Understanding Wind for Kiteboarding and Winging

For kiteboarding, wind in the teens (13 to 19 miles per hour) is perfect for learning and fun riding.  Wind in the 20s can also be great, giving a kite almost unlimited power, so more care must be taken.  Wind in the 30s requires small kites and expertise.  It is often gusty when it gets that strong. Above 40mph kiting requires the smallest of kites and top skills.  Experts only.  

 Although technically possible to ride in wind 12 miles per hour and below, it becomes more challenging.  If we have wind speeds in the double digits kites will stay in the air without too much trouble, But below 10 miles per hour, it takes more skill to keep a kite in the air.  Some kites are built very light and do much better in light air than heavier kites.  We use the highest performing light air kites the market offers, so we can make the most of the wind conditions. 10mph is all it takes to learn to fly the kites and get your first rides on the board.  But it should be a 'smooth' 10mph without lulls below 8mph.    

A note about wind speed--it always fluctuates. Even though the wind speed is reported as a certain number, that number is an average of the gusts and the lulls.  The wind is never really just one steady constant speed.  For example, if the wind meter says the wind is blowing '15', that could mean 14 in the lulls and 16 in the gusts, which averages 15.  Or it could be 10 gusting to 20, which also averages 15, but is much less smooth.

Here's an example of the difference this makes.  If the wind is reported as '10 mph' and the details show that it is '9 gusting to 11', that is nice smooth wind and good light wind kites will stay in the air without much effort.  10mph consisting of 8mph gusting to 12mph will also work.  But if the details show that the 10mph wind consists of 5mph gusting to 15mph, there will be trouble.  When the wind drops to 5mph, the kite will try to drop out of the sky.  When it gusts to 15, it can give an unexpected jolt of power.

Flying in light wind is so beneficial to your kite skills.  It helps your kiteboarding so much to practice all you can with your kite, even when you don't have enough power to ride the board well.  Standing in the water practicing with the kite will increase your comfort level with the kite so much that when you do have enough power to ride the board, you will have that much of an easier time with it.  The kite and the board will feel like extensions of your body. 

This picture shows the detail of how the wind really works.  8mph is the average of 6.4 gusting to 10.6.  This wind is about the lowest to bother with.  It will be challenging to keep the kite in the air when the wind drops to 6mph.   

But, if you can keep the kite in the air long enough to get moving on a hydrofoil, you can actually ride in these conditions because of 'apparent wind'. Apparent wind is the extra air flow over the kite that happens when you start moving.

Apparent wind explained:

Imagine a zero-wind day and you are pedaling a bike 10 miles per hour.  Whichever way you go, there is a 10 mph wind in your face.  If you had a flag on the back of your bike, it would always blow straight back.  Apparent wind is the 'wind in your face' that appears to be blowing because you are moving.  

Relating this to kites, if the wind is blowing 10mph and you are standing still flying a kite straight above you without turning it left and right, as it is stationary it only has the 10mph wind flowing over it.  IF you fly the kite left and right above your head, it has more air flowing over it.  Even though the true wind speed is the same, the kite experiences more wind flowing over it because it is moving faster through the air than when you leave it stationary above your head.  That extra air flow makes the apparent wind higher than the actual wind speed.  

Next, if you get on a board and get moving across the water, the airflow over the kite will be a combination of the actual wind, called true wind, plus the extra 'wind in your face'.  The kite will be more powerful because it has more air flowing over it and produces more pull and lift.  Because it is pulling harder, you can go faster.  As you go faster, the kite has even more airflow over it, generating more pull, allowing you to go faster still.  The cycle continues as you get up to speed.  But as you speed up, there is more drag (resistance to your forward motion) so you reach a limit.  Using a hydrofoil gets your board up out of the water, which greatly reduces drag and lets you go much faster than you could with a normal board like a twin tip or surfboard which stays in/on the water.  That's why boards with hydrofoils (foil boards) are so good for light wind.