John,ORSales wrote: Hello Epic Infinity thread! Long time listener, first time caller.
Unfortunately, this statement is misleading. We are one of a very few brands lucky enough to have a full time, in house designer working on kite designs and even luckier to say that he's been our in house designer for over 13 years. There are very few people in the industry with Ross Harrington's kite design pedigree so, while there is no new "technology" on our Flite light wind kite this season there is absolutely new and novel thoughts that have gone into the kites' design.lobodomar wrote:No innovative light wind technology in neither the Contra nor Flite... OR dumped the 4 strut concept and the "venturi system" (now that was supposed to be an innovative technology...) Light weight bladders, thin struts, everything has been available for a while.
When designing kites it's obvious to say the 1st consideration is the desired flight characteristics and expected use conditions. For light wind kites we see these kites typically operate with very little wind and they are expected to perform over a very limited wind range, typically about 8-20 knots. Whereas a high performance kite like the Razor will be designed to operate in higher wind conditions, over a larger wind range and will therefore be subjected to more dramatic changes in the angle of attack.
This newest generation of Flite was designed with a much longer cord and thicker air foil. Combined, this creates a stable, easily controlled kite that is not prone to stalling. The Razor has a much shorter cord and flatter air foil, making it a more responsive, fast flying kite that operates over a greater sheeting range and therefore needs the added security of the vents to offset the chance of a stall.
What's more, the Razor has a much higher initial angle of attack built into the kite whereas the Flite does not, again making the vents unnecessary additional weight on the Flite but crucial for the Razor.
As Dimitri has said a few times here, I also encourage you to try a kite before you buy it and am delighted to tell you to contact the guys at XL for a demo or your local dealer. With over 13 years experience in the industry and a stellar track record of both customer support and innovative, thoughtful design I would hope you'd consider Ocean Rodeo for your next kite but ultimately encourage you to ride any kite that works for your style and preference, so long as you're on the water and smiling. Trolling the internet is just plain boring.
See you on the water!
You are some of the guys that make it happen, and I admire you for that.
But I don't expect you and your team to get it right every single time, and neither should you (OR dropped the 4 strut vented light wind kite concept, and that's a good thing).
And you should not expect kiters/customers to believe everything they are fed up with, that would be even more boring than trolling on the internet.
Completely off topic, but more on the OR venturi system here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2381652&start=30