Innholdsfortegnelse for #40 i TheKiteMag

There’s nothing like Tarifa’s strong Levante wind to blow away the cobwebs, which is just what Johanna-Catharina Edin needed when she headed there recently. Having signed with FLYSURFER earlier this year, she shares the, ahem, ‘stoke’ from her session there on her new STOKE kite, and shows us her strapless freestyle skills. Before the events of 2020 I had been based in Tarifa for a few years. But that all changed drastically, 10 days into lockdown in March. I packed my suitcase and left my apartment in a hurry. At that point I had no idea that it was going to be the last time I saw both the apartment and my then boyfriend. From that day on my life changed completely. I went from having a fully booked schedule…

FIRSTLY, PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR COMPANY. We have been developing, producing and selling snowboards since 1989. With this experience, we founded our own brand Goodboards in 2010. Our company headquarters, development, marketing and sales are in Germany on the beautiful Lake Ammersee, which lies between Munich and the Alps. We have established ourselves as a board sports specialist for high-quality snowboards, wakeboards and kiteboards. Our slogan - JOIN THE GOOD WAY - describes the company philosophy and the special attitude towards life in our region! We work independently, with the professionalism of big brands, but with the passion of little ones. WHAT RIDING STYLE IS THE AMNESIA PRO INTENDED FOR? The Amnesia Pro (and the normal Amnesia) is the most freestyle-oriented board in our range. The board…

ALL-ROUNDER TEST The GTS has garnered a serious reputation as a Big Air and overpowered riding machine, cultivating its image with countless photos featuring the kite at impossibly low angles in front of Table Mountain and low-level short line gravity defiance. With heavy hitting riders like Steven Akkersdijk and Joshua Emanuel helping to guide development, we were intrigued as to how they would soup it up further for the next generation. The core (sorry) principles of the GTS6 remain the same. We’re looking at a three-strut future C-shape kite with quite full square wingtips and a short and minimal quad pulley bridle. The CIT bridle settings carry over from the GTS5, letting you tune the kite to your liking, with the tiny increments on the leading edge making noticeable changes…

ALL-ROUNDER TEST Naish have created various blunt nosed boards for strapless freestyle over the years and were early on board with the compact board concept for enhancing aerial characteristics. The Gecko is available in two constructions, a standard bamboo version and a high-end carbon and S-Glass variant with vector net strengthened rails. Being a dedicated strapless board, foot strap inserts are not present on either, and correctly so. Two sizes are available in 5’1 and 5’4 with a respective 22l and 24l of volume. The Gecko sits alongside the long-established Skater in the current surfboard range, but focuses its efforts on more mediocre flat water and chop conditions than properly formed waves and covers the full spectrum of real-world conditions. A relatively parallel rail outline immediately tracks very well in…

ALL-ROUNDER TEST Ocean Rodeo have been developing the new ALUULA airframe material for a while now, and we’ve been eager to get our hands on it. The A-Series kites are offered as a premium option over the existing models in the OR range, and in this case the already solid performing Roam wave kite. The first thing you notice, even when the kite is in the bag, is how light it is. Never afraid of a little quantitative data here at TheKiteMag, we whipped out the precision scales, and found the 10m to weigh in at 2.08kg. To put it in context, this is 500g less than a comparable lightweight three strut wave kite, and for a flying structure which has to support its own weight, that’s a whole heap…

BOARD DIMENSIONS: 5’4 // RIDER WEIGHT: 80kg // RIDER HEIGHT: 185cm I have been riding the Ripper since the day I teamed up with CORE, which was about six years ago, so I can definitely say that I’ve had my fair share of barrels on it! I’ve been with CORE for almost as long as I have been kiting, and the only boards that I used before were my surfboards. So over the last six years I have developed my kitesurfing skills primarily on the Ripper. I’ll choose my board for a session depending on the conditions. If it’s six-to-eight foot and throwing massive barrels out at One Eye, I would generally prefer to take out the Green Room as I would like a faster, narrower and thinner board for…

Sometimes you need to go for quality over quantity, so wave and strapless freestyle competitor Reece Myerscough decided to up sticks to a different part of Vancouver Island, where the wind might not be as consistent, but delivers up way better sessions. You’ve heard this multiple times already in 2020, but here it is again: once Covid hit, I found myself living at home feeling like my riding wasn’t progressing like it needed to. The conditions for kiting are fairly consistent in Victoria where I grew up. I can kite almost every day in the spring, summer and fall. But the wind never properly fills in on the surface of the water, making it difficult to do strapless freestyle, and it’s over an hour’s drive to the nearest breaking wave.…

1 // F-ONE Bandit S2 The second outing of F-ONE’s more surf-focused Bandit has seen the kind of refinements we expect from F-ONE with their countless hours of riding and prototyping. Changes for 2021 include a focus on the profile skin tension and the trailing edge design and construction, with the new profile offering improved stability and responsiveness. The center strut for this year is shorter with fatter wing tips so the handling is more reactive and you can maintain your flow as you follow the S2 down the line of another dreamy right hander… 2 // CrazyFly 2021 Sculp The new 2021 Sculp has had a solid rework for 2021 and maintains that accessible do-it-all vibe but with more performance ‘on tap’ when you need it. 2021 sees an…

YOUR NEW SURFBOARDS BOAST AN ALL-NEW XR CONSTRUCTION. EXPLAIN THE NEW LAY-UP. The new XR construction is an evolution of our popular hybrid EPS construction that yields improved response, snap and lightweight performance. Using bamboo and carbon reinforcements we found a magical combination of weight and strength, providing higher performance with a true surfboard feel that can handle all the rigors of kiting. GIVE US A SUMMARY OF THE VARIOUS SURFBOARD MODELS AND THEIR INTENDED USES. The Celero XR is our most versatile all-round surfboard. This ‘quiver-of-one’ board delivers controlled progressive performance in anything from serious waves to river swell and even flat water. The modern curvy outline and winged squash tail make the Celero XR extremely responsive when turning, as well as maintaining speed, along with a tri-fin thruster…

The megaloop still remains the umbrella move that nearly all big scores are associated with, the high handlepass being the only other move that can score big. I like it – it shows extreme skill and courage to unhook and pass the bar in gale force wind. It’s a move you see mostly from the guys that have a strong freestyle background. When combined with a megaloop, it’s hard to see a more technical move in kiting. I don’t feel that Aaron gets the credit he deserves for bringing this move to the event in the early years, and also Ruben for his role in its creation. They were doing this stuff years ago when most of us were just learning to megaloop. You can count on one hand how…

THE 810 FOIL LOOKS FAST, BUT HOW ACCESSIBLE IS IT? Do not be deceived by its fast look – while the 810 foil has excellent top speed, it was designed to be very accessible with relatively low take off speeds (9-10 mph), a flat smooth launch and intuitive control throughout its wide speed range. This makes it comfortable and playful – a great all-round wing. CAN YOU TALK US THROUGH THE CONSTRUCTION AND HOW IT COMPARES TO PREVIOUS MODELS? The 95cm mast is 20 percent lighter then previously, significantly stiffer, and offers more control at any speed. Then the chopped carbon/unidirectional carbon fiber wing and stabilizer is 25 percent lighter than the previous years. The aircraft grade aluminum 64cm fuselage has been re-engineered to reduce weight and drag, while stainless…

FOIL TEST The Logosz designed 633 front wing has earned a cult following in the freeride foiling sector, and has set the standard for an accessible and entertaining foil system with exceptional pitch stability and the potential to push the top end much further than expected from a speed perspective. It’s come with a few different brand badges due to the shared production for the full carbon version, the Ghost Whisper 91, and in the form of the Apollo wing for Slingshot’s well-established Hover Glide system There’s been distant rumblings about a new full carbon foil system from Slingshot for a couple of years now, and rather than rushing to market with something they weren’t happy with, Slingshot have worked long and hard to get the production right on the…

ALL-ROUNDER TEST Last year the Bandit went off in two defined directions. This was an extremely successful exercise for the long-standing kite range, meaning F-ONE could develop a really specialized wave kite with the Bandit S, and have less compromise and crossover built in to the original Bandit line, which, now in its 14th year, continues to be focused more at twintip, freeride and Big Air. F-ONE have managed to maintain their famously high levels of prototyping and development through the pandemic, and quite a bit has changed, particularly with the build. A revised panel layout, most noticeable in the seaming of the trailing edge is evident. They’ve aligned the ripstop perfectly to the direction of load, and used the intermediate weight cloth to tighten up the trailing edge. As…

Mystic have crafted a number of innovative harnesses over the last few years, namely the Legend, famous for its lightweight injection molded backed soft shell, and the Majestic X, a hard-shell neoprene harness offering excellent load distribution and high levels of comfort. With the Stealth harness they have fused these two concepts together and the end result is quite spectacular. The Stealth is a full hard-shell harness with an exceptionally stiff backplate; we’re talking very little compression under load from the front hook. This is achieved with a thicker band of composite running round in a belt. Interestingly the Stealth does have some built-in torsional flex, meaning when you are pulling some stunts and flexing your trunk it can accommodate some shift in your body, and not lock out your…

WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST RECOLLECTIONS OF THE BEACH? My first memorable experience of the beach was when I was about five years old. We would go to visit my grandma once in a while and at that time she lived in Den Haag, which is really close to the beach. During the summer months we would always go for a little swim when visiting her. I already knew how to swim but I’ll never forget the first time in the ocean – unlike an indoor pool or lake, all of a sudden there were big waves and the water was very salty! CAN YOU REMEMBER ANY OF YOUR FIRST KITE SESSIONS? My first time seeing kiting and wanting to try it was on vacation in France. But my parents told…

WHERE DOES THE ORBIT SLOT INTO YOUR CURRENT KITE RANGE? DOES IT CROSSOVER INTO FREERIDE? The Orbit is our premier, high-performance five-strut dedicated Big Air kite. It has the widest wind range of all our kites and the five-strut design gives it an incredible amount of stability. While it does cross over into freeride, for that we recommend our performance freeride kite, the Reach, which does it all: it boosts, loops, foils and surfs. WHAT DESIGN FEATURES MAKE THE ORBIT A KING OF THE AIR WINNER? The Orbit has a very big footprint in the sky. This increases the amount of sail area working for you, making the kite super-efficient with great power delivery – which gives you phenomenal loft and hangtime. Its powerful and efficient two-stage arc design incorporates…

EXPLAIN THE DESIGN YOU HAVE USED FOR THE SPLIT MECHANISM AND HOW IT WORKS? The innovative three-piece construction features a PU-connector to join the split-board seamlessly together. The unique S connection reduces the dangerous perpendicular stresses of heavy landings and allows a rail-to-rail aligned fastener pin. The flexible component protects the two halves of the board, and allows homogeneous flex and a progressive concave. The PU-connector can be replaced and has a compact pack size. THE WAY THE BOARD SPLITS IS VERY DIFFERENT TO YOUR PREVIOUS SPLIT BOARDS. WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF THE NEW ONE? It is a new board and doesn’t correspond to the old design of our ‘Flysplit’. It has a completely new construction and connection system. The advantage of the TRIP is the new PU-connector, which…

ALL-ROUNDER TEST Season 25 yields another variant of the Pivot, making it among the longest standing flagship kite models in the Naish range. It goes without saying that the kite has proven itself with a couple of solid King of the Air wins along the way. Built around a three-strut swept tip platform, the familiar build elements from Naish are present. Quadtex ripstop from Teijin makes for a stiff, light and wear resistant canopy. Higher inflate pressures achieved by an iSUP valve make for a super stiff and lean airframe. Shark tooth darting elegantly creeps up each canopy segment, reinforcing the trailing edge and helping eliminate vibration – this has been reworked this year into a smoother shape. For S25, a striking limited-edition skull and crossbones model, aimed for the…

Santa Cruz provided the cradle of the hard shell harness and Ride Engine continues to evolve and refine the concept and make a truly innovative product. The Elite Carbon has been completely revised this year, and the latest showpiece is the implementation of the Unity spreader bar, which comprises a wide belt of composite ratchet straps. They extend quite far back past your hips and clip into some relatively low profile clamp boxes, which are tucked away under neoprene. This means you can say goodbye to flappy webbing and irritating buckles. The bar itself is a lightweight molded composite affair which can switch between kite, windsurf and sliding spreader setups with the aid of a few Torx bolts hidden behind the front pad. Two large tabs tuck the bar into…

ALL-ROUNDER TEST It is with much fanfare that the new SLS products have landed in Duotone’s range for 2021. With the new products all tested and signed off pre-Covid it has enabled Duotone to make a solid splash this autumn and has caused much chatter on the forums and beyond. So, SLS = Strong, Light, Superior. In the kite lineup the tech responsible for this (as we covered last issue in our Tech and Materials slot) is the PentaTX material. As we are seeing across the kite market the ‘twenties’ seem to be all about one thing: weight savings. With kite designs having plateaued (i.e. they are pretty much all good, which is great for us) attention has turned to how we can apply materials to improve the performance of…