Hand Kite Foiling

[Kaser1]

You ever ridden the axis 900 Kaser1?

I've ridden the Axis, don't think it was the 900. Was one of the bigger wings before the 900 came out

I have about 2 or 3 friends that ride Axis and they seem to like all of the variations you can buy, mast lengths, fuselage lengths, wings etc.. heard they're coming out with carbon masts also.

Saw some prototype Naish wings last week, they're coming out with lighter high aspect wings too.

I think everyone is moving in that direction.

 

[Kaser1]

Tried a smaller front wing, the Iwa yesterday. Had been on the Maliko200 since the beginning. A smidge harder to get outa the water but liftoff was smoother. Didn't have to come over the top of the nose like the M200 at liftoff as it likes to fight/stall when powering up on the small board. Was fine on my 8'4 board as the leverage was different.

Alittle twitchier through the water as opposed to surfing it. The water is alot choppier at the surface sailing so you're running through different turbulence, also this is the Iwa light model and seems more sensitive. My M200 is gen1 so it's heavy.

I'm thinking the GL's are the ticket due to the speed and stability with the width. Gonna try a 180 and see.

 

[bigmtnbill]

Pulled the trigger on a 4.2 f-one yesterday. Pretty excited, but I have zero wind sport experience so am expecting to find things a lil difficult at first... Now I need to find a stand-up board... Damn this sport can get expensive fast!

 

[Kaser1]

Pulled the trigger on a 4.2 f-one yesterday. Pretty excited, but I have zero wind sport experience so am expecting to find things a lil difficult at first... Now I need to find a stand-up board... Damn this sport can get expensive fast!

yes! SUP is the way to go to learn.

on a side note, I'm trying it on my 4'10" proner today. let you know how it goes

 

[Clamsmasher]

yes! SUP is the way to go to learn.

on a side note, I'm trying it on my 4'10" proner today. let you know how it goes

Stoked, I want to hear how that goes..looks hard but doable

 

[steamroller]

the GL180 is a kik in the a$$!...its soooo much faster than everything and has so much more lift...i saw your post about dave likeing the GL140 so i ordered one today too...let you know how.it goes...

 

[Kaser1]

Stoked, I want to hear how that goes..looks hard but doable

Did my first launch from Ho'okipa today with Alex and sailed over to Lanes. There were 5 of us out doing laps on this left hander that nobody windsurfs because the left goes straight into the wind. This vid is from the day before, but pretty much the same, except wind was alittle lighter.

One of the guys out was on a small prone with a small 3.5m kite wing and got stuck waaay outside when the wind got too light for him to get back up. He sat there for a good 20 minutes in open ocean shark bait. So riding the small board might have to be selective on conditions.

 

[Kaser1]

Tug'd out from the windsurf launch at Hookipa, caught by Jimmy Hepp. On a 5'10x28" SUP, straps, 4.2m F One wing. Go Foil Iwa front and tail wing.

 

[Clamsmasher]

Nice.
We get our first decent blow in a couple of days..forecast 30kts plus and a couple more days of 15-20. I can’t wait.

 

[Kaser1]

Nice.
We get our first decent blow in a couple of days..forecast 30kts plus and a couple more days of 15-20. I can’t wait.

I think we're spoiled here on Maui, blows 20-30 almost every day.

 

[Clamsmasher]

Perth is epic for the summer afternoon sea breeze, we aren’t quite there yet though so I need to wait for the last fronts of the year and some random days of gradient wind... of course, now I’ve got a wing the gods are taunting me.....

What would you say is the bottom end for your setup? I could be doing business most days I think but I think to start off I’m going to need something that pulls me up crisply...work backwards from there?!

 

[Kaser1]

Perth is epic for the summer afternoon sea breeze, we aren’t quite there yet though so I need to wait for the last fronts of the year and some random days of gradient wind... of course, now I’ve got a wing the gods are taunting me.....

What would you say is the bottom end for your setup? I could be doing business most days I think but I think to start off I’m going to need something that pulls me up crisply...work backwards from there?!

I can get away with maybe 12kts and my big maliko 200 wing on the low end and my current 5'10 SUP board.

I learded on a 6'6" SUp with lots of volume, wished I learned on my 8'4 SUP I think i woulda progressed faster. But getting it mostly dialed in about 5 or 6 sessions was pretty good i guess.

I think you just need a stable platform you can stand on without sinking. Also a big foil wing to start helps as well. On my smaller Iwa wing I've been using the past couple sessions, I still have to pump kite and board to get it outa the water. With the bigger Maliko200 it'd be just one tug and little board lift and I was up and foiling.

The other thing that I noticed worth mentioning, coming from strictly a foil surfing background I was always used to pumping the board/foil to generate speed to keep lifted. The kite gives you that constant power that is there at your disposal. So there's rarely pumping needed on a wave. If wave flattens out, just grab alittle power from the kite, sheet in and go find another bump.

So the wing foil sessions are just as long as surfing, 1.5-2 hours. But you're constantly on foil for that time. I would stop for a short break or two to give my hands a rest, but you will have the most "on foil " time with the wing.

 

[bigmtnbill]

Sunday had my first go with a wing. Neighbor had gotten a 4.2 slingwing and had taken it out a couple times before (no luck getting up on foil), I'd never used any wind device before. We're on the north shore of Oahu, decided to go up to Sunset and just do a downwinder to our beach a little past Waimea (leftovers). 1 foil board(6'11 with Maliko 200) and wing, and 1 guy on standup with paddle. We'd just take turns and hopefully have it figured out by the time we get home...

A buddy drove us to sunset, we pump up the wing and off we go. Neighbor is on wing first and is able to get out past kami's ok, fell once, but no drama in the surf, made it around find. we are both goofy so easier for us to go out to sea than come back towards shore. So we are going, falling a lot, going out to sea, but both of us felt comfortable with where we were. each would do a tack out than try another towards shore. We're pretty far out, because that's where the better wind is, close to the beach it gets blocked by land. We're falling like crazy and just laughing and having fun. Weren't able to get up on foil as it felt like the wind died a bit and my buddy didn't quite pump the wing up all the way. Anyways we are pretty far out, so when we got to Keiki beach we decided we needed to just focus on going toward shore, so we don't overshoot our beach. Of course the wind mostly dies around the same time.

Holding the wing up is a lot harder when there is very little wind, but we are making decent but slow progress. And when one guy gets tired, we switch it up. We're still laughing at each other when we fall, and super relaxed. Anyways we are now outside Waimea, probably about a mile out to sea (thats where the wind is), and pretty much where we planned to be at that point. just going slower than expected. Next thing we hear this guy yelling. I look over and see a guy prone paddling and yelling at us. I'm on the standup so I start paddling towards him thinking he needs help. I get closer and realize it's a lifeguard, then I realize I know him so I call out his name. Haha He immediately changes his demeanor. But soon as he gets closer he's just like "what are you guys doing?? Where are you going?" Turns out they'd received multiple 911 calls about 2 guys with a red wing being blown out to sea in distress! We just started laughing. I guess the lifeguards had been watching us, and said we didn't look like we were in distress, but that we were falling a lot. And since they were about to close for the night they had to check on us so the fire department didn't have to come save us. We said we were totally fine and right on track. (he wanted us to deflate and just paddle in, but my buddy had just kept on sailing and was making decent progress) I apologized for him having to paddle out a mile to talk to us, and off we went. It was slow going at the end, but we made right to where we wanted.

I'm looking forward to the next mission. I should get my f-one thursday or friday. but next time I think I'll let the lifeguards know where I'm going before I head out a mile + from the beach, haha.... but it was good to do it with another person just watching on a standup, we were able to give pointers about arm position, etc.. with a little more wind and i think if we move the foil forward a bit, we should have no trouble getting on foil.

 

[Clamsmasher]

The other thing that I noticed worth mentioning, coming from strictly a foil surfing background I was always used to pumping the board/foil to generate speed to keep lifted. The kite gives you that constant power that is there at your disposal. So there's rarely pumping needed on a wave. If wave flattens out, just grab alittle power from the kite, sheet in and go find another bump.

Thanks!

I was out with a guy whose main thing is supfoil dw today, said he did a full handkite downwind and expended pretty much zero energy in comparison.

I’m going out in the river with him for tomorrow’s front, it’ll be great to learn from someone who knows what he doing.

 

[Kaser1]

Sunday had my first go with a wing. Neighbor had gotten a 4.2 slingwing and had taken it out a couple times before (no luck getting up on foil), I'd never used any wind device before. We're on the north shore of Oahu, decided to go up to Sunset and just do a downwinder to our beach a little past Waimea (leftovers). 1 foil board(6'11 with Maliko 200) and wing, and 1 guy on standup with paddle. We'd just take turns and hopefully have it figured out by the time we get home...

A buddy drove us to sunset, we pump up the wing and off we go. Neighbor is on wing first and is able to get out past kami's ok, fell once, but no drama in the surf, made it around find. we are both goofy so easier for us to go out to sea than come back towards shore. So we are going, falling a lot, going out to sea, but both of us felt comfortable with where we were. each would do a tack out than try another towards shore. We're pretty far out, because that's where the better wind is, close to the beach it gets blocked by land. We're falling like crazy and just laughing and having fun. Weren't able to get up on foil as it felt like the wind died a bit and my buddy didn't quite pump the wing up all the way. Anyways we are pretty far out, so when we got to Keiki beach we decided we needed to just focus on going toward shore, so we don't overshoot our beach. Of course the wind mostly dies around the same time.

Holding the wing up is a lot harder when there is very little wind, but we are making decent but slow progress. And when one guy gets tired, we switch it up. We're still laughing at each other when we fall, and super relaxed. Anyways we are now outside Waimea, probably about a mile out to sea (thats where the wind is), and pretty much where we planned to be at that point. just going slower than expected. Next thing we hear this guy yelling. I look over and see a guy prone paddling and yelling at us. I'm on the standup so I start paddling towards him thinking he needs help. I get closer and realize it's a lifeguard, then I realize I know him so I call out his name. Haha He immediately changes his demeanor. But soon as he gets closer he's just like "what are you guys doing?? Where are you going?" Turns out they'd received multiple 911 calls about 2 guys with a red wing being blown out to sea in distress! We just started laughing. I guess the lifeguards had been watching us, and said we didn't look like we were in distress, but that we were falling a lot. And since they were about to close for the night they had to check on us so the fire department didn't have to come save us. We said we were totally fine and right on track. (he wanted us to deflate and just paddle in, but my buddy had just kept on sailing and was making decent progress) I apologized for him having to paddle out a mile to talk to us, and off we went. It was slow going at the end, but we made right to where we wanted.

I'm looking forward to the next mission. I should get my f-one thursday or friday. but next time I think I'll let the lifeguards know where I'm going before I head out a mile + from the beach, haha.... but it was good to do it with another person just watching on a standup, we were able to give pointers about arm position, etc.. with a little more wind and i think if we move the foil forward a bit, we should have no trouble getting on foil.

I'd not thought of it til later but finding a parking lot that had some wind and no cars would be good on a skateboard. at least you can learn the right hand/arm position and passing the kite on tacks. I spent alot of time fighting the kite when learning, now i just really relax your arms and let it do the work.

 

[juandesooka]

I think we're spoiled here on Maui, blows 20-30 almost every day.

Yes indeed you are. Living in Maui, and not pursuing wind sports, is kinda like living at Tavarua or Raglan but only being into fishing. "hmm, that surfing looks kinda fun, maybe I'll give it a try....." <mind blown>

These wings are getting a lot of ridicule and abuse from both kiters and windsurfers, as they are a less efficient wind vehicle. The optimal market for these are surf/sup foilers who don't chase wind but are interested to try -- i.e., you! But the real gold rush for the kite companies is all those lake cottage sup folks, who may find this an easy entry into windsports. And once people experience the rush of transforming wind energy into fun, the wing may be a gateway drug into kiting for a whole new crew. ;-)

 

[Kaser1]

Mind blown. Kane ripping around on the new GL140 attached to his 4'0 board strapless. It looks like this was yesterday afternoon, dang I knew I shoulda went.

http://instagr.am/p/B3KIMhpJWSw/

 

[juandesooka]

That angers and upsets me ... in making something I find challenging look way too easy. ;-)

It boggles my mind to think of how the water starts happen on a 4' board without straps. Though 25kt plus wind would be a big help, lift you up and out, off you go.

Attempting to learn to wing foil, one of the biggest challenges for me has been dealing with chop. I can paddle in my 6' sup foil, but I am never out when it's windy ... standing on it in 2' wind chop and trying to lift a wing in place and get going has proved really difficult in practice. Kinda like riding a bike, balancing it's easy when you're going fast enough, but until then it's so tippy. For now, I am riding my 7.6. I plan to put hooks on my 6'. No plans as yet to try to wing foil with my 5' prone board.

 

[Clamsmasher]

This is some humbling sh!t.

 

[Hdip]

I'm pretty surprised at these responses guys. Are you guys going out alone with no wind sport knowledge? Or with people who are giving you tips while you're doing it?

Kite surfing is easy enough to pick up in 3 lessons or so with an instructor. Quite hard to pick up on your own. I wonder how much "wind window" type knowledge you need to figure it out. The really good foil/kite/multi sport guys say it's an easy way to learn a wind sport.

I bet having over 20 MPH wind would be a huge plus to learning. Of course when it's blowing that hard, that means there are harder gusts and I get scared.