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Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:35 am
by C Johnson
Automatic launching landing.

Deadman saftey. If you get knocked out a sensor that triggers depower and a life preserver

More accurate forecasts farther out in the future. fewer days waiting or getting skunked slogging etc.

More power out of smaller kites. smaller pack down sizes

Adjust on the fly turning speed

Auto inflate/deflate

Stronger materials. better abrasion resistance, higher tear strength, stronger bladders, better UV resistance.

Guessing all of this is unlikely any time soon but maybe someday we will get there....

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:43 am
by acctx
auto inflate, free air transport of boards so we dont have to lie (bike associations have this for bikes), cheaper kits ( 2 kites+board for under $500), way to prevent accidental lofting/dragging on land, less beaches closed to kiting, emergency punchout at harness level that is guaranteed to work, way to find board easier in swell.

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:50 am
by Toby
custom made kites.

I can take a kite and change it to my needs to make it perfect!

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:03 am
by pmaggie
C Johnson wrote:Automatic launching landing.

Deadman saftey. If you get knocked out a sensor that triggers depower and a life preserver
I completely agree and I already wrote this in another post. It's one of the most important innovations kiting can imagine and it's not, IMO, impossible to achieve. Let's take death loops: it's not impossible to think at something that QR when the kite is deathlooping, since death loops are 1) very fast 2) multiple, very different from a controlled kite loop. Another option: check if the rider has his hands on the bar. If not and the kite is looping, automatic QR.

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:22 am
by zact
SalmonSlayer wrote:I could pick the QR of my choice and the trim system of my choice separately.
I'll second that.

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 1:50 pm
by ronnie
I prefer to launch/land the kite off the water where possible, so that requires an easy way to drift the kite out and launch and the same for landing and winding the lines up.

One of the big problems is a looping kite disabling the flagging system. There may be a solution where the centreline (or maybe a front line) has a sleeve on it which will always allow the flagging line to slide through.

A Q/R spreader bar hook might be a better standard Q/R.

The rear lines have less tension. It might be that eventually the trimming is done on the rear lines inside the control bar. That could allow a very clean system with a spreader bar Q/R.

Kitesurfing is potentially dangerous and to get from zero to being in control and safe is likely to cost quite a bit of money. People try to save that money by self-teaching. In a lot of places, its difficult to teach people safely and properly and make a reasonable amount of money for tuition.
That's one big problem that isn't going to be solved easily.

The other one is the problem that kiters are perceived as a problem from how they impact on other beach and water users. I can only see that getting worse as numbers increase.

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:27 pm
by Kite2Heaven
Hey Toby lol your dream has come true - one foil kite brand, made a kite that had ZIPs to instantly reduce size !!
Ha ha which direction was kiteing goin again..

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:40 am
by giowind
I will keep this simple...
1. valves that never delam and self sealing bladders
2. better uv protection of kite material
3. bombproof surfboard construction that handles kiting stress and foam or core material that does not suck up water. also recyclable surfboards that are not so toxic
4. better basecoat and wax for kiting... does not rub off and will not melt in the car. or some other tacky material that works but is not as think and heavy as stick on deck grip.
5. nice sounding waterproof headphones...
6. better wind forecasting

btw... you can tell when the wind on Oahu sucks... Taut starts all these crazy topics and gets all philosophical... you ok man... i know these past few weeks have been tough with no wind :D

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:00 am
by Kite2Heaven
Id like someone to make an aerodynamic kite - instead of a big ass leading edge and a bit of rag behind it... My aircraft buddies just laugh at the kite industry and wonder when their goin to stop selling 'Paper Dart' dynamics and redesign the projected lift area...

Re: If you were considering the future of kiteboarding?

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:47 am
by KYLakeKiter
I was thinking about ways to get more useful range out of a kite. My old Nemesis has about 10 (exageration for humor) knots on the center lines and 3 steering line configurations, and when used correctly, they really can give you more low end and top end (as well as better drift or faster/slower steering). That made me wonder if more engineering put into adjustable bridles combined with kites designed to change their flying shape and angle of attack with simple bridle adjustments could possibly add range and decrease the number of kites in a quiver within a given model.