Kiteforum.com

what if.
the olympics go for one design like wind surfing and that one design is flysurfer!

thered be a whole lote of top lei flyers that simply couldn't fly the big foil.! it would be a laugh.

frankm1960 wrote: ...

To much string on those ram air kites... that's gotta increase drag.

Yes --- they Do create drag.
But the drag increases by the square of the velocity ; so in the really Light winds
the drag is negligible. An LEI is a Horrible example of an airfoil by Hang glider
standards, but they work well in the speed ranges we normally fly in with our water
kites.
The current ram-airs are a bit of a Joke compared to a state of the art Para glider.
My Ozone Addict Medium has about 26M and it is a Bunch faster than a speed 21 ;
too bad it doesn't float !!

I wouldn't bash a ram-air or a LEI for it's design criteria, there different machine's
and they both work well for what we ask of them !
AND
PMU --- you ARE a hang glider pilot so , i'm a bit surprised at "You" for : ...

Bille

Quite simply I don't think Flysurfer have a decent competitive race kite for course racing although I think they have the potential to produce one if they put their minds to it. Most of the good race kites are varying degress of (higher/lower aspect) delta shapes. Most of the good ones...e.g. the Ozone Edge...turn fast, can track up wind quickly, and can run down wind (even if you have to loop them like crazy). Looking at the Unity, Psycho IV, and Speed III, I would not say that any of those is good at all of those things combined.

I know people go on about the 'light wind' ability of the Speed III's but on a modern race board most decent riders are comfortable riding off in about 7/8 knots regardless of the kite so the Flysurfer ability to sit up at 12 o'clock in 7 knots is comforting for a casual rider but not much use in race conditions. It turns very slowly in low wind conditions too until you build up some speed on the water.

All said and done I do have a SIII 15m deluxe but my favourite rides are in the 17knot range (+/- a couple). I play a little game where I count hang time in seconds after lift off...and when I start getting past 7 I get a big grin...and if I'm careful I touch back down with the softest landings of any kite I've flown to date. The rest of the time I'm on North Rebels...another kite probably much better suited to racing than any of the current Flysurfers.

So what this boils down to is... any brand not on the Olympics podium is shit?

Kamikuza wrote:So what this boils down to is... any brand not on the Olympics is shit?

That's going to be a long list then...

balugh wrote:

Kamikuza wrote:So what this boils down to is... any brand not on the Olympics podium is shit?

That's going to be a long list then...

You got it.

The premise that Flysurfers will fail to gain a podium finish is the Olympics confirms they are shit is flawed.

Gosh, who'd have thought that PMU's arguments are logically unsound?

plummet wrote:thered be a whole lote of top lei flyers that simply couldn't fly the big foil.! it would be a laugh.

I doubt it. That would suggest that foils are difficult to fly, and they're not.

coleman wrote: I agree with you. Ram airs are inferior.
Coleman

Ty Colemeister.
Cheers,
Pumpy

Jees, you lot fall for PMU's bullshit every time.

He just winds the crank and watches as everyone winds themselves up a bit more.

andrewjohn wrote:Jees, you lot fall for PMU's bullshit every time.

He just winds the crank and watches as everyone winds themselves up a bit more.

And at least 33% of YOUR posts are in PMU threads