This post could also be named ‘Letting go of old friends’. I recently moved house to a considerably smaller flat and had to put some spare kites on Ebay. As much as it feels good to tidy up and become more materialistically lean it’s a bit emotional to sell the kites that took you to where you are today.
Before I started my kite diet a few weeks ago I had the slightly oversized number of 6 kites in my quiver; 5, 7, 9, 11, 12 & 13. Clearly a bit of overlap so selling a few of them wasn’t a bad idea. Last year I mainly rode my 9 and 13 but often found myself being a tad underpowered or overpowered which led me to by the 11m. It turned out to be a great size for the UK winds and thus I could get rid of my 9 and 13.
The right quiver is individual preference and depends on riding style and conditions. I’ve met people on 1-kite quivers which is pretty impressive but personally I think it’s hard to cover the widely varied conditions of UK with less than 3 kites. My new quiver will be 5, 7, 9, 11, 15 of which the 5 and 9 are old things not worth selling and I keep using until they vaporise, but the rest are Element V2’s I’ll probably keep for a good few years. Even without the 9 I should be able to hit the sweet spot on most sessions.
30 – 40 knots: 5m Cabrinha Convert
22 – 35 knots: 7m Switch Element V2
18 – 27 knots: 9m Blade Vertigo
14 – 23 knots: 11m Switch Element V2
11 – 18 knots: 15m Switch Element V2
What is your optimal quiver?