training / landboarding dual purpose kite

Just a smaller LEI will be fine. Provided you are past the tommohawking the kite into the ground stage you should be fine.

When I was learning I used an 8m to practice. You need to dive the kite more aggressively than on the water due to the size but otherwise its similar. The 12m will be fine once your confidence is up and will give you enough lift for some jumps.

I bought a small foil and wouldn't bother if I was doing it again. It didn't fly in any lighter winds, zips around the window unrealistically fast, wasn't a depower control and used to bow tie in the lulls and wasn't any more stable. If your primary goal is water then stick to LEIs. The main advantage with foils is easier solo launching and landing.

If you wanted a recommendation to look for then I'd suggest the Naish Ride. Lighter than most so flies through the lulls and robustly built enough to survive the occasional crash. Relatively cheap here - especially second hand so worth a look.

Hi Cal,

For land kiting, provided you have good skills, you need about half the power you normally need on the water and roughly half the kite size you would normally need to get going easily on a twin tip. So say you need 15 knots minimum to get going on your 12m in the water, you could kite with a 6m on the landboard or buggy in the same winds. Or you could use the 12m in almost half the wind speed, so say around 8 knots you should get going easily on the landboard or buggy with a 12m. The issue with low winds is you need very good flying skills and board/buggy skills as well... you need to build speed and apparent wind and this often means looping the kite in low winds... Remember that the land is a lot less forgiving than the water, hence a lot of more dangerous, even on a buggy. Don't be fooled by the low winds, in 10 knots on a 12m kite you can get some serious speed and get seriously hurt land boarding.

Some LEI kites tend to stall very easily in low winds and therefore are not best suited for land kiting in low winds. These kites typically have heavier canopy, heavier dacron and more struts. I find in very low winds foil kites are better as they are lighter, but they require a specific set of skills. In about 5 knots I can start having fun on the landboard or buggy on a beach with very hard sand (in grass you need a bit more power) and a 10 to 12m foil kite (I use an Ozone frenzy but have used plenty others as well) Anything over 12 knots I'd rather be on a LEI kite as it's easier to depower and can handle gusts and stronger winds a lot better.

Personally I find it hard to find a LEI kite that is performing well in very low winds (10 knots or less) and doesn't stall too easily in those sort of winds. Line extensions help as well. You definitely don't want to be using kites much larger than 12m on the land as it gets very dangerous if the wind picks up.

Hope this helps,

Christian

I had an Ozone Samurai 4m for my first kite, it tried to kill me a few times.

Was thinking the full dirtbike costume, but bandaids sound cheaper

For what it's worth, I once had an Ozone Octane 4m fixed bridle kite (no depower). It was great on land as it pulled like a truck in anything over 12knots. I have an MBS Core 95 board and both were amazing. I actually learnt to ride "goofy" foot on land before I went on water.

Land kiting is a great sport, but requires different skills and abilities. You certainly need some protection especially around the joints like knee-pads, etc. Helmets are a must!

But once you get the hang of it, you might find it's sometimes more fun to land kite than it is to water kite. It's quicker to get up and going, easier, and you don't need to change clothing at the beach, etc. But it's more dangerous for obvious reasons.

Check out what can be done with land kiting by watching the SKD guys on YouTube. They are insane!