Cold weather kite choices

[Bob]

We were having a discussion on the beach last week in Madison on what size kite to pick for cold weather.

It was really gusty and some riders were wondering about kite size and I / we suggested the following.

If it's really cold, then I suggested picking a kite size for the lulls instead of for the gusts.

Reason being that if it's really cold, it would be easier to deal with being overpowered instead of the opposite and being underpowered and slogging and spending time in the water.

What do you think?

Bob

[snowball]

Yes. Also most importantly dress for the swim in not just for the ride.

[adseguy]

If it's gusty enough to notice the gap then I rig in the middle. Then I don't spend time either too over or too under powered. If it's blowing enough to get powered no problem on a 14M I can probably get through the lulls on any kite bigger then an 8 meter

[dbur]

IMHO always rig for lulls

[grimace]

Rig smaller, cold air is more dense than warmer air.

[adseguy]

Rig smaller, cold air is more dense than warmer air.

True statement and I looked this up a while ago to see how much difference. It's about 10% from 70* to 32* so yeah that's a kite size basically. The problem I looked up as well was pressure differential that makes up that wind you are using. you know 900 milliBars or above 1000 milliBars. That's easily a 10% difference as well. So now I just judge by feel and not numbers. At worst you can be 2 sizes off....that's starting to be quite a bit. Just food for thought.

[Jimbo]

My experience over the years is to use a kite for the maximum gusts and to use a board big enough for the lulls. Inland lakes can be 100% difference in the wind range if the lulls are 15 knots
the the gust could be 30 knots so @ 175 lbs I would fly an 10m to 11m for the gusts and use a 140 to 145 board so I can still ride upwind in the lulls. Although cold wind is more dense,the humidity also plays
a part in the power of the wind or its density.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/wdensity.htm