It depends on your location and on the style of kiting your prefer?

With a regular size twin tip at your weight, a good 17m kite would cover only a small wind range from roughly 12 knots to 18 knots....below 12 knots you would start needing a bigger twin tip or another type of board (surfboard, hydrofoil, etc.).

If you have access to a flat water / shallow water spot in light winds I'd say it's much more fun to have a 17m on a twin tip and that factor alone IMO would justify getting one.

You can build much more speed in flat water, therefore more apparent wind = more power, jump higher, go upwind easier.... I used to own 16-17m kites for many years but I found them hard to enjoy at my local spot which is open ocean, choppy water. It's more struggle to go upwind in those conditions. Sometimes when I got a chance to use the 17m in flat waters I was amazed how much more fun it was, you can boost some decent jump with heaps of hangtime in as little as 10-12 knots.

Since I started using light wind directional boards and now a hydrofoil, the 17m became useless so I got rid of it, and the 12m is now my biggest kite.

If your goal is to just enjoy some cruisy kiting (mowing the lawn) in low winds, then perhaps getting a light wind directional board is a better option (ex: North nugget, airush sector). This will be cheaper than buying another kite and will make you learn new board skills and vastly improve your flying skills on your 12m kite. You should also consider adding line extensions (adding 3m to 5m of line length) to your 12m to make the most out of the 15 knots ish days. With a 12m kite you'd be ripping with long lines (27m - 30m) in as little as 12 knots with a light wind specific directional board.

If your goal is to mainly work on freestyle tricks then a 17m would be a good option and you'd be well powered in 12-15 knots on your twin tip especially if you have flat water / shallow water spot.

Below 15 knots, flying skills / board skills and the type of board you are using are far more important than kite size...

Christian

Yep. A lightwind kite has given me an extra month on both ends of the season and also an extra hour on the good days over summer.

What Christian says is spot on in my experience. The main thing to take on board is that simply buying a larger/LW kite doesn't mean youll have the same type of sesh that your used to but in lighter wind. LW kiting is fun for some but not for others.... It requires the development of refined technique which in itself is a good chalenge

The fat boards I use...... both are 23 inches wide, and I suspect the volumes are between 40 and 50 litres. Bamboo Veneer thing is 5'2" and Fish is 6'2".

Loads of good advice here.

Depending on how cashed up you are a light wind board will get you kiting in sub optimal winds at a fraction of the cost of a big kite.

I fly my Ozone 10m Reo in wind that I can just get it into the air (~12 knots) and ride a Shinnster*. I can stay up wind mowing the lawn doing this. The trick is to build apparent wind. But, that said, I am going to buy a 12m Liquid force Solo (single strut) to get me out in even lighter wind.

Lots of options these days

My Zephyr 17 is my most used kite. But that's partly because of our wind, my weight, and it's massive top end.

Kajo said..
Great topic, and great advice.
I am in exactly the same position. Coming into summer, I want to make the most out of kiting at Sydney's Northern Beaches and whilst it's pumping most days down at Botany, it's often a deal breaker at the Northern Beaches (all surf beaches, no flat water) unless you're on light wind gear. So instead of driving lots, I'd rather go local more and do more light wind kiting.

My biggest kite is a 12m as well and I am hesitant to go bigger, mostly for reasons already explained here.

So am I best off to go to a light wind board? I have a few expensive surfboards but have been hesitant to use them for kiting, coz I still need them for surfing and heard that they can get damaged easily when used for kiting???

Kajo, for your physical size, I would buy a 15m kite and big arse cheap second hand surfboard.

kiteboy dave said..
My Zephyr 17 is my most used kite. But that's partly because of our wind, my weight, and it's massive top end.

Same here. I'm 75kgs and I happily use the Zephyr from around 13 knots through to well over 20 on a TT. Excellent de power range. You definitely need to get the apparent wind going and not choke them upwind too early. Now have a Chrono for lighter sessions...

KIT33R said..
Loads of good advice here.

Depending on how cashed up you are a light wind board will get you kiting in sub optimal winds at a fraction of the cost of a big kite.

I fly my Ozone 10m Reo in wind that I can just get it into the air (~12 knots) and ride a Shinnster*. I can stay up wind mowing the lawn doing this. The trick is to build apparent wind. But, that said, I am going to buy a 12m Liquid force Solo (single strut) to get me out in even lighter wind.

Lots of options these days

Hey KIT33R, make sure you demo before buying a Solo - sure they will fly in light wind but the 12 is Soslow.

Light wind kiting is more a function of:
1. Rider skill
2. Board design
3. Kite size and other stuff (wind direction, sea conditions)

If you have the skills to optimise the power out of your kite you don't need anything big. In fact, once you develop good kiting skills then big kites are too slow and sluggish to feel enjoyable. The skills I am talking about are trimming and positioning in the window, not handle passes and stuff.

Boards for lighter wind need to be flat most of all. Rocker pushes too much water and is slow. A bad board is like losing 2m off your kite size. Wide is good. Length is largely irrelevant or can be bad because longer boards flex which causes rocker to increase. For years my go to light wind board was a 135x48 TT.

Currently my biggest kite is a 13m and I hardly use it. I can ride 7m on days when other people are riding 12m and do better than them in terms of speed and upwind performance.

The only disadvantage of a smaller kite is the jumps can be a bit lame when you're at the bottom end.

It's a 2010 Crossbow, bought in late 2009.

It's probably more of an 8 because of projected area and aspect ratio.

The real difference is that I ride a fairly short, flat "surfboard" (168x50). It's got a fair amount of nose lift but once you get past that it's dead flat all the way through the tail. There's no contest at all compared to guys riding TT, especially the narrow, highly rockered boards people try to ride.

I agree with everthing said above. If you wanna go freeride/freestyle on a TT and have flat water with no current, then a bigger kite could save you some good sessions. That being said, in very light winds there isn't much big air jumping to be done (unless maybe on a foil kite like a Sonic FR) - you could practice some handlepasses etc. with a LW inflatable though.

However, learning to ride a directional sb will def increase your low end (probably even more than a bigger kite). I owned a 17m Blade Fat Lady but sold it. Was planning on buying a new LW kite, but didn't really miss out too many sessions this season because I really learned how to work my surfboard in light winds with my 12m. I now rip upwind with my 2015 Dice (24m lines + 3m extensions) + 2010 North WAM 5'10 @ 74kgs in open waters with 12/13 kts. Planning on getting a Nugget or something to bring the low end down to 10 kts. Riding strapless on a surf is a whole different sport and I kinda prefer it now to riding a TT (unless if it's pumping enough to boost big).

So try go have a go on a SB and if you like it, get one second hand - way cheaper than a new LW kite!

a bigger board opens up your other kites to lighter winds

Your not from around these parts

Well I went and invested some cash in a BRM Cloud for downwinders and it is the best LEI light wind kite I have flown.

I still think an 18m Chrono would best it for least wind required, but only just.

For the surf, the Cloud drifts brilliantly, unlike a Chrono, and it turns very quickly, unlike the Chrono.