Two junior kitesurfers came up to me on a beach one day and asked a very reasonable question: how come trainer kite looks totally different from what everybody is riding on the water? These two guys had a foil trainer kite yet every rider was using inflatable tikes that day. So I went into my spiel about two different types of kites that are made for kitesurfers – foil kites and the inflatables, pros and cons, dos and don’ts, just to answer their main question: which kite a beginner kitesurfer should buy? And the answer, hands down, is – the inflatable, for a number of reasons. Let’s talk about these reasons one at a time and see which kitesurfing kite should you buy in the beginning.
Con 1: Launching
More kite control skills are required to launch a foil kite. Since foil kites do not get fully filled with air until some 10 to 30 seconds after the take-off, it’s more challenging to steer them while they are taking in the air. They do not respond fully to your steering and may act like a wild mustang. Also, they may inflate A-symmetrically and you would have to know how to compensate for that with your control bar. In other words, you really need to have the experience to handle the takeoff of the foil kite.
Con 2: Water Re-Launching
Since foil kites do not have any frame, they can easily collapse when dropped on the water. Collapsed kite is much more difficult to re-launch. Often times non-traditional thinking is required to get foil kite off the water and thy should have some experience with kites to figure this out. Re-launching an inflatable kite is a very straight forward procedure and it works all the time as long as there is some wind and kite is not damaged.
Con 3: Self-Rescue
If for some reason kite can no longer fly and is sitting on the water, the inflatable kite may stay afloat as long as there is some air in it. You may even use it as a flotation device to hold on and self-rescue (we will talk about Self-Rescue on Day 4 of our PROGRAM). Foil kites are not so good at floating. It takes only a few minutes before a foil kite begins to take in the water. And when it does, it turns into an unmovable anchor and it may eventually sink since there are no closed chambers with air to keep it afloat. You may need a rescue squad with a boat to save your sinking foil kite.
Con 4: Bridal System
The next reason not to choose foil kite is less serious and has to do with convenience. Foil kites have a massive bridal system and various things may get entangled in it easily. Unless your beach is perfectly clean from debris and obstacles, I would much rather use an inflatable kite with the minimalistic bridal system in the beginning. And when it comes to catching seaweed in the water – foil kites are the winners in this category.
Con 5: Riding Upwind
Foil kites are thicker since they use two layers of fabric to form the wing. This is why they create more drag and because of this, they are sitting deeper into the wind window. In other words, foils pull you more in the downwind direction, making it a bit more challenging to learn and to ride upwind.
Con 6: Resetting Emergency Eject System
One final point in favor of inflatable kites. This one may be a bit subjective, yet I believe that it is a lot easier to re-set the emergency eject (safety) system on the inflatables since these kites keep their shape even when attached to the rider with only one line.
Pro 1: Turning Speed
To be fully fair, I should say a few positive things about foils for beginners. One of them – they are slower. This gives you some additional time to think, analyze, and process the situation at hand. Inflatable kites usually respond faster to your input and everything may be happening a bit too quickly for a beginner.
Pro 2: Pumping the kite
And another minor advantage of foils – they inflate themselves, so you do not have to spend your energy on pumping air into the struts. By the way, did you know that there are two types of pumping in Kitesurfing?
The Verdict
So, which kitesurfing kite should you buy to be your first kite? Do yourself a favor and let your first kite be the inflatable, the one with bladders in the leading edge and in struts. And in a little while, you may graduate into the foil kites when the time is right for you. Wait until you feel comfortable and confident steering your big kite, which may take a season or two.
All this makes sense only if you going to kitesurf on the water. The game is totally different on land or snow. You may want to start with a ram air kite in these conditions since inflatables do not like to be dropped on hard surfaces at all and foils can withstand a lot more abuse.
What is your opinion on foil kites vs inflatables and what kitesurfing kite should you buy to start learning? Let us know down below.
