Hey everyone,
I've been windsurfing and kitesurfing for ages, not really, say 10 years, was wondering what and if there is kite gear out there that can smoke windsurfers when kiting across and slightly off the wind across medium chop to large swell, say LOC conditions, 73.28% not interested in foils as its too weedy and shallow where we are (and i love the stinging feeling of ankle slap spray and the sun in my eyes at 6.45pm, knowing that i should be on my last run back to the bar so i can make it for dinner at 7 with my beautiful wife, which i know im going to late for, but if i can get that last sweet, perfect off the wind run from the sisters through to warnbro beach then gybing through the swell then bearing off the wind towards penguin island on a strong SW'ly, barely being able to read the water because my eyes hurt from working hard on the roof all day, trying to make some profit motivated builder claim his roof draw cover draw so that he can pay his overdue invoices, and the sea water slowly drying in the creases of my eyes and the evening sun blinding me so i cant quite read the chop hoping i dont catch a rail or slow down from backing off the fin pressure that makes the board stick to the water as the rocker line glues itselfs to the back of the chop, then a long high speed, flat water gybe in the south east bay of penguin Is, then blasting down the short but flat downwind section on the sand bar before trying to rail back upwind to the top end of the SB bar before buzzing the channel markers and then trying to flag down some wake boot wearing gymnastic freak who rushes off to catch up with his other wake boot wearing compardres after landing me) was hoping there was some single fin flat rockered, deep v, high wind, windsurfing eating machine, that can still spray while gybing.
If there is let me know, would love to smoke my dad on kite gear, he would chuckle on the inside....
maybe you can direct to the right kite, i mainly been using cross over kites, cabrinha crossbow and the catalyst ozone, the main problom i have with the kites is when i hit about 34 knots they tend to sit too far in the window, and i lose acceleration in the gusts, im very used to windsurfing gear but still pretty new to kite gear.
I can smoke all the old fellas on a twin tip, but wanna smoke my Dad on his windsurf gear, and i mean proper smoke him and he is capable of 40 knots on the rough stuff in weedy conditions.....
Ain't gonna happen.
I windsurf with some of the foil pioneers in Berkeley California. Most of them were great windsurf racer's in their younger years, certainly top USA levels.
I'm a rec windsurfer only, using freeride kit.
NONE of the former windsurf racers come close to the speed of a JPSuperSport109 with a much too small sail in reaching conditions. They smoke me upwind, like Formula does, and downwind, like Formula, but top speed is not there yet, but within 1-3 mph. I'm using the same size sails as foil guys my weight, and plane up about the same time.
Seems the foil can go nearly as fast, but the penalty for a slight mistake is catastrophic. Imagine crashing from 3' above the water at full speed, hooked in. It's bad enough going 28 mph ON the water and catching a rail, I presume.
Oh, the top foil rider's are using foil kites, as well as the foil attached to their boards. Foil kites fly farther forwards in the wind window, so can be used for higher board speeds without dropping back in the window like inflatable kites.
This seems to apply also for windsurf foil usage. They have lots of angle, close to kite foil foiling, more than Formula, but still not the top reaching speeds with any safety factor.
