Remember back in the early 00's when everyone had a 15-19m kite in their quiver? Those kites then were pretty basic but I also feel like people got after the conditions a ton more back then because of it.
If you're not foiling or want to ride a twin-tip some of the new big kite offerings from various brands are actually pretty good. I tried out the 17m Pivot recently and was pretty impressed by just how light of a wind I could ride in, it was about as light as I usually have fun kitefoiling in.
I think heavy weight riders would also really like this kite because it holds it's shape well and goes upwind when you're more powered, it's not so much of a flappy bag as many other big kites are.
Cheers.
28 Sq metre kite anyone? Sounded like a good idea at the time. The reality: Bigger=heavier, more drag, less maneuverable and impossible to relaunch. In retrospect, and with experience, anything bigger than a 17m makes for a great sun shade, but not particularly useful for much else. But it was a fun experiment.
Even the old 17m Ozone Zephyr was a good fun kite for lighter wind TT, before i got into foiling.
Back in the day I had a 21m Best BFK for a while. Laid out it was half a football field long and had something like 53 struts with individual nozzles, each as thick as my thigh. By the time the thing was pumped I was buggered and ready to begin the deflate process and head home. It did glide like nothing else though, nothing like stretching your legs down to meet the water and then it never comes so after a while you feel foolish and retract the landing gear, only to repeat the process 3 or 4 times before actually touching down.
With a foil I go as big as 13M. With a SUP or longboard I go as big as 17M.
With a twintip, 21M was my favorite for light winds. Had some of my longest jumps on that kite.
Fly safe:
