Aluula? New Revolutionary Material from Ocean Rodeo

[longwhitecloud]

Lets take a sport that has less young participants that ever , well less participants actually - add $2000 foils to the sport - $1000 click bars, $4000 race kites and now some new material that costs even more to the ridiculous cost of kites today.

Dumb industry kooks. The kite industry already know they f##$ed up which is why they are jumping on wingsurfing like flys to $h4t the next "SUP" saviour of a dying industry.. and I can actually see wing surfing being successful simply because it is way cheaper and in many ways more accessible.

Look forward....The whole cycle will get to over complex super expensive high margin, high performance, difficult to use wing surfing gear - you watch - the same people will f34$ it up again lol!


The industry has tried to mould kiting into a fake high end formula one style (marketing) where actual riding seems to come second to equipment... and it's a predictable failure. The general standard of riding these days seems to have got worse too.

Have fun!

[jumptheshark]

Or not I guess.

[foilholio]

add $2000 foils to the sport - $1000 click bars, $4000 race kites

I actually agree with you in many ways the industry is very disappointing. Kiteboarding is not racing though, racing is a small part of kiteboarding. The olympics is not really anything to do with kiting, and I would argue it is just stupid period. You don't need a foil to kite, any of the many cheap surfboards are fine. If you do want a foil then that is a silly price to pay. Bars well that is a real let down and the industry fails here with what must be a high profit item whos design is always poor and deficient. Bars should cost 100-300, and you can buy or assemble them for that. Race kites, are for racing and to me it is niche. If you want cheaper racing make classes with cheaper gear.

It's great news all around that way overpriced sinking wave destructed flying sleeping bags and their disproportional stretching spaghetti bridles are finally going to be put to rest.

Some foil kites are the cheapest kites to buy of any kite and I would argue most foil kites are the cheapest by hours they last. The lines don't stretch, the kites don't sink either and they are incredible durable especially in waves, far more so than a tube.

Having the most aerodynamically efficient kite is most important in light winds and racing.

The only way Aluula will help with this is if they make the tubes thinner with corresponding higher pressure. Bruno has already demonstrated this without the need for Aluula. I am not certain it would be so successful from the videos. It is interesting, and other ideas like double skin inflatable hybrids are too.

Freeride in medium to stronger winds the characteristics of high aerodynamic efficiency that come from foil kites become less important

Not so sure about that, more performance I think is always nice.

and the "feel" of the kite as well as safety and other factors then takes over as more important.

Could argue a foil feels nicer, with lighter bar and smoother. Remind me again how tubes are safer because getting dragged by a death looping tube does not look safe to me.

My understanding is that foil kites have one specific advantage. You can make a very high aspect, very efficient wing because of the support of the bridles and the internal structure.

Nope that is not their only advantage, otherwise people would only use them in high AR. Perhaps rather than glossing over what I write as shit try understand it.

How about your proof ?

[Toby]

No, you!
Not Lukas or anyone else.
And Lukas cuts landings, why?
And Lukas does not all I do.
Plus he is way younger.

Less bar pressure? Not good for me. I want bar pressure. Guess why.

I give you the argument of death loops, for sure very dangerous !!
So why the hell people demand faster kites?
Won't happen to my 18 !

[Ice101]

... stuff ...

If this new generation of inflatable kites do weigh the same as equivalent size foil kites, will foil kites have any advantages over inflatable kites and if so, what are they?

Thanks.

They might do when foils like the soul have aluula leading edges on them!

[Ice101]

I’m glad they are looking at new materials for tubes. I recently bought a flysurfer soul and am totally hooked. I flew tubes last 11 years and the soul is honestly the kite have flown. The power is superior. The float and hang is superior on the smaller sizes the steering speed is much the same as an Lei, it’s just as stable in gusts and higher stuff though I haven’t pushed my souls above 30 knots yet but I actually went back to my Lei the other day and thought how heavy and dull it felt in comparison. More and more people on my kiting areas starting to give the soul a try and finding the joy. Someone said foil kites groupies are declining. I have to disagree. I think actually they are beginning to be noticed and becoming more popular loads of people are taking them up for foiling and free ride. I think flysurfer have stumbled across something special with the soul foil I think that design has opened a new door in its self and can’t wait to see what’s coming to the scene in the future.
It is about time something new and maybe a game changer came to the Lei world.

[pmaggie]

I agree with Longwhitecloud that very expensive stuff is a killer for a sport. Windsurf was (almost) killed by more and more demanding materials (Brand A sail must be rigged with brand A mast, that must be at least 90% carbon, rdm and with a certain flex, otherwise the sail won't work the right way. Must have a 200$ fin to plane early and go fast. Etc.). In the not so early days of windsurfing, when a 460 mast was a 460 mast and any f@#@#d sail can be rigged with it, the top of the sail were vario and we all owned one board, one mast, one boom and a couple of used sails, windsurfing became a popular sport, very cool in everyone's opinion. Then came the pro-only years. Racing became a $7-8000 affaire, with the ultra expensive and always breaking formula ws and slalom materials appeared. In the fs department, only the new rdm mast and booms appeared to be adequate to the role, together with ultra expensive carbon boards and specialized sails. Add to this that 90% of the people who aimed to be a freestyler were totally frustrated after two season trying to achieve the impossible (same if an average Joe like me puts in his mind the idea to nail handle passes and mega loops). Kitesurfing, after the first wild years, introduced itself as a no-nonsense sport: a bag with a sail on your shoulder and a board, that's all you needed in your local spot. Wind range of a sail was 4 times the range of a ws sail, same for the board. In my home spot a 12 and a TT is ok 90% of the days. I also bought more stuff during the years, a bigger sail, a 7 for my kite trips, a light wind board and so on. But everything was I want to say "a whim", not a must have. The actual drift to super expensive stuff is a dangerous path. Not only the young guns, but also medium aged (supposed to be "richer" than the average young boy) will eventually consider kiting a niche sport for rich people. Someone can say "I don't care about hydrofoils and ultra expensive kites, a normal pump and a board is ok" but the overall image of the sport remain the same, since if at the moment it's cool to foil, a normal tt appears as "old" or not so desirable.

[longwhitecloud]

Exactly, windsurfing gave the exact example of what is happening in kiting right now.

What did I just see.
by Naish?.. 86 possible combinations of foil setups... ridiculous.
Incompatible foil setups
Incompatible bar and lines
Over complex bar and line systems almost seem like they are designed for planned obsolescence and like cars . . designed to sell super markup replacement parts. (i learnt this first hand kiting in super remote places PITA)
Brands with 9 different models of kite
Duotone click bars for $1000
A flysurf 21m vmg racekite $5300 + bar and lines
Even a standard 12m kite bar and lines costs $2599

I know, lets increase the cost of kiting even more and make it even more complex. All might be hype though - brittle fracture and the like.

[GTC]

$+4000 for a foil kite?
My brand new 24m Ozone paraglider cost me les than $3000. Needless to say that the quality is top notch (same as any other brand) and there are no issues related to construction or performance.

[cor]

Didn't read 38 pages so bear with me if that was already posted.

German interview with Flysurfer (Armin) where he also talks about Aluula and other new fabrics: https://gleiten.tv/index.php/video/acti ... /page/436/

Flysurfer is apparently also checking out Aluula (like everyone else I am sure!). He says that it's an amazing material but also is more prone to punctures apparently than todays material. So he has some doubts that it is really ready for the market. Also, FS is researching new materials on their own. It wasn't very clear though if he was talking about materials for foilkites or LEI or maybe both.