ooh good topic
i have brought this up but no-one seems too interested in playing with their stock setup.
personally i change mine about once a month or two just to see what difference things do.
i have tried 27m, 25m, 23m, long bars, short bars, pulley bars and they all have their pro's/cons.
personally i like 23m lines on a 17-20inch bar with a chicken lenght of about 10-15cm, and lite days a 15inch pulley bar.
i find the 23m lines make the kite much faster than 27m and takes a bit of getting used to, but is cool to hav a kite that is ready to go where u want it fast. they say it takes a bit off ur jump height each time u go shorter but just go a bigger kite size if u want to go higher.
id like to try 15 or 20m lines but if i chop down and dont like em i am stuck.
i am currently working on a 5th element style line setup, but there is a bit to work out. ill let u know how it turns out.
basically tho the longer the line lengh the slower the kite is but the more the strok so more power. just gotta think in advance or drop the kite to 45 and sit it n thats it.
i have heard people use 35-45m lines on lite days but i imagine it wood be a real sluggish kite. not my idea of fun.
27 is the standard these days, but who wants to stay standard......
in terms of upwind performance the shorter the better upwind performance as the longer lines n power stroke pull u off ur edge more. i wouldnt think it would make that much of a difference unless it is ultra long lengths.
if u know where to put the kite u shud be rite.
try it n let us know.

Hey Southport

I appear to be the odd man out - but I swear by 20 metre line lengths. When I started I tended to be the only one kite surfing in a particular area I like, and the 20 metre lines made it super easy to self launch and land. PLus of course the kite is more responsive - which I love! Even now I prefer to self launch (however, now that this spot is much more popular I always ask for help landing to save getting tangled lines). The down side of the shorter lines is that you have to work the kite harder (ie to keep it in the power window). With the sandgroper kites it is really easy to turn them hard so the 20 metre lines are great (more so than my previous kites, Naish Aero & Wipika... but I am biased of course). The new Sandgroper bar / line set up is available with 20 metre or 27 metre line lengths. I think the 20 metre lenghth is going to become more popular, especially with people wave riding..

have fun trying different line lengths

andrew
www.sandgroperkites.com

Get hold of a copy of the DVD KITES Secrets of Kiteboarding it has some very good points about using different line lengths and examples. droping 3 metres in length is like droping a metre in kite size. example 12m kite on 27m, same kite using 21m lines approx the same power as a 10m on 27metre lines. probably a good thing for the gusty winter fronts.
They call it MLL but very intreasting

Southpoint

Standard 30m lines work well in flat water and slow the kite response time down which makes things more manageable bu I am a convert to 20s in the surf. When I first used short lines [20m]I found i tended to over correct the kite so it was almost back on the water when I landed. The technique that works best for jumping on short lines is to start the boost with the kite just over the water, it gets throught the arc to overhead so quickly that you will not get dragged downwind as you would on longer lines.

Rather than having to keep adjusting the kite while in the air [because of the rapid response] I set up the back lines really tight so that the kite [Airush Lift] basically stalls at the top of the wind window and I leave it there til just before touch down ;gives heaps of boost and a much longer hangtime. Safety is also better on short lines as the kite can get into the depower zone in 1/2 the time as with 20m lines the circumference of the arc is about 1/2. [radius squared] in gusty conditions the kite also has less falling back and tracking forward to do. Launching and landing on narrow beaches is also easier.

For wave riding so long as you are powered short works better, though with the 16 you may need the longer lines to get the flow through the necessarily wider radius turns. Short lines mean you can bring your kite quickly up + down the wind window ;low to drive a bottom turn and high to float down on as you descend from the lip. The kite also overpowers less as it swings low through the center of the power zone in the bottom turn so you stay in control. Confused yet??

Only tried 20's once in 20->35 knots on a Best Nemisis 10 with 45 bar and loved it. was a lot of fun due to the response time. I've now bought a 45 bar and 20m lines (as well as a 10m Nemisis) so I hope to repeat the experience. But I will experiment with this setup on my 12m CO2 in stronger winds although I expect it to be incompatible in combination with a 45cm bar on my 16.
I think the other thing that needs to be discussed here is the bar length in combination with the line length. I expect that the shorter the lines you go, the smaller the bar you'd want as a general rule or the kite will become too 'twitchy'.

Reading this, I've just thought of another angle which will resurrect my little 5m Flysurfer Maniac. I can lengthen the lines!! It will give it another lease of life. Its way too zippy and not enough power. Longer lines will slow it down so its more like my 9m, and give me more power to boot.
Graeme

I've got five bars set up with 20m pulleybar/25m stock & pulleybar/27m stockbar & 30m stockbar lines, I dont think that one is better than the other, they all have there areas that suit. If you can afford it variety is the key.

a. written under fictitious name.

Psylor,
good to hear your getting the jumping sorted on 20s.
I have been using 20s exclusively for 2 years for their wave riding advantages and found that the boosts were OK but instead of doing tht little reverse fly arc thing like with 30s, I found it best to turn the kite on the water and point is straight up and hold on. The snatch effect from the water is fantastic with instant upward acceleration. Hnag time is boosted by having your back lines super tight.. Crank the bar down at the apex of the jump and the kite opens right out and hangs back in the window ,giving lift write til the end, sheet out and redirect jsut before touch down. Works a dream in really windy 30kts because teh kite just sits there instead of diving around the wind window.

I reckon more guys would be using 20s if they had stuck to it long neough to sort this out.