Looking at changing my quiver, currently own 8, 10 and 12 unions. Ride foil and strappless surfboard.
Was eyeing off a chrono 13m for light winds
And possibly a 9m and 6m inflatable. Not to sure if a wave kite or single strut kite would be a better option.
My usual kite i ride is the 8m.
My opinion .... foil kites are not worth the drama unless you are foil racing and are not so great when riding in surf (drift). So they are limited.
A minimal strut kite will generally work well in light wind, they often drift well and can work well with a foil and in the surf.
I own foil kites and minimal strut kites.
+1 for bigtones advice, minimal strut kites work great on foils without the hassle of a foil kite. You need a lot of drift when foiling especially during transitions and running downwind. Heavier multistrut kites tend to fall in the water a lot more as the foil easily out run them downwind. Yes, you can overcome this, but it will start pissing you off as you progress..
Even when fully powered in 15-20 knots of wind, heading downwind at 15 knots you only have 5 knots of wind to keep your kite in the air so on a heavier kite you need to angle up wind more to maintain more apparent wind. This just limits what you can do on the foil.
I currently use an 8m reo for both the surf and on my foil, I love it on the foil because of the massive power from the bar and it's drift for when I catch up to the kite.
I can understand the hesitation with foil kites, but I recently bit the bullet and purchased a second hand Chrono v2 (the ultra light version) 13M and I would never go back to an LEI for light winds. It flies comfortably in anything over 5 knots and relaunches far more consistently in light stuff than any LEI I have ever owned. It's surprising how well the kite can recover from rolling around in a bundle on top of the water.
I now feel way more secure about heading out in light winds, and am much less concerned about having to swim in. It is still a possibility of course, and there will be a period of adjustment to the foil kite (when I first used the kite and wasn't familiar with the relaunch I ended up having to swim in with a sleeping bag full of water which wasn't fun).
Also, not having to pump your kite up is awesome.
I run a 12m V1 chrono. Thats my goto kite sub 12 knots. I can go upwind from 6 knots unless its 30 Deg and humid then its about 8 knots.
What i like about the foil in light winds is that it cranks upwind like a motherfarker and hangs in the air without hindenburging like an lei. Plus the speed is just stupid. It kicks the arse out of any lei for upwind and speed. Its pretty darn cool to be cranking fast as **** in sweet FA wind.
That said if drifting is your thing than go the no strut lei as per suggestion above.
I'm about 81kg. I have 3 kites that pretty well cover the range you're looking at.
* 9m 2015 Ozone Catalyst - I use this from 11 - 15kts
* 6m 2014 Ozone Catalyst - 15 - 20kts
* 3.5m BRM C5 Cloud - 20kts +
I'll probably look at replacing the Catalysts with REOs down the track but I'm in no rush at the moment as the Cats have been fine for foiling so far. I think ideally, I'd like a 4m, 6m, 8m and 10m quiver. I like being comfortably powered when foiling, hence the move to 2m gaps. Unlike a twin tip, foils are quick to let you know when you're overpowered and 1 or 2m in kite size can be the difference in flying around with confidence and nailing every transition or a white knuckle ride down Kook Avenue.
In regards to the top end on the 7 airush wave (2017) I was out yesterday (100kg rider on 5'6 vanguard) doing a downwinder between 5-7, fsc fish rocks is the most accurate for where I was kiting.
I was overpowered and really would have been way better off on a smaller kite and board but with that said the kite did handle well, there was no deforming and it felt controlled through out. The handling was still pretty good when I was quite depowered and I wasn't getting ripped off my board too much, overall totally do able if you have to but would be better off with a smaller kite.