What will kiting look like in 2023?

[longwhitecloud]

"teijin t9600 $25 per m"

u sure?! you would buy it by 100m rolls / km....

[Anabatic_co_nz]

Micro brands will emerge, as per the surf board shaper as the kite design software becomes more affordable.

It is not the material price stoping local design operations.
It is access to the IP and software.

Kiteboard technology is now widely understood. And micro brands pop up everywhere.
This is also where the greatest advances in technology happen.
Part time operations setup and run after hours at little or no cost on the back of world class
composite technology careers followed during the day.
This type of operation in my country are often encouraged by their employer as it often has a win win for both parties.

The big brands are fighting a loosing battle to stop Course racing boards being made by small elite level producers. But they continue to try force them out events based on rules they imposed on the IKA etc. Deliberately removing the exposure an elite level and agile operation would gain and surge to the forefront with.
So in that game those guys I expect willl create an Open Class... to fight back.
No holds barred Kite and board design technology race with no minimum runs required - AS KITING HAS ALWAYS BEEN.

For Kites... boutique micro brands is how it all started, we even had hand made hugely popular designs produced, desgned and patented here in New Zealand.
Retailers made twice the margin on these kites as we do now from the big name models and they were our top sellers as we the instructors endorsed them.
Had the marketing been up to scratch as well those operations would continue today.

Once the kite design software opens up to the mass market.
Micro kite brands will emerge in each viable market.
Local CMT operations in each country will create the kites.
it is not rocket science it is tried and tested engineering.

I visited Tarifa a few years back and BULL kites were actually made right there at the time in the town itself. It was so cool to see a truly local brand.

There is only slow advancement in kite technology now.
Micro brands would pioneer the way forward (if we need one).
The price and distribution global market model would change too.

2cents

[el_guestos]

Line less kites...por favor!

[Jack C]

A quick way to get 2023 kite tech here now. Somehow get the military to use kites haha ...
With their inflated budgets, kites would fly themselves and be extremely high tech.

[coleman]

it will look very much the same as it does today. just like windsurfing.

[jaystore]

Point of view from DYNABAR designer:
Kite harness standard will be sliding hook, but it is already going that direction so it's more "present" and less "future".

[C Johnson]

board shorts will have come back in style... again...

everything else will pretty much be the same.

[Peter_Frank]

board shorts will have come back in style... again...

everything else will pretty much be the same.

Ha haa - good one

Are board shorts OUT of style now, where you are Johnson ?

Here they have been super hot for about 4 years, and now the last 1½ year it is more hot to ride without shorts for many, and in waves a total NO-NO with shorts (over the wetsuit that is...)

I believe everything else will be pretty much the same too, just like you and coleman


Look at kitesurfing seen from the "outside":

In 2000 we started kitesurfing in huge numbers around the world, and kiteschools all over - before 2000 it was hardly present eventhough it existed.

At that time the kites fast became 4 line C shaped with HUGE low end, and we rode on 6 foot directionals, very similar to surfboards.

Then evolution gave us front line flying depower kites, and twintip boards, and then the bridles kites came and superflat to start with - but now most rides a mix which is bridled kites looking quite C shape when seen from outside, and many uses kitewaveboards, so the circle is closed (at least seen with rough glasses)


In windsurfing, which has 35 years of full evolution (meaning, mass production in huge numbers for 35 years), the story is similar, just drawn out over 2-3 times as long time:

Apart from the first few years where the sport settled (just like kitesurfing the first 2 years with 2 liners), the boards were funboards with pintails and quite thick.
Awesome control in waves and jibes and with speed !
Then longer narrow boards came for racing, and supershort small boards for waves - getting really radical in each own direction.
Later the raceboards became superwide and supershort, just like today - and wave/freestyle boards also became wide and short and flat now, so they came closer to each other.
And now, the waveboards has become a bit longer and pintail and really thick - looking ALMOST like the funboards of the 80's

The circle has closed !

Similar ins and outs can be told about windsurf sail design

( yes, I know that a surfboard from today havent got much in common with the directionals we started on in kitesurfing, and also aware that the windsurf waveboards of today are very different from the funboards back then - but even from someone knowing just a tad about the sports - they wont be able to spot the difference at all ! )


So just like boardshorts were hot, and now its not (and tomorrow it might come back) - everything goes in circles, apart from the early years where HUGE differences came.

Even the bow kite (bridled kite) that we all (most) use today, which was a revolution seen from inside - is only a detail looking from the outside - and even for us, we have chosen a mix between a C kite and a bow kite today


A really revolutionary idea might come, you never know - could be exiting - but it could also be "slow evolution" only, or just gimmics in order to try to catch more of the market

Just my (boring) thoughts...

Peter

[tautologies]

A really revolutionary idea might come, you never know - could be exiting - but it could also be "slow evolution" only, or just gimmics in order to try to catch more of the market

Just my (boring) thoughts...

Peter

WILL come. Might not be a leap, but if you compare what we are riding today compared to 2003, it is radically different. I bet the next 10 years will see more of a development.

[coleman]

A really revolutionary idea might come, you never know - could be exiting - but it could also be "slow evolution" only, or just gimmics in order to try to catch more of the market

Just my (boring) thoughts...

Peter

WILL come. Might not be a leap, but if you compare what we are riding today compared to 2003, it is radically different. I bet the next 10 years will see more of a development.

there was ALOT more room for improvement in CAD designs in 2003. i think the shapes of kites are pretty well optimized at this point with improvements coming more in the form of bridle tweaks and setup/tuning abilities. i really dont see it changing that much from here. i mean, look at the desired performance characteristics in kites. once the bow kite hit the market it took another 4 years for that bow design to inch its way back toward c shape. that original c shape still holds alot of the performance qualities that we want in a kite.

if there is some breakthrough in the sport then it will most likely be a different sport that spun off from kiteboarding.