How to choose your wave kite

I'm always looking for kitesurfing gear that corresponds with my skills, riding style and spot circumstances. I know its a quest that never ends and I love this lifetime journey!
Here's my KiteFinder blogpost about how to choose your most suitable wave kite

Last week we tested the Cabrinha Drifter 2015 and the Best Cabo 2015. Both described as wave kites, both totally different kitefeel made for totally different waveriding styles. So what would be the best choice for you? Well, that's easy. Follow the 3 steps bellow and you'll find the wavekite you are looking for.

Step 1.   Make a storyboard

Make a short story about your riding skills, how and when you like to use your wave kite.

For example:

I am a mellow strapless rider. My local beach has mostly clean mid size waves :-), with side shore wind between 15 - 25 knots. In my quiver I already have a 9m with a pretty bad high end and 13m sized kite with a great low end. I like to make strapless down winders in midsize surf, my local spot has a lot off current so a kite with good up wind performance would be nice and I had some kitemares so I like to be in control all the time. No funny stuff, steady and safe please!

Step 2.   Pick out keywords

Now its time to pick out the kite related keywords. Sometimes the kite characteristics are already in the storyboard. Sometimes you'll have to translate them into kite characteristics. I'll use the storyboard example from above to pick out the keywords.

My keywords are:

• mellow strapless rider - kite with soft power characteristics like boost, lift and pop

• already a 9 and 12m - kite that connect its bad high end 9m. So a small kite with good scoring low-end wind range

• strapless down winders - kite with great drift characteristic

• lot off current - kite with a high scoring up wind characteristic

• steady and safe please - again the mellow surfer who likes to have control. Good stability, feedback, soft power building and great safety system

The perfect wave kite for you would be a combination of these different characteristics.
So rank your characteristics.

1. Stability

2. Mellow boost, lift and pop

3. Total de-power

4. Good feedback

5. Easy to use safety system

6. Easy up wind performance

Problems picking out the keywords? Just send me your short storyboard and I'll help you to pick out the right characteristics.

Step 3.   Test

So now you know your most prominent kite characteristics! The next step would be using the kitefinder advanced - Pro search tool to filter out which kites to test.

I hope you'll find this information useful and please leave a question or comment if you can't find the right kitesurfing gear.

Category: Kites