Just scored a free LF solo 6.5 which seems right in line to do some kite foiling. I quit kite foiling like 4 years ago to commit fully to my prone program. Now i’m a good winger but man the wing sucks in light wind and it sucks to travel with.
Anyone go back to the dark side after prone and ding?
YES! My god yes. It’s so silly and ridiculous in the most fun way.
I just had a session today where I kitefoiled for an hour waiting for the wind to come up, then winged for a few hours, then went back to kitefoil for another hour at the end.
I’m also most serious about proning, winging, and now DW - but I just come out of the water after a kitefoil session with the biggest grin. Everyone told me it would feel really restrictive compared to winging but I disagree.
Just check out the style on Fred Hope:
I stuck to the dark side. Tried to get into winging but ended up always just going for a kite foil instead. I found it much less restrictive not having a big hand wing in my face.
I never got kitefoil specific gear. Just grabbing my prone board and smallest kite and foil. It’s too much fun carving s turns or going for speed runs. Doing s turns for an hour with essentially two free hands definitely translated to prone carving. And the speed runs helped aLot with reaction time to make steap drop-ins.
Added bonus is i get about the same top speed kitefoiling and prone, so kitefoil is a great way of testing stab/shim combos.
what wind speeds and corresponding kite size are you using?
I’ve thought about trying kitefoiling again because wing foil water starts are a pain especially in light conditions. Having the wing in your face is annoying AF too and constant stress on your arms unless you use a harness. You have to have a certain amount of volume in your board to even get going which means you usually cant use a small board. I imagine kiting would be nice because I could use my prone boards. The thing that turned me off was the fear that a huge powerful kite would get me killed but being able to use smaller ones for a foil would be less terrifying to me.
Yeah, I quit kiting a couple years ago Because I was flying really ragged gear And was starting to worry about in the safety factor. At the time winging wasn’t really a thing yet and the price to replace kite gear was still pretty high, especially Foiling specific stuff. I just lucked into this kite gear now and it seems like everyone switched to winning so the stuff isn’t worth anything.
I’ll probably throw together a little plywood pocket board to go with it to be my travel kit. Traveling with wing boards is the worst!
Using mostly Bandit 8m above 10knots. Sometimes the 10m2 if the lulls are under 10knots. Prone 45l board and Uni Vyper 130 (840cm2). I never feel the need for a bigger foil. The 130 has a crazy low stall speed. Basically if the kite flies steady overhead i can foil. 94kg + suit.
for radical wave riding, kite is no go due to line tension.
therefore I gradually stopped kite foiling
yeah, i just find myself getting stuck hauling around a car full of wing gear on family vacations just to go mow the lawn somewhere to try to keep my sanity and kite foil gear would be like half as much crap. Also more than half our sessions i have an upwind break and i’m not convinced the wing is any better. (the other break with a downwind line the kite is a nightmare for sure)
I’m going the other direction.
I have a kiteboarding travel setup. 3 kites, splitboard twin tip, inflatable foil board. It all fits in 2 normal size check bags. Nothing oversize. I’ve used it on 3 vacations, but I’ve stopped bringing it. The likelihood of good wind speed, wind direction, wide empty launch beach, etc are just too much to think about when we are choosing destinations based on where to bring kids.
I’m going the other direction. Inflatable wingfoil board, that I can also supfoil. One paddle. One foil. The overall setup will actually be smaller. No bar. No harness. One wing instead of 3 kites. I’m planning to get it all into a single check bag.
Overall the setup should be less dependent on wind direction and a wide launch beach.
The eye opener for me was going to Antigua, which is known for decent kiteboarding. We still had to charter a boat, to take us to a remote beach, on an outlying island, because none of the mainland beaches were right for launching. Everyone who was chartering sailboats had switched to winging so they could launch straight off their boats, without even needing to find a beach.
I’m a drift launch pro. Last I checked I could kite out of anywhere with 30 meters of water downwind of me. For me it would be 6.5 M kite, pocket board, foil, lines, pump. So one bag and probably half the weight. And most importantly it’s free at the moment vs buying an inflatable.
I’ve abandoned the idea of surf foiling while traveling. It never works out - and it’s just so good at home.
Foiling is for terrible waves. Why would you bother traveling to foil. Surfing is a selfish pursuit and I’m the only one in my family who surfs. So vacations aren’t for me at this phase of kid life. I’m fine with it.
The last 5 beach vacations I’ve taken w the family, kiting wouldn’t have worked, due to beach size, wind direction, etc. But I could have wingfoiled if I’d had the gear and skills.
I primarily wing and prone, but still log at least a kitefoil session a month (probably more in our summers of crappy waves and light wind). In light wind or minimal waves I have a lot more fun on the kite. When I was learning to wing, I went a long time without kitefoiling, and it was cool to see how my kitefoiling had actually improved significantly by practicing other disciplines.
I was once an avid kitefoiler. I haven’t kitefoiled in probably a year now.
Once you learn how to properly pump the board and wing simultaneously you can wing in very very low wind (5m wing, 45L board, 8 knots wind guaranteed fun) and no risk of kite falling from the sky or long swims.
Kitefoiling is fun and you don’t have the sail right in your face but it’s just too limiting having to manage the kite and going downwind or riding waves is torture.
I do a lot of trips and I bring: shortboard surfboard, kite w/twintip, wing, prone/wing board combo, foils. This covers everything and I’ll tell you I never find myself kitefoiling!
Kitefoiling is super fun. I tend to choose winging if I can get off the beach in on onshore wind-swell. I can wing in pretty light winds but if the wave is too big for the wind then I can’t get off the beach.
Different disciplines have different limitations. Trade a wing in your face for a kite you have to manage line tension. Trade a huge board for a tiny board. Its so much easier to downsize the foil on the kite than wing and so much easier to get past shore pound.
Consider kites known to be more fun riding downwind on the foil: BRM Cloud, Slingshot UFO, Flysurfer Peak, Airwave Alma.
IMO - In light + flat conditions flying a kite is more fun than mowing the lawn on a wing. Anything with waves - wing all the way!
That said, in verrryy light conditions when the lulls would drop the kite a wing is less to manage
For all the light air wingers I don’t have the budget or inclination for either the DW board for light wind winging or GIANT FOILS for light wind so winging is a 15+ activity and I’m fine with that.
I’m also thinking about the versatility of the kite for sketchy beaches. There’s nothing like that power source tied directly to your core to pop through a shore break or pop up on foil between waves at some weird break you might be a little stressed about because it’s not home. Also, when I travel it’s never traveling for waves…it’s about sneaking a usually mowing the lawn session someplace strange and the kite reigns supreme for that.
@jakemoore I have a quiver of UFOs, and I love em. They drift amazing. I actually bought an 11 for my directional surfboard in waves… They drift enough that I can fit in some nice cutbacks when I’m foiling bay waves.
I also have some Peaks and I actually didn’t like them too much on the drift. They tend to cravat and get the canopy twisted if they lose pressure 
The UFO is an amazing kite for foiling!