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GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO YA FAVOURITE KITE.....

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BLOWN AWAY
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Postby BLOWN AWAY » Tue Aug 13, 2002 12:26 pm

This complements an earlier posting about favourite boards..... I'll start....

11.5m ARX: My main kite (11-18 knots)
7.5m AR5: 15 - 25 knots
8.5m C Quad: 8 - 13 knots
6.3m C Quad: 10 - 16 knots using wakeboard..

Go hard and go high

BLOWN AWAY

coxy
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Postby coxy » Tue Aug 13, 2002 12:43 pm

Hi there!

these C quads, are they any good ? I have not heard much about them and didn't realise that they could be used for Kitesurfing!

Can you actualy jump with them, what sort of hangtime do they provide ?

Cheers for the info


Coxy

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Postby BLOWN AWAY » Tue Aug 13, 2002 8:01 pm

C Quads are great for light winds. The have a carbon spar on the leading edge and smaller spars that go to the trailing edge. The kite looks like a big C. Not a foil or sled kite but more closely related to foils - in some aspects!!

Hangtime definately isn't as good as an inflatable but I prefer them in light winds where you may be able to get better height due to their much faster response. They also have some depower which in light winds may be as much as an inflatable.... They are too fast in the smaller sizes which are more for buggying..

Easier to land than inflatables but the bigger ones especially are real hard to pack away....

Oh yes and one more thing....... no where near as expensive as an inflatable!!

Hope this helps......

BLOWN AWAY

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murdoc
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Postby murdoc » Tue Aug 13, 2002 8:08 pm

and an important thing to mention:

the c-quads, even the ones with float tubes, are not relaunchable!

ok ... in the low end, where you can ride with the big ones ...
there it's hard / impossible to relaunch a 16+m tubekite, too.

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Postby BLOWN AWAY » Tue Aug 13, 2002 8:40 pm

Ooooooops I forgot to put that in...

Don't crash the kite in the water because the ones without floats sink!!

In saying that in the light winds when it drops below 5 knots they will stay in the sky... my ARX doesn't. And as Murdoc said... in those winds large tubekites are NOT easy to relaunch.

For kitesurfing they ARE good in lightwinds.... especially for wakeboards.

BLOWN AWAY

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Postby Guest » Tue Aug 13, 2002 11:53 pm

I have a 10.5m c-quad that produces plenty of power in winds below 9knots. They are the ultimate for light winds. They are as described above...sort of a hybrid of a kite.

They not only sink in water tho, they also become an anchor. I have had my c-quad lay down flat on the bottom one time...NEVER again. I could not pull it up. I had to swim down to the kite and literally peel it off of the bottom. NOT a water friendly wing!

CHEAP CHEAP...and take one helluva beating too. PLUS, you can fly them with handles. You can make them stall, fly sideways, backwards... I have NEVER, and I bet ya $100.00 that i WILL NEVER have a busted bladder on my c-quad.

They can be hard to put away into their bag as mentioned if not done right. The problem is getting that leading edge spar (maybe 15-20 ft in length on the large ones) and the others to fit into a very small bag without breaking it into pieces. This kite does not disassemble in any way either. They are actually quite easy to put away, even the large ones, if you do it properly though. It's best to have someone teach you this if you are going to get one as you absolutley will not be able to just figure it out for yourself. You will be stuck with a big kite that you cannot get into the bag and have no way of transporting back home. I can handle getting my 10.5 into it's little round bag without any help from others. I made an animated gif once showing how to fold them. I'm sure it's around somewhere if ya needed it.

Johnny

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Postby Guest » Wed Aug 14, 2002 1:33 am

Hey Johnny do you live in Auckland? Because I know a "Johnny" who used to use a 10.5m C Quad but now has Wipika Hydros.

And if you do... then I know who you are.... it's me Mark.

For those who don't know what C Quads are like in light winds. I can sine my 8.5m nice and fast and get going in 7 knots while a guy with a 16m AERO was trying to keep his kite in the sky. I came in and he was shocked that the kite handled so fast. It handles faster than a 7.5m AR5 in the same winds.... all this for a 1/3 of the cost of an inflatable.

Worthy of consideration for sub 10 knots.

BLOWN AWAY

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Postby Guest » Wed Aug 14, 2002 1:36 am

Ahh C-Quads... not trying to knock anyone here but to offer some other thoughts on the above kite.
I live in NZ the home of P Lynne the inventor of the C-quad(about 10-15 years ago)
Some of the guys I know learnt on C-Q here before inflatables where readily available now they only fly inflatables and there C-Q have long since sunk or been thrown away.
Despite being about one 5th of the cost of an inflatable I haven't actually seen one on the water for at least a year and that was only a brief moment when the poor sod flying it got dragged across a reef and then released the kite(no safety here but hay once it hits the water it sinks anyway)
yes they are powerful and fast and responsible for more carnage than you can possibly imagine. Yes they can be flown with handles... yippee. Actually they can only be flown with handles. "Particularly suitable for wakeboard riding"?? can't figure that one out.
Thank Bruno for progress and the inflatable I say.
OK so maybe that was abit negative but i felt I need to share it just in case the uninformed reader thought the C-Quad was some new revolutionary light wind wakeboard machine.
cheers BoB

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Postby Guest » Wed Aug 14, 2002 7:07 am

Yeah the handles are a real pain in the backside.... the backstrap just isn't safe. As for the C Quad bar... I have yet to test that properly out on the water. If it works well then that'll be sweet as.

As for safety... with the backstrap it's not safe unless you set the brakelines really loose... then the kite doesn't fly that well... so you need the bar for powered up riding in gusty stuff....

I've found the bigger C Quads like the 6.3 and 8.5 to be better for wakeboarding than my 11.5m ARX. As the wind gets up and the kite sizes go down the inflatables are better as the small C Quads in 20 knots are a tad fast in turning. Remember the ARX is a high performance inflatable used more for directional riding... with a more wake orientated kite like the AERO... these MAY be more suitable than the C Quads.

Over the next few weeks I'll probably be using the C Quads quite a bit and will know then for sure if they reall do go well with the wakeboards.... so far when I've used them with the wakeboard I've had far better sessions than waking with the 11.5 ARX.

The kites do however need skill to fly and are a strickly 4 line kite. They luff if you fly it like a foil....

But for a cheap thrill in light winds......... best $200 I've ever spent.

BLOWN AWAY

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Postby Guest » Wed Aug 14, 2002 7:59 am

ahh huh
let me know where you are going to be kiting in Auckland in the next few weeks...
so I can avoid those spots like the plague
cheers BoB


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