I had a fixing experience today from last time

There were some nice waves today, I almost went wave surfing on my new whip

(picked up a starboard ultra 6’4″) but the waves yesterday werent that great so I decided I needed a fixing experience from my foil disaster and went foiling. The waves were the biggest I have ever foiled in, the wind was a bit gusty 7-13 (I surfed 10-13), and I learned from last time and surfed the 13 cloud. In the lulls it was hard to keep going, in the gusts I was totally lit. Looking now I see I could have surfed later and it would have been good for the 8.. Oh well, tomorrow 🙂

So its a bit unnerving going in, the waves really crash on you, and you have to maneuver between the rocks and waves with a foil and also make sure the kite stays up. Luckily the wind was sideshore so I got in pretty quick and rode away. I was also a bit nervous from last my last session where I ate it and had to walk back, so I surfed pretty carefully, and got quite stressed in the lulls.

But all was good, there were some deep wave breaks which were interesting foiling over, I was able to float over them without even crashing which gave a pretty cool feeling, the foil cutting through the foam and the board just sortof floating over it. I was also able to ride some waves (deep, gentle ones, not the steep ones near the break), actually because there is so little friction and the kite is pulling and the waves are pushing I think one time I broke the sound speed barrier and then naturally tried to lean back to slow down (like in surf board) so I promply exited the water and crashed at like 50,000 miles per hour. Kindof hurt but, small price to pay for surfing in those conditions.

I was obviously surfing alone, no one here really bothers to foil in these conditions, so I always have this grateful feeling when I get out and fold up that the session ended safely without injury to my or the gear.

Actually one sketchy thing did happen, I was reorganizing the bar on my harness and accidentally ejected the kite (luckily it was on the water). My first thought was holy f%$@# my kites gone, but then I was it just stayed in the water 5 meters from me so I got on the foil and paddled over to it as fast as I could and caught it before it relaunched itself which was lucky. Had a bit of trouble resetting the lines in the water (they had ‘X’s when I reconnected) but got it done because thats how I roll  😎 Anyway, lesson learned to be careful around those little balls.

These are a couple pics of the water this morning, it was really quite wavy, I should really start taking some pics before I go in.. Ill do that starting tomorrow 🙂

and in the north early morning:

So yesterday I ate it with the hydrofoil😤😅

I wanted to write about what happened to me yesterday so maybe someone will learn from it 😅

There was some nice S wind (which is side shore where I surf), 10-12 knots so I pumped up the 8 cloud. The wind was stronger in the north, and it was early, like 9 AM, and usually on these summer days the wind starts around 9 S (and then picks up a bit) and then over the morning till around 13 gradually turns W (onshore) and then dies later in the afternoon. So I figured the wind would pick up and turn west, the 8 should be good today. When I launched the kite it felt fine, and I went in to surf and all was good, I tacked a bit up wind and was surfing around for half an hour.

After about half an hour I was noticing that when riding back towards the shore I was having a hard time to stay on the foil, and had to keep turning more downwind, until I realized I wasnt really keeping height anymore and was going downwind. So I thought to myself hmm thats strange, the wind feels fine going out, maybe theres some wind holes nearer the beach, when the wind turns onshore the wind will fill up and ill tack back in a second no problem.

So I kept on riding, kept seeing that I was sliding downwind slowly, but kept on telling myself its no problem, the wind will go up and turn onshore and then 1 tack I go parallel to the beach and get back.

Long story short, I found myself at 1230 on the beach 5 kms downwind from where I started, 7-9 knots wind W-SW, no phone 😰 Between 13-15 I alternated launching my kite to see if there was wind, waiting for the wind with kite on the beach, trying to find a way to get a ride back, and debating folding my kite and hiking back.

In the end the wind turned onshore, I was able to walk/body drag out to deep enough to foil, was able to get up on 1 southern tack on which I went delicately delicately as far south as I could until I got around 1 km from where I started, my kite fell because no wind, I folded up and walked back.

I forgot to picture it but one thing that made it easier to hike back is that the cloud is so small so I just folded it and put it in my harness along with the bar and then just had to carry the foil and the harness+kite burrito.

I ended up getting home at 17 in the afternoon, so it was a long day in the sun, but I was happy I got out with minimum damage, just badly burnt nose and lips 👻

So that was my day, the wind was stupid low.. The conclusion is when in doubt put up a bigger kite (I could have easily surfed all day if I had put the 13 cloud). Also if the wind is not onshore and your a bit proficient foiling, its quite possible to get on the foil but not hold ground, so watch out for that and dont assume the wind will pick back up!!

✌🏽 & ❤️ people! Ill end with one more pic just for fun

cloud kites continuing impressions

So Ive had quite a bunch of sessions on my new (sick!) cloud kites. I havent opened the 3 or 5, but I had probably 15 sessions on the 8 and 4 where I surfed also the 13. Im obviously also getting more more confident in my foiling, I now do gybes in the air, ride toeside, started doing faster turns and taking some waves. Dont have tacks down yet.

I noticed a couple of things:

Initially when I was foiling on the 8 in light wind, I made sure not to drop the kite. Maximum, a wingtip might drag the water, but I was verrrry careful not to let the kite drown, because I knew that relaunching a kite (any kite) at 10 knots or below basically doesnt happen. As I kept surfing and pushing the wind limits lower, inevitably my kite drowned a couple of times. The first few times it happened, I got that sinking feeling of oh $H1T @$%#%^&, but except for once where I really shouldnt have been surfing the 8, I was able to get the kite up, obviously much easier than I expected, but really like omg there is no wind especially on the water, how did the kite just launch?!!??!

After having this experience really more often than I should have (did I mention I was checking the bottom end of the 8 kite?), when the cloud fell I stopped getting the oh $hit feeling and just had confidence I could relaunch the kite. That is really an incredible feat, and really is a trump card when choosing a kite for low wind. Even if I were to ignore the performance benefits and fun factor the cloud brings (I havent wrote about it yet but I will! Im just starting on the most surprising aspects), other kites I flew relaunch much worse (esp in light wind), and although Ive never seriously surfed a foil kite, I understand that if they fall and stay down for more than a minute or so they are impossible to relaunch.

Anyway, about the kites themselves. This is the wind chart for today, I surfed 1000-1400 in tel aviv, these are charts for caesaria and Herzliya, two cities north or Tel aviv where generally the wind is stronger (the meter here doesnt work):

caesaria wind

herzliya wind

So according to these meters was generally 8-10 gusting to 11-12 with the occasional puff of 13 and fall to 7. I cant say what it was at my specific beach, wind is a fickle thing, but I assume it was something like that. I surfed the 13.5 cloud at the beginning, from 10-13. The kite felt good, it didnt feel like the bottom end, the kite was perfectly stable in the air, I had plenty of pull to foil. Actually sometimes it was a bit strong at times. In the last hour I actually decided to pump up the 8.5 because I had packed it yesterday a bit damp and also the wind felt pretty stable and I was running good (even a bit over with the 13) so I figured I might as well give it a try, maximum Ill just fly it on the beach for 10 minutes to dry it off. I ended up surfing it for an hour, at first it felt a bit weak and I was worried I was going to eat it again (because I had got used to the slower stronger 13, the 8 requires a bit more technique to get going in the light stuff) but after that it was totally fine surfing it in all directions, and even taking some waves. The kite fell quite a few times when I was taking waves and surfing towards the kite, but like I said I was always able to get it up, and I didnt even get that sinking feeling. It was definitely the low end of the 8, but fact of the matter I surfed and had fun in 8(+) knots of wind on an 8(.5) kite 😎

So thats all again for now, I got tons more to say but Ill save it for another post.

Had another cloud session

Had another cloud session today… It is absolutely insane, I can surf every day in these SW-W summer breezes. If its a strong breeze the 8 is perfect, if it isnt really breezing the 13 still works.

This was the wind graph for Herzeliya, I surfed from 12-14 (in the water):

Also to note, I dropped the kite multiple times (kite prob touched the water more than 5 times in those 2 hours) but had absolutely no fears or problem relaunching it.

Its a total mind fuck pumping up with no whitecaps, and makes so much more potential practicing time, no more waiting for wind days. Since I got the foil Ive probably kited more than Ive kited in the last 6 months combined. I mean I kited sunday monday, tue wed I was out of town so didn’t, then surfed again thu fri sat. And now again sun mon, wednesday, and im going to go tomorrow too!! The cloud-hydrofoil combo is sick. Im also getting good at folding the kites 😎✌🏽

13+8+stuff in 1 kite bag

I could also leave the small ones in my scooter just in case there a surprise 30 knot storm 😝😳 (obviously I don’t actually do that)

1 last thing: Greg put up a sick new video of his riding his gear. His riding is beyond sick ( who does strapless aerials on a foil?), but also shows some of the insane performance characteristics of the kite:

✌🏽&❤️

Boardriding maui cloud kites

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 🙂

Kitefoiling

My unemployed friend has been kitefoiling (that is kitesurfing on a hydrofoil) for the last couple of months, and keeps on reporting to me what an awesome session he had, that he was foiling in basically no wind, that he learned to do tacks and gybes without going down to the water, that I will love it because its a new thing to learn. I agreed that it sounded sick, so when I got out of the army and would be free all day to surf I picked up a used liquidforce hydrofoil fish.

We dont have much strong wind here, so up till now ive been surfing a north nugget with my trusty 2014 bandit 10, a set I absolutely love, and which works for me from 13+ knots I start to have fun already. I also had a zephyr for the really light days but rarely used it recently because it didnt work anyway below 10 knots, and with 13 I would rather be with the bandit.

Anyway, I started going in in stupid light winds (thats all there was… my first session it was probably around 11-12 knots) with the bandit 10, I mean in the lulls the kite barely even stays in the air (in the future I go even lower, but for now it seemed like it was stupid low). Maybe its because the foil is a beginner board, maybe also because I am quite proficient at strapless wave surfing, the foiling came to me pretty easy, my first session I was already going up and down from the foil for legs of 10-20 meters, my second session I was already doing full legs pretty much on the foil, turning the board around, and going the other way. On my third session I started doing tacks/gybes on the water, and from then on just tried to keep improving.

On my 5 or 6th session I was out in the depths, I saw a sailboat tacking upwind, and just out of curiosity I tried to race upwind with them. Quite quickly I discovered that I was going upwind faster than them (this was a simple sailboat no race cat, but also am I no racer) and that kindof put things in perspective about how efficient the foil is, because I always recalled fondly the insane angles upwind sailboats could go from when I was a kid and sucks that kites cant do that.

Another thing that happened was that one day there was forcasted some stronger wind in the afternoon so North kiteboarding came to the beach to do a demo of their equipment (until then I was surfing alone, no one even bothered to come to the beach – it was that light). So I was foiling all afternoon having fun in all directions, then some other kiters showed up, at first some people were going in with the juice 18 and some dice 12s but no one was really able to have fun, just maybe hold a line if they were lucky. After a while the wind did pick up a bit and people were able to surf, so I took the nugget (a board I loveeeeddd before the foil) for a test ride.

I had a hard time surfing the nugget after the foil, it just felt so slippery on the water and SO MUCH FRICTION!! I did a 20 minute session just to try to get used to it because it always takes some time when switching boards to calibrate, but I didnt really have much fun, just seemed such hard work after foil.

The feeling of floating along the water, no chop, no noise, just pk pk pk of the light spray the mast of the foil makes, the absolute grip in the direction your facing, the ability to surf literally in any direction you want to without worrying you will have to work to tack back upwind, is new and unlike other kiting experiences.

This was when I realized once you go foil you never go back. Since then I wave surfed (no kite) a couple of times but havent kited with a planing hull board. Its been only foiling for me, and since I can go in such light wind (frequently there is 9-12 knots summer breeze here, a range previously not worth kiting for me) I have literally been doing morning sessions (something previously reserved for wave surfing due to lack of wind) basically every day at my home spot (!), instead of having to drive 1+ hours to a spot which has wind. This saves tons of time, because I hate driving to surf, just wastes the whole day and I like doing a lot of stuff.

Kite foiling isnt for everyone, I met people who have a hard time learning the balance, although I have a friend who bought a foil with me who has been kitesurfing for a short amount of time (only like half a year and only twin tip) and hes had quite an easy time learning it. You need to be completely comfortable and effortless controlling the kite, balance, patience, but for the more proficient kiters out there – foilboards are the future, Laird Hamilton was towing into waves apparently a while ago, also a few weeks ago there was kai lenny SUPping downwind on a foil SUP (~1 paddle stroke per minute, video here), last week kai was paddling into waves on a foil surfboard (sick!). Kitefoiling is easy relative to those I assume, get in while were still small.

So thats enough for now, more interesting insights and progression coming soon 🙂