BTW: I'm 94-95kg, ride a 12m rebel and have loaded it up big time in gusty 25kts. It always behaves which is one of the reasons why I like it. Get the impression this is the halmark of rebels... I always pump it up past green to midpoint of yellow section on gauge (haven't taken note what PSI this is).
Select to expand quoteadrenal said..
I don't get it. It's all about loading right? For a given kite size and wind speed, whether it's a 75kg kiter that needs to aggressively edge or a big poluka that doesn't need to edge as much in order to keep things going right - the loading is similar.... No?
It all comes back to correct kite and board sizing for a given rider weight and wind speed doesn't it?
I suspect this thread is a non-argument in disguise...
No. It's about inertia...
Correct board and kite is fine once you're up and planing, but big guys - properly big guys, not 90kg girly men 
- can over-load the kite much more easily for longer (getting dragging around in water, for example) and the instantaneously peak loads can be pretty high...
Think about a simple example - a gust hits 2 kiters of different weight, on the same kite. Skinny gets lobbed, fatty stays in place - which kite is suffering under more load?
Indeed! You are correct.
But when riding: when skinny has elbow in water, fatty is cruising. Load is on kite similar (given same kite and wind).
Similar, but it's the peak loads that cause the problems...
And weight to lean against and balance the kite comes into play, so holding down more power will over-come the added drag of fatty's board... be interesting to get a science guy to do some sums...
