12m or larger as a second kite for beginner quiver

[O.P.]

Hello,
I'm a beginner kiteboarder looking for opinions on larger kites (12-15m). I started kitting late this winter with a 9m kite (2012 SS Rally) and now I'm looking to buy a second larger kite to be able to train and learn on the water in lighter wind conditions.

First, I'm going back and forth between going with a 14/15m or staying at 12m. Thinking that 12m will be easier to relaunch and faster turning but that bigger might enable me to ride more often and could be a better combination with my 9m. I'm around 185lb and will be riding a 141 LF influence.

Second, I was wondering what people thought of the 15m LF Envy. Based on what I read, it look like a easy kite to relaunch and fly with decent low end power. But it doesn't look like many people in MN are riding LF. Instead should I stay with a rally or RPM and just go larger?

Any insight you can share will be greatly appreciated as I don't want to waste $1.5K on something that will not really work in our wind conditions.

Thanks for any help you can provide!
OP

[Tim Dunklee]

Welcome to site O.P. Personally, I think you are going to want a 12m in your quiver. My 12m definitely gets the most hours on it out of all my kites and I think you would have too big of a gap from your 9 to a 15. In terms of kites, I can tell you that I love my LF Envys. I have a 7m, 12m, and just bought a 9m. The kites have great range and have the grunt I like for riding with boots. I thought about purchasing a 15m too, but a couple of things stopped me. The first thing is my thought that the 15m will be extremely hard to move around the beach due to the huge canopy size. The Envys are a very low-aspect ratio kite so the center strut is really tall compared to most kites like your Rally. This huge center strut makes carrying the kite in and out of the water kind of tricky even with the 12m, I can't imagine it with the 15m. The other thing I decided is that I would rather have my largest kite completely designed for lightwind (Zephyr, Fat Lady, Turbine). Hope this helps, good luck with your kite decision. See you on the lake.

[scottchapman]

If it was me I would have a 10 Rally and a 14 Rally. The 14 is my most used kite. It is great to learn with a bigger kite with depower and smaller waves... The 14 is big, but still turns well, easy to relaunch and great in gusty conditions...