Kiteboard stiffness and how to describe it?

[vol]

Hi guys

Would like to talk about boards stiffness
How to describe how flexible or stiff are boards in the market?

Scale from 1 to 10?

Hang the board on tails, put some weight in the middle and measure how much bend?

Compare with cars?

Any opinion are welcome!

[badgb21]

Airush do an FMS rating, worth a Google.
Though I suspect this only tells a part of the characteristics, given tip flex and a host of other things designed to make a board perform.

[vol]

Airush FMS rating looks good!

Any other idea?

[Peter_Frank]

I dont know the answer...

But I do know, that measuring with a weight doesnt make much sense, apart from getting a rough idea if it is superstiff or a mega sponge

As nobody wants a TT board that flexes in the middle - it will kill all the good characteristics of a good board.

Whereas quite stiff in the middle, but we want some, or a lot, of flex in the ends, works awesome.

For waveboards it is even more difficult, as here we want some flex at the right spot along the rockerline close to the tail, not too much either so it gets too slow and spongy - but even more difficult to measure or describe what works best.

So the "right" flex pattern is desired in all types, depending on what you want and use it for, and difficult to describe.

As stiff as possible is hardly never any good, except for racing or kitefoilboards, where low weight is also key

Peter

[knotwindy]

+1 for Peter
It’s not how much flex alone but where the flex happens. Really hard to quantify.
Sadly, You have to ride them and talk with people who have ridden lots of boards and you know and can trust