JohnSum said..
Thanks for the awesome replies!
The thought that I'm oversheeting did occur to me. And I did try to sheet out, but then the kite does not have enough power to keep pulling me. I'm 100+kg, so I think that a twin-tip that isn't yet a door might be the cause of my trouble. I had a sector a while ago for light wind going, but sold it after getting an 3rd grade angle sprain from the too loose foot straps (feet too deep in).
As for the kite:
1. I do have the kite on the hard setting. Didn't think to make one more knot though.
2. Excellent comment about the bridle. It might make the kite more sensitive to oversheet. I'll be careful.
3. I have 24m lines and 32m. I haven't tried the 32 recently, because they're a bit of a bi..h in case I get into trouble. Maybe I should get something in between.. Or bite it and stick with the 32s.
4. Perhaps I should take a look at another proper light wind board... would it be a good time to try foiling?
Equipment gymnastics aside looks like I might need to do some of the old fashioned gymnastics and lose 10kg or so. :)
J
... whoa there JohnSum, don't be doing drastic things like loosing 10kg, there's no fun in that (joking by the way). I'm super heavy weight at 120 to 125 kg and found the 18m a perfect kite for power, speed with agility. I reckon I have about 170 hours on the 2015 dyno so pretty much got used to the thing. The kite is definitely a good upwind kite, better than my current kite, a 19m Edge. It's more technical to get it's absolute best but when its on, its on point!!!
I found 27m lines were best compromise between handling, bar feedback and power delivery. The 24m lines didn't allow enough time in the wind window to get up to speed on a TT to achieve its power. On 24m lines, the kite shot to the edge of the window just a bit too quick. Using 32m lines definitely increase wind window time but the delay made the handling a tad too slow for riding a nugget in small waves so I went back to 27m. If I was only riding a race board or sector then 32m is fine.
Add a knot the same distance along the adaptive steering as the distance between hard and soft setting so you make a 'hard plus' setting. Make sure you compensate for this knot by trimming the rear lines length,,,, one knot will compensate but in the end I found 2 knots under the bar ends was perfect.
I put the bar width in to narrow and that made a difference too, helped heaps in increasing the bar feed back so let me instantly know if I was over sheeting kite. If you find it makes it too hard then easy peasy, just flip them back.
When doing slow board speeds, i.e. after a transition for example, you can tend to sine kite and pull the bar in for power too early because the kite feels powerful and has loads of it but in fact is pulling you on a more downwind direction rather than racing upwind. Board speed is the secret. By not over sheeting you can let the kite shoot forward at better angles gaining this speed. And of course, the more speed the higher upwind angles you will achieve.
This will have many roll their eyes but the 18m Dyno was actually a good light wind wave kite but you had to know how to fly it and in a way, stall it just the right amount,,,at the right time,,,, to in fact help you. With the 'voodoo' bridle, you can in fact stall the kite or let it fly forward at will and yes, true story, ride ok in waves but looping is your friend because the moment you don't have wind over the canopy, the damn thing will fall.
See if my mods work for you, if not, no loss, try something else.
cheers,
Robbie
