A beautiful kitesurfing board.

We have tested this board in the 5’5 size.

It is an excellent board for the those mushy broken sloppy waves. It is very versatile and forgiving; you can wipe the wave, jump on the wave, go easily upwind, everything, it does everything well.It is very light, responsive, fast, stable. It is a lot of fun.

It is one of the best kitesurfing boards for the kiteboarder who wants to start kitesurfing waves. The transition from a twintip to this directional board is really easy as it comes with straps, you can start riding immediately. Of course, you will have to be familiar with riding toeside or jibing otherwise you will have to stop to change direction.

We could say this is the equivalent of a twintip freeride board.A tip for the twintip rider: for unwinding, take out your back foot from the strap and put it closer to your front foot.

Hooked. A perfect kitesurfing board.

Kitesurfing boards are a quite often an underestimated element when thinking about solutions to be able to kitesurf during those nice sunny summer days when the wind is just not enough for the standard kitesurfing equipment quiver.

Up until recently, kitesurfers used bigger and bigger kitesurfing kites to make use of that gentle wind and be able to cruise gently. But bigger kitesurf kites mean also slower kites and it is in general very painful to relaunch such a big monster when it falls from the sky.

Today, more and more people are realizing that the solution is not using bigger kites but using floaty kitesurfing boards instead. The principle behind is that when using a positively buoyant board, the pull of the kite is only needed to move the kitesurfer on the surface of the water rather than out of the water and therefore much less energy is needed. Once

the board is moving, it is possible to make a better use of the available wind by moving the kite and generating apparent wind. As a result, a medium size fast turning kite together with a floaty board are a much better solution than a less floaty board and a huge slow kite. There are different solutions available.

Directional surfboards. This kind of boards are designed to be used when kitesurfing in waves and therefore there buoyancy is much higher than a twin tip board. They are not symmetrical, nose and tail have different shapes, and the nose has to point in the direction the kitesurfer is moving. As a result, it is necessary to either jibe or ride toeside whenever direction changes.

Floaty Twin Tip boards designed for lightwind. These very floaty kitesurfing boards are designed to be used either by heavy rides or in light wind conditions. The advantage over the surfboards is that they can ride in both directions and it is possible to do all kind of tricks like with a normal twin tip board, the only limitation is set by the strength of the wind. In some of them riding toeside can be quite challenging.

Skimboards. These boards are either the same ones as used for skimboarding or special ones adapted to kitesurfing. The main difference with a twin tip is the lack of foot straps and fins (fins can be added). This board is very enjoyable en flat water and small waves, they are ridden strapless what adds a novelty element to kitesurfing and the kind of tricks that can be performed are closer to kiteboarding than kitesurfing.

Race boards. Directional kitesurfing boards are designed specially for reaching high speeds. They are almost only used for racing competitions although they are starting to be used in other situations because their excellent light wind conditions performance.

We are now working on a report focused on light wind twin tip boards, we will review the best boards designed for those conditions.

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Reading kiteforum we have found this post about foil kites that looks quite interesting. Also considering that they can be used for landboarding and snowkiting we are thinking of giving it a try.

Let me try and break it down for you by telling you why I ride foils. Also, please disregard anything said by PMU. He only posts anti-foil lies and nothing else on this forum so he does not carrry any weight.I started on inflatable “C” kites back in the day… When the “bow” kites first came out I was thinking about getting one but my “C” kites had a 5th line and I really liked it for safety and relaunch. My friend who is an FS dealer told me about the FS Pulse which was getting ready to hit the market. It had the same type of depower as the bow kites, could be self launched and landed, and had a 5th line safety. After some research and contemplation I order a 13m. Up to this point I had 0 foil experience. The first day I got the kite I was completely blown away by how fast I could set the kite up. I have timed myself and I can get an FS kite from the bag and into the air in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Over the years I went from the original Pulse to Psycho 3 and a Speed 2 19m to the Pulse 2. In all I have owned 11 FS kites or different flavors.

Here are what I like about FS kites:

3. The kites take a beating and keep on ticking. I have not had a single LE defaltion or strut go out since I swtiched to foils I have crahsed my kites on the beach, in the water, on rocks, in bushed, and once in a tree. I have only had one kite get a tear and that was from a piece of wood with a nail in it on the beach. I was able to fix the kite, on the beach, with a needle and thread in under 5 mins and still launched and had a great session.

4. FS will not make me a team rider and give me all of the free kites I want

Great opportunity to see the new 2010 kitesurfing boards, kites and other new kitesurfing equipment.We are going to miss it this year, just waiting for the winter to get closer before going down there or perhaps Cape Verde, we have not taken a decision yes, what would you recommend?