Bow kites also known as SLE kites are easy to recognize on their shape in form of a swept back flat profile with a concave trailing edge. The bow kites were designed by Bruno Legaignoux and Cabrinha Kites were the first manufacturer that started to construct kites with his design. Nowadays many other manufacturer are designing kites built on the bow concept, but with minor modifications.

There are advantages and disadvantages with bowkites. The bowkites are not as fast turning as the C-kites which tend to turn around a pivot point, while bowkites turn more in an arc. So professional rides usually prefer C-kites, but bowkites are more suitable for beginners and intermediate riders that benefit from kites with lots of depower, easy relaunch and that can be used in a wider wind range. Most kiters need 3 kites to cover their quiver, but with bowkites a typical 75 kg heavy rider can form a good quiver with just 2 kites, a 7m and a 12m for kite instance which is equivalent to a wind range from 10 – 30 knots.

Bowkites are also good for handling gusty wind since they can deliver much depower.

Early bow kites suffered from problems such as unmanouverable when inverted, twitchy and not very stable, heavy bar pressure, difficult to water relaunch and harder to boost when jumping.

However year 2006 was a revolutionary year for the bowkites since some modifications to the bowkites made them much more high performance, safer, easier to relaunch, lower bar pressure and more unlikely to invert. 2006 was the year when the bowkites hade a huge boost on the market and modifcations over the past years have made them more popular than the C-kites. If you´re are new to kitesurfing and haven’t yet got you own equipment, then it´s really recommended to go for the bowkites.

Ride safe!