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Anyone tried both the Duotone with a boom, and the "rest" with grab handles?

Feels a lot more right for windsurfers with a clean boom, where you can grab whereever you want intuitively.

Also, you can adjust the profile depth so possible to use in more wind without too much power.

Any downsides?
I dont mind the length of the batten, doesnt matter compared to the board lenght

But Duotone is the only one making wings this way, or ???

I know the wings can be totally different most likely, so not asking about a comparison between wings, but between bar/boom versus grab handles

IF anyone has tried both, maybe just on land.

Or any thoughts even if never tried?

Peter

Peter_Frank wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:46 pm

Anyone tried both the Duotone with a boom, and the "rest" with grab handles?

Feels a lot more right for windsurfers with a clean boom, where you can grab whereever you want intuitively.

Also, you can adjust the profile depth so possible to use in more wind without too much power.

Any downsides?
I dont mind the length of the batten, doesnt matter compared to the board lenght

But Duotone is the only one making wings this way, or ???

I know the wings can be totally different most likely, so not asking about a comparison between wings, but between bar/boom versus grab handles

IF anyone has tried both, maybe just on land.

Or any thoughts even if never tried?

Peter

Hi Peter,

I have tried Naish, Duotone, Gong and WASP's....

I personally think the boom is somewhat easier when you start gybing and tacking in terms of moving your hands around (ie it is easier to find the boom without looking).
But the handles are not that much harder. I just have to the spot the grab handle I want first, then snatch it.

The boom is also much much easier when you are re-positioning your hand, ie simply slide it (no viewing required).

I imagine over time, the requirement to look for your grab handle probably lessens, but after 100 odd sessions, I am still looking.

Hi Peter,

I have tried the Duotone and WASP's.

As windsurfer I definitely prefer the boom as it has many advantages, as already named. Additonaly it is easier and more defined to put a harness rope on it. With the boom you can also control the wing with relevant force one handed in all three axis, which should be much harder to impossible with handles. When riding different angles or switch it can be also very compfortable to ride it with long arms but to place hands anywhere for the best angle of attack, instead of having a handle stepping and the need to make small adjustment with one arm angled. For freeriding and manouvers definitely my recommendation, just check which wings freestylers as Phil from Horue and others are using.

Have tried WASP's not long enough to say which one has the wider compfortable range. But the adjustment of the Duotone you can even do while riding, at least when increasing profile, opening the clip and letting slide / shortening the boom in.
On the other hand the WASP's and its concept is not necessarily the worse wing. For wave riding I would expect that it behaves much better, as maybe mostly by the heavy boom the Duotone tends to power up slightly when grabed to the front handle and then starts to roll and swing till it crashs to surface with one wing tip, while the WASP's floats much more stable in lower winds, when riding the wave downwind.

Apart from old kitewings I had, I also think duotone is the only till now. Let's see how both concepts will improve in the next time, for sure still much potential for both concepts to improve the individual downsides.

I just second what Sergio says, tried the duotone and swing, I am a windsurfer and I prefer the lightness of the swing to the versatility of the duotone: the swing is easier to flag when surfing,
I am more free riding and surfing than free styling , that's perhaps why.
But both are good !

We have been using both the Duotone wings and the Wasp wing. The boom on the Duotone is a bit easier as posted above. I can easily grab it and slide my hand on it. The wasp wing seems more stable when depowered and doesn’t jump around as much. Be aware that the Duotone has rigid long battens in the wing that prevent it from being packed up small.. my 5m wing is about 6 ft long (1.8 m) when rolled up
Both wings work well overall and we shall see what prevails as the sport evolves.


CG

It is very easy to see what prevails. If its small difference between rigid boom and 1,8m long packed and lighter much quicker to setup and much smaller pack - guess what will prevale.
North Duotone had long history of pissing against wind engineering. But they will keep it for some seasons - just to not loose face

Added rigidity isnt as important because wing loading will be quite low.

tomtom wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 6:30 pm

It is very easy to see what prevails. If its small difference between rigid boom and 1,8m long packed and lighter much quicker to setup and much smaller pack - guess what will prevale.
North Duotone had long history of pissing against wind engineering. But they will keep it for some seasons - just to not loose face

Added rigidity isnt as important because wing loading will be quite low.

The Duotone is much faster to setup and pack down than WASP or a Gong (if you remove the battens every time). Being in long thin tubes makes them really easy to store/stand/hang ....... I started rolling and storing my Gong in a tube.

What tube bigtone?

Sorry, I did not known. I never seen duotone setup done. Just my friend who had cabrinha and duo tell me that cab is faster. So not first handed info.

oldkiter wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:49 pm

What tube bigtone?

KItes used to occasionally come with a nylon sock for storing/transporting kites with the bladders inflated ..... I was able to acquire a 14m North one. I slightly deflate the centre strut, roll up the wings and jam the thing in. I hang the whole think from roof in my van.

One of my colleagues places his 5m Gong into padded surfboard bag. Works a treat.