In addition to wind speed, many factors impact how fast you’re able to go kitesurfing, including water surface, kite type and size in relation to your weight, and technique.\u00a0 Very fast riding, however, often comes at the cost of comfort and safety.<\/p>\n
How fast can you ride when kitesurfing?<\/h2>\n
The following are some real-life examples of kitesurf riding speed as measured by different riders over different sessions using a kiteboarding GPS such as the popular Woo (Amazon page<\/a>):<\/p>\n Kitesurfing at speeds up to 30mph can typically feel\u00a0natural and safe when riding in strong\u00a0and steady wind on very flat and shallow water.\u00a0 In choppy or less than smooth water, on the other hand, you may feel like you’re going too fast and risk breaking bones if you fall, even though chop will actually slow you down.<\/p>\n Most riders feel most comfortable riding around 15-20mph in average water conditions.\u00a0 If you ride a directional surfboard in waves, you’ll also feel\u00a0safer and more in control at these kinds of lower speeds.<\/p>\n In general, the stronger the wind, the higher the speed you can reach (assuming flat water).\u00a0 A kitesurfer can actually ride much faster than the wind due to apparent wind<\/strong>.\u00a0 Apparent wind factors in the additional wind generated by the movement of the board itself.<\/p>\n As a result, a normal rider is able to ride significantly faster than wind speed, sometimes up to twice that speed.\u00a0 A rider can go at least 20 knots (23mph) in 18-knot wind without effort, and much faster with the right conditions.<\/p>\n Besides wind speed, other factors that determine the maximum speed you can reach include:<\/p>\n In flat water, going faster<\/strong> involves\u00a0finding the right trajectory in relation to the wind, typically at about 110\u00ba from wind direction.\u00a0 The goal is to reduce friction by limiting your edging and rail resistance.<\/p>\n On the other hand, you don’t want to\u00a0go fully downwind and flat<\/strong> on your board’s bottom side as this will create slack in your lines, possibly reducing kite power and speed.\u00a0 Thus, you need to\u00a0strike just the right balance.<\/p>\n To achieve maximum speed, the optimal angle<\/strong> of your board in relation to wind direction, and thus the degree of edging<\/strong>, will depend on your board.\u00a0 Boards with different shapes build up different amounts of speed when ridden\u00a0flatter on the surface, and when submitted to different traction from the kite.<\/p>\n Kite positioning<\/strong> is also important for speed.\u00a0 \u00a0Optimal kite position depends on the specifics of your kite.\u00a0 Aspect ratio<\/strong> determines how deep in the window your kite needs to be positioned for maximum pull.\u00a0 On the other hand, excessive pull kite can\u00a0pull you out of your desired trajectory.<\/p>\n Besides building speed, a common concern among less experienced riders is staying in control<\/strong> when going too fast.\u00a0 If you’re riding at 30+ mph and getting overpowered, you want to be able to slow down particularly if the wind is picking up and you’re using a big kite for you.<\/p>\n Controlling speed primarily involves edging hard upwind<\/strong> while raising your kite<\/strong> towards the 12:00 position to reduce pull.\u00a0 In really strong winds, your body position is essential to shedding speed, turning your shoulders, hips and knees up toward the wind while steering your kite upward.<\/p>\n This is a commonly asked question among existing and new kiters. There aren’t many races between kiters and windsurfers\u00a0since the two sports have different optimal riding conditions<\/strong>. Also, windsurfers typically prefer to stay away from kitesurfers for safety reasons (lines\/mast).<\/p>\n Kitesurfers and windsurfers also ride at different angles<\/strong> to the wind, making it hard to organize races between the two.<\/p>\n Windsurfers are almost always going as fast as they can<\/strong>, whereas kitesurfers often ride at half their max speed<\/strong> in stronger winds.\u00a0 The main reason is that going faster for a kitesurfer requires him\/her to ride somewhat downwind, which means working hard to go back upwind afterward.<\/p>\n Kitesurfers typically only accept going downwind for a “worthy cause” such as\u00a0riding waves,\u00a0<\/span>doing jumps, or\u00a0<\/span>going on a pleasant downwinder (with land transportation for going back up).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many kitesurfers also don’t like going too fast because slowing down gets harder<\/strong> once you start to lose control (see previous section) – it’s hard to reduce kite power and turn your body upwind when you’re strongly overpowered.\u00a0 The easiest way is often to jump, but even that can be scary if you going really fast.<\/p>\n Another reason few kitesurfers focus on speed is that there aren’t many dedicated speed boards<\/strong> available on the market – most of the boards typically sold are twintips and kite surfboards.<\/p>\n Finally, as mentioned, kitesurfers need special conditions to be able to ride very fast, namely super flat and shallow<\/strong> water (no chop) and strong, sustained wind.<\/p>\n Windsurfers, on the other hand, can build up speed easily in the chop<\/strong> as they can ride with their board flat (no edging) and lean on the back of the board to reduce the impact of waves.<\/p>\n In my experience, I seem to often overtake windsurfers even when riding a surfboard with a smaller kite (for my weight).\u00a0 Then again, I never kitesurf in the kind of extreme conditions windsurfers go out in – I’m pretty certain a windsurfer would go much faster in such conditions.<\/p>\n *** During a recent kitesurfing session, the water was pretty flat and the wind steady and I felt like I was\u00a0going really fast.\u00a0 I wondered what kind of speed I was riding at, so I decided to research it. So how fast do kitesurfers go? Most kiteboarders commonly ride at speeds between 15 and 25 mph.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Factors that influence kitesurfing speed<\/h2>\n
![\"kiteboard](\"https:\/\/www.kitesurfist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10798461244_83d8666d33_z.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
How do kitesurfers build up and control speed?<\/h2>\n
Do windsurfers or kitesurfers go faster?<\/h2>\n
\nPhoto credits:<\/em>
\nFeatured image\u00a0“2013 North American Speed Sailing Invita<\/a>”\u00a0(CC BY 2.0<\/a>)\u00a0by\u00a0Bill Brine<\/a>
\n“MINI KTE France 2012<\/a>”\u00a0(CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)\u00a0by\u00a0kitesurftour_europe<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"