BWD- Thanks for the comments and for sharing the video.
DrLightWind- I was waiting to reply to you on the kite you had pictured, but looked back now and see its gone. Don't think I'm familiar what that kite was. Looked interesting. What brand/model/year? For the way it sat in the beach, wondering if relaunch in some situations was an issue for that kite?
Blake- In my opinion line length is 100% a matter of personal preference. Outside of testing, my preference is for 20's on everything. But, yeah, this does feel different on the bigger sizes. If I was really obsessing, to super dial it in for my preference maybe I'd go 20's on 5m - 10m, 21's on the 13m and 22's on the 17m? Again, totally just my preference knowing to each his own. I know some riders that swear by shorter lines on bigger kites to speed them up, sort of the opposite of what seems to be most rider's thinking. So anything goes.
Ronnie - Great questions. Regarding a control system, yes, the kite is set to accommodate bar systems tuned with lines at equal length when at full power, loop against the bar, which is loosely used as the industry standard (unfortunately not used 100%). I feel strongly that control systems are a matter of personal preference and that riders are best served to make their choices independent of their kite selection. Keys for me are amount of travel, line length, bar length, and other features. The back lines on the kite have extra length for adjustment to tune for bars at a different front-to-back line setting.
Kiteus Maximus - Another great question. I could, but honestly I never calculated them. With all the different kite designs and all the variables that affect performance I think discussing aspect ratio would be very misleading. Its natural to compare gear to other stuff we're familiar with and to draw conclusions, but I find again and again that this doesn't hold up. Many of the e-mails I've gotten, riders are guessing that the Cloud sits back in the window with limited depower, when in actuality its the opposite.
zact - Wow. Thanks so much for all the amazing support. One thing you wrote jumped out at me, "doesn't even have to be a great kite". I feel super lucky for this development project to have had things fall into place.
panchito - Thanks for liking the concept. I love your stoke for Tarifa and hope the gear gets there one day.
rightguard - Amen Brother. Till the last couple weeks, huh? Welcome back trades.
flipper231 - You reveal your name?! Isn't that breaking the forum code?! I'm still trying to figure out how this thing works. I'm overwhelmed by the kindness of posts like yours. Supportive beyond imagination. Thank you so much!
herculon - Not sure how accurate my bathroom scale is, but its telling me 7 lbs / 3.2 kg. Thats in its bag, but I don't think the bag weighs anything. I didn't check the link you posted. Is that good?
Pierrot - Thank you sooooooo much for that post. I was totally unaware. I've been trying to make time to reply to everyone's questions here - and was super curious if the picture you posted was recent or old news. This morning via ronnie's post I learned that its breaking news. Wow!!!
Thanks for posting ronnie. I'd be lying if I said that the news didn't sting a little. But, what can I do? I shared your link to my Facebook page with the post:
Its been a crazy two weeks for my awareness of a larger strutless world.
To give full credit to Airush - After starting my development and having some promising results, I searched for strutless designs online. All I came up with at that time was a rad looking "batkite" prototype from Airush. Couldn't find any info on it other than rad looking spypic online. I contacted them at that point to make sure I wasn't infringing on any patents. They were super cool about it which I really appreciate. An hour ago I learned about their kite pictured here. Looks great and I'm stoked they are going for it.
On Monday a friend called me to tell me about a photoshoot going on of a strutless kite from another big brand.
Last week a rider emailed me to let me know about this rad project (presumably has been going on for some time):
www.victoria-spirit.com/fr/Fata_Morgana_fr.html
What's it all mean? I guess more great options for riders to have fun. Good stuff. If my public development was any influence on more riders having access to more rad gear, then I'm glad for that. To any riders that can be supportive of my work, please spread the word to your friends. The first shipments of gear are scheduled to go out next week, so its a big time for me. Thanks.