 4-6kn depending wind and surface quality, but it is quite lame). I just had decent foil day with a LEI, no white water or other kiters. No difficulties to keep kite in the air, I guess it was about 8-9kn. If it is lower than that there is something else to do.
So the answer is definitelly YES : because swimming risk is linked to the following ratio : [your wind objective] vs [lowest wind flight of your kite]. If you maintain your ride objectives ( say 8 knots with your LEI), then your LEI will offer you only 1-2 knot margin vs light foilkite = 4-5 knots margin before dropping the kite in water (or on snow which is also very uncomfortable in mountains). Figures are not contractual and just for illustration purpose.
So ... you WILL reduce the swimming risk with a kite flying in less wind . Now of course if you decide to also decrease your low end (which I love to , and I feel not alone ...), you may get down back to your initial risk, but you will ride more often which is my first priority for a light wind kite when I arrive on the spot (and the same for my family when we agreed on a slot ) .