what size for this season?
 

If you were buying one new kite for this area...what size would it be? Ive flown my 15m in 15-25kts, the latter was really pushing it for me...I weight 215lbs, and not sure what kind of winds we get up here during season.

9m waroos are probably the most populer around St. Pete. My moneys on that.

9 meters...? That seems a tad small... The wind must get nuclear up here. Was thinkin 13-16m. What say u.

At your size, I am guessing your 15m is gonna be your "go to" kite in our area.
I think Dennis rode his 14m Sonic nearly every time out last season.
Most ride-able days here last season stayed under 28 knots.
Thing is, when it goes over that, it can REALLY go over that, so most riders (regardless of size) have a 12 and a 9 along with the 15. I rode a lot last year (160 pounds, rode nearly every ride-able day) and only needed less than my 11m Instinct twice.
The prior season though... man... we had a lot of big wind days.
If it were me, I think I would get a 10m or 12m, depending on the low end of the particular kite and just hop off once it went nuclear if you can't get two kites. You might be able to grab an 07 7m waroo cheap for high winds. :)

I bet the 9m waroo is the most common kite too, btw, but you are a pretty big guy.
Bleighty, what do you think?

well, I'm not Bleighty...but, I think being that he's 215 and already owns a 15m he should go ahead and pick up a 12m. He should stay on the upper-size of kites. He should be able to hold down the 12m in quite a bit of wind. I don't think he would need a smaller size than a 12m unless he plans on going out when it's 30knots. I weigh 174 and I can hold down my 16m waroo in roughly 20knots. 12m should suffice....IMHO :)

i weigh about 200lbs and have a 9, 12 and 16 waroo.. rode the 12/16 about even last season.. maybe a bit more on the 16 only cuz i've tried to squeak out as much lightwind as possible.

at 215 a great size would be a 13/14 with a good low end..

for a c kite a 15 would be choice..

im looking forward to checking out the 14 royal era.. might be a great kite to add to the quiver.

Cool, you guys are thinking what I was. I don't weigh 215, but I watch all you guys a lot. The bigger guys didn't seem to hop on much less than 12/11's last year, except maybe a couple of times.

Seems like the 200 pound plus guys could hold on to an 11m or so up to 30 pretty easily. I don't know about 35 to 40 though, like Sean said.

Yeah, I would be thinking about a 12m like you guys said.
I think the low end on a couple of the kites this season (without losing top end) is gonna be sick, so maybe even a 10m for 20 to 35 (at 215 pounds).

Bryan, at approximately what wind speed to you feel like you wish you had rigged the 9m? At what wind speed is the 9m still pretty fun if you compensate with a larger board? At what wind speed are you screwed on that 9 and have to hop off?

i was thinking about the 13m furia the kite looks pretty awsome, or f-one bandit, maybe type9. their is so many good lookin kites its hard to choose. so you think the average wind speeds will be say 18-20kts. i hope to loose some weight before season, but (fat) chance...at 29 years old it seems like i dont have the motivation anymore...

Average is a word that doesn't work too well here, cuz the winds rarely blow steady at any speed.
Too bad the old forum is Toast. E-bone made a good list of winds ranges and about how many days per season they occur.
If you could ride every single time it blew more then ten knots, my guess would be:

... a lot of days are 11 to 16 (80 or more)

Then, we have days that are from 14 to 25 sometimes 30 (up and down all day.. mainly East beach days). About 30 days a year.

Then we have the 20 to 35 days (typically the NW'rs and the following morning NE). About 12 days a year.

Hurricane wind days... a couple a year.

That's my guess... might be off since every single season is different.

So, our winds tend be more like within a range, no true mode, not even on one day.

More like days with ranges of 11 to 16, days from 15 to 25, and days from 20 to 35 plus. I am on SLE kites (and thank God for them) because of the fact that St. Pete rarely has truly consistent wind.

If we averaged all the ride-able time on the water over the course of the year, I think the average speed would be about 18, like you said.
Hopefully though, you get a feel for what I am trying to say.

29? I am forty.. c'mon, don't make me feel more like a pterydactyl than I already do!

im 200lbs and have ridden the 06 9m waroo in solid 17-18 on my big board, it gets fun in solid 20.....