Hi All, it's been ages since I posted. I finally did my water lessons, and qualified IKO level 3. So I'm officially independant, starting to go upwind. It only took me 10 years to get around to, having had lots of buggy fun in the meantime to get my skills down.

Anyway, I'm loathe to fork out on a full quiver of LEIs, and I simply don't have the cash, so I'm giving my Peter Lynn arcs (13m Venom and 15m Synergy) a go on the water. I had my first solo session the other day, in 17mph winds on the 15m Synergy. It was good, better than I expected. What I found I was fine and had plenty of power once I was moving and had plenty of apparent wind. But the waterstart was a bit of a struggle. Plenty of power to get me up out of the water and planing, but after the first powerstroke (down towards the water) the kite was very slow to turn back up and I found myself sinking and having to start again.

Is this an arc thing? Any tips from the old school arc water users?

Is anybody still using arcs on water!?!?

What wind ranges can I expect on water from the 13m Venom I and the 15m Synergy??

That's low wind for either kite. PL changed the way they measure square area with the synergy and not much size difference between your two kites.

Remember Arcs are not park and ride. Fly the #@%$#! out of them. They need aperent wind. They will fly underpowered just fine if you work them hard.

As far as the power stroke down the stalling out. When your underpowered, "lead" the upstroke and begin the inputs to the bar before you actually want the turn.

Yeah I knew I had a big overlap on those 2 kites. Not sure where to go for lower wind as we get plenty of 15mph days. I'd love a Chrono 2 but too much $$$! Was gonna maybe look for a bigger 2nd hand arc, maybe an 18m Charger II.

Thanks Flyfish, I'll try working it more, and earlier on the upstroke. Think I had the bar pulled in a little too (hangover from spending a week on LEIs) guessing with the arc I need to leave the bar out in order to let it keep it's forward speed?

Hey Paul
Nice to see you posting. The other thing to keep in mind is the angle that you and the kite are at and the wind window. Arcs like to fly fast and very forward in the wind window so it's easy to shoot to the edge of the window in that first dive if you dive it at a 45 - then because it's at the edge and slightly on the light side of wind for the kite it will be slow responding bringing it back up into the window so you'll loose power. In lighter wind you can try a little more vertical dive to keep it in the power zone and start turning the kite upward again while it still has some speed before it slows down or stalls. In higher winds it's not so much an issue as you are up on the board and moving before the kite is at the end of the dive and edge of the window.

I see similar with any kite when people get thrown off a little by wind direction and small waves in close to shore at a bit of a different angle that turn them slightly when getting set up to go. So that first dive is off to the side at 45 degrees relative to the fliers perspective, but because they have turned slightly in the waves they are actually doing that dive down to the edge of the window and I see that up out of water and back on their ass as the kite looses power. As others said you need to fly the heck out of an arc (unless it's pegged in the high end of the range) and keep the kites in the power zone and not in and out of it. On a buggy you get moving along with the kite quicker but water you need to get board speed up to keep up with the kite or the kite is too far ahead to the edge and you'll sink if you are still slow and the kite shoots ahead to the edge and looses power.

When I first transitioned to water I had a quiver of Arcs. Venom 13, 16, and Bomba 10.
I had to rethink how they worked on snow. What worked for me (after many frustrating attempts to get up and ride) is dive the kite, then as SOON as it picks you up pull HARD to the opposite direction then dive it HARD again. This got me up and kept me up. Don't point your board to far upwind or you will kill the power. Aim a little downwind with your board, get going, then lean back a little and turn the board back upwind slightly. You'll be walking back upwind alot your first many times out.

Thanks for more input Mark, vt, much appreciated!

Trim your kite so when u dive the kite for power it moves freely through the wind window but does not stall . in kitesurfing u need a good amount of powr to move. however i think u need a little more wind to get the best out of the kite and was just underpowerd. You can fly an LEI with tight back lines but a foil will stall and produce very little power so its important u trim your kite right also.

Thanks Windrider, you're probably right, underpowered was maybe my main issue. Dang, need another kite

I still have the 16m Venom II and I take it onto the trips to fly in 11-16 knots (12-18 mph) on long lines and a door board when I'm bored and tired of riding my regular kites. Usually happens if a week has been good and happens even more on week 2 of a trip.

I love ARC design and wing shape in the air but bar pressure is a killer and water relaunch could be a b!toh so I tend to ride it on flats primarily, where I can stand and walk back to the shore without having a swimming session.

It's kind of mind blowing to some that you can still rock on that equipment.

I listed the kite for sale but I'm afraid the moment I sell it I'll be looking for a new ARC