Hi Everybody,
we are curious if especially schools have tested some of the popular safety systems on the 2011 leading kite brands?
Important for us as a school is that the safety systems work 100% when teaching and that they still work after they have been used a lot.
Another important aspect is the lines/bridle setups on the kites, especially the backline bridals/connectors. We had some issues with kites in school use that had bridals on backline when the bridle gets stuck on wingtip and the kite starts looping.
The quick release systems and relaunching after using quick release is also feedback worthy.
Feedback about any experiences with 2011 systems would be great to make a choice what kites to use in school for 2011 season.
Thanx
MB
Hey Marvin,
I can tell you what we want in a good school kite after having taught for ten years on various kites :
Firstly, it must be simple to use with a simple uncluttered bar
Kites should not be too powerful which rules out about 70% of the kites on the market.
Kites should have steering settings which require more effort to turn. (detuned)
Kites should preferably NOT have pulleyed bridles, less maintenance and tangles
Kites should be light weight, so three struts is best so they fly well in light winds.
Kites should be extremely stable in ALL wind conditions (windy and light)
Kites should be highly resistant to stalling and luffing.
Kites should relaunch easily with bar out and one back line tensioned.
Bar should have a simple above the bar cleated trim system (NO dangly toggles with straps)
Bar Safety system should flag easily and QR should work well under all conditions.
Bar depower should be a short stroke. No longer than 60cm.
All gear should be maintenance free and simple.
Seperate Bar should be set up with 15m lines for 1st lesson, then another bar on 25's.
I've just described the Ozone Catalysts. No kite comes close to this good for teaching, and they're a sick wave kite and freeride machine when tuned "up". The 2010 Catalysts were almost perfect but required a couple of inches more depower length. Ozone fixed this last quibble with the 2011 bars. Sorted, they should be perfect this year and can't wait to start using them in the school.
Cheers,
DM
i just bought 2 slingshot rallys....
ive used the QR when some one went through my lines close to shore (was windy and was scared both kites would power up and drag us along the beach... its a push away system... u dnt needf much force to push it away.. ie really easy! and it completely depowered the kite, was massively impressed with this
also relaunch is a piece of p1ss... bar out, pull one of the back lines and its straight back up in the air, hav dropped it a few times in the surf and have had no dramas... i absolutely love this kite and i rekon it would be a fantastic school kite
my 2 cents
Also agree with darren, all good points
And as Kitegirl said the rally seams to fit the bill aswell
One excellent feature is it is very hard to get it to fall out the sky.
tested this out yesterday after getting cleaned up by a large wave and when I popped up it was still in the air, saved my bacon close to a breakwall and a kite on it's maiden voyage
Hi Darren,
thanx heaps for your time and good advise.
You cover almost all the important aspects for safety systems and i agree with all of what you have mentioned.
We taught on the Core Riot XR this year and im quite happy with how they went in school use but we are very keen to try the new Ozone Catalyst and put them to the test.
QR works on Core and Ozone very well.
cheers
You might also like to add a kite that can sit on the wing tip with the bar let go and not fall back and shoot across the window
All Darren's points into various aspects of design, performance and therefore benefits are spot on.
my favourite kite to teach on is the Kahoona. it relaunches in 10-30 knots no matter what the size. It has a short depower and a huge windrange, and is as stable as any kite on the market. If anything should go wrong ( I've had absolutely no probs.) there's not a lot of meterage to go wrong.Others will be teaching on a 12m and having issues with relaunch and students are happily flying a 9.5
The Rally is similar to a generation1 kahoona.
Catalyst,,,simple,no pullies,3 struts, light bar, no bullsh!t.
clean bar set up,very predictable kite.
Build quality seems good,but only thrashed it for 3 months so far,will be interesting to see if they last as long as my old cabs.
The trailing edge of the cabs seems to be better re-enforced than the catalyst but hours on the water and UV will prove the better build quality of the two.
Safety system of the Cat is the same as the rest of the kite,simple and easy to find.
If I was a learner, I think I would feel comfortable learning on a Cat.
Has anyone had a 2010 Cat and used it for 12 months as there main kite with heaps of use? How well is it holding up?????
AKSonline....what do you mean when you said "good wave kite and free ride when tuned up??? What tunning are you doing??
cheers
Hey DM, your wishlist seems to describe my 2009 North Rebel. No centre strut seems to keep the wing flat, and very light.
I can comment on the Bandit QR, it is very unreliable. If you happen to snag a wingtip using the QR will not help you the kite will continue to loop. If you slam the kite in to the water hard enough it can fold in the leading edge and again using the QR will not bring the kite down. The B1 and B2 leash attachment points were very easy to tangle through itself creating a half hitch so once again using the QR would do nothing. The B1 and especially the B2 were very prone to snag the wing tips, the b3 was better but i basically shortened the length where the safety stopper was to stop it falling off the wing tip so there fore was no longer a real 100% safety. The B4 still uses the same setup but with the new wingtip design it will be nearly impossible to snag.
There are no oh$hit handles to grab if it all goes wrong and i have been caught out many times and had to ditch the kite. They are good kites, just not 100% friendly if you think you may need to use the safety. The mechanism is very old school and can be hard to use in a emergency but is 100% reliable as there is no mechanical parts just velcro, you just have to make sure to give it a squeeze before you go out or it will release while ridding and you will have to ride back in unhooked or let it flag to reset it.
When learning to kiteboard, i looked at getting the safest kite possible, now i'm very comfortable on the water it now isn't as big of a issue.
^^^^^^Ît should still be a "BIG ISSUE" no matter what stage your at.
I think at that stage,when you are feeling conferdent with your skills, you tend to get a bit complacent on the safety side = hello hospital.
We all do it.....been kiteing for a few years,never had to hit the QR, think you no longer need the safest kite cause you've got it all sorted,,,,then BANG,,ouch
I prefer a single line flagging whether it be a 5th line or front line for teaching and for anyone not unhooking. Like you said waxman if a rear line goes around a wingtip your mini 5th line isn't ideal.
I still like to have a good safety, but when buying a kite now it is not my biggest focus, performance is and i will adapt to what ever safety they have and as a last resort will ditch the kite if it doesn't work, I dont know how many times i had to ditch my bandit Dos, that kite had issues and just wanted to kill me.
