I have a question about wave kiting on a surfboard/directional I was hoping to get some feedback on. I have been getting into wavekiting a fair bit lately and have generally been riding my regular thruster strapless. Its a 6'4" square tail. I feel I have a reasonably sound technique as I have been riding surfboards since I was a kid. I move about the surfboard well when needed...which is the beauty of riding strapless I guess. The problem I have is regarding my board. It was shaped for free surfing specifically and rides well in that scenario. When on a kite however I get alot of spray from around the middle of my board (the side buried in the water) and I hear much cavitation from around the fins under the deck. This slows performance dramatically I feel.
Would a board with a wider tail and/or smaller fins help? Do I need to get a board shaped specifically for kitesurfing?
Cheers
But how does it SURF the waves-don't forget you're on a surfboard-not a kiteboard.
May just be that it's not a great board.
I think you'll find the consensus is that you DON'T need a kite specific board. I ride both-depends on the conditions whether I ride a strapped kite specific surfboard or my strapless surfboard.
Try another surfboard and see if you have similar or different issues.
I have similar issues with a comp board built for Occy. I am guessing the cavitation is most obvious when you are tacking and board speed is high. This is definitely related to the pitch of your fins. Ignore it I say, because the board should perform really well on a wave. You may need to tighten your turns a little if you are heading across the wave face too fast, constant downloops will allow you to cutback/bottom turn without radical power surges.
Fin angle
The toe in on surf board fins is wrong for the speed and angle that a kiter rides a surfboard at. This is why kite surfboards have less toe in than surf surfboards.
Kiters are fighting the surfboard fins while they are kiting back upwind. This is why surfboards tend to flap around going back upwind. The fins are creating lift and trying to lift the tail out of the water, while the kiter is trying to keep the rail and fins in. If the fins are toed out more, this effect is reduced.
Possibly change the angle of the fins
or
A much smaller centre fins feels better
my da lewy kite board has no probs like you guys are going on about
its sweet up wind & downwind and waves its great
and even jumps well
Toe in is the issue-BUT toe in makes the board more manoeuvrable-what's the objective?
To ride waves-again, if the board rides waves well.......
Thanks all for your comments. I found them all extremely helpful. I have changed my middle fin to a smaller size and have found riding upwind easier. The board was always outstanding when riding a wave and now just turns a little better albeit a little less drive off the bottom turn......don't really know the hydrodynamics of it all though.....it just works. Problem solved.
Slante.
^^^ yep the centre fin is the one that gives you drive and projection out of your turns so replacing it with a smaller one does reduce the drive. Kiters don't use the bottom turn like a surfer does to project them onto the face of the wave, they mostly use the kite for this. Kiters don't need the centre fin so much when they've got kite power available as well.
Fins are much underated in the way they can alter a board and make it work in different ways for different conditions.
