Local Beach: Naska Beach - Kanaha - Maui, HI USA Waipuliani Park - Kihei - Maui, HI USA South Point - Hawaii, HI USA A-Bay - Hawaii, HI USA
Favorite Beaches: _ Kanaha - Maui, HI Kihei - Maui, HI South Point - Hawaii Island Kite Beach - Cabarete, Dominican Republic Tableview - Cape Town, South Africa
haven't owned liro lines but have had slingshot lines last a decade with 1000's of powered sessions on them
Once upon a time Sliongshot lines were the best OEM lines; back in 2014 I LOVED my SS lines. I used to consider them the standard for a good lineset. Nowadays they are behind the times as most companies have moved on to SK99 core products. After about a year of usage I have stretched out and broken those SS center lines although Cape Town will put pressure on any lineset. Especially for a heavyweight (240 lb) rider doing 50+ footers.
The SK99 products work really well from what I have been seeing these past two years. Basically solved the line materials question/issue, regardless of which manufacturer is making the lines. I rarely see stretched line issues anymore with brands utilizing the SK99 core. At this point everytime I come across someone testing line lengths or dealing with a broken line, its usually from an older lineset or weird accident (eg lines wrapped around something sharp). Those ancient Naish linesets are everywhere on Maui and they are always a mess.
The line will stretch under load - important factor, at least in kiteboarding, and it's one of the specs how "raw" line producers like LIROS measures line performace. And that is also what we meant on our site. We updated the text on our site to be fully clear.
- Lately it has been discussed a lot, here and in other forums, that KITE LINES DON'T STRETCH. THEY SHRINK. And since rear lines shrink more, it gives the false impression that front lines stretch.
I was surprised to see few posts above the same stretch claim from such an established aftermarket player as Dr.Tuba. Same claim is on the front page of their website. I'd guess marketing - give the customers what they want.
RRD lines are simply impressive and have been for many years. I still use an old bar from 2012 with the same lines. They didn't stretch over 7 years (I tried to measure it as accurately as possible) and I kite practically every week-end!
The reaction time is also quite impressive. Some would say it's too ... technical or for advanced riders. The fact is the kite react much faster than any other lines.
So I tried the RRD bar with other kites and my RRD kites with other bars. Indeed, the lines are a big part of the quality of the gear. Some other brand kites I found terribly boring (slow turn, no reactivity when powered, etc...) were much better with those lines.
Surprisingly, I found using my RRD kites with another bar and old lines not bad at all too. Maybe the kite is great, maybe I'm used to this kite.
If I want to be perfectly honest, I would say that, because of the really fast reaction of the lines, jumping can be a bit scary with RRD. You have massive pulls from the water so it is a bit more technical to jump than with other lines. You really have to be synchronized with the bar otherwise you immediately loose your edge. I don't have this problem with other kites in general or if I change my bar on the RRD kite. What is great, however, is that second pull you get when you jump. If you wait an extra second after poping and pull the bar really hard, you get a second extra kick and jump higher. Very funny.
And last note, untangling the lines at the beginning of a session is much easier than any other brand I tried.
Be aware if you are mixing a non-Core bar with a Core kite, that the Core kites were designed for bars with SSF. One of my worst kite accidents was using a SLingshot bar with a Core GTS kite and I was forced to QR. In strong super powered conditions the kite flags out weird as the bridling was designed with some of the load shift occurring at the V split with Core's SSF system. THey did something weird with this and their kites do not flag out well on other brand's bars as a result. You are better off using your existing bar and replacing the lines themselves to keep that functionality.
Can you elaborate on this? It seems to me that the kite doesn't know if the single flag out line is a Core or some other brand. I'm not trying to be controversial, just genuinely curious as I'm thinking of getting some Core kites and mating them with the OR Shift bar.
Be aware if you are mixing a non-Core bar with a Core kite, that the Core kites were designed for bars with SSF. One of my worst kite accidents was using a SLingshot bar with a Core GTS kite and I was forced to QR. In strong super powered conditions the kite flags out weird as the bridling was designed with some of the load shift occurring at the V split with Core's SSF system. THey did something weird with this and their kites do not flag out well on other brand's bars as a result. You are better off using your existing bar and replacing the lines themselves to keep that functionality.
Can you elaborate on this? It seems to me that the kite doesn't know if the single flag out line is a Core or some other brand. I'm not trying to be controversial, just genuinely curious as I'm thinking of getting some Core kites and mating them with the OR Shift bar.
It’s not a full normal 100% single line flag out but a 90% - 10% split on the 2 powerlines.
IIRC the idea being that with this system the kite “parks” in a way when you use the release that makes it easier to relaunch. I’ve never had to use it in any powered condition so not sure how good it is or if it is mainly just marketing.
These users thanked the author leeuwen for the post:
