In my country we have a lot of light wind days during the summer. It would help a lot if could teach during these days aswell.

What is your experience with kites such as flysurfer kites that you can ride with in winds down to just a couple of m/s.

Hope you can help me!

One of my buddy here in quebec; Richard "wax" Beaulieu sometimes teaches on his Flysurfer Speed 3 kites when the weather is very light and stable.

The guy is a really good teacher and the students seemed to like it very much.

If you have specific questions I will forward him the info
Thanks
Jules

I teach with Richard mentioned above on the S3 21 and what I really like is that this kite is slow but extremely powerful so in LW our students have more time to react and think and with this kite we have our highest % of first rides. The "float" that this kite give help them on the water start a lot. We also use the Viron as a trainer kite, 4 or 6m depending on what we do have in stock. This year we will add an Epic Infinity to our LW training kites with an Epic Oxygen board. This kite is way faster, will see how it goes in a month or so.

The Flysurfer Unity is an awesome kite for teaching with the auto relaunch feature. The natural step from the Viron. Let go of the bar and pow it is in the air. I would be reticent to put someone on a Speed 3 21m in any conditions to begin with. The Speeds require some ability for sure but a whole lot of fun.

Hi guys and thank you for your answers!


Why is it that you don´t think it is a good idea to use the speed 3 for teaching? What do you mean with it "require some ability for sure"?

Seb, how easy is it for the students to relauch the speed 3 themselves? Do you need to be there al the time to assist the relaunch?

How low wind can you use these kites for teaching, knots or m/s.

Do you know any other brands that have similar kites to the speed 3? Preferably something cheaper.

it takes no skill to use a speed3 (unlike the speed2 or older FS kites), i lend it to a beginner, he managed to waterstart when he couldn t with the other kites (low wind day). he relaunched the kite as well without any troubles (LE towards the water and the other time kite was in taco mode), hell even my GF who doesn t kiteboard at all , can fly it on static mode.....and relaunch it

-the advantages for a beginner: very good air stability ( less than peter lynn kites but way better than LEIs), good depower, good raw power for waterstart.those kites are slow so even on a bar error u can correct the wrong action before getting punished (unlike a 10/ or 7 kite), easy and fast to repair, can still fly punctured or teared ( but don t crash it in the water, depending where the tear is), solo lauches.

-inconvenients: relaunches to be teached and trained a bit on ground (to be sure they understood the relaunch method) or shallow water (pulling one rear line or 2 rear lines for reverse launches). long time air drop out ( 20/30mn) the kite will deflate slowly ( but should reamin in the air at 5/6 knots). bridles , if u are on a lake shore ( tree branches) or seaweed.

i lend it to the beginner (80kg around, much heavier than me), the wind was at 10 knots, he couldn t go with a 14 cabrinha crossbow (couldn t stay on the board and finished in tea bag mode), the Speed3 15 allowed him to waterstart and go upwind ( he never managed to go upwind before, cross ride at best), he said it was a good thing that the kite was easy to park because it was slower to sin/turn than the Xbow , i told him to buy a bigger board so he could go with the X-bow.if the kite don t give enough power, get a wider board for board speed.

if the wind is laminar ( coastal wind), i think u can teach with a 15/19/21 ( weight dependant) to a beginner (8/10 wind knots), the depower is enough for them, if the wind picks up 4/5 knots ( after that, i think a regular rider should keep the kite or the beginners go for smaller sizes), a 21 in 8knots , it s pretty much the same as teaching a 12m² in 12/13knots. the raw power would be the same.

for cheaper prices, u can go for a regular speed3 , not the deluxe one, pretty much the same prices as the LEI big kites. deluxe have less inertia ( lighter fabric) and stay better in lulls ( lighter fabric) and u save up around 300€ with the regular fabric.

as a teacher, u might ask flysurfer to demo a kite to test it?

I have taught many Customers on the the bigger FS Kites. Now they are so stable... I will make some vids of the Bigger Kites teaching.
But here is a video of a Customer on his first day on the water on the Unity 12m. Very Structured lessons in Stages... He knows and understands the kites and also knows details and self rescue as well in advanced. Was similar on the bigger kites...

Paul
www.PBKiteboarding.com

Relaunch in TE in water is extremely easy for them, never seen a mistake happen so far. When LE is in water, I will help them. We are always with the student in the water so it is not a problem. We use the 21m from 6 to 12 knots. I ride the same kite easely up to 16 knots but we never teach above 12 knots with it and it is with heavier guys. As I said, this season we will teach also with the Epic Infinity V2 that I have tried this winter in snow kiting but not yet on the water. This kite is way cheaper, relaunch extremely easely for a beginner, is ultra stable and can stay in the air in lulls. However it is a relatively fast kite for teaching and have much less depower than the Speed3.

okay. The epic looks interesting. I have to look further into that kite.

I was just watching this video of the psycho 3. It looks like it is only 1-2 knots and the guy is riding fine. Do you think the epic infinity or any other lightwind kite can compare against this?

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16015030[/vimeo]

The Zeeko Notus XLW kites could be perfect for lowwind teaching due to the ERA system. With that system is is very easy to relaunch your kite, even in 6-7 knots.