Doesn't flag well...half of the winging fun is gone? I really dislike that same ozone handle for all their wings. Its soft, small and wiggly.
Would love to know what to do if sand gets in those complex chambers inside the wing.
Used kites can either be terrible or pretty good. Its the only choice you have to go cheap. Even then it doesn't address the major issue... Kites are build like toilet paper. By design. Everything about kite is flimsy. The bladders, the cloth... Now if kites cost MAX 1K or under, its fine. But at 2 ...
Really depends what your cup of tea/coffee is. Boosting with a TT versus riding waves with a surfer board or a foil is a whole different ball game. For me. After boosting 10 times I'm bored as hell. Send, fly. Send, fly etc...Zzzzz zzzz Session ends. I use my TT maybe three times a year in 30 knots+...
The more I wing (now 2 years) the more fun and easy it gets in light winds. With a LIGHT (important!) floater 80L board + 5.5m2 I can ride easy in 5~10knots. On my 39L (Armstrong) I can take off if in steady 10 knots with the new 1475MA (insane insane foil...flies like a 2000, turns like a 1550, spe...
I was riding an light 12m2 + foil one strut inflatable the other day, another guy was on his 4k ram air going nuts...because he was just not going upwind. was around 6 to 8knots probably. The guy was BIG (in both directions). Probably 85kg+ ? Im around 65kg. Always said it, best investment for light...
My fav settings (give or take 1m for the lines): <5m2, 6m2 : 20m/short bar 7m2, 8m2, 9m2: 22m/medium bar 10m2 and up: 24m+/long bar Standard for kite companies seem to be the 10m2 and up category...sadly. Ive seen so many people riding long bars with 24m line with a 6m2 or 7m2...Thats just incredibl...
So, what exactly has R&D been busy developing (all brands included) in the last 10 years that still justifies yearly 2k+$ kites ? New colors? Slight bridle tweaks? Save a couple grams off the weight? More lines/knots on bridle to customize your ride??? Feels like Kitesurf tech has just been stagnati...
Wings here are slowly creeping up in price...(prices in yen converted to dollars). Every year since the sport begun the prices went up around 50$...Yen is extremely weak which makes things even worst (if you live/work in Japan). For the price of a 5m2 wing now I could of bought a 8m2 kite a couple y...
The days before some regions had record temperatures hitting 42c+. That same day in the South-West city of Biarritz temperatures dropped from around 40 to lower 20s in less than 20 minutes....
That northern area usually stays quite cool even in June. Probably some weird temp. fluctuation front.
Just saw it on the French news today. Very sad.
Video from that sudden gust...blue skies. Temperatures were extremely high (record for June over 40c) for a couple days throughout France until today.