I'm thinking of getting a race kiteboard.
Not that I race professionally, but just for fun I like to give pros hard time sometimes
...
Searched around and got confused with vast variety of board shapes and straps/fins configuration.
[I guess, everybody is still experimenting with what works best for races]
See some images attached.
[I didn't find any pix of new Jeff Kafka's "Race Quad II" board - if anyone has it, please share]
So, the questions are:
1. What's with the angle of the fins, why are they tilted outwards so much?
2. Why are the fins so long - isn't it going to slow the board down?
3. Some boards are quad-fin, some are two-fin - any significant difference in behavior?
4. I take it, these boards are designed for course-racing (i.e. balanced for good both upwind AND downwind perfomance). How good are those for downwind only?