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Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

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bobber
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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby bobber » Sun Mar 03, 2013 4:34 pm

Core 19 is a great light wind kite. Smooth, easy to handle, turns well for big kite.

turfAndsurf
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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby turfAndsurf » Sun Mar 03, 2013 7:22 pm

My vote would be for the Cloud 17, for your size maybe 13, I weigh 83 kg, I had it flying in 7 knots and riding on my 6 foot surfboard, I was going downwind but I was riding as soon as it picked up to 10 knots I was going upwind without any problem.

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby PVITfrumBYRAM » Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:52 pm

I dig the core 19 and 17 as well. Workable turning speed for such a big kite, really nice bar feel. I don't much care for the hard plastic chicken loop but that's my only dislike about the bar.

I got a chance to check out the 19 in really light winds on a litewave wing, I wouldn't hesitate to invest in that kite if I had the means. Brett from 321kiteboarding went out shortly after on his race board and has about 40 lbs on me. I took me a bit of time to get going upwind easily but after a slight trim adjustment and sheeting the bar less, the kite just pulled itself more upwind which I thought made it really versatile.

He let me use the 17 as well on another day and I didn't have a need to come in for a smaller size when the wind picked up and everyone swapped out to their 13s or 12s. A little trimmed and it was very comfortable to fly, just couldn't load the lines as long for bigger pop at that point. I can get out on the water early and hold off on pumping up a smaller kite for a while.

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby UKSurf » Sun Mar 03, 2013 10:39 pm

The Blade Fat Lady is the only kite I have seen people doing decent unhooked tricks in a force 3 and their new model is meant to be very good. The Epic Infinity comes from the same designer and is also focused on light wind freestyle so is probably a bit similar. Although I would personally go for Blade since it is a larger brand, so probably has more to invest in R&D and testing. Id only buy from a smaller brand if the price is cheaper.

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby BigPaul » Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:34 pm

I never really understand the argument that because a brand is smaller than another that they therefore must spend less on Research and Design!

The smaller the company the less the over heads and less invested interest in historic products/relationships

I work for a very large corporate and we struggle due to the size of the organisation and the vested interested to move quickly in a particular market. It always the small guys that are at the cutting edge. That's why big companies buy smaller companies in an area they are interested in. It's just quicker and that's where the talent lies.

Not in all cases and all business types but certainly in most.

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby knotwindy » Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:12 am

if that is true you might want add Wainman Hawaii to your list Big Mamais 14.5

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby windsuks » Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:18 am

UKsurf what do you base your assumption on?
Your local beach?

If that's the case then personally it seems Epic must be way bigger than say..Naish/Best etc :wink:
I have dealt with all the "big" brands over the years and in my honest experience it's far easier and quicker to deal with any issues should they arrise. Often in the past it would take months to sort a warranty for example, now with the majority of companies we deal with it's more like hours....one phone call/email and it's sorted.

So many good kites on the market these days inc. the light wind ones, so it's best to grab a demo if you can, it will then come down to quality/price/service/performance :thumb:

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby UKSurf » Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:06 am

windsuks wrote:UKsurf what do you base your assumption on?
Your local beach?
I was basing it on the number of people who ride blade kites and the number of people involved with Blade. Not the number of forum posts :wink: Blade is a bigger brand than Epic, get over it.

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windsuks
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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby windsuks » Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:39 am

Oh sorry didn't realise you had the figures of the number of people riding each brand, so what are they?
Not being arsy just keen to know!

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Re: Lightwind Kite! Any suggestions?

Postby L0KI » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:24 am

UKSurf wrote:I was basing it on the number of people who ride Blade kites and the number of people involved with Blade.
Blade is a bigger brand than Epic..get over it.
Number of people involved? Do you mean company employees?
When you contact Blade, you talk to the owner. When you contact Epic, you talk to the owner.
Blade is TINY. Epic is TINY...get over it.
I see way more of one brand than the other in Texas...and since the state of Texas is bigger than the UK, should I assume that one company is larger than the other?...no that would be stupid.
Like anything else, one dealer, one school or a couple of great riders can greatly effect a person's (like you) perception of which company has a bigger footprint.
Both produce pretty great flying kites, directly compared to some of the biggest kite companies in the business.
Measuring the sizes of these two companies is totally pointless.


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