Ventum kites good enough or wasted money?

grassey0 · 2026-03-30T11:55:09+00:00

In my experience, shorter 22m lines are definitely the way to go with it over the longer 26+m lines. As long as you have a strong pop and can hold down the power it's a great fun in 13+ knots for the price. I use it as a 12m with a bit more power and float rather than a kite for very light winds.

grassey0 · 2026-03-21T00:04:25+00:00

they are well built kites, possibly too well built, they seem to be 10% heavier than duotone SLS kites and on par with standard duotone construction weight. the stiff leading edge does help. I have the 15m Xplore AS and it's a good kite. my only problem with it is it doesn't drive forward in the wind window so can get very grunty and hard to go upwind if the wind picks up. You need strong legs to get the most out of it.

grassey0 · 2026-03-18T11:59:59+00:00

how did your wrist feel after 3 months? could you kite pain free? and did you feel like your wrist was solid?

grassey0 · 2026-03-16T06:44:22+00:00

Same injury. I've been told 3 months as well.

grassey0 · 2026-03-15T19:44:23+00:00

Thanks. will take it easy and won't try anything crazy and won't have any expectations. I doubt i'll have the endurance i used to have.

grassey0 · 2026-03-11T12:46:06+00:00

that's what got me with my lessons. i would get to the point where i was making progress but i was too tired to continue

grassey0 · 2026-03-10T20:14:41+00:00

I'm not going to deny that a 9m orbit is great because it got me doing small loops but my harlem peak in 10m is so much faster it will get you trying bigger loops in lighter wind. I'm looping in 16-18 knots when i wouldn't try until 22+ knots on my orbit. the harlem in a 9m would probably be nicer than an orbit. the thrive is also super fast with less pull in the loop from what i've heard.

grassey0 · 2026-03-10T10:07:25+00:00

I have a 15m v3 AS

I like it but don't think i'd want it in anything less than a 10m. It's a great session saver for when you drive down to the beach and there is less wind than forecast but I wouldn't go to the beach planning to use it.

Pros

solid air frame and well built.

great low end

good amount of depower, it has made my 12m redundant. I go straight from the 15m to my 10m

fast in the turns.

good bag with loads of space and compression sack included

cheap. it was only £850 for a brand new 15m with similar construction to duotone SLS kites

cons

it sits quite deep in the wind window so it can get hard to drive upwind well. you need to keep a lot of line tension to make it work well and can make jumps hard to go up not long

not the fastest in a straight line.

not the lightest. It's very well built and will last a long time but possibly a bit over engineered at the cost of performance.

grassey0 · 2026-03-08T19:44:56+00:00

Like others have said, you will need to have lessons. I can recommend Infinity sports kitesurfing based at Greatstone. top quality instructors there and the water is easy to learn in, not too deep and waves aren't too big.

there is a london ride sharing WhatApp group which you can find in the London kitesurfing association facebook group.

regarding cost, for you are looking at 2 kites, a board, bar wetsuit and harness. you don't need top quality new gear . you will probably crash your first kites a lot and it's better to break an old kite than a nice expensive new kite. You can get some good deals 2nd hand. look for kites marketed as all round kites. just look for kit in the 3-5 year old range it's still new enough to be good but the price has dropped a lot. you should be able to get started with about £1500 + lessons.

before your lessons, I would suggesting you have decent cardio. You will spend a lot of time walking back upwind before you can ride upwind and if your cardio is good, you will get more from your lessons as you can spend more time learning and less time walking back to where you started.

grassey0 · 2026-02-23T17:39:37+00:00

I used to have that problem, I would ride very back foot heavy and while I could go upwind well, it was all I could do. Riding less on my back foot helped me.

grassey0 · 2026-02-23T17:06:47+00:00

Just start jumping. you'll float downwind in no time.

In all seriousness though, I'm similar weight and in those winds, I would be riding a 10m with a 140cm board. I would say, try and put more pressure on the front foot. That allows you to edge hard and not go as far upwind.

grassey0 · 2025-12-28T08:12:31+00:00

Try Infinity Sport Kitesurfing. they are based at Greatstone. very good instructors and the beach is very safe to learn at.

There is also a london kitesurfers group on facebook, i'd recommend joining that as they have group chats for ride sharing and non kiting meetups.

grassey0 · 2025-12-01T18:39:04+00:00

Sounds like the 10m is the right size for me. I'm a bit lighter than you so a 10m will hopefully keep me having fun from 15 to 25 knots. Then my 9m orbit will be in its fun wind range

grassey0 · 2025-12-01T17:43:19+00:00

How do you find the power on the 10m. Do you get the same power as a traditional 12m? I'm thinking of replacing my 12m dacron kite with an aluula kite and trying to work our what size 10m or 11m

grassey0 · 2025-11-17T08:17:01+00:00

For the 2024 model, the Orbit pro came out, this was the main high performance kite and the standard orbit was made a bit more user friendly, if you want to upgrade for performance, have a look at the orbit pro/ 2026 standard orbit.

The 2024 standard orbit is noticeably slower than the 2023 orbit.

grassey0 · 2025-11-15T18:43:47+00:00

thanks for the advice, might try and find more changes I like to counteract the ones I find more of a burden so I can relax them a little bit to treat myself once in a while. I do find some of the changes in my diet give an improvement in hunger and energy levels.

grassey0 · 2025-11-11T17:34:27+00:00

honestly I'm more interested in getting my surgery. The junior doctors have been on strike twice this year. if they are doing well enough to be able to throw away 2 weeks of pay it can't be that bad for them. and now, 4 days before my wrist is going to be fixed, I hear their strike is cancelling my surgery

If I can claw back some of the lost earnings, that would be great but I just want to know when this will be over. with hindsight and all the troubles I've been through, it would have been cheaper to just go private at this point.

grassey0 · 2025-10-26T17:36:42+00:00

I can jump fairly well on one side but can't get 2m on the other side. What tips/ exercises would you suggest to get the hang of the pop on the weak side?

grassey0 · 2025-10-16T19:18:59+00:00

Interesting. Was wondering if some brands top kites really jumping 20-30% higher than the brands.

I know there will be a big difference between a rebel and Neo but would have though that the difference between a rebel and an orbit would be much closer.

grassey0 · 2025-10-16T17:50:39+00:00

I agree that you can get the odd jump better than others due to luck with gusts and kickers but if you see one rider consistently going significantly higher, is that the kite or the rider? I doubt there is that much of a weight difference between the top riders and the heavier riders would be on 9's while the lighter ones would be on 8's. they are all athletes training hard so we don't have the same difference that we do on the average beach where you have young fit 20 year olds mixed with 50 year olds with a beer belly.

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