I've been having a bit of trouble with flying my kite in lighter winds (~15knots).
It's as if I have to keep fighting with the kite to keep it up in the air. Is there any tips on flying in lighter winds??
Thanks

Use a Core 19m, pulls like a truck and your overpowered in 15knots

Try to keep your kite moving at all times, if your walking up the beach move your kite between 11 and 1. When your out on the water I find that if I sheet in when your kites going from 12 to 3 and sheet out on the way back up it goes okay, sometimes you just need to build up speed to get going.

Like Brohan said...

In light wind, when your kite gets near the edge of the wind window it can loose power & become (feel) sluggish/un-responsive - even fall out of the sky. To help reduce this happening, keep your kite moving by constantly turning your kite through the power zone. (In light wind initiate the turn way before your kite gets near the edge of the window).

Once your up & riding, edging your board & constantly turning your kite will help keep your kite in the power zone.

Also try sheeting in on the down stroke & out on the up stroke, eventually you will get a feel for it - it just takes practice.

Good luck

Thanks for the tips. More specifically, I use a core xr3. The problem is when I water start, I power the kite through the power zone which pulls me onto the board, but I find it hard to bring the kite back up to start sining, even though I'm sheeting out and im turning the bar hard. Sometimes the kite even drops down through the window and hits the water
Ive checked the length of my lines and they're all even.
Any suggestions??

As the other guys said, keep the kite moving, let the bar out when the kite is climbing and pull it in when you are turning the kite.
I find it the best spot to keep the kite is to let the bar out until it starts fluttering, then pull it back in about 3 cm to stop the fluttering. This way you can be sure the wind is flowing over the kite perfectly.
Also if you are backstopping it heaps, pull a little de-power on.

The key to light wind kiting upwind is board speed and apparent wind in the kite.

Kites gain power with speed. The faster you go the more power the kite has.

The newbie tries to crank to high upwind at a board speed that is too slow.

So... Go faster. Aim down wind ish. crank some speed. slowly edge to cross wind then a little bit upwind. NOT MUCH UP WIND THOUGH!!!!.

Concentrate of going fast.

The second issue newbies have is choking the kite with too much bar in.... That makes you go slower!!!. Let the bar out until you find that magic spot of just enough power and speed. Then you will be going upwind.....

If your board skills are good and your board is big enough and there isn't too much current and the chop doesn't slow you down much. You might go upwind.

To be honest. Give up trying to stay upwind sub 15knots on a 12m for some time. Its difficult and guys with years of experience struggle.
Understand that 16 -20 knots is the winds you shpuld be aiming to go upwind it.

If you want to hunt sub 15. Get a big board 145x45+ and a 17m kite.

rockykite said..
Thanks for the tips. More specifically, I use a core xr3. The problem is when I water start, I power the kite through the power zone which pulls me onto the board, but I find it hard to bring the kite back up to start sining, even though I'm sheeting out and im turning the bar hard. Sometimes the kite even drops down through the window and hits the water
Ive checked the length of my lines and they're all even.
Any suggestions??

Yeah that's a common issue when kiting in sub 15knots, especially in the tropics where the winds are less dense (less force)

Here are two of my tips that works for me...

[1] Pull the depower strap about an inch or two each time you water start and notice how much more wind the kite catches being lower in the power zone. If you have the kite fully powered it can stall out of the sky. Keeping it slightly more downwind, catches more wind and hence more power

[2] Get a larger board. I find light wind riding is very doable on 142cm or more sized boards. I have a 168cm board, more like a surfboard and I can ride in 10knots. I weigh 82kg and use a 14mt kite (again these are the tropics, so you may get away with kites slightly smaller and different brands).

Twin tip riding on light winds really comes down to skill, board size, kite size and of course wind. It's actually harder to kite surf in light winds than it is in stronger winds because there is a lot more you have to consider to keep yourself powered.

One other tip I suggest, or has been suggested above, is to fly the kite static (without the board) and test the pull when you power dive the kite. If it does NOT yank you enough to at least be able to be dragged on the surface (and I mean really dive the kite as hard as you can), then there is little chance you'll get up on a twin tip. Foils and race boards, that's again another story.