The best 14m kite

Rider: 80kg, advanced, hooked, strapless surfboards
Style: Freeriding, Surf
Weather: 14-20knt
Disclosure: buy my gear

I have a Core XR2 LW 17m, Xr3 12, 2012 Rally 8m. Just picked up a used 2012 Rally 10m. Because I often have winds where 8 is too small and 12 is a bit much. Really like the Rally 8.

Now I'm thinking to get a 14 again. I had a 14 5 years ago I loved, and 10-14 quiver is pretty good for travelling.

So what's the best 14 for strapless surfboard kiting? Want it to have good low-end, fast turning, light bar pressure and decent upwind. Drift is less important because if it's that light there's not much waves.

Appreciate any advice if you gave magic 14 m kite that you won't sell.

Have you tried using different boards? Eg. the North Nugget for fun in low winds and standard surfboard for waves etc. Different boards is more fun and develops better skills than adding more kites.

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Puetz said..
... I'm a big believer in keeping the same DNA through out your gear so you don't have to change too much with your style/technique between different kite characteristics,,,, so having said that I reckon you should stick to the Rally and get a 14m. Mate of mine has one and he goes great on it so if your happy with your smaller kites, why not stay with what is working for you??

cheers,

Robbie :)

I'm opposite to your thoughts. The kite that works at 15 knots might not be the same style that you want at 25 knot or 40 knots and vise versa.

I run the same brand but different types of kites,

Ozone

12m chrono rediculous upwind stupid jumps
13m edge great upwind great jumps
10m edge great upwind great jumps
8m catalyst ok jumping good gust munching ok at waves
6m reo. great gust munching great at waves. Shi Thouse jumps.

My theory being. In the ultralight wind i want upwind/lightwind performance and jumpability is primary. Then in the medium winds I want jumping with a bit of wave ability. The in the upper range i want gust munching and wave ability as primary.

Chrono.

Mine is a V1 chrono. It cranks upwind like a mofo making it a the better light wind stormer, its also go a stonk more lift in the light wind too. I rate it similar to 17 zep for low end, Maybe a tad better.

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Kozzie said...
the best 14m kite is a 12m kite. no kite should ever be over 13m unless its a foil and there for boreing as bat****

Really? I love my 15m. Nothing boreing about it, it's my fav kite for low kite powered tricks. And it doesn't move at all when you pass the bar. Light wind kites rock!

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ewan kite said..

Kozzie said..
the best 14m kite is a 12m kite. no kite should ever be over 13m unless its a foil and there for boreing as bat****

is there a nomination for worst post of the year?

its actually an interesting topic.. I understand it is possible to kite in as little as 6 or 7 knots with the right equipment but there does seem to be some diminishing returns on certain kite profiles. like at what point in the wind does all the kite development and build start leaning towards purely "just being able to stay in the air" as apposed to "cater to certain flight characteristics like boost, drift, pop ect".

The OP mentions he wants to surf so something that still sits deep and wont back stall easily rules out a lot of the "bigger light wind kites" as they all seem to be high aspect ratio and sit far in the wind corner to help edging and to improve boost. I am interested in some replies that talk specifically about surf kites 12+ and how they behave in light wind at the bottom of their range being maybe heavier and pulling deeper as apposed to higher.

Have you considered the Naish Trip?

On one of the nearby beaches, there are quite a few people picking up the 10m as their biggest kite. It should cover you for 14-20 knots on a surfboard as they are really punchy on the low end, medium pivot turn, sit back in the window and drift fairly well (and fairly cheap - at least here). However, if you wanted to err on the power side you could always go to the 12m Trip. Both would be small for packing for travel.

Otherwise, the obvious suggestion is the Pivot. Its a genuinely decent kite. Seems a lot of people use the 12m as their biggest kite but have also read good stuff about the 14m. Its not the kite for me so I'd suggest trying one but I reckon its pretty close to what you are asking for.

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loftywinds2 said..

Kozzie said..
the best 14m kite is a 12m kite. no kite should ever be over 13m unless its a foil and there for boreing as bat****

LOL... you have much to learn my son

yep sub 15 knots is 24m time and im off flying.

you can have your sick zephyr mobe sessions ewey and drurrrrrrrrrrrsss........*(i mean kemp?? who?) :P

below 15kn's all about the wingovers

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bigtone667 said..
Go a 12m BRM Cloud.... has the same grunt as a 14m, packs up into a small package, turns like a ten, drifts brilliantly well.

lands in water and drags its canopy over coral rocks / anything at all all the time while the ocean stretches the **** out of it and if a wave ever lands on it its history

couldnt reccomend it more

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loftywinds2 said..

Kozzie said..

loftywinds2 said..

Kozzie said..
the best 14m kite is a 12m kite. no kite should ever be over 13m unless its a foil and there for boreing as bat****

LOL... you have much to learn my son

yep sub 15 knots is 24m time and im off flying.

you can have your sick zephyr mobe sessions ewey and drurrrrrrrrrrrsss........*(i mean kemp?? who?) :P

below 15kn's all about the wingovers

LMAO... Sub 15knots on a 24m kite!? Yeah right. You must have a death wish

safety first

you would be amazed how boreing it is being on a 24m rather then a 9m. people sit up there watching grand designs on dvd and makeing sandwiches
queenstowns a nightmare to fly in way to many different zones only decent flights to go over back of rocky gully and hit black mt then up the crown range and book it north to mt iron/hawaei ? but that photo just pub corner at tc

jokes aside it honestly is more boreing. imagine going to work at an office job but you cant get up to make a coffee or stretch your legs. i suppose the excitement comes when you hit turbulance and suddenly find your wing collapseing and you drop few hundred feet before you re inflate it but its like a cop on the beat sort of ratio 90% nothing 10% super intense


sorry for the thread hijack just felt like i needed to explain my stance further on sleis larger then 13m are waste of time etc etc

every canopy/sailing sport has its.....use.......every single one of these devices has its purpose and its useable climate and wind ranges etc etc i find that useing a 14m+ SLEI kite is not the correct kite for what kitesurfing was designed for. i see it no different then a scuba diver diveing in 5m deep bottom..... SURE it still works very well and means you dont need to resurface for probably hours and if you were welding then it would be essential but with only a depth of 5m's you could very easily just freedive/snorkel and forgo all that scuba diving equipment etc etc

the gains in useing a 15m slei to a 17m to a 19m are so marginal (mostly due to the kites physical weight in the larger sizes) that you can clearly see the useable windranges gains diminish to point theres no real practical use for it.

SO if you are going to go for a totally useless 14m+ kite dont **** about with it get a 19m foil itll be boreing and **** your resale will be terrible as no one wants them but at the very least it has its purpose its useable AS a boreing ****ty slow kite dont think getting a 17m slei like a zephyr turbine etc etc means youll be getting a more powerful 12m kite because its just not how a kite works.

on a 17m slei the power is just ON its ON when your trying to relaunch it its ON when you dont want it to be. itll just pull and pull and pull dragging you thru water etc the bar/harness pressure is much more. purely because its a bloody huge kite. you being the human being that you are become infinitely small in comparison when you look at the power to weight ratios going on there. given 10sqm pullls a 50foot yacht a 17sqm kite pulls what? 80? all your actions etc are kind of scaled down. dont get me wrong when you have no other options there is a certain joy to throwing down some wakestyle tricks on a zephyr but its NOT the same as if you were on a 10m and it wont ever be due to that scale of human to kite size. now if you get a 17m foil its little more different experience. its not TRYING to be a larger scaled up counterpart of its more smaller purposeful mainstream cousin, its not trying to fill some marketing product gap or whatever the fancy word is for it. it just is what it is. a big slow boreing kite but you dont have to pump the ****ing thing and the material weights not such a huge issue.

just find something else to do in below 10 knots there is plenty of stuff out there

Love my 14m and it is my go-to kite, then again I weigh 110kg so it has to be. At your "lofty" weight of 80kg I wouldn't be using a 14m and if you are searching for a light wind kite go for a specific LW kite in light weight construction. Mind you my 14m has fantastic bottom end.

My kite range : 10m, 14m and 19m ticks all the boxes....though there is always room for an 8m for those ridiculous days.

I'm 95kg and strapless wave ride and looking to extend my wind range. Currently looking at the cheaper option on a new board but I'd love to demo the 14m Naish pivot and the 14m Core Section LW side by side

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shi thouse said..
Love my 14m and it is my go-to kite, then again I weigh 110kg so it has to be. At your "lofty" weight of 80kg I wouldn't be using a 14m and if you are searching for a light wind kite go for a specific LW kite in light weight construction. Mind you my 14m has fantastic bottom end.

My kite range : 10m, 14m and 19m ticks all the boxes....though there is always room for an 8m for those ridiculous days.

well weighing in at 110KG does change my stance on useing a slei larger then 13m considerably its all about the power to weight ratio that makes them less useable. by the way you shouldnt use your real photo as a profile picture hahahaha

dont hit me

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Kozzie said...

loftywinds2 said..

Kozzie said..
the best 14m kite is a 12m kite. no kite should ever be over 13m unless its a foil and there for boreing as bat****

LOL... you have much to learn my son

yep sub 15 knots is 24m time and im off flying.

you can have your sick zephyr mobe sessions ewey and drurrrrrrrrrrrsss........*(i mean kemp?? who?) :P

below 15kn's all about the wingovers

I don't get the "I mean kemp?" Bit.

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kemp90 said..


I don't get the "I mean kemp?" Bit.

wine may have been involved... i think it was a typo/fingers on autopilot when i reread and you were a different person to who i thought you were. probably due to the slider profile pic