Havre wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:31 am
duddd wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:22 am
Havre wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:01 am
Arguably XR7 and the Orbit are the two best performing "big air" kites for advanced riders while the Rebel and Edge are significantly lighter, but less common to see winning KOTA, Woo leaderboards etc.
North has only 2 entries in the top 50 all time Woo leaderboard. The Orbit doesn't really jump that high (compared to xr's) and i'm not sure why people keep saying that the Orbit is a great booster kite.
Indeed, Jesse was using the Orbit when he won KOTA, but arguably Jesse could win that competition on any kite
XR6-7 has probably around 30 entries in the top 50 and the rebel around 10.
Whatever. Doesn't change my point - being that a "heavy" kite like the XR (regardless if you agree on the Orbit or not) is "outperforming" lighter kites in that segment.
100g weight will affect the performance of the kite in 50kn about 0.0001%. If you're really worried about saving weight for boosting, have a big shit before your session. It'll help more. The main benefit from these newer materials is the stiffness it provides to hold shape when overpowered. There is no way Aaron is jumping 34m on a 9m older Dice - it would've folded like soggy spaghetti.
In terms of overall jumping performance, in my experience riding the XR6, Edge v10, Rebel '21, and Orbit:
1. XR
2. Edge v10 (with some skill)
3. Rebel '21
4. ...
X. Orbit
The Orbit is not a pure boosting kite. Does it boost well? Yes, but it will never compete with the top 3 without a redesign.
As for KOTA, the judging criteria is different to what we're seeing today in the BAKL. If you put that style scoring against Jesse, he doesn't beat the new crew doing high, soft kiteloops with maximum hangtime for boardoffs/rotations. The only way he wins is handlepasses for variety. I'm very interested to see how KOTA is scored this year. Hopefully The Megaloop sticks with extreme yank and kite height, which benefits the old guard.