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Kiting Cabrinaha's Switchblades since the last 4 years, it is time to depart Cabrinha kites and look for another, more durable kite with similar jump/hangtime characteristics.
Do you have any suggestions?
I'm after a kite which lasts one season (and not only 6 months or even less than that).

Cheers
Caesar

Havent seen anything that would be more reenforced than Liquid Force kites. Those kites are build to to last.

There is no contest: Flysurfer and Peter Lynn

have to +1 with above.
very hard to beat those 2 brands..... may be in the next decade...new materials and such.

wait and see.

Ozone for LEI.......

And +2 for Flysurfer

Caesar wrote:Kiting Cabrinaha's Switchblades since the last 4 years, it is time to depart Cabrinha kites and look for another, more durable kite with similar jump/hangtime characteristics.
Do you have any suggestions?
I'm after a kite which lasts one season (and not only 6 months or even less than that).

Cheers
Caesar

Everyone will insert what they ride to this question as we all ways believe what we have is the best. What I want to know is where you kite that you destroy a kite in 6 months so I can move there the wind must be great!!!

TheJoe wrote:Everyone will insert what they ride to this question as we all ways believe what we have is the best. What I want to know is where you kite that you destroy a kite in 6 months so I can move there the wind must be great!!!

Hi mate,

I mainly kite in the NE Brazil area these days (Cumbuco and further north-west).
Yes, it is windy here most of the time.

I'm fed up with Cabrinha's issues and hick-ups.
Cheap and broken pulleis, cheap and broken lines, and finally a shredded canopy last weekend where the canopy ripped into pieces midair when starting off to a big jump...
The kite is 6 months old.
Every year I purchased 2 to 3 SB's in different sizes to avoid having any issues.
In the past my local store replaced things during warranty. They know how I tread my belongings.
Since I live in Brazil I purchased the last lot of kite gear from a German dealer who I only know from email and phone calls. They seem to be a good bunch of people and are very helpful. But Cabrinha Germany declined the broken canopy, telling the store 'the kite must have been damaged beforehand and kites these days don't rip in the air anymore'.
Mmhh, mine did...
And yeah, cars don't break down anymore until a minimum of 150,000km too...!

I brought the kite to the local kite repair center for repair and Carlinhos said Cab kites last only 6 months here. Their canopy material is different to most other kite brands.

I will sell my 3 Switchblades and will purchase 3 new kites of another brand.

End of story...

I am a snow kiter all winter and kite on water all summer, So my kites get used hard for many days. Last year I had to pick new kites also. I looked at all the brands and tried all the kites I could fly. I like to jump big and fly with my kites off of hills if they fail I will get very hurt.

I decided on North Kites becuase of their amazing build quility, and becuase they have lots of options, there are 4 line kites or 5 line kites, c-kites, SLE kites, hybrid kites(rebel best selling kite of all time NO pulleys), Light wind kites, delta kites. North does well on all of the tours in all the event, (racing, freestyle,surf,snow) in the hands of experts.

Once I got to look at how beefey the leading edge struts and trailing edge materail is I was sold, Then after learning about the D2 fabric from terjin It was a no brainer what kite would handle the abuse I put kites through on land and water. I have been on the North product since Feb. of last year and not had any problems I would highly recommend trying out some North gear if you can. There was not alot of North gear around Snowkiting, but now that they are out ther lots of people are going to the gear becuase it is so well made. Check um out.

www.northkites.com

Few years ago every second North kite what I owned(2004-2009) had some warranty claims. Cant comment about latest seasons.

LF kites for sure are one of the most most durable on the market.
Also Fuels are quite tough.

i would look for flexifoils as well, the bladder is thicker than usual, dracon on the leading edge, over the ribs and on the trailing edge as well (some models). The canacopy is solid as well, no decolouration or such on my Ions4.

love them on the smaller sizes

the down-side is that they feel heavy in the bigger sizes, my opinion.