Strutless kite trend

[coleman]

i had a brief ride on a 17m cloud coming off my 15m edge. I ride at a gusty inland lake where 5-20 is a frequent wind range. this is a good kite for our conditions because it is light and easy to keep in the air when the wind backs off.

as far as the way it feels, i remember being intrigued by it but i prefer my edge, though maybe that is because i am used to it. the cloud felt somehow soft in its feel, almost spongy. good for cruising and went upwind really well. was able to handle a gust to about 20 maybe more fairly easily though lots of flapping. this is where i like the edge better, you sheet out and go WAY upwind if you are overpowered. with the cloud kite it is kind of on/off. when it is off it is flapping alot.

i think there is plenty of performance in this kite in terms of board speed, upwind and jumping for most riders. for us the larger size makes sense as it will be the last kite to fall out of the sky, but the low end felt similar to me compared to my 15m edge so nothing hugely groundbreaking there.

but it was a good kite and definitely has a unique place in the sport

[tautologies]

Watch for those here who disagree with this who are telling you only the good sides,
one is a Pimp or a maniac and the other one is who has it but just wants to defend it Probably they're next

So basically anyone who disagrees with you is either a pimp og a maniac?

[Dave_5280]

I just found some good an honest information on the Naish Trip at http://naishkites.com/Trip-NEW/

I think it is great that Naish is honest about the kite.

[Aummm]

So basically anyone who disagrees with you is either a pimp og a maniac?

Sorry not really, but rather what I meant is when excessively telling only the good things about a brand
when they stoked about without telling the minus sides
and defending or painting nice the brand when somebody is revealing the true negative sides

[tautologies]

So basically anyone who disagrees with you is either a pimp og a maniac?

Sorry not really, but rather what I meant is when excessively telling only the good things about a brand
when they stoked about without telling the minus sides
and defending or painting nice the brand when somebody is revealing the true negative sides

The same can be said for someone that keeps on bringing up only what that person feels are drawback. One might even consider the reliability of that type.of information. Especially if the person use considerable effort on putting said design in a bad light...characterizing it as bastardized...sometimes even without flying the kite.

Anyone who has owned more than one kite knows that kites have advantages and disadvantages that springs from the design. A good kite has less disadvantages.

I choose to focus on what they can do well, however that is not the same as supposedly hiding something....

I got my strutless kite for waveriding. So far it has worked really well for that. It is coincidentally that only thing I have used it for.
No one owes you anything. And you certainly do not get to label anyone unless you want to get labelled yourself. How about "debbie downer"?

[Starsky]

If nothing more it will bring kite design in general closer to optimal. The short commings of a strutless kite will prompt designers to tweak canopy profile and shape to a point and possibly teach us a little more about what and how a strut can help the overall design, rather than just assume they help.

I think minimal stuts, be it one or none is the future for light air.

[ronnie]

One other thing that is nice about the strutless kite is maintenance. You have one bladder. Repairs should be simpler.

[william_rx7]

Wow, some strong statements from people that have only "observed" the kites from a distance.

I own a 17m Cloud, and a single strut Airush One 12m, both great kites, and great kites for jumping too. I've got 4 sessions in with my 17, and love it.

My 0.02.

All those struts are just dead weight in the air, and are light-wind session killers.

Re-launching is just as fast, as any other kite I've owned (Cabs and Ocean Rodeo). Really.

I second the feelings about the 17 opening up new sessions that would otherwise be kiteable.

Strutless is a pretty cool design worth considering.

Just please fly one before you go shooting off your mouth about it.

[genoves]

To each their own, but having a big strutless kite = scoring more sessions close to home = happier dad. When daddy is happy everybody is happy, and there's a lot of intrinsic value in that

hahaha

We must be twin souls... because I´m in the same situation...scoring more sessions close to home = happier dad.

I own a 10 Cloud and works really well from 12-20 knots (6,3 surfboard...90kgs). This kite is fast, ligth, and allows me to decent surf mussy onshore waves... thats are usual mediterranean summer conditions here in Valencia (Spain), so I have it all.

when the wind picks up, I swap the board to my TT. I dont like to ride it overpower.... because flutter will apear. Above 23/24 knots it would be a good idea to pump up a smaller size.

pura vida

genoves

[cleepa]

I have an 8m strutless kite. I got it for riding in the surf and have been pretty amazed at it's performance for that. It is more powerful than a conventional kite at the same time as turning faster for the same size. It also has improved drift due to the light weight. It has other interesting characteristics that I am still learning to use. So far, relaunch has not been much different to anything else. The one downside as far as I'm concerned is that the lack of struts makes self landing by pulling on a front line a bad option. The kite can easily blow away if not held down, so self landing that way is not an option. I can't comment on jumping because I haven't tried it.

At any rate, I think it's worth approaching this kind of thing with an open mind. I ended up buying my strutless kite because I found the big thread on here about them very interesting reading. I used to be a skeptic, but that thread made me rethink. I have been really pleased with what I have found.