Light wind season is approaching for me. I've seen a few videos of people kiting in Light winds on a wing board. The additional volume of a wing board helping with starts.
This guy is using a 9.5m kite on 12m lines.
Wasn't there a vid recently of someone using a ram-air kite like wing with extremely short lines for light winds?
Sure the 'proper' kite foils with ram air twin skins and super long masts are down in the 4-6kt wind range and beat most wing gear in speed. But 10-11kts like the video is easy winging on a narrow shape board. So for me the extra hassle of the kite and lines would be a turn off and I would rather wing foil. Whatever floats your boat I guess.
So I could maybe see a big board being a light wind advantage for some novel start techniques but back when I was kite foiling on the regular volume was the enemy for doing any kind of water start. You need to be able to load up the board which means sinking as much rail as possible, the more board you can sink the more you have to push against for your water start. Floaty boards were always a nightmare. But the carbon lunch trays worked great
Seems like the idea is to use your normal semi sinker high wind wing board with a knee start.
I went kitefoiling for the first time in a while today. 7m single strut, 38Litre prone foil board and a 1000cm2 foil. Super easy for a rusty kiter with a lot of downwind sup and wingfoil experience . I have also tried a Peak single skin 5m on the 75 litre wing board in super light wind and you can almost taxi to start and stand up and go. board feels big in the air though. I think all foil sports have their place. In totally flat water I would favour the kite, in bumps or riding waves the wing is much better. If you want to cover distance upwind and downwind it is hard to beat a kite. The hassle of setting up lines and risk of wind dropping whilst on the water is the only pain with kiting.
Howzit.
Some friends sent me this thread because my video was shared above in the first comment so I thought I'd add some comments to the discussion as it may be helpful for some. Disclaimer, I am not a pro and this is only my humble opinion and feedback.
I have been heavy into winging for the last 3 years and I love it, it is the funnest way to enjoy swell when there's enough wind (10+ knots of warm UAE wind). As my winging improved, so did my expectation and I found that here in the United Arab Emirates it was not so easy to stay motivated for sessions when the wind was light and the sea was flat (actually, a lot of friends felt this too). That is when I found the Flysurfer Hybrid kites and started playing with them. I'm not a very good kiter so there was a lot to learn and it gave me a new challenge for those days when winging was not very attractive. My goto size has been the 9.5m and recently I have also been using the 7.5m - I ride with 12m lines to get a more playful feeling with the kite being closer. I ride my 4'6" 33L prone foil board and foil (Axis Spitfire either 1,000cm2 or 1,200cm2, I'm 93kg). I have found that I can easily ride on days when other competent wingers on 6m/7m wings are unable to launch. The main reason is that the kite can down loop and create apparent wind to get on foil which is an advantage over the wings. Some advantages/disadvantages include: The Hybrids are super light so can fly in very low winds, no pump required and can relaunch well by flying backwards; lines stay attached so getting to the beach and launching/landing is very quick; board size is small, ie. 33L prone board versus 70L wing board; getting through waves (ie. body dragging with a leash on) is much easier than fighting through 5-6s onshore swell with wing gear; it doesn't have a lot of pull so it's not made for jumping; being attached to the kite will save your arms but it also means that wave riding is less free.
In conclusion, kite foiling with the hybrid has not replaced winging, it is just another fun thing to do in the ocean, particularly when the wind is light and the waves are average. I still love winging and prefer it for wave riding when the wind and waves are better. On the days when we are surfing, I already have my prone foil gear so I just add the harness/kite/bar bundle which can sit on the front seat next to me incase a bit of wind picks up. The board/mast/foil/kite/bar/harness as a package is actually a small and fairly light package in comparison to kite and wing gear so it's very convenient for traveling and gives you 2 awesome options.
If anyone is interested, here's a little video from a session 2 days ago:
Hey Sean
Thanks for sharing & reminding me that I should not sell my Flysurfer P5s & Flysurfer 7.5m Hybrid.
Sold all my Ocean Rodeo Aluula Roams kites. I realised wing foiling was my go to water sport in wave & estuary conditions in minimum 8-12kts.
Before I started winging my go to after kitesurfing was kitefoiling in light wind with Flysurfer Peak 4-5s.
On 25-35Ltr foil boards,On 1250cm2 or 1550cm2 Armie foils.On a super slow 13m Peak 4 big foil my lowest wind strength was 4-7kts just cruising along no white caps.Actually was going faster than the wind strength.That was lowest bottom end wind strength I was able to kite foil.
I agree with above comments about using too many litres volume as a Wingfoil board.Although you could kneel start at about 50L plus under 30L you can dive the kite & water start.
I have a 75 l Wing board that I use for light wind kiting. I put a foot hook on it to make water starting easy. I was finding that on my regular kiteboard in light winds that I could dive the kite and get up on the board but before the kite would rise up for a second dive I'd be back in the water. With the 75 L board and me being 80 kg I'm able to stay on the board long enough to get a second dive of the kite and get up on the foil.
Sean: thanks for the info. It sounds a lot like my situation. I will probably give the kite a try.
What kind of speeds are you reaching with the 9.5m hybrid in something like 10 knots of wind?
