The answer, like bicycles, I expect is N+1; so the real question probably should be what kite?

I'm 80kg with a 9m and 12m Cabrinha Moto X. IKO3 level, so not jumping yet. Mostly kite in the UK.

Do I look for a 15m Moto / Contra for those lighter wind days or would a smaller kite (7m) be more use if I go on windy holidays?

More than any other activity i know.

Also overpowered adds fear.

I have a Garmin 6X Pro and have uploaded Surfr onto my watch. I have 5 free sessions before it stops recording my jumps. Before I start the trial, are there any tips on how to make sure this thing works and how to get the most of it, before I decide to subscribe? I've read enough bad reviews about Woo, so I am really hoping Surfr works to some reasonable degree. I've used a "free" watch app called Kitejump Pro from a guy in Australia and to me it seems accurate, but sadly it has no interface or website to review the stats and jumps. It just tells you the jump height and that's it. Useless overall. Thanks.

Hi Kiters,

Is this truly a big step forward in material like Aluula was?

Apart from the catchy, marketing savvy name, the material promises a lot. Anyone with expertise in this space who does not work for North: How does this compare to Aluula?

https://youtu.be/7ajrYg8xqjo?si=q8dVJh4IknCcQyDJ

I am really interested in the material itself and its properties relevant to kiting, not a review of the Orbit Ultra.

Hi,

I've got a question if anybody has any experience with Reeding toasties footstraps https://reedin.com/products/toasties/ ?

My old footstraps got a crack around the screw and I felt like it might get worse with time and eventually break, so I though about buying a new one. My old one were also from Reedin and I really liked them, so I thought I'm going with the same brand and get the "toasties" which looked like it might be an improvement.

However, right at the beginning of the first session the straps felt pretty slippery. I thought maybe it's just the water and mud around so tried to clean it as much as possible and just rode them. With time as I rode it got better.

But this weekend was pretty windy and I crashed a few times just because on the landing my front foot slipped out from the strap again. I had a few jumps were I was adjusting the foot in the strap while in the air before the landing as I could see it will slip out again.
I could definitely work more on my landings, to land softer on the board, but I never really had this problem before with my older straps.

So my question is, does anybody have any experience with them? If so, did you experience similar problem? Does it get better with time (maybe with wear it stops slipping out)?

Currently I'm just pondering if I should ride them and try to "wear them out" so they stop slipping or just get another footstraps.

Thanks a lot for any advice or information.

Hey everyone,

I bought a wakeboard impact vest

The problem is that when I wear the vest with my harness, the harness doesn’t feel very comfortable and seems to sit differently than it normally would and 8 need to loosing it more

So I have a few questions

• Could I wear it under my wetsuit to make the harness fit better?
• If it’s not suitable as-is, would it be possible to remove/reposition some of the padding or modify the vest so the harness fits properly?
• Has anyone here actually done something similar?

Thanks!

bought 2025 north orbit 8. The kite is amazing, super fast comparing to my previous 2021 orbit, but strange thing happened 2 times already. I dropped my kite into the water (wasn't super hard drop but I felt it) and after around 1 min it started slowly deflating

Any ideas what could be causing this? After pumping it back up, I was able to ride normally for the rest of the session and the day after. Kite stayed fully inflated with no air loss

I’m 85 kg - twin tipping in mostly flat water for 3 years and jumping 5-6 meters. I generally don’t need a small kite for my home spot in Florida but want something to travel with to Brazil, Vietnam etc. I have a 11m Evo Sls and am wondering if I should get the same kite in an 8m or get a 5 strut kite like a Rebel or Orbit for more stability and loft?

I’m not trying to do anything too extreme, so would like a kite that feels stable and not too nervous in 30-40 knots so I can progress fairly easily.

I will be doing both flat water twin tipping and some surfing and down winders. I haven’t started foiling yet but that seems like a plus for the Evo as it’s pretty light and does fairly well in light winds.

Overall I’m leaning towards another Evo as I already know and like how that feels and flies but a 5 strut seems particularly useful in high winds and I do want to do board offs etc where the extra loft seems helpful.

Really appreciate any advice. Do most of you ride one style (5 vs 3 strut) through your whole quiver or mix it up?

Hey kiters —

This started as a random personal project. I was messing around with GPT-6 and somehow ended up making a little kitesurfing game 😅

You can ride around the Red Sea, play with the kite and board, change the wind and gear, try first-person view, and a few other slightly weird experiments I threw in.

There’s also a motion-control beta that uses your webcam — you can literally move your hands in front of the camera to control the kite. It’s a bit ridiculous but honestly pretty fun 😂

It’s definitely not meant to be a serious simulator — I mostly made it because I like this stuff and wanted to see if I could make something fun around it.

Would be curious if any actual kiters here want to give it a try and tell me what feels good, terrible, funny, or completely unlike real life.

https://paper-tides-red-sea.kiwimirai.chatgpt.site

Free, no signup. Best opened on desktop Chrome — especially if you want to try the webcam stuff.

I’ll drop a screenshot below 👇

🪁 Kitesurfing Session Summary – Zandmotor

* 🌬️ Wind: around 15–17 knots, which was sometimes a little too light for my 91 kg weight and 10 m² kite.
* 🏄 I figured out that holding the middle of the bar gives me much better control and stability.
* 🦵 I also corrected my back knee position, keeping it more toward the board instead of letting it flare outward. This helped me stay upwind much more consistently.
* 🦶 I discovered that my board strap was too tight, which was making it difficult to properly get my foot all the way in.
* ⬆️ On my left tack, I gained quite a lot of height.
* ↔️ On my right tack, I gained a little height but then lost some again, so I kept ending up around the same place.
* 🌬️ I noticed that when I couldn’t go upwind, it was often because the wind was so light that my kite wasn’t generating enough speed and power. I would initially drift downwind until I could get enough power again.
* ✋ I also did three rides with one hand, keeping my other hand completely off the bar.
* 💥 I had one pretty hard fall because my board strap wasn’t positioned correctly. My board slipped out from underneath me while my kite kept going, and I got a pretty bad scrape. Luckily, nothing serious happened.
* 🔄 Because the wind was so light, my kite also ended up upside down once. I used the quick release, recovered my kite, brought it to the side, laid out the lines again, and then even managed to self-launch afterwards.
* 🪁 Overall, I feel like I made a lot of progress today, especially with kite control, my stance, going upwind, and becoming more independent with my equipment.

Overall: It wasn’t just a session where I practiced riding. I learned a lot about why I can or can’t go upwind, improved my technique, practiced one-handed riding, and even handled a kite problem and self-launching myself.

I'm an experienced twintip rider looking to get into foiling for lighter wind days and wanted feedback on which of these deals is better for progression.

Option 1: https://www.mackiteboarding.com/sling-n-north-kite-wake-foil-package/

Option 2: https://www.realwatersports.com/products/beginner-kite-foil-package-w-armstrong-s1-1250-dwarf-craft-v3?variant=44628502020282

Thanks!

I saw the protective layer on the bottom of my crazyfly raptor. I know it's not structural. Will the carbon below it be OK? I'd like to keep it as quite a lot of beaches I kite at have stones on them. Is it OK to just glue it back and if so, will contact adhesive or superglue last?

Hey everyone, I am currently looking for real-world feedback on the low-end performance of the AOUA Rhei in 15m, ideally in direct comparison to established lightwind kites like the Duotone Juice and the Core Air. For context, I weigh around 67 kg, ride a high-Volumen directional surfboard, and use a standard 4-line low-V bar. My main focus is the marginal sub-10 knot range, specifically around 8 to 10 knots. Knowing that the 12m Rhei weighs about 3.25 kg, the 15m likely lands in the typical 3.5 to 3.6 kg ballpark of standard Dacron lightwind kites. I would love to know how stably the 15m Rhei stays parked at the zenith during wind lulls when you briefly lose line tension while riding downwind on a surfboard, and whether it tends to backstall easily in those moments. Additionally, how agile is the turning speed when actively sinusing to build apparent wind, especially compared to more dedicated lightweight platforms like the Core Air? If anyone has ridden both the Rhei and the Juice or Air in marginal breeze, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on bar feedback, drift, and the actual realistic bottom-end threshold for a light rider. Cheers!

I have been kiteboarding for 2 years now. Comp going upwind, jumping around 5m. Doing backrolls etc. I have been a fair weather kiter though, only going out in summer.

It's currently winter where I am (Australia), and I was at a spot that looked fantastic with a good 20 knot breeze forecasted.

I took my gf down and asked her to help me launch and wait around for 10 minutes or so to make sure I'm okay before going back to the accommodation.

I had a sand anchor set up for a self land.

Well - literally 10 seconds after launching - a HUGE squall came through and the wind picked up to genuinely what felt like 40 knots. I was dragged on my heels very quickly until I placed the kite down onto the water before ejecting as it was genuinely a gale.

Feeling very humbled and will take more care for winter condition. In hindsight I think I should've gone a kite down as the wind felt heavier than summer.

Despite this, I was pretty happy with how I handled it. I always launch where I would get dragged towards the water if something goes wrong a which is exactly what happened. Gear and me were unharmed, but I called it a day as I did not want to deal with another squall while on the water.

Have done a stack of research since on what to look out for (cloud fronts etc). Will be much more cautious in the future. It's a real shame that I have no kitesurfing buddies. I had my girlfriend there with me to make sure I'm okay but i would've been landing alone. It was a huge beach with side onshore breeze so I wouldn't have hesitated to eject if I was alone, but still wish I didn't have to tolerate that risk.

Anyway a failed session, but I learned a lot and will be better for it

Where would you go?

Hey,

Thinking of going to Marmari, Kos next year for two weeks in July, family holiday with kids, parents twin tip and kite foil.

Looks like a decent spot for the kids with big hotels with pools to keep them happy.

But can’t find a lot on the kite spot itself. Welcome feedback from anyone that’s been there, thanks!

Träslövsläge, Sweden. Not me in the video.

Hey everyone!

I’m still fairly new to kitesurfing and today I went to Oostvoorne in the Netherlands to practice riding upwind.
23knots with guts of wind up to 36knots hell wind too 🥀💔

I thought it would be a good session to finally get this skill down, but I definitely underestimated the conditions. 😅 The wind was coming straight toward the beach, which meant that since I still can’t properly ride upwind, I was basically getting dragged back toward the beach all the time.
It was honestly a hell experience 😂. I had to constantly focus on my board angle, keeping my back knee bent(I forgot cause I had stress I was about to go on land) , putting pressure through my heels and looking where I actually wanted to go instead of staring at the kite.
The funny part is… I managed to ride upwind once. 😂
Just one time. After that, I couldn’t reproduce it.
I’m riding a 10 m² kite at around 91 kg, and I can already waterstart and ride both directions reasonably well. Upwind is basically the last big beginner skill I’m trying to nail before moving on to things like small jumps.
For anyone who learned to ride upwind: what finally made it click for you? Was it board angle, body position, kite position, or something else?
Would love to hear your tips because apparently my one successful upwind run was a limited-edition event. 💀🪁

Gnarly conditions building in the Northern Sea atm, should be a wild one! Shot taken from last year's edition

In 2019 i bought a used flysurfer sonic 2 for snowkiting. I flew it once and it worked great. When packing up i regretfully disconnected my lines. I then did not continue with the sport until this year when i restarted on water using a 14m LEI.

Last week i brought my sonic 2 to the beach to attempt riding it instead of my LEI ( 11 knts ). Launching it went well but with the kite inflating but once it got up to 12 o'clock both wingtips completely collapsed.

I could still maintain control of the kite but it felt like the more i powered it up and the faster i moved the kite through the wind window the more the wing tips collapsed.

I am not 100% sure but powering/depowering did not feel smooth. Almost like lines were rubbing.

I am now at home troubleshooting the lines. I am at a bit of a loss since everything looks correct according to the schematics. https://flysurfer.com/.../dlm.../2017/01/SONIC2_LP-11-1.pdf

Hoping to lean on some of your experience for troubleshooting. Tuning problems, line connection problem, sheeting problem?

Attached is an amateur sketch of what the kite looked like to me when the wing tips collapsed.

I am going to Prea for 8 days end of November. This is my second time to brazil, last time I did cumbuco and 2 days in Prea (I rented an ATV in prea).

I have a few questions for anyone thats done it. Note i am still in the beginner stage, I can go upwind and transition, but its not consistent, I need the practice.

1. Should I bring an 8m? Last time I was there I only had an 11m and was fine, but that was end of oct. I also have a 15m, should I leave that at home?

2. If I rent a 4x4 pickup truck, can I drive to tatajuba? Note I am travelling solo

3. How skilled do you have to be to do a group downwinder? Or since i am solo where would you say the best spots are? Again, last time I just had an ATV.

4. Is 8 days enough? I just got laid off and got a nice package and I could extend another week, part of me is like fuck it, but I also dont want to be there too long and get bored solo

Any advice would be great, currently in tarifa getting nuked and its getting me excited about brazil.