So like I said in my last post, I have been kite foiling for like 5 sessions in light wind with my bandit 10 which behaves really beautifully, if the wind is strong enough for the kite to stay in the air then I can foil. 10 knots with my 10 kite was as low as I could go. In lulls below 10, the bandit doesnt really stay in the sky without constant kiteloops… If you leave it static then it just sortof floats down without responding to input because of its weight.

I had some nice sessions, but really my problem was keeping the kite in the air while stopped/walking with the board into the depths (to foil), and coming out back to the beach. When I stopped, the kite would literally fall out of the sky, even if I was foiling good including tacking upwind and riding and having fun.

So if before the foil, on a planing hull, the board was limiting the low end, because below a certain speed the boards dont create enough grip and speed to really surf and have fun (now I realize it is due to friction) even if a zephyr will stay in the air and create some pull, with the foil the kite was my problem. Despite that there was enough speed and pull from the kite when moving, when not moving or if I made any type of mistake and the kite fell, I was F$@%#ED.

Enter Boardriding Maui.

I got interested in the boardriding maui strutless cloud kites back in the day when the first one came out, but didnt end up getting any for various reasons. Recently I was made aware of them again by a friend who ended up ordering a cloud c.5 size 8.5, which I obviously immediately had to try. This all happened about a week after I bought the foil.

The wind in my first session was relatively high and steady (around 11-13), wind that the bandit would have handled fine also. The kites actually feel relatively similar in their behavior, except that the lightness of the cloud makes everything so much more responsive. Also, the kite just stays up.

So I kept on going lower and lower, even before this kite I was used to going to the beach when no one bothered to come – no wind, but now I literally went in there were no whitecaps, nothing, no wind in the ocean. Once upon a time when I was surfing on the bandit and nugget combo I was a wind meter, I knew exactly how strong the wind was depending on how it felt when I was surfing I had that dialed. Now I cant even say how much wind there was, I know on the wind meters I looked at when I left the house said 9-12 knots in spots that were usually a couple of knots stronger than my home spot. Anyway, the 8.5 kite gave me the confidence to go in and farther out in wind that I previously would have felt verrry sketchy going in, especially alone, because my kite might fall.

The wind range quoted on BRMs site for the 8.5 is 8.5-15.5 knots, I believe every knot of the low end – I definitely think I was surfing in 9 knots and I obviously have room to improve on my foiling skills, its been less than 3 weeks. This I what I looked like at the end of my sessions with the cloud:

They are sick. So I bought a set of clouds, because that how I do, when I find something that suits me I go all in. A week later my brother brought me this from the states:

Like damn those pack small! I mean 4 kites dont even take the space of 1 strutted kite. So thats all for now, Ill elaborate more on how the kite flies in another post, this was long enough 🙂