If I have the kite at Zenith and can get it to pick me off the ground about a foot by simply sheeting in am I over powered or perfectly powered?

Personally I find it fine when just playing with the kite static having it lift me around but I don't think my skills are good enough yet to fly like this on the move. How do you guys ride?

I would say you are technically overpowered, but that's the exact sort of tuning lots of people love!

On land, overpowered. Unless you are ctb...

On water, if you like to boost BIG then you are probably just right. though that's a lot of power and gust can send you flying. Never park your kite at zenith when you are that powered or you might get to see the clouds first hand. When you ride this powered, you need a much smaller board too. It'll give you less float so you'll set in the water more. This means you need more power to move.. but you can load the kite up more for bigger jumps. Personally I like a bigger board and less power for a freeride over the waves and swell, just enough power to fly off the swell But if you have flat water I could see the attraction to do something other than go straight all day.

Perfectly powered - for me, in the buggy - is holding a line at speed in the buggy and being able to break the back wheels loose by pulling in the bar. Once I start to struggle to hold a line it's time for a smaller kite.

In the buggy, I keep kite fairly low in the power. This would be of little use to skaters/landboarder etc who need the kite higher for support and jumps. ie: in a recent session with Spartan on his kite skates in 16-20 knots, he was using his Frenzy 9m and like you, could pull in the bar while the kite was overhead and be lifted. He was pretty much perfectly powered. At the same time, I had plenty of power with a 4m Access XT. If we had swapped kites, Spartan would have gone nowhere and I would have been ripped out of the buggy and wrapped around the nearest obstacle. :shocked2:

It all depends on what you need to do.....

And how brave/talented you are.....

edit: I also like to allow for a margin of error - ie: size for the gusts. I'd rather be wishing I'd put a bigger kite up (easily done) than thinking 'shi -i-i-i--i-i-iii---ii--ii--t I need a smaller kite'....

It would probably also be fair to say that while my attitude to kite size and power tends to keep me pretty safe (touch wood) it is also why I will never be a really good kite flyer.

Depends on your style too really. I'd say you're way overpowered, any gusts will make you take off even withouth sheeting the bar in. Those conditions are good for huge air and freestyle, but i wouldn't like them. Any steering error will have you hanging in the air, and that's just not something i'd want. I'd adjust the trim or choose a smaller kite if i found myself in those conditions, but i imagine some other people would call it heaven.

So long as smooth and clean wind, I'd call that "fun-powered" :D if it's gusty, and it's doing that in the average wind, you're in trouble.

Quote:

Originally posted by arkay On land, overpowered. Unless you are ctb... lol. i do like to fly powered and that sounds like a good session to me. back in the days when i was learning on the water, i was told that when the kite is at zenith, you should be on your tip toes, but for land flying go one size smaller

When I can simply pull in the bar and get lifted it is time to think about trading down a size.

When very little motion in the kite is needed to do the same is best for me if I am looking to jump. To buggy I go smaller yet.

Adding speed to riding overpowered and then getting a gust can send to way down wind. Out into the ocean if your as stupid as me and ride that way on an off shore wind!:embarrased:

Drewculous says that the wind speed is gravey epic stupid etc.......

I say theres only two wind speeds underpowered and OVERPOWERED! I like the latter of the two.

It is true though, flying overpowerd is much easier on an atb vs buggy. on the board you can bend at the waist or knees or even sit down if it starts to get outta hand. I like to fast as possible and as high as possible.

Overpowered for me is riding the line going big, landing and having one of my friends grab my harness and pull me back upwind. If he cant get back to me in time and get me upwind, then its time to size down. Keep in mind thoug i'm riding short distances, so my kite never gets too low in the window so its easier to fly overpowered.

only problem with flying like this is when the winds are bumpy. if they are bumpy then you have to be more cautious and switch kites. IT CAN GET OUTTA HAND FAST, never do more than the experience you have.

at NABX i was using the 12m charger in 24mph and i felt somewhat underpowered since i had my 15m charger up in the same wind the previous day. since the ground was smooth i was going really fast....that extra speed helped me pop jumps over one of the flexifoil wind feathers that was out there

where i live now, 25mph on the 12m CH wont take me that high since the ground is really bumpy and slows the speed a lot, so i have to take it out in bigger winds to get the height that i want.

At wwbb this spring, i took out my 12m in 30-40mph winds and was going huge and i was only riding maybe 5 or 6 mph. Scott had to grab my harness and pull me from the soft sand to the hardpacked. Once i was there i was able to get back up wind once i was riding...even though it was tough. A clean sea breeze is much easier to ride than a bumpy wind. Theres no way i would ride in winds like that around here on my 12m because i could either get launched into my casket, or get dropped like a rock.

Overpowered is a pretty vague term. Subjective at best. Overpowered by definition (Webster's) "to provide with more power than is needed or desirable ".

I like to fly heavily powered and You'll see in my videos I fly deep in the window. To go the speeds and distances we like then we operate on the verge of overpowered.

If I'm "Overpowered" I head to the anchor for a wing swap. I think I've been overpowered 3 times. Once on a 1st Gen. 9m Phantom 2 proto, once on Molly's 19m P3 SA and last year on the F-Arc 1600. The F-Arc was the worst by far.:o

I'll take overpowere over underpowered any day of the week tho. Underpowered is a TON OF FREAKIN WORK.

with gusts, over powered, clean winds..... omg, im jelly

based on my scale (lmao) that is on the line of epic and stupid..... its up to you which side of the line you end the day on!

(your scale... id agree perfect... but im a little )

its good to be LOCO!!!

I hate flying under powered. It is better to be scared than bored. Unless trying unhooked or kite loops as I am still not too good at either and then the over powered crashes hurt too much.